- 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.[1]
- 626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.[2]
- 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang’an.
- 866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton–Viking army.
- 936 – King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia.
- 963 – The Byzantine army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
- 1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
- 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.
- 1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia.
- 1555 – Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.
- 1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
- 1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
- 1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.
- 1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
- 1645 – Battle of Alford: Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
- 1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
- 1776 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not published until July 4.
- 1816 – The French frigate Méduse strikes the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board have to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault‘s painting The Raft of the Medusa.
- 1822 – Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.
- 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
- 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship Amistad.
- 1853 – The Russian Army crosses the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that will set off the Crimean War.
- 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.
- 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19).
- 1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.
- 1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
- 1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
- 1900 – Jean Sibelius‘ Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.
- 1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.
- 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.
- 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
- 1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
- 1940 – The SS Arandora Star is sunk by U-47 in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 800 lives, mostly civilians.
- 1962 – The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
- 1964 – Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
- 1966 – France conducts its first nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, on Moruroa Atoll.
- 1976 – End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
- 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
- 1990 – In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.[3]
- 1994 – USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board.[4]
- 1997 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.
- 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
- 2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.
- 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
- 2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.
- 2008 – Colombian conflict: Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC.
- 2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.
- 2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
- 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.
-Source: wikipedia
