2009 - Karl Malden, 97, American Academy Award winning actor (A Streetcar Named Desire), natural causes.
2012 - Alan G. Poindexter, American astronaut (b. 1961)
Events
251 - The Battle of Abrittus is won by the Goths against the Romans. Roman Emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus are killed.
1097 - Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders under Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army under Qilich Arslan I.
1520 - La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés.
1569 - Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland (Polish Crown) and Great Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union, the united country is called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
1690 - Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar.
1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place, the final battle in the Seven Days Campaign, part of the George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1867 - The British North America Act, 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation; John A. Macdonald sworn as first Prime Minister.
1870 - The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
1942 - Australian Federal Government becomes sole collector of Income Tax (State Income Tax Abolished).
1943 - Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo." (Present-day Tokyo is not a city.)
1948 - Quaid-i-Azam inaugrates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
1957 - The International Geophysical Year begins (until December 31, 1958).
1958 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
1958 - Flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway begins.
1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) holds its constitutive conference.
1960 - Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ceases to be the Head of state.
1963 - ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1963 - The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
1966 - The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1967 - The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1967 - Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867.
1968 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 - The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
1968 - Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.
1970 - President General Yahya Khan abolished One-Unit of West Pakistan restoring the provinces.
1972 - Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins of the Red Army Faction are captured in Frankfurt after a shootout with the police.
1972 - The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1980 - O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1983 - A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
1984 - The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
1987 - American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.
1990 - German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
1997 - The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
1999 - The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 - Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect.
2000 - The Oresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark, opens for traffic.
2002 - The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2002 - A Bashkirian Airlines (flight 2937) Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over Ueberlingen, southern Germany, killing 71.
2004 - Saturn Orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
2006 - The first operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the People's Republic of China.
2007 - Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. With the ban already in force in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this means it is illegal to smoke in indoor public places anywhere in the UK. The ban is also put into effect in Australia.
