| 1656 | BC | Noah took to the Ark according to the fevered calculations of Bishop Ussher |
| 82 | BC | Sulla defeated the Populares & Samnites with great slaughter in the Battle of the Colline Gate -- Learn More |
| 0 | | Armed Forces Day in Benin |
| 0 | | Feast of St. Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, and that of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, Patron of Soldiers |
| 634 | | Battle of Ubaid: Persians defeat the Moslem Arabs |
| 1318 | | Coup in Siena is suppressed in a bloody riot |
| 1465 | | Peace between Louis XI and recalcitrant nobles ends the French "War of the Public Good." |
| 1825 | | The Erie Canal opens |
| 1860 | | Garibaldi met Victor Emanuel II at Teano, confirming the unification of Italy |
| 1861 | | Combat at Romney, WVa |
| 1861 | | Last ride of the Pony Express |
| 1868 | | White terrorists kill many blacks in St Bernard Parish, La |
| 1881 | | Gunfight at the OK Corral, Tombstone |
| 1904 | | NYC subway opens |
| 1905 | | Norway secedes from Sweden, which declines to object |
| 1906 | | Dressed as a Guards captain, Wilhelm Voight robs the city hall of Kopernich, near Berlin |
| 1912 | | First Balkan War: Serbians capture Skopje |
| 1918 | | Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Lt. Gen. Erich Ludendorff as Quartermaster-General of the Imperial German Army, for opposing peace negotiations -- Learn More |
| 1922 | | Lt Cdr Godfrey Chevalier made the first underway US carrier landing, on 'Langley' (CV 1) - Learn More |
| 1930 | | Emperor Hirohito reviews the Combined Fleet from the deck of the BB 'Kirishima,' off Kobe |
| 1936 | | Lt. Gen. Alberto Castro Girona, “The Spanish Lawrence,” was expelled from the Spanish Army Learn More |
| 1937 | | the Chinese 524th Regiment began an heroic six day defense of the Sihang Warehouse, Shanghai, against repeated Japanese attacks. |
| 1942 | | Battle of the Santa Cruz Is: USS 'Hornet' (CV-8) is put out of action, Japanese carriers are heavily damaged |
| 1942 | | Espiritu Santo: liner 'President Coolidge' mined, sinks, only 2 of hundreds aboard die |
| 1943 | | Chandra Bose forms a provisional Indian government, joins Axis |
| 1944 | | Leyte Gulf ends: losses, Japan 34 major warships, US 6. |
| 1955 | | Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as president |
| 1957 | | Khrushchev fires USSR defense minister Marshal Georgi Zhukov |
| 1966 | | Fire aboard USS 'Oriskany' (CV-34) in the Gulf of Tonkin, 43 die |
| 1759 | | Georges-Jacques Danton, French radical revolutionary, guillotined 1794, ending "The Reign of Terror" |
| 1768 | | Prince Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish and French general, diplomat, historian, d. 1844 |
| 1800 | | Helmuth von Moltke, later Generalfeldmarschal and a founder of modern Germany, d. 1891 -- Learn More |
| 1802 | | King Miguel I "the Absolutist" or "the Traditionalist" of Portugal (1828-1834), deposed, d. 1866, |
| 1804 | | Lorenzo Thomas, Brig Gen, U.S., Union Adjutant General, who directed the recruiting of the "U.S. Colored Troops," d. 1875 |
| 1824 | | Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1886 |
| 1830 | | Stephen Elliott Jr., Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1866 |
| 1837 | | James Lawlor Kiernan, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1869 |
| 1878 | | Jose Moscardo Ituarte, 77, sometime defender of the Alcazar of Toledo in 1936, d. 1956 |
| 1914 | | Jackie Coogan, glider pilot, Burma Campaign, actor ("The Kid," "Unlce Fester", etc.), d. 1994 |
| 1916 | | Francois Mitterrand, Resistance fighter, President of France (1981-1995), d. 1996 |
| 1919 | | Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (1941-79), d. 1980 |
| 899 | | King Alfred "the Great" of Wessex (871-99), c. 50 |
| 1440 | | Giles de Rais, Seigneur and Baron de Retz, Marshal of France, comrade to Joan of Arc, executed at 36 for murdering hundreds of children |
| 1864 | | William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson, c. 25, jayhawker, ambushed by Union troops near Richmond, Miss |
| 1871 | | Maj Gen Robert Anderson, U.S., 66, the Defender of Ft. Sumter |
| 1909 | | Prince Ito Hirobumi, 68, sometime PM of Japan, Resident Commissioner of Korea, assassinated |
| 1957 | | Nikos Kazantzakis, 74, Greek philosopher and author -- "Zorba the GreeK," "The Odyssey, A Modern Sequel," etc. |
| 1972 | | Igor Sikorsky, Ukrainian-American aviation pioneer, at 83 |
| 1979 | | Park Chung-hee, 62, President of Korea (1963-1979), murdered by the head of the Korean CIA |
| 2002 | | Jacques Émile Massu, 94, French general, Gaullist, relieved as a putschist |