Events

• 1066 – The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings.
• 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence.
• 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• 1758 – Seven Years’ War: Frederick the Great suffers a rare defeat at the Battle of Hochkirch.
• 1774 – American Revolution: The First Continental Congress denounces the British Parliament’s Intolerable Acts and demands British concessions.
• 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: A French corps defeats an Austrian attempt to escape encirclement at Ulm (refer to Napoleonic Wars).
• 1806 – War of the Fourth Coalition: Napoleon decisively defeats Prussia at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt (refer to Napoleonic Wars(.
• 1808 – The Republic of Ragusa is annexed by France.
• 1843 – Irish nationalist Daniel O’Connell is arrested by the British on charges of criminal conspiracy.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Confederate troops under the command of A.P. Hill fail to drive the Union Army completely out of Virginia.
• 1915 – World War I: Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.
• 1920 – Finland and Soviet Russia sign the Treaty of Tartu, exchanging some territories.
• 1923 – After the Irish Civil War the 1923 Irish hunger strikes were undertaken by thousands of Irish republican prisoners protesting the continuation of their internment without trial.
• 1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference.
• 1939 – World War II: The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland.
• 1940 – World War II: The Balham underground station disaster kills sixty-six people during the London Blitz.
• 1943 – World War II: Prisoners at Sobibor extermination camp covertly assassinate most of the on-duty SS officers and then stage a mass breakout.
• 1943 – World War II: The United States Eighth Air Force loses 60 of 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses during the Second Raid on Schweinfurt.
• 1943 – World War II: The Second Philippine Republic, a puppet state of Japan, is inaugurated with José P. Laurel as its president.
• 1947 – Chuck Yeager, a US Air Force pilot, becomes the first person to exceed the speed of sound.
• 1952 – Korean War: The Battle of Triangle Hill is the biggest and bloodiest battle of 1952.
• 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when an American reconnaissance aircraft takes photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed in Cuba.
• 1964 – The Soviet Presidium and the Communist Party Central Committee each vote to accept Nikita Khrushchev’s “voluntary” request to retire from his offices.
• 1968 – Jim Hines becomes the first man ever to break the so-called “ten-second barrier” in the 100-metre sprint with a time of 9.95 seconds.
• 1973 – In the Thammasat student uprising, over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the military government.
  • Seventy-seven are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
• 1975 – An RAF Avro Vulcan bomber explodes and crashes over Żabbar, Malta after an aborted landing, killing five crew members and one person on the ground.
• 1980 – The 6th Congress of the Workers’ Party ended, having anointed North Korean President Kim Jong-il’s son Kim Jong-il as his successor.
• 1982 – US President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.
• 1991 – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1994 – Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of future Palestinian self government.
• Second Revolution Day (Yemen).
• Defender of Ukraine Day (Ukraine).

People (Births)

• 1493 – Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyō (d. 1568).
• 1639 – Simon van der Stel, Dutch commander and politician, 1st Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (d. 1712).
• 1726 – Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, Scottish-English admiral and politician (d. 1813).
• 1733 – François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal (d. 1798).
• 1882 – Éamon de Valera, American-Irish rebel and politician, 3rd President of Ireland (d. 1975).
• 1890 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (d. 1969).
• 1898 – Thomas William Holmes, Canadian sergeant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1950).
• 1902 – Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (d. 1963).
• 1909 – Mochitsura Hashimoto, Japanese commander (d. 2000).
• 1911 – Lê Đức Thọ, Vietnamese general and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990).
• 1916 – C. Everett Koop, American admiral and surgeon, 13th United States Surgeon General (d. 2013).
• 1930 – Mobutu Sese Seko, Congolese soldier and politician, President of Zaire (d. 1997).
• 1946 – François Bozizé, Gabonese general and politician, President of the Central African Republic.
• 1951 – Aad van den Hoek, Dutch cyclist.
• 1957 – Gen Nakatani, Japanese lawyer and politician, 13th Japanese Minister of Defence.
• 1960 – Steve Cram, English runner and coach.
• 1965 – Jüri Jaanson, Estonian rower and politician.
• 1974 – Viktor Röthlin, Swiss runner.
• 1975 – Floyd Landis, American cyclist.
• 1982 – Ryan Hall, American runner.

People (Deaths)

• 869 – Pang Xun, Chinese rebel leader.
• 1066 – Battle of Hastings:
  • Harold Godwinson, English king (b. 1022).
  • Leofwine Godwinson, English nobleman and brother of Harold.
  • Gyrth Godwinson, English nobleman and brother of Harold.
• 1256 – Kujō Yoritsugu, Japanese shogun (b. 1239).
• 1610 – Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyō (b. 1540).
• 1758 – James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (b. 1696).
• 1943 – Sobibór uprising:
  • Rudolf Beckmann, German SS officer (b. 1910).
  • Siegfried Graetschus, German sergeant (b. 1916).
  • Johann Niemann, German lieutenant (b. 1913).
• 1944 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (b. 1891).
• 1965 – William Hogenson, American sprinter (b. 1884).
• 1973 – Ahmed Hamdi, Egyptian general and engineer (b. 1929).
• 2015 – Mathieu Kérékou, Beninese soldier and politician, President of Benin (b. 1933).
• 2015 – Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, Indian admiral (b. 1930).