1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria.
1142 – A peace treaty between the Jin dynasty and Southern Song dynasty is formally ratified when a Jin envoy visits the Song court during the Jin–Song wars.
1311 – The Ordinances of 1311 are published, imposing a series of regulations upon King Edward II of England by the peerage and clergy.
1531 – Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland.
1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1614 – Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
1634 – The Burchardi flood: “The second Grote Mandrenke” killed around 15,000 men in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
1649 – Sack of Wexford: After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops (under Oliver Cromwell) stormed the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.
1727 – George II and Caroline of Ansbach are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain.
1767 – Surveying for the Mason–Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Valcour Island: On Lake Champlain a fleet of American boats is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.
1797 – Battle of Camperdown: Naval battle between Royal Navy and Royal Netherlands Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. The outcome of the battle was a decisive British victory.
1862 – American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
1865 – Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
1899 – Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
1910 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert–St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Greek Army liberates the city of Kozani.
1918 – Poland：National Independence Day after 123 years of occupation (1795-1918)
1941 – Beginning of the National Liberation War of Macedonia.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
1944 – Tuvan People’s Republic, formerly Tannu Tuva, is annexed by the U.S.S.R.
1954 – First Indochina War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
1957 – Space Race: M.I.T. scientists calculate Sputnik 1’s booster rocket’s orbit.
1958 – Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
1962 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
1972 – A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
1976 – George Washington’s appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
1984 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
1984 – An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into maintenance vehicles upon landing in Omsk, Russia, killing 178.
1986 – Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
1987 – Start of Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka that killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians and hundreds of Tamil Tigers & Indian Army soldiers.
2000 – NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery.
2002 – A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
2013 – A migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily with at least 34 people dead.
