• 1570 - A tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1,000 people.
• 1675 - A combined attack by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War.
• 1772 - American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.
• 1783 - In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".
• 1795 - The French Directory succeeds the French National Convention as the government of Revolutionary France.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
• 1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally
• 1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
• 1895 - The first gasoline-powered race in the United States. First prize: $2,000
• 1898 - Cheerleading is started at the University of Minnesota with Johnny Campbell leading the crowd in cheering on the football team.
• 1899 - The Boers begin their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.
• 1909 - Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity is founded at Boston University.
• 1914 - Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
• 1917 - The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities".
• 1920 - In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.
• 1920 - QANTAS makes its first commercial passenger flight, in Queensland, Australia. Qantas is now the second-oldest airline operating today.
• 1930 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.
• 1936 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis Powers.
• 1936 - The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, high-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.
• 1947 - In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
• 1953 - The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan names the country The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
• 1957 - The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generates national publicity, and remains one of the most impressive UFO cases in American history.
• 1959 - Quiz show scandals: Twenty One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he'd been given questions and answers in advance.
• 1959 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.
• 1959 - The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway
• 1960 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case
• 1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngô Ðình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup.
• 1964 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal.
• 1965 - Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war.
• 1966 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
• 1967 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.
• 1973 - The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India forms a 'United Front' in the state of Tripura.
• 1974 - 78 die when the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after a club official barred the doors after the fire started.
• 1982 - Channel 4 begins transmission in the UK
• 1983 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
• 1984 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
• 1988 - The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.
• 1991 - Bartholomew I becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
• 1995 - Former South African defence minister General Magnus Malan and 10 other former senior military officers are arrested and charged with murdering 13 black people in 1987, (all the accused are later acquitted).
• 2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
• 2002 United States Marine Corps officer Michael Brown attempts an indecent assault on a barmaid in Okinawa, precipitating an international incident and long legal battle.

Births