1386 – The Universität Heidelberg held its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis’ sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.
1789 – Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrenders his army to the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Ulm. Thirty thousand prisoners are captured and 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers.
1813 – The Battle of Leipzig concludes, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.
1866 – Venice, Annexion of Veneto and Mantua to Italy, at Hotel Europa, Austria hands over Veneto to France, which hands it immediately over to Italy.
1900 – Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck’s law).
1912 – Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.
1921 – Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo and other politicians are murdered in a Lisbon coup.
1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1944 – United States forces land in the Philippines.
1950 – The People’s Liberation Army takes control of the town of Chamdo; this is sometimes called the “Invasion of Tibet”.
1950 – The People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu River to fight United Nations forces.

1952 – Alain Bombard departs from the Canary Islands on his solitary journey across the Atlantic ocean with almost no provisions and only a sextant for navigation to test his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive

1953 – 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service

1956 – The Soviet Union and Japan sign a Joint Declaration, officially ending the state of war between the two countries that had existed since August 1945.
1960 – Cold War: The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba.
1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
1986 – Samora Machel, President of Mozambique and a prominent leader of FRELIMO, and 33 others die when theirTupolev Tu-134 plane crashes into the Lebombo Mountains.
1987 – The United States Navy conducts Operation Nimble Archer, an attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
1988 – The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.
2003 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2005 – Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
2013 – At least 105 people were injured in a train crash at the Once railway station in Buenos Aires.