Events

• 1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.
• 1420 – Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
• 1521 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
• 1787 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States (George Washington is presiding).
• 1810 – Armed citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy from Spain and establish a provincial government for Argentina.
• 1865 – Mobile magazine explosion: 300 are killed in Mobile, Alabama when an ordnance depot explodes.
• 1895 – Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison.
• 1895 – The Republic of Taiwan forms, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
• 1914 – The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule.
• 1925 – Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
• 1925 – The National Forensics League is founded.
• 1935 – In a span of 45 minutes at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens sets or ties four track and field world records.
• 1935 – At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hits his 714th and last home run setting a baseball record that will stand for 39 years.
• 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
• 1946 – The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
• 1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
• 1961 – Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.
• 1963 – In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.
• 1966 – Explorer program: Explorer 32 launches.
• 1968 – In St. Louis, Missouri, US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
• 1973 – Mike Oldfield releases Tubular Bells.
• 1977 – Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opens in theaters and becomes the highest grossing movie to date.
• 1979 – American Airlines flight 191: In Chicago, Illinois, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport killing 271 on board and two people on the ground.
• 1981 – In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
• 1983 – Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi opens in theaters
• 1985 – Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which kills approximately 10,000 people.
• 1997 – A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
• 1997 – Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months).
• 2000 – Lebanon celebrates the liberation of south after 22 years of Israeli occupation.
• 2001 – Mountain climbing: 32-year old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 2001 – Mountain climbing: 64-year old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 2002 – A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225.
• 2003 – Nιstor Kirchner becomes President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He was the first elected President since the December 2001 economic crisis.

Births

• 1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher (d. 1882)
• 1803 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
• 1860 – James McKeen Cattell, first professor of psychology in U.S. (d. 1944)
• 1865 – Pieter Zeeman, Nobel Prize winner (d. 1943)
• 1879 – Lord Beaverbrook, publisher (d. 1964)
• 1880 – Jean Alexandre Barrι, neurologist (d. 1967)
• 1888 – Miles Malleson, actor (d. 1969)
• 1889 – Igor Sikorsky developer of a working helicopter (d. 1972)
• 1892 – Josip Broz Tito, president of SFRY (d. 1980)
• 1922 – Enrico Berlinguer, politician (d. 1984)
• 1926 – Miles Davis, composer (d. 1991)
• 1926 – Max von der Grόn, author
• 1927 – Robert Ludlum, science fiction writer (d. 2001)
• 1929 – Beverly Sills, soprano
• 1931 – Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
• 1932 – Jeanne Crain, actress
• 1936 – Vladimir (Walter,Wally)Fekula,raconteur
• 1939 – Ian McKellen, actor
• 1944 – Frank Oz, puppeteer, director
• 1963 – Mike Myers, actor, comedian
• 1966 – Sugar Minott, singer
• 1967 – Poppy Z. Brite, author
• 1969 – Anne Heche, actress
• 1971 – Sonya Smith, actress
• 1979 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby star

Deaths

• 709 – Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne
• 735 – Bede, English Historian and monk
• 992 – Mieszko I
• 1085 – Pope Gregory VII
• 1261 – Pope Alexander IV
• 1555 – Henry II of Navarre
• 1681 – Pedro Calderσn de la Barca
• 1789 – Anders Dahl, botanist after whom the dahlia was named
• 1805 – William Paley, philosopher
• 1912 – Austin Lane Crothers, politician
• 1934 – Gustav Holst, composer
• 1935 – Sir Frank Watson Dyson, English Astronomer Royal
• 1940 – Joe De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood film director
• 1951 – Paula von Preradovic, Croatian – Austrian writer (b. 1887)
• 1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson
• 1986 – Chester Bowles, politician
• 1988 – Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize in Physicist