Events Pre-1600 533 – The Byzantine army under Belisarius enters Carthage following their victory over the Vandals at Ad Decimum. 608 – Consecration of pope Boniface IV following his approval by the Byzantine emperor. 994 – Major Fatimid victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of the Orontes. 1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes. 1530 – Appearance of the miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano in Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy; commemorated as a feast day by the Roman Catholic Church 1644–1912. 1556 – Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
1601–1900 1762 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Signal Hill. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces successfully land at Kip's Bay, forcing the Continental Army, which was already withdrawing from New York City, to cede control of the lower half of Manhattan Island. 1789 – The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs", established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties. 1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign. 1795 – Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic. 1812 – The Grande Armée under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow during the failed French invasion of Russia. 1812 – War of 1812: A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows. 1813 – Followers of the Eight Trigram Sect loyal to Lin Qing attack the Forbidden City in a failed attempt to oust the Jiaqing Emperor of the Qing dynasty. 1816 – runs aground on the Doom Bar. 1820 – Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal. 1821 – The Captaincy General of Guatemala declares independence from Spain. 1830 – The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket. 1835 – , with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago. 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 1873 – Franco-Prussian War: The last Imperial German Army troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity. 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats the Qing dynasty in the Battle of Pyongyang, causing the Qing army to withdraw to the Chinese border with Korea.
1901–present 1915 – New Culture Movement: Chen Duxiu establishes the New Youth magazine in Shanghai. 1916 – World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme. 1918 – World War I: Allied troops break through the Bulgarian defenses on the Macedonian front. 1935 – Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika. 1935 – Nazi Germany announces two new laws related to race and the rights of Jews. These became known as the Nuremberg Race Laws. 1940 – World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe launches its largest and most concentrated attack of the entire campaign. 1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is sunk by Japanese torpedoes at Guadalcanal. 1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Peleliu begins as the United States Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division and the United States Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery. 1945 – A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond. 1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits the Kantō region, in Japan killing around 1,000-2,000 people. 1948 – The Indian Army captures the towns of Jalna, Latur, Mominabad, Surriapet and Narkatpalli as part of Operation Polo. 1948 – The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at . 1950 – Korean War: The U.S. X Corps lands at Inchon. 1952 – The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia. 1954 – Marilyn Monroe's iconic skirt scene is shot during filming for The Seven Year Itch. 1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48. 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. 1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1963 – Baptist Church bombing: Four children are killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. 1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation. 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. 1971 – The first Greenpeace ship departs from Vancouver to protest against the upcoming Cannikin nuclear weapon test in Alaska. 1972 – A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm is hijacked and flown to Malmö Bulltofta Airport. 1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board. 1975 – The French department of "Corse" (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica). 1978 – At the Superdome in New Orleans, Muhammad Ali outpoints Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times. 1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 1981 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C. 1983 – Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns. 1995 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133 crashes at Tawau Airport in Malaysia, killing 34. 2001 – During a CART race at the Lausitzring in Germany, former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi suffers a heavy accident resulting in him losing both his legs. 2004 – National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players' union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office. 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. 2011 – Four miners are killed in the Gleision Colliery mining accident in the Swansea Valley, Wales. 2017 – The Parsons Green bombing takes place in London. 2020 – Signing of the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement occurs in Washington, D.C., normalizing relations between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Births Pre-1600 767 – Saichō, Japanese monk (died 822) 1254 – Marco Polo, Italian merchant and explorer (died 1324) 1461 – Jacopo Salviati, Italian politician (died 1533) 1505 – Mary of Hungary, Dutch ruler (died 1558) 1533 – Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland (died 1572) 1580 – Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer and author (died 1659) 1592 – Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo (died 1653)
