1228 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II landed in Acre, Palestine and started the Sixth Crusade, which resulted in a peaceful restitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1652 – Around 15,000 Han farmers and militia rebel against Dutch rule on Taiwan.
1776 – According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino – Napoleon wins a Pyrrhic victory over the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
1818 – Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
1822 – Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga Brook in São Paulo.
1864 – American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are driven off by armed citizens.
1893 – The Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club, to become one of the oldest Italian football clubs, is established by British expats.
1895 – The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played, in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.
1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France for the first time successfully. 1907 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.
1909 – Eugene Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1911 – French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.
1916 – Federal employees win the right to Workers' compensation by Federal Employers Liability Act (39 Stat. 742; 5 U.S.C. 751)
1920 – Two newly purchased Savoia flying boats crash in the Swiss Alps en-route to Finland where they would serve with the Suomen Ilmavoimat, killing both crews.
1921 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held.
1921 – Legion of Mary is founded in Dublin, Ireland.
1922 – In Aydin, Turkey, independence of Aydin, from Greek occupation.
1927 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth.
1929 – Steamer Kuru capsizes and sinks on Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere in Finland. 136 lives are lost. 1936 – The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
1940 – World War II: The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
1940 – Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.
1942 – Holocaust: 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia (western Ukraine) sent by German Gestapo to death camp in Belzec.
1942 – First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
1943 – A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.
1943 – World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
1945 – Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1963 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
1965 – China announces that it will reinforce its troops on the Indian border.
1965 – Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
1970 – Fighting between Arab guerrillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
1970 – Bill Shoemaker sets record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (passing Johnny Longden).
1977 – The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 – While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.
1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, makes its debut. 1979 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for USD $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
1986 – Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
1986 – Gen. Augusto Pinochet, president of Chile, escapes attempted assassination.
1988 – Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days on the Mir space station.
1996 – American Hip-Hop star Tupac Shakur is fatally shot four times on the Las Vegas strip after leaving the Tyson-Seldon boxing match.
1999 – A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocks Athens, rupturing a previously unknown fault, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.
2004 – Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane hits Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings. 2005 – Egypt holds its first-ever multi-party presidential election.
2008 – The US Government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2011 – 43 members of the Lokomotive franchise of the Kontinental Hockey League died in a place crash in Russia. Among dead from the crash included former National Hockey League players Pavol Demitra, Brad McCrimmon, and Josef Vasicek. Wikipedia