- 410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.
- 1172 – Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned junior king and queen of England.
- 1557 – The Battle of St. Quentin results in Emmanuel Philibert becoming Duke of Savoy.
- 1593 – Pierre Barrière failed an attempt to assassinate Henry IV of France.
- 1689 – The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing Empire (Julian calendar).
- 1776 – Battle of Long Island: In what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
- 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: The city of Toulon revolts against the French Republic and admits the British and Spanish fleets to seize its port, leading to the Siege of Toulon by French Revolutionary forces.
- 1798 – Wolfe Tone‘s United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connacht.
- 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France.
- 1813 – French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
- 1828 – Brazil and Argentina recognize the sovereignty of Uruguay in the Treaty of Montevideo
- 1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.
- 1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well.
- 1881 – The Georgia hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths.
- 1883 – Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa and cause years of climate change.
- 1893 – The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the United States near Savannah, Georgia, killing between 1,000–2,000 people.
- 1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:02 to 09:40), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
- 1914 – World War I: Battle of Étreux: A British rearguard action by the Royal Munster Fusiliers during the Great Retreat.
- 1915 – Attempted assassination of Bishop Patrick Heffron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona by Rev. Louis M. Lesches.
- 1916 – World War I: The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering the war as one of the Allied nations.
- 1918 – Mexican Revolution: Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil.
- 1922 – Greco-Turkish War: The Turkish army takes the Aegean city of Afyonkarahisar from the Kingdom of Greece.
- 1927 – Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, “Does the word ‘Persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?”
- 1928 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by fifteen nations. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it.
- 1933 – The first Afrikaans Bible is introduced during a Bible Festival in Bloemfontein.
- 1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world’s first jet aircraft.
- 1942 – First day of the Sarny Massacre, perpetrated by Germans and Ukrainians.
- 1943 – World War II: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
- 1943 – World War II: Aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe razes to the ground the village of Vorizia in Crete.
- 1956 – The nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connected to the national power grid becoming the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale.
- 1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
- 1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh enters into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
- 1971 – An attempted coup d’état fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.
- 1975 – The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.
- 1979 – The Troubles: Eighteen British soldiers are killed in an ambush by the Provisional Irish Republican Army near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, in the deadliest attack on British forces during Operation Banner. An IRA bomb also kills British royal family member Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland.
- 1980 – A massive bomb planted by extortionist John Birges explodes at Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada after a failed disarming attempt by the FBI. Although the hotel is damaged, no one is injured.
- 1982 – Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim to be avenging the massacre of 11⁄2 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
- 1985 – Nigeria’s military government is overthrown by another clique of army officers.
- 1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- 1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
- 2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
- 2003 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
- 2006 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.
- 2009 – Internal conflict in Myanmar: The Burmese military junta and ethnic armies begin three days of violent clashes in the Kokang Special Region.
- 2011 – Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage. [1]
-Source: wikipedia