46 BC Julius Caesar celebrates first of four triumphal processions in Rome - over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Africa with leader of the Gauls Vercingetorix led in chains
1192 English King Richard I the Lion hearted, captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria on his return from the Crusades
1348 Jews in Zurich, Switzerland, are accused of poisoning wells
1451 Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa orders Jews of Holland to wear a yellow badge. At the same time, Cusa sternly forbade anyone to injure a Jew night or day, openly or by stealth
1513 James V crowned King of Scotland in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle, aged 17 months
1621 King James I of England gives Sir William Alexander a royal charter for colonisation of Nova Scotia
1677 Dutch painter, inventor and printmaker, Jan and his brother Nicolaas, van der Heyden patent the fire hose
1765 Antoine de Beauterne announces he has killed the man-eating Beast of Gévaudan, France, but was later proved wrong by more attacks
1776 5 days after British take New York, a quarter of the city burns down
1776 Nathan Hale, American rebel spy is arrested by British militia in NYC
1780 Traitor Benedict Arnold gives British Major John André plans to West Point
1784 Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser becomes the 1st successful daily newspaper in the United States based out of Philadelphia
1792 French Revolution: The National Convention passes a proclamation announcing the formal abolition of the French monarchy
1823 The Angel Moroni first appears to Joseph Smith, according to Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints
1827 According to Joseph Smith Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon
1872 John Henry Conyers of Charleston, South Carolina becomes the first black student to attend the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD
1883 First direct US-Brazil telegraph connection
1893 Frank Duryea drives the 1st American-made gas propelled vehicle
1895 America's first automotive producer, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, is founded by Charles and J. Frank Duryea
1897 NY Sun runs famous "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus" editorial
1903 First cowboy film "Kit Carson" premieres in US
1905 Alonzo Franklin Herndon, a slave-born barber, founded what would become the Atlanta Life Insurance Company
1915 Cecil Chubb buys English prehistoric monument Stonehenge for $8,788
1921 A storage silo at a BASF fertilizer producing plant explodes in Oppau, Germany, 500—600 killed
1922 US President Warren G. Harding signs a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine
1922 Wallal expedition of astronomers and local Nyangumarta people south of Broome, Australia, photograph total solar eclipse proving Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that space is curved by showing deflection of starlight round the sun
1928 "My Weekly Reader" magazine for elementary school children made its debut. It was first published by the American Education Press of Columbus, Ohio. The Weekly Reader was purchased by Scholastic, and in 2012, Scholastic made it a part of their own weekly magazine
1930 German Johann Ostermeyer patents the ‘Flash Lamp’ aka, the flashbulb
1934 Typhoon strikes Honshu Island Japan, kills 4,000
1938 The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people
1939 Reinhard Heydrich meets in Berlin to discuss final solution of Jews
1944 Operation Market Garden: Last British paratroopers at Arnhem Bridge surrender after several days of fighting
1944 Operation Market Garden: Polish paratroopers land at Driel after a delay due to bad weather and a shortage of planes
1955 Last allied occupying troops leave Austria
1958 American pilots Jim Heth and Bill Burkhart complete 1st airplane flight exceeding 1200 hours (50 days, 16 minutes), landing "The Old Scotchman", their modified Cessna 172 in Dallas, Texas; record broken 123 days later
1961 Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook military transport helicopter
1964 The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California
1970 New York Times starts first modern op-ed page
1974 US Mariner 10 makes 2nd fly-by of Mercury
1979 Two RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump-jets from RAF Wittering collide over Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. Both pilots eject safely, but three people killed and several injured when one of the aircraft destroys 3 dwellings
1982 San Francisco cable cars cease operations for 2 years of repairs
1985 American CIA case officer Edward Lee Howard flees to Russia after being identified as a KGB agent
1995 The Hindu milk miracle occurs: statues of the Hindu God Ganesh begin drinking milk when spoonful’s were placed near their mouths
1999 Chi-Chi earthquake occurs in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead
2003 Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes
2008 Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two last remaining independent investment banks on Wall Street, become bank holding companies as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis.
2013 59 people are killed and 175 wounded in the Westgate shopping mall gun battle in Nairobi, Kenya
2016 Genomic study finding Australian Aboriginal oldest known civilisation on earth published in "Nature"
2016 Migrant boat carrying 450-600 people capsizes off the Egyptian coast, only 163 rescued
2016 Three genetic studies published in "Nature" conclude all non-Africans descended from one migration out of Africa 50-80,000 years ago
2017 Discovery of the first brainless animal that sleeps, the jellyfish Cassiopea, research published in "Current Biology" by Caltech scientists
2018 Fossil of Dickinsonia, “the Holy Grail of paleontology” proven to be oldest known animal fossil, 558 million years old from White Sea, Russia
2021 McDonald's announces plans to "drastically" reduce plastic in its Happy Meals by 2025 (these meals make it one of largest toy distributors in the world)
2022 Russian authorities claim 5,397 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine, Westerns sources put the figure at 25,000 to over 80,000 (NY Times)
2022 Vladimir Putin announces partial mobilization of Russian population, drafting between 300,000 and 1.2m men to fight in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prompting demonstrations around the country