| 310 | | St. Eusebius begins his reign as Catholic Pope. |
| 1521 | | Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V, refusing to retract the views which led to his excommunication. |
| 1676 | | Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians. |
| 1775 | | American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride though the towns of Massachusetts warning that "the British are coming." |
| 1791 | | National Guardsmen prevent Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris. |
| 1818 | | A regiment of Indians and blacks is defeated at the Battle of Suwanna, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War. |
| 1834 | | William Lamb becomes prime minister of England. |
| 1838 | | The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole sets sail. |
| 1847 | | U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the war. |
| 1853 | | The first train in Asia begins running from Bombay to Tanna. |
| 1861 | | Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies. |
| 1885 | | The Sino-Japanese war ends. |
| 1906 | | A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale. |
| 1923 | | Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1. |
| 1937 | | Leon Trotsky calls for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. |
| 1942 | | James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities. |
| 1943 | | Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters. |
| 1946 | | The League of Nations dissolves. |
| 1949 | | The Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth. |
| 1950 | | The first transatlantic jet passenger trip is completed. |
| 1954 | | Colonel Nasser seizes power in Egypt. |
| 1978 | | The U.S. Senate approves the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama. |
| 1980 | | Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) formal independence from Britain is proclaimed. |
| 1983 | | A suicide bomber kills U.S. Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. |
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