0648 BC - Earliest total solar eclipse; chronicled by Greeks
0402 - Battle at Pollentia - Roman army under Stilicho beats Visigoten
0610 - Lailat-ul Qadar, the night the Koran descended to Earth
1106 - Fire in Venice
1652 - Cape Colony, the 1st European settlement in South Africa, established by John of Riebeeck
1663 - King Charles II signs Carolina Charter
1664 - France & Saksen sign alliance
1672 - France declares war on Netherlands
1712 - Slave revolt in New York
1722 - Peter the Great ends tax on men with beards
1724 - Duke of Newcastle becomes English minister of Foreign Affairs
1727 - Denmark signs Covenant of Hannover
1757 - English king George II fires minister William Pitt Sr
1789 - 1st US Congress begins regular sessions, Federal Hall, New York NY
1815 - English militia shoots prisoners, 100's killed
1830 - Joseph Smith & 5 others organize Mormon church in Seneca County, New York
1848 - Jews of Prussia granted equality
1859 - US recognizes Liberal government in México's War of the Reform
1862 - Battle of Shiloh, Union defeats Confederacy in SW Tennessee
1865 - Battle of Sayler's Creek, 1/3rd of Lee's army cut off
1866 - G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) is established
1868 - Brigham Young marries his 27th & final wife
1869 - 1st plastic, Celluloid, patented
1886 - Declaration of Berlin neutralizes Tonga
1889 - George Eastman places Kodak Camera on sale for 1st time
1890 - French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Segu, West-Sudan
1893 - Mormon temple in Salt Lake City dedicated
1896 - 1st modern Olympic games begin in Athens Greece; American, James Connolly, wins 1st Olympic gold medal in modern history
1906 - 1st animated cartoon copyrighted
1909 - 1st credit union established in US; North Pole reached by Americans Robert Peary & Matthew Henson
1912 - Electric starter 1st appeared in cars
1916 - German parliament OKs unrestricted submarine warfare
1917 - US declares war on Germany, enters World War I
1920 - French troop attacks Main/Darmstadt/Hanau
1924 - 4 planes leave Seattle on 1st successful around-the-world flight; Italian fascists receive 65% of vote of parliament; Völkische Block (Nazi's) receives 17.8% of vote in Bayern
1925 - 1st film shown on an airplane (British Air)
1930 - 1st transcontinental glider tow completed; Hostess Twinkies invented by bakery executive James Dewar
1936 - Tornado kills 203 & injures 1,800 in Gainesville GA
1938 - Teflon invented by Roy J Plunkett
1939 - US & UK agree on joint control of Canton & Enderbury Islands (Pacific); Great Britain & Poland sign military pact
1941 - Italian-held Addis Ababa capitulates to British & Ethiopian forces; Beginning of 3 day bombardment of Belgrade (17,000 die); British General Gambier-Parry caught in North Africa; German bombardment on Piraeus (munitions ship explodes)
1943 - British & US offensive at Wadi Akarit, South-Tunisia; Lou Jansen, leader of illegal Dutch political party (CPN) arrested
1944 - Jewish nursery at Izieu-Ain France overrun by Nazis
1945 - Coevorden freed from Nazis; Japanese giant battleship Yamato heads to Okinawa; Massive kamikaze-attack on US battle fleet near Okinawa; US Marines explore Tsugen Shima near Okinawa
1950 - John F Dulles becomes advisor to US Secretary of State Dean Acheson
1954 - TV Dinner is 1st put on sale by Swanson & Sons
1955 - Yemen failed coup by Abdullah Seif el-Islam
1956 - Polish communist Gomulka freed from prison
1957 - NYC ends trolley car service
1964 - Egypt & Belgium restore diplomatic relations
1965 - Intelsat 1 ("Early Bird") 1st commercial geosynchronous communications satellite
1967 - Premier Pompidou forms new French government
1968 - 94.5% of East German voters approve new socialist constitution; Gunpowder stock at a sporting-goods store explodes, killing 43 (Virginia)
1972 - Egypt drops diplomatic relations with Jordan
1973 - Indies troops invade Sikkim; US launches Pioneer 11 to Jupiter & Saturn
1981 - Yugoslav government sends troops to Kosovo
1984 - 11th Space Shuttle Mission (41-C)- Challenger 5 is launched; 1st time 11 people in space
1985 - Sudan suspends constitution after coup under General Swarreddahab
1988 - North pole explorer Matthew Henson buried next to Robert Peary in Arlington
1992 - Microsoft announced Windows 3.1, upgrading Windows 3.0; Serbian troops begin siege of Sarajevo; US Supreme Court rules a Nebraska farmer was entrapped by postal agents into buying mail-order child pornography
1993 - 1st test flight of Ilyushin IL-96M (Moscow)
1994 - Liberal Supreme Court Justice Blackmun (Roe vs Wade) resigns; Palestinian suicide bomber kills 7 Israelis & himself
1997 - Progress M-34 Launch (Russia)

