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| Beslan school hostage crisis |
1532 – Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England. 1604 – Adi Granth, now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, was first installed at Harmandir Sahib.
1644 – Battle of Tippermuir: James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose defeats the Earl of Wemyss's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause.
1715 – King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years — the longest of any major European monarch.
1763 – Catherine II of Russia endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow
1772 – The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.
1804 – Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, is discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.
1836 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.
1859 – Solar Superstorm
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Chantilly – Confederate forces attack retreating Union troops in Chantilly, Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuates Atlanta, Georgia after a four-month siege by General Sherman.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Sedan is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
1873 – Cetshwayo ascends to the throne as king of the Zulu nation following the death of his father Mpande. 1878 – Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
1894 – More than 400 people die in the Great Hinckley Fire, a forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota.
1897 – The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America. 1902 – A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
1905 – Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.
1906 – The International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys is established.
1910 – Sport Club Corinthians Paulista is created in São Paulo.
1911 – The armored cruiser Georgios Averof is commissioned into the Greek Navy. It now serves as a museum ship.
1914 – St. Petersburg, Russia, changes its name to Petrograd.
1914 – The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.
1920 – The Fountain of Time opens as a tribute to the 100 years of peace between the United States and Great Britain following the Treaty of Ghent.
1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
1928 – Ahmet Zogu declares Albania to be a monarchy and proclaims himself king.
1934 – SMJK Sam Tet is founded by Father Fourgs from the St. Michael Church, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning World War II.
1939 – George C. Marshall becomes Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
1939 – The Wound Badge for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted. The final version of the Iron Cross is also instituted on this date.
1939 – Switzerland mobilizes its forces and the Swiss Parliament elects Henri Guisan to head the Swiss Army (an event that can happen only during war or mobilization).
1939 – Adolf Hitler signs an order to begin the systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and disabled people. 1951 – The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.
1958 – Iceland expands its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom, beginning the Cod Wars.
1961 – The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate.
1969 – A revolution in Libya brings Muammar al-Gaddafi to power, which is later transferred to the People's Committees.
1969 – Tran Thien Khiem became Prime Minister of South Vietnam under President Nguyen Van Thieu. 1970 – Attempted assassination of King Hussein of Jordan by Palestinian guerrillas, who attacked his motorcade.
1972 – In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky to become the world chess champion.
1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).
1979 – The American space probe Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi).
1980 – Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope ends near Thunder Bay, Ontario.
1980 – Major General Chun Doo-hwan becomes president of South Korea, following the resignation of Choi Kyu-hah.
1981 – A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.
1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
1983 – Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
1985 – A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
1990 – The Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist is founded, following a split from the Communist Labour Party of Turkey.
1991 – Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union
2004 – Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. Wikipedia