- 917 – Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu.
- 1590 – Alexander Farnese‘s army forces Henry IV of France to lift the siege of Paris.
- 1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV‘s Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D’Artagnan, captain of the king’s musketeers.
- 1666 – Great Fire of London ends: Ten thousand buildings, including Old St Paul’s Cathedral, are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died.
- 1697 – War of the Grand Alliance : A French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville defeated an English squadron at the Battle of Hudson’s Bay.
- 1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.
- 1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska.
- 1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.
- 1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.
- 1791 – Olympe de Gouges writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
- 1793 – French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
- 1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
- 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac‘s forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort’s outhouses.
- 1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable (“Unobtainable Chamber”).
- 1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
- 1839 – The United Kingdom declares war on the Qing dynasty of China.
- 1862 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White’s Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
- 1877 – American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
- 1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
- 1887 – A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, kills 186.
- 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
- 1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
- 1915 – The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.
- 1932 – The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
- 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls to the Nationalists following a one-day siege.
- 1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are executed after surrendering during a failed coup.
- 1941 – Whole territory of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major Japanese defeat in land warfare during the Pacific War.
- 1943 – World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Lae Nadzab Airport, near Lae in the Salamaua–Lae campaign.
- 1944 – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.
- 1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
- 1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
- 1948 – In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister; as such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
- 1957 – Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.
- 1960 – Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is the first elected President of Senegal.
- 1960 – Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.
- 1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
- 1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.
- 1970 – Jochen Rindt becomes the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship (in 1970), after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
- 1972 – Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called “Black September” attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine are murdered the following day.
- 1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
- 1977 – Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
- 1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland.
- 1980 – The Gotthard Road Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world’s longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Göschenen to Airolo.
- 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
- 1984 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
- 1986 – Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
- 1990 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers slaughter 158 civilians.
- 1991 – The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes into force.
- 1996 – Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.
- 2012 – An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.
-Source: wikipedia
