• 69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.
• 1192 - Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the crusade.
• 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
• 1606 - The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
• 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
• 1835 - First signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Goliad, Texas.
• 1860 - South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States.
• 1915 - World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
• 1917 - Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
• 1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
• 1942 - World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
• 1951 - The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for the first time. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
• 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
• 1955 - Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
• 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
• 1968 - The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
• 1973 - The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
• 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.
• 1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna.
• 1989 - United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.
• 1991 - A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
• 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
• 1995 - American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160.
• 1995 - The Democratic Social Movement is founded in Greece.
• 1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
• 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
• 2001 - Argentine economic crisis: President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa is forced out of office.
• 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
• 2005 - 2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services.
• 2005 - US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
• 2006 - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
• 2007 - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
• 2007 - The Lakota Indians send a letter to the United States State Department declaring their secession from the union.
• 2007 - The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.

Births