46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.
715 – Ragenfrid defeats Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.
1087 – William II is crowned King of England, and reigns until 1100.
1212 – Golden Bull of Sicily is issued to confirm the hereditary royal title in Bohemia for the Přemyslid dynasty.
1345 – Friso-Hollandic Wars: Frisians defeat Holland in the Battle of Warns.
1371 – Serbian–Turkish wars: The forces of the Ottoman sultan Murad I’s lieutenant Lala Şahin Pasha and the Serbian army under the command of Vukašin Mrnjavčević and Jovan Uglješa clash at the Battle of Maritsa.
1493 – Pope Alexander VI issues the papal bull Dudum siquidem to the Catholic Monarchs, extending the grant of new lands he made them in Inter caetera.
1580 – Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.
1687 – The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who are besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.
1687 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.
1777 – American Revolution: British troops occupy Philadelphia.
1789 – Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.
1792 – Marc-David Lasourcebegins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France.
1810 – A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.
1907 – New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire.
1910 – Indian journalist Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai is arrested after publishing criticism of the government of Travancore and is exiled.
1914 – The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins.
1918 – World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, begins.
1923 – Gustav Stresemann resumes the Weimar Republic’s payment of reparations.
1934 – Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched.
1942 – The Holocaust: August Frank, a higher official of the SS concentration camp administration department, issues a memorandum containing a great deal of operational detail in how Jews should be “evacuated”.
1944 – World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.
1944 – World War II: On the central front of the Gothic Line Brazilian troops control the Serchio Valley region after 10 days of fighting.
1950 – United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces.
1950 – Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations.
1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
1973 – Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.
1980 – At the Oktoberfest terror attack in Munich 13 people die and 211 are injured.
1983 – Soviet nuclear false alarm incident: Military officer Stanislav Petrov identifies a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
1984 – The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.
1997 – A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300 crashes near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234.
2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.