1187 Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captured Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.
1263 The battle of Largs between Norwegians and Scots.
1535 Jacques Cartier discovered Montreal.
1552 Conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.
1780 John André, British Army officer, was hanged as a spy by American forces.
1789 George Washington sent the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification.
1800 Nat Turner, American leader of slave uprising, was born (d. 1831)
1814 Battle of Rancagua: Spanish Royalists troops under Mariano Osorio defeated rebel Chilean forces of Bernardo O’Higgins and Jose Miguel Carrera.
1835 The Texas Revolution began with the Battle of Gonzales:Mexicansoldiers attempted to disarm the people of Gonzales but encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
1851 The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass was demonstrated but proved to be a fake.
1852 William Ramsay, Scottish chemist who discovered noble gases, was born (d. 1916).
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Saltville – Union forces attacked Saltville, Virginia, but were defeated by Confederate troops.
1889 In Colorado, Nicholas Creede struck silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.
1890 Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor, was born (d. 1977).
1904 Graham Greene, British novelist, was born (d. 1991).
1907 Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1997).
1919 US President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, leaving him partially paralysed.
1921 Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born (d. 2000).
1924 The Geneva Protocol was adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
1925 John Logie Baird performed the first test of a working television system.
1928 The “Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God”, commonly known as Opus Dei, was founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá.
1938 Tiberias massacre: Arabs murdered 20 Jews.
1941 Pilot Officer Carlyle Everiss – a New Zealand fighter pilot saved the lives of countless people in the Scottish village of Cowie by staying with his crippled plane to steer it away from houses.
1941 World War II: Operation Typhoon, Germany began an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1944 World War II: Nazi troops ended the Warsaw Uprising.
1948 Donna Karan, American fashion designer, was born.
1949 Annie Leibovitz, American photographer, was born.
1950 Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz was first published
1950 Mike Rutherford, English musician (Genesis), was born.
1951 Sting, English musician and actor, was born.
1958 Guinea declared its independence from France.
1959 The anthology series The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS television.
1967 Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.
1968 A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City culminated in theTlatelolco massacre.
1970 A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators, and supporters crashed in Colorado killing 31 people.
1986 – ‘Slice of Heaven’ hits No. 1.
1990 A Chinese airline Boeing 737-247 was hijacked; after landing at Guangzhou, it crashed into two airliners on the ground, killing 132 people.
1992 The Carandiru Massacre after a riot in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil.
1996 The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments were signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1996 An AeroPerú Boeing 757 crashed in Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Lima, Peru, killing 70.
1997 European Union: The Amsterdam Treaty was signed.
2001 Swissair liquidated and the airline was replaced by SWISS.
2002 The Beltway sniper attacks began.
2004 American Samoa joined the North American Numbering Plan.
2005 Ethan Allen Boating Accident: The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George, killing twenty people.
2006 Five school girls were murdered by Charles Carl Roberts in ashooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.
2007 President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walked across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
2009 The Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was approved at the second attempt, permitting the state to ratify the European Union’s Treaty of Lisbon.
Sourced from NZ History & Wikipedia