• 1251 BC - A solar eclipse on this date might mark the birth of legendary Heracles at Thebes, Greece.
• 70 - A Roman army under General Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem.
• 1191 - Third Crusade: Battle of Arsuf - Richard I of England defeats Saladin at Arsuf.
• 1776 - World's first submarine attack: the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
• 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino - Napoleon defeats the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
• 1818 - Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
• 1821 - The Republic of Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of present day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) was established, with Simón Bolívar as the founding President and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.
• 1822 - Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga river in São Paulo.
• 1860 - Steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 400 lives.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
• 1876 - In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are surrounded by an angry mob and are nearly killed.
• 1893 - The Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, to become the first Italian football club, is established by British expats.
• 1901 - The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
• 1906 - Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France for the first time successfully.
• 1907 - Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
• 1909 - Eugene Lefebvre (1878-1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered-heavier-than-air-craft.
• 1911 - French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.
• 1915 - Former cartoonist Johnny Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
• 1921 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held.
• 1922 - In Aydin, Turkey, independence of Aydin, from Greek occupation.
• 1927 - The University of Minas Gerais is founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by GovernorAntônio Carlos.
• 1927 - The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
• 1929 - Steamer Kuru capsizes and sinks on Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere in Finland. 136 lives were lost.
• 1936 - The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
• 1940 - World War II: The Blitz - Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
• 1940 - Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.
• 1942 - Holocaust: 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia (western Ukraine) sent by German Gestapo to death camp in Belzec.
• 1942 - First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
• 1943 - A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
• 1943 - World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River (Taman Peninsula) bridgehead in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea. The move signals the beginning of full retreat of German forces along the Eastern Front.
• 1945 - Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they'd held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
• 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
• 1963 - The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
• 1965 - China announces that it'll reinforce its troops in the Indian border.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
• 1970 - An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
• 1970 - Fighting between Arabic guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
• 1970 - Bill Shoemaker sets record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (passing Johnny Longden).
• 1977 - The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The US agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
• 1978 - While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella.
• 1979 - The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) makes its debut.
• 1979 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for USD $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
• 1986 - Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
• 1986 - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.
• 1988 - Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station.
• 1996 - American rapper Tupac Shakur is fatally shot in a drive by.
• 1997 - The first test flight of the F-22 Raptor takes place.
• 1998 - Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University
• 1999 - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.
• 2004 - Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane hitting Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings.
• 2005 - First presidential election was held in Egypt.
• 2006 - Paris Hilton Arrested for Suspected DUI.

Births