1692 - Salem Witch Trials: Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
1760 - The formal request to found the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is filed by its founders.
1799 - A group of Napoleon Bonaparte's soldiers discover what is now known as The Rosetta Stone, enabling the translation of hieroglyphics for the first time.
1843 - Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1848 - Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.
1864 - Third Battle of Nanking, determined battle at last.
1870 - Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1879 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon.
1908 - Dutch football club Feyenoord Rotterdam is founded.
1912 - A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg explodes over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
1919 - Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall.
1940 - World War II: Twelve men were promoted Generalfeldmarschall by Adolf Hitler, see List of German Field Marshals.
1947 - Prime minister of shadow Burma government ,Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members were assassinated by British , which resulted in the political chaos in the country lasting until now.
1963 - Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
1964 - Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
1976 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
1979 - The Sandinista rebels overthrow the U.S.-backed government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
1983 - The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
1985 - The Val di Stava Dam collapse killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
1989 - United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 of the 296 passengers.
