1031 – Olaf II of Norway is canonized as Saint Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey.
1342 – The Siege of Algeciras commences during the Spanish Reconquista.
1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John’s, Newfoundland.
1601 – Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Goroszló.
1645 – Thirty Years’ War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.
1678 – Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.
1860 – The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
1914 – World War I: Germany declares war against France, while Romania declares its neutrality.
1940 – World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.
1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap.
1972 – The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1975 – A privately chartered Boeing 707 strikes a mountain peak and crashes near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.
2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.
2005 – President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.
2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran.
2007 – Former Deputy Director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping.
2010 – Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees (US$200 million) in damage.