96 – Nerva is proclaimed Roman emperor after Domitian is assassinated.
324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, stablishing Constantine’s sole control over the Roman Empire.
1066 – Norwegian king Harald Hardrada lands on the beaches of Scarborough and began his invasion of England.
1180 – Philip Augustus becomes king of France.
1454 – In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years’ War.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Honduras on his fourth, and final, voyage.
1618 – The twelfth Baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar begins.
1635 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria declares war on France.
1714 – George I, the first Hanoverian king, arrives in Great Britain after becoming king on August 1st.
1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
1759 – Seven Years’ War: The British capture Quebec City.
1810 – First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.
1872 – King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.
1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
1914 – World War I: South African troops land in German South-West Africa.
1922 – Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations.
1934 – The USSR is admitted to the League of Nations.
1939 – World War II: Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.
1939 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.
1940 – The British liner SS City of Benares is sunk by German submarine U-48; those killed include 77 child refugees.
1943 – World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.
1944 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Jun’yō Maru, 5,600 killed.
1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.
1947 – The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States Armed Forces.
1947 – The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established in the United States under the National Security Act.
1959 – Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.
1960 – Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1964 – Constantine II of Greece marries Danish princess Anne-Marie.
1977 – Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.
1980 – Soyuz 38 carries two cosmonauts (including one Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station.
1981 – Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
1982 – Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.
1984 – Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
1988 – End of pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Thousands, mostly monks and civilians (primarily students), are killed by the Tatmadaw.
1990 – Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.
1991 – Yugoslavia begins a naval blockade of seven Adriatic port cities.
1997 – Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is adopted.
1997 – Al-Qaeda carried out a terrorist attack in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1998 – ICANN is formed.
2007 – Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president.
2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.
2013 – Cygnus Orb-D1 is launched into space.
2014 – Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.
2015 – Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed following a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar.
