• 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland.
• 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
• 1509 - Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
• 1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
• 1539 - Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (nowadays Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
• 1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
• 1578 - Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favorites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
• 1650 - The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
• 1667 - The blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1749 - First performance of Handel's Fireworks Music in Green Park, London.
• 1773 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 1777 - The Battle of Ridgefield: An British invasion force engaged and defeated Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1805 - First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' hymn).
• 1810 - Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
• 1813 - War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
• 1840 - Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.
• 1861 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
• 1865 - The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state's land grant institution.
• 1865 - The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
• 1904 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• 1909 - Sultan of Turkey Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
• 1911 - Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• 1914 - Honduras becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1933 - Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England, acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
• 1936 - The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
• 1941 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• 1945 - World War II: Last German troops are expelled from Finnish Lapland (the last day of World War II going on in Finland).
• 1945 - World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
• 1950 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
• 1959 - The last Canadian missionary leaves the People's Republic of China.
• 1960 - Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
• 1961 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
• 1967 - Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
• 1972 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
• 1974 - 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for impeachment of US President Richard Nixon
• 1977 - 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.
• 1978 - Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
• 1981 - Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
• 1987 - The U.S. Justice Department bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he'd aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
• 1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
• 1992 - Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
• 1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• 1993 - All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
• 1994 - South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.
• 1996 - The Israeli military operation in Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, ends after 16 days of heavy bombing.
• 2002 - The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
• 2005 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
• 2006 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
• 2007 - Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

Births