• 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the senate to elect him Consul.
• 1504 - Battle of Knockdoe.
• 1561 - An 18-year-old Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland, after spending 13 years in France.
• 1692 - Salem witch trials: In Salem, Massachusetts, Province of Massachusetts Bay five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
• 1745 - Jacobite Rising, Prince Charles Edward Stuart lands from a French warship in Glenfinnan, raises his standard and marches on London - the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion known as "the 45".
• 1768 - Saint Isaac's Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• 1782 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks - The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Lord Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1812 - War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".
• 1813 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's second triumvirate.
• 1839 - Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.
• 1848 - California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
• 1862 - Indian Wars: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
• 1895 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
• 1915 - World War I: The Battle of Van begins
• 1919 - Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1927 - Metropolitan Sergius proclaimed the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet state.
• 1934 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
• 1934 - The creation of the position Führer approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.
• 1942 - World War II: Operation Jubilee - The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an allied forces amphibious assault on Dieppe, France.
• 1944 - World War II: Liberation of Paris - Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
• 1945 - Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
• 1953 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
• 1955 - In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
• 1960 - Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
• 1960 - Sputnik program: Sputnik 5 - The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.
• 1965 - Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.
• 1975 - The cricket test match between England and Australia is called off after the pitch is vandalised by supporters of George Davis.
• 1980 - Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
• 1981 - Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
• 1987 - Hungerford Massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide.
• 1989 - Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist Prime Minister in 42 years.
• 1989 - Raid on offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline in North Sea by British and Dutch governments.
• 1990 - Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.
• 1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.
• 1991 - Hurricane Bob hits the Northeast.
• 1997 - The Teamsters end their 15-day walkout against United Parcel Service.
• 1999 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
• 2002 - A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
• 2003 - A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
• 2003 - A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children in the Jerusalem bus 2 massacre.
• 2005 - The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
• 2005 - A series of strong storms lash Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities.

Births