Events

• 331 BC – Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.
• 959 – Edgar the Peaceful becomes king of all England, in succession to Eadwig.
• 1730 – Ahmed III is forced to abdicate as the Ottoman sultan.
• 1779 – The city of Tampere, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.
• 1787 – Russians under Alexander Suvorov defeat the Turks at Kinburn.
• 1791 – First session of the French Legislative Assembly.
• 1795 – More than a year after the Battle of Sprimont, the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium) are officially annexed by Revolutionary France.
• 1800 – Via the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain cedes Louisiana to France, which would sell the land to the United States thirty months later.
• 1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoleon the previous spring.
• 1827 – Russo-Persian War: The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination of Armenia.
• 1832 – Texian political delegates convene at San Felipe de Austin to petition for changes in the governance of Mexican Texas.
• 1887 – Balochistan is conquered by the British Empire.
• 1918 – World War I: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force captures Damascus.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia dissolves itself, handing control of Catalan defence militias over to the Generalitat.
• 1938 – Germany annexes the Sudetenland.
• 1939 – World War II: After a one-month siege, German troops occupy Warsaw.
• 1942 – World War II: USS Grouper torpedoes Lisbon Maru, not knowing that she is carrying British prisoners of war from Hong Kong.
• 1943 – World War II: After the Four Days of Naples, Allied troops enter the city.
• 1946 – Nazi leaders are sentenced at the Nuremberg trials.
• 1946 – The Daegu October Incident occurs in Allied-occupied Korea.
• 1947 – The North American F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.
• 1949 – The People’s Republic of China is established.
• 1953 – A Mutual Defence Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.
• 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1961 – The United States Defence Intelligence Agency is formed, becoming the country’s first centralised military intelligence organisation.
• 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
• 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
• 1971 – The first practical CT scanner is used to diagnose a patient.
• 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1982 – Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan.
  • On the same day, Sony released the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind.
• 1985 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israel attacks the Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters in Tunisia during “Operation Wooden Leg”.
• 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Siege of Dubrovnik begins.
• 2014 – A series of explosions at a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria completely destroys the factory, killing 15 people.
• 2017 – An independence referendum, declared illegal by the Constitutional Court of Spain, takes place in Catalonia.
• Armed Forces Day (South Korea).
• Ground Forces Day (Russia).
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Cyprus from United Kingdom in 1960.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Nigeria from United Kingdom in 1960.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Palau from the UN Trust Territory status in 1994.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tuvalu from United Kingdom in 1978.
• Unification Day (Cameroon).

People (Births)

• 1542 – Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, Spanish explorer (d. 1595).
• 1791 – Sergey Aksakov, Russian soldier and author (d. 1859).
• 1887 – Shizuichi Tanaka, Japanese general (d. 1945).
• 1893 – Ip Man, Chinese martial artist (d. 1972).
• 1913 – Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (d. 2009).
• 1924 – Jimmy Carter, American naval lieutenant, politician, 39th President of the United States, and Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1931 – Anwar Shamim, Pakistani general (d. 2013).
• 1953 – Grete Waitz, Norwegian runner and coach (d. 2011).
• 1973 – Rachid Chékhémani, French runner.
• 1973 – Jana Henke, German swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1990 – Curtis LeMay, American general (b. 1906).
• 2012 – Shlomo Venezia, Greek-Italian Holocaust survivor and author (b. 1923).
• 2014 – Shlomo Lahat, Israeli general and politician (b. 1927).
• 2015 – Don Edwards, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (b. 1915).