• 3761 BC - The epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).
• 336 - Pope Mark dies, leaving the papacy vacant.
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course.
• 1506 - Pope Julius II and France occupy Bologna.
• 1513 - Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
• 1520 - First public burning of books in Flanders, in Leuven.
• 1542 - Explorer Cabrillo discovered Santa Catalina Island off California coast.
• 1571 - The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.
• 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day doesn't exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1637 - Prince Frederick Henry of Orange occupies Breda.
• 1690 - English attack Quebec under Louis de Buade.
• 1702 - English/Dutch troops under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough occupy Roermond.
• 1714 - Beer tax riots in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.
• 1737 - waves sink 20,000 small craft and kill 300,000 (Bengal, India).
• 1763 - George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
• 1765 - Stamp Act Congress convenes in NY.
• 1769 - English explorer, Captain Cook, sails to New Zealand.
• 1776 - Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: Americans beat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.
• 1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.
• 1816 - The first double-decked steamboat, the "Washington," arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 1825 - Miramichi Fire, disaster in New Brunswick
• 1826 - Granite Railway (first chartered railway in the U.S.) begins operations.
• 1828 - The city of Patras, Greece is liberated by the French expeditionary force in Peloponnese under General Maison.
• 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1849 - Edgar Allan Poe dies at 5:00 A.M. four days after being found in a Baltimore gutter.
• 1864 - Battle of Darbytown Road (American Civil War): the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is thwarted.
• 1864 - American Civil War: U.S.S. "Wachusett" captures the C.S.S. "Florida" Confederate raider ship while in port in Bahia, Brazil.
• 1865 - The Morant Bay Rebellion starts in Jamaica.
• 1868 - Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the most at any American university to that date.
• 1870 - Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.
• 1879 - Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
• 1882 - Baseball: In Game 2 of the first exhibition series between the Champions of the National League and the American Association, Chicago (NL) beats Cincinnati (AA) 2-0.
• 1886 - Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.
• 1900 - The term "orienteering" is first used for an event.
• 1904 - Baseball: New York Highlander Jack Chesbro wins record 41st game of season (41-12).
• 1907 - France's Henry Farman flies 30 m in a biplane.
• 1908 - Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.
• 1912 - The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
• 1914 - The Marriage of Rose Fitzgerald to Joseph Patrick Kennedy
• 1916 - Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided victory in American college football.
• 1919 - KLM of the Netherlands was founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
• 1919 - First London-Amsterdam airline service (Britain Aerial Transport and KLM).
• 1922 - Former mayor of Rotterdam Alfred Zimmerman is appointed to represent The Netherlands in the League of Nations.
• 1922 - First radio link, WNJ (Newark, New Jersey) and WGY (Schenectady) link for World Series.
• 1928 - Ras Tafari Makonnen crowned negus of Abyssinia by Empress Zauditu.
• 1929 - Ramsay MacDonald is the first British premier to address the U.S. Congress.
• 1931 - First infrared photograph, Rochester, New York.
• 1938 - Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with the letter J.
• 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Romania.
• 1940 - World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
• 1941 - World War II: German army occupies Viazma, U.S.S.R.
• 1942 - U.S. and British government announce establishment of United Nations.
• 1942 - World War II: A salvo of Katyusha rockets destroys a German battalion in Stalingrad.
• 1942 - The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
• 1943 - World War II: Japan executes 100 American civilian prisoners on Wake Island.
• 1944 - World War II: Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
• 1944 - World War II: Uprising at Auschwitz, Jews burn down crematoria.
• 1944 - World War II: Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel ordered to return to Berlin.
• 1944 - World War II: Allies bomb sea dikes at Vlissingen.
• 1949 - German Democratic Republic (East Germany) formed.
• 1949 - One of the earliest television shows, "Ford Theater" debuts
• 1950 - Annexation of Tibet by China.
• 1950 - United States forces cross the 38th parallel.
• 1951 - Malayan Emergency: Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) ambushes and kills British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney.
• 1951 - David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government.
• 1952 - "American Bandstand" debuts on a local Philadelphia station.
• 1955 - Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco.
• 1958 - President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
• 1958 - U.S. manned space-flight project renamed Project Mercury.
• 1959 - U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the Far side of the Moon.
• 1960 - Second Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy in the second of four scheduled debates.
• 1962 - U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.
• 1963 - John F. Kennedy signs ratification for Partial Test Ban Treaty.
• 1963 - Hurricane Flora hits Haiti and Dominican Republic, kills 7,190.
• 1968 - Hollywood adopts the movie ratings system.
• 1970 - Richard Nixon announces a new five-point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War.
• 1975 - Gerald R. Ford signs a legislation allowing women to apply for admission to the U.S. military academies, effective in 1976.
• 1977 - The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
• 1982 - Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.
• 1985 - The "Achille Lauro" is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.
• 1998 - Gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
• 2000 - The last ever competitive match at Wembley Stadium is a 1-0 defeat of England to Germany and the last goal was scored by Liverpool's Dietmar Hammann. The match was Tony Adams' 60th at Wembley setting the record for most appearances at the stadium.
• 2001 - The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
• 2001 - British national railway infrastructure company Railtrack put into railway administration in controversial circumstances.
• 2002 - Maher Arar is deported by the US government to Syria, where he's tortured and held without charge for a year before being returned home to Canada.
• 2003 - Gray Davis is recalled as Governor of California, three years before the official end of his office term. Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected Governor.
• 2004 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates.

Births