612 BC - Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire. Destruction of Nineveh.
610 - In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur'an.
955 - Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Magyars, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of the West.
991 - Battle of Maldon: English, led by Bryhtnoth, confront a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon in Essex. The English are defeated and the story is immortalised in a well-known poem.
1270 - Yekuno Amlak takes the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year interregnum.[1]
1316 - Second Battle of Athenry
1519 - Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe.
1557 - Battle of St. Quentin Spanish victory over the French in the Habsburg-Valois Wars
1628 - The Swedish warship Vasa sinks in the Stockholm harbour after only about 20 minutes on her maiden voyage.
1675 - The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is laid.
1680 - The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico.
1776 - American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
1792 - French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
1809 - Quito, now the capital of Ecuador, declares independence from Spain.
1821 - Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state.
1829 - First ascent of Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit of the Bernese Alps.
1846 - The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after $500,000 was given for such a purpose by scientist James Smithson.
1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Wilson's Creek - the war enters Missouri when a band of raw Confederate troops defeat Union forces in the southwestern part of the state.
1901 - The U.S. Steel Recognition Strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers begins.
1904 - Russo-Japanese War: the Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets.
1905 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian and Japanese peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth.
1913 - Second Balkan War ends: delegates from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the war.
1920 - World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres which divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.
1932 - A 5.1-kg (11.2-pound) chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least seven pieces and lands near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
1944 - World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.
1948 - Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone.
1949 - US President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies of the United States government, and replacing the National Military Establishment with the United States Department of Defense.
1954 - At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held.
1969 - A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.
1971 - The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York.
1977 - In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.
1981 - The head of John Walsh's son Adam is found in Hollywood, Florida. This event will later prompt the United States Congress to pass the Missing Children's Act to give the Federal Bureau of Investigation greater authority to track the disappearance of children, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It also makes Walsh a national spokesman against crime and eventually leads to the establishment of the FOX Network television series America's Most Wanted.
1988 - Japanese American internment: US President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
1990 - The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.
1990 - The Massacre of more than 127 Muslims in North East Sri Lanka by paramilitaries.
1993 - An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale hits the South Island of New Zealand.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the bombing. Michael Fortier pleads guilty in a plea-bargain agreement for his testimony.
1995 - Los Angeles Dodgers are forced to forfeit against the St. Louis Cardinals after fans throw souvenir baseballs on to the field en masse.
1998 - The Royal Proclamation of HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah as the crown prince of Brunei.
2003 - The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - 38.5°C (101.3°F) in Kent [1]. It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
2003 - Yuri Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space.
2006 - Scotland Yard disrupts major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States. All toiletries are banned from commercial airplanes.
