Events

• 539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire (Julian calendar).
• 633 – Battle of Hatfield Chase: King Edwin of Northumbria is defeated and killed by an alliance under Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd.
• 1398 – In the Treaty of Salynas, Lithuania cedes Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights.
• 1492 – Christopher Columbus’s first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically on San Salvador Island (Julian calendar).
• 1748 – War of Jenkins’ Ear: A British squadron wins a tactical victory over a Spanish squadron off Havana.
• 1798 – Flemish and Luxembourgish peasants launch the rebellion against French rule known as the Peasants’ War.
• 1849 – The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by ‘The Expedition of the 20’.
• 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the “Executive Mansion” to the White House.
• 1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium.
• 1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single-day loss of life in New Zealand history.
• 1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Boston Children’s Hospital.
• 1933 – The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
• 1944 – World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.
• 1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the US Medal of Honour.
• 1945 – The Lao Issara took control of Laos’ government and reaffirmed the country’s independence.
• 1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.
• 1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamisation continues as President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.
• 1971 – The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.
• 1977 – Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao Zedong as paramount leader of China.
• 1984 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
• 1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
• 1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.
• 2000 – The USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, is badly damaged by two al-Qaeda suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
• 2012 – The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
• 2019 – Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.
• Discovery of America by Columbus-related observances:
  • Día de la Hispanidad or Fiesta Nacional de España, also Armed Forces Day (Spain), among others.
• Discovery Day (The Bahamas, Colombia).
• Independence Day (Equatorial Guinea), celebrates the independence of Equatorial Guinea from Spain in 1968.

People (Births)

• 1576 – Thomas Dudley, English-American soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1653).
• 1710 – Jonathan Trumbull, American colonel and politician, 16th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1785).
• 1815 – William J. Hardee, American general (d. 1873).
• 1860 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American engineer and businessman, co-invented the gyrocompass (d. 1930).
• 1868 – Mariano Trías, Filipino general and politician, 1st Vice President of the Philippines (d. 1914).
• 1880 – Kullervo Manner, Finnish Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister of the FSWR and the Supreme Commander of the Red Guards (d. 1939).
• 1891 – Fumimaro Konoe, Japanese soldier and politician, 39th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1945).
• 1919 – Doris Miller, American cook and soldier (d. 1943).
• 1922 – William H. Sullivan, American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (d. 2013).
• 1935 – Shivraj Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Defence.
• 1949 – Dave Lloyd, English cyclist and coach.
• 1955 – Ante Gotovina, Croatian general.
• 1956 – Lutz Haueisen, German cyclist.
• 1960 – Dorothee Vieth, German Paralympic cyclist.
• 1963 – Dave Legeno, English actor and mixed martial artist (d. 2014).
• 1965 – Scott O’Grady, American captain and pilot.
• 1978 – Baden Cooke, Australian cyclist.
• 1981 – Giuseppe Lanzone, American rower.
• 1994 – Olivia Smoliga, American swimmer.

People (Births)

• 1565 – Jean Ribault, French-American lieutenant and navigator (b. 1520).
• 1632 – Kutsuki Mototsuna, Japanese commander (b. 1549).
• 1646 – François de Bassompierre, French general and courtier (b. 1579).
• 1758 – Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, Irish field marshal and politician (b. 1680).
• 1870 – Robert E. Lee, American general (b. 1807).
• 1946 – Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883).
• 1987 – Fahri Korutürk, Turkish commander and politician, 6th President of Turkey (b. 1903).
• 1996 – Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (b. 1911).
• 2009 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (b. 1974).
• 2010 – Austin Ardill, Northern Irish soldier and politician (b. 1917).