| 312 | | Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge. |
| 969 | |
After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300
years of Arab rule in Antioch. |
| 1216 | |
Henry III of England is crowned. |
| 1628 | | After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces. |
| 1636 | | Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Mass. |
| 1768 | | Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans. |
| 1793 | | Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively--a job which was previously done by hand. |
| 1863 | |
In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen.
James Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to
cut their supply line, the "cracker line." They fail. |
| 1886 | |
The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty
Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly Bedloe's
Island, by President Grover Cleveland |
| 1901 | | Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34. |
| 1904 | | The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints. |
| 1914 | |
The German cruiser Emden, disguised as a
British ship, steams into Penang Harbor near Malaya and sinks the Russian light
cruiser Zhemchug. |
| 1914 | | George Eastman announces the invention of the color photographic process. |
| 1919 | | Over President Wilson's veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment. |
| 1927 | | Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled international flight. |
| 1940 | |
Italy invades Greece, launching six divisions on
four fronts from occupied Albania. |
| 1944 | |
The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flies
from the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a strike against the Japanese base
at Truk. |
| 1960 | | In a note to the OAS (Organization of American States), the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians" from the Soviet bloc. |
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