1780 - John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War, is hanged as a spy by American forces.
1789 - George Washington sends the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification.
1835 - The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales: Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.
1851 - The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass is demonstrated but proves to be a fake.
1941 - World War II: In Operation Typhoon, Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1944 - World War II: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
1950 - Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published
1958 - Guinea declares its independence from France.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.
1968 - A peaceful student demonstration in Mexico City ends in the Tlatelolco massacre.
1970 - A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, administrators, and supporters crashes in Colorado killing 31 people.
1990 - A Chinese airline Boeing 737-247 is hijacked; after landing at Guangzhou, it crashes into two airliners on the ground, killing 132 people.
1992 - The Carandiru Massacre takes place after a riot in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil.
1996 - The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1996 - An AeroPerú Boeing 757 crashes in Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Lima, Peru, killing 70.
2001 - NATO backs US military strikes following 9/11.
2001 - Swissair liquadates and the airline was replaced by SWISS.
2002 - The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks.
2004 - American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.
2005 - Ethan Allen Boating Accident: The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George in Upstate New York, killing twenty people.
2005 - NFL plays first regular season game outside United States when the Arizona Cardinals defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in Mexico City, Mexico
2006 - Five school girls are murdered by Charles Carl Roberts in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before Roberts commits suicide.
2007 - President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walks across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
2009 - The International Olympic Committee awards the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro.
2009 - The Republic of Ireland has a second referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty; 67% of votes are in favour.
