- 1568 – The Spanish Duke of Alba defeats a Dutch rebel force under William the Silent.[1]
- 1572 – Eighty Years’ War: Three thousand Spanish soldiers wade through fifteen miles of water in one night to effect the relief of Goes.[2]
- 1740 – France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction, and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
- 1781 – The Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Austria.
- 1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
- 1818 – The Convention of 1818 is signed between the United States and the United Kingdom, which settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
- 1827 – In the Battle of Navarino, a combined Turkish and Egyptian fleet is defeated by British, French and Russian naval forces in the last significant battle fought with wooden sailing ships.
- 1883 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru’s involvement in the War of the Pacific.
- 1904 – Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, delimiting the border between the two countries.
- 1935 – The Long March, a mammoth retreat undertaken by the armed forces of the Chinese Communist Party a year prior, ends.
- 1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in German-occupied Serbia are murdered in the Kragujevac massacre.
- 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade.
- 1944 – Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes, leveling 30 blocks and killing 130 people.
- 1944 – American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he comes ashore during the Battle of Leyte.
- 1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of the Hollywood film industry, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
- 1951 – The “Johnny Bright incident” occurs during a football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies.
- 1952 – The Governor of Kenya declares a state of emergency and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising.
- 1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine.
- 1962 – China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.
- 1973 – “Saturday Night Massacre“: United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
- 1973 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction.
- 1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
- 1981 – Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
- 1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
- 1986 – Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashes while landing at Kuibyshev Airport (now Kuromoch International Airport) in Kuibyshev (now present-day Samara, Russia), killing 70 people.[3]
- 1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
- 2011 – Libyan Civil War: Rebel forces capture Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter, ending the first Libyan civil war.
-Source: wikipedia