1601–1900 1613 – François de La Rochefoucauld, French soldier and author (died 1680) 1649 – Titus Oates, English minister, fabricated the Popish Plot (died 1705) 1666 – Sophia Dorothea of Celle (died 1726) 1690 – Ignazio Prota, Italian composer and educator (died 1748) 1715 – Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (died 1789) 1736 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, French astronomer, mathematician, and politician, 1st Mayor of Paris (died 1793) 1759 – Cornelio Saavedra, Argentinean general and politician (died 1829) 1760 – Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Prussian general (died 1824) 1765 – Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, Portuguese poet and author (died 1805) 1789 – James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, short story writer, and historian (died 1851) 1795 – James Gates Percival, American poet, surgeon and geologist (died 1856) 1815 – Halfdan Kjerulf, Norwegian journalist and composer (died 1868) 1819 – Cyprien Tanguay, Canadian priest and historian (died 1902) 1828 – Alexander Butlerov, Russian chemist and academic (died 1886) 1830 – Porfirio Díaz, Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (died 1915) 1846 – George Franklin Grant, African-American educator, dentist, and inventor (died 1910) 1852 – Edward Bouchet, American physicist and educator (died 1918) 1852 – Jan Ernst Matzeliger, Surinamese-American inventor (died 1889) 1857 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (died 1930) 1857 – Anna Winlock, American astronomer and academic (died 1904) 1858 – Charles de Foucauld, French priest and martyr (died 1916) 1858 – Jenő Hubay, Hungarian violinist, composer, and educator (died 1937) 1861 – M. Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer, scholar, and Bharat Ratna Laureate, Diwan of the Mysore Kingdom (died 1962) 1863 – Horatio Parker, American organist, composer, and educator (died 1919) 1864 – Prince Sigismund of Prussia (died 1866) 1867 – Vladimir May-Mayevsky, Russian general (died 1920) 1876 – Bruno Walter, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1962) 1876 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali novelist (died 1938) 1877 – Jakob Ehrlich, Czech-Austrian politician (died 1938) 1877 – Yente Serdatzky, Lithuanian-American author and playwright (died 1962) 1879 – Joseph Lyons, Australian educator and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1939) 1881 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French businessman, founded Bugatti (died 1947) 1883 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician and engineer (died 1950) 1886 – Paul Lévy, French mathematician and theorist (died 1971) 1887 – Carlos Dávila, Chilean journalist and politician, President of Chile (died 1955) 1888 – Antonio Ascari, Italian race car driver (died 1925) 1889 – Robert Benchley, American humorist, newspaper columnist, and actor (died 1945) 1889 – Claude McKay, Jamaican-American poet and author (died 1948) 1890 – Ernest Bullock, English organist and composer (died 1979) 1890 – Sonja Branting-Westerståhl, Swedish lawyer (died 1981) 1890 – Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died 1976) 1890 – Frank Martin, Swiss-Dutch pianist and composer (died 1974) 1892 – Silpa Bhirasri, Italian sculptor and educator (died 1962) 1894 – Chic Harley, American football player (died 1974) 1894 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (died 1977) 1894 – Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1979) 1895 – Magda Lupescu, mistress and later wife of King Carol II of Romania (died 1977) 1897 – Merle Curti, American historian and author (died 1997) 1898 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and author (died 1936)
1901–present 1901 – Donald Bailey, English engineer, designed Bailey bridge (died 1985) 1903 – Roy Acuff, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (died 1992) 1904 – Umberto II of Italy (died 1983) 1904 – Sheilah Graham Westbrook, English-American actress, journalist, and author (died 1988) 1906 – Jacques Becker, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1960) 1906 – Walter E. Rollins, American songwriter (died 1973) 1907 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet and author (died 1968) 1907 – Fay Wray, Canadian-American actress (died 2004) 1908 – Kid Sheik, American trumpet player (died 1996) 1908 – Penny Singleton, American actress and singer (died 2003) 1909 – C. N. Annadurai, Indian educator and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (died 1969) 1909 – Phil Arnold, American actor (died 1968)