• 1590 - Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris.
• 1661 - Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
• 1666 - Great Fire of London ends: 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only 16 people are known to have died.
• 1698 - In an effort to move his people away from archaic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards.
• 1725 - Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska.
• 1774 - First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1781 - Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War.
• 1793 - French Revolution the French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror.
• 1798 - Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law.
• 1800 - Malta is conquered by Great Britain.
• 1816 - Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber").
• 1836 - Sam Houston is elected as the second president of the Republic of Texas.
• 1839 - The First Opium War begins in China.
• 1840 - Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan.
• 1862 - American Civil War: the Potomac River is crossed at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
• 1864 - Achille François Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.
• 1877 - Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.
• 1882 - The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
• 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, USA, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
• 1906 - The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).
• 1914 - World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
• 1915 - The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins.
• 1918 - Decree "On Red Terror" is published in Russia
• 1932 - The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger.
• 1937 - Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls.
• 1938 - Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre.
• 1939 - World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
• 1942 - World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.
• 1943 - World War II: The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.
• 1944 - Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux.
• 1945 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
• 1948 - Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he's the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
• 1957 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos.
• 1960 - The poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the first President of Senegal.
• 1961 - The first conference of the Non Aligned Countries is held in Belgrade.
• 1969 - My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien province.
• 1972 - Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attack Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.
• 1975 - Sacramento, California: a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
• 1977 - Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered.
• 1977 - Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
• 1978 - Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
• 1980 - The St. Gotthard Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.224 km) stretching from Goschenen to Airolo.
• 1984 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
• 1984 - Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
• 1986 - Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.
• 1991 - The Mall Southampton, Southampton, UK opened its doors for the first time
• 2000 - The hottest day ever in Texas as most weather stations in the state topped 100 degrees and many topped 110.
• 2005 - Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes into a heavily-populated residential of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 people on board and at least 39 persons on ground.
• 2007 - 3 terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Quaeda are arrested in Germany after planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations. See German Terror Plot 9/07

Births