Birthdays
1483 - Raphael [Raffaello Sanzio] Urbino, painter/master builder (Madonna Sistina)
1806 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (Sonnets from the Portuguese)/Mrs Robert Browning
1823 - Joseph Medill, newspaper editor (Chicago Tribune)
1828 - Charles William Field, Confederate Major General
1866 - Butch Cassidy [Robert Parker], US desperado (Wild Bunch Passage)
1890 - Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker, aircraft pioneer (Spider)
1892 - Donald Wills Douglas, aircraft pioneer (McConnell Douglas)
1903 - Harold Edgerton, foremost high-speed photographer
1910 - Desmond Dreyer, British Admiral
1925 - John Knox, British supreme court justice; Marcus Worsley Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire
1926 - Ian Paisley, clergyman/MP
1928 - James Dewey Watson, chemist (co-discovered structure of DNA)
1929 - "Crazy" Joe Gallo, mobster
1940 - Anne Campbell, MP
1946 - Paul Beresford, MP
1947 - Jan Kees Wiebenga, Dutch MP (VVD)
1950 - Dennis E Eckart (Representative-OH)

Passings
1199 - Richard I the Lion-hearted, King of England (1189-99), dies at 41
1362 - Jacques de Bourbon, Count of Marche, killed in battle
1489 - Hans Waldmann, Swiss military/mayor (Zurich), beheaded
1490 - Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary
1590 - Francis Walsingham English Secretary of State, dies at about 57
1593 - Henry Barrow English puritian/Congressionalist, hanged; John Greenwood English Congressionalist, hanged
1838 - José B de Andrada e Silva, Premier of Brazil (1822-23), dies at 74
1854 - William Strickland, US architect
1862 - Adley Hogan Gladden, Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle at 51; Albert Sidney Johnston Confederate General, dies in battle at 59
1865 - John Austin Wharton, Confederate General-Major, dies at 36; Reuben B. Boston, Confederate cavalry Colonel, dies in battle
1926 - Giovanni Amendola, antifascist/editor-in-chief (Il Mondo), dies at 43
1945 - Benjamin M. Telders, president (Dutch Liberal States Party), dies at 42
1961 - Jules J. B. V. Bordet, Belgian bacteriologist (Nobel 1919), dies at 90
1968 - Bobby Hutton, US Black Panther leader, shot to death
1972 - Heinrich Lübke West German President (1959-69), dies at 77
1983 - Ana Maria Salvador guerilla leader, murdered
1990 - Ronald E. Evans, astronaut (Apollo 17), dies of a heart attack at 57
1993 - Hedi Amira Nouira, PM of Tunisia (1970-80)
1994 - Agatha Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda/1st female PM in Africa, assassinated; Cyprian Niayamira, President of Burundi (1993-94), assassinated; Juvénal Habayarimana President of Rwanda (1973), assassinated
1995 - Vieno J. Sukselainen, PM of Finland (1959-61)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Cook, Dennis P., USN (CA); A4E crashed in water shortly after launch, Killed, BNR

Gates, James W., US Army (LA); OV1A shot down, (pilot, w/Lafayette)

Lafayette, John W.,US Army (VT); OV1A shot down (observer, w/Gates)

1967
Hegdahl, Douglas B., USN (SD); washed overboard in Tonkin Gulf, released August, 1969 - alive and well as of 1998 ** brought back a list of over 200 POWs names which he memorized to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm". **

1968
Kustigan, Michael T., USN (MA)

Pepper, Anthony John, USMC (VA); KIA / BNR

Trimble, James M., USMC (CA); KIA / BNR

1970
The following Civilian journalists all reported missing, believed abducted:
Arpin, Claude, (France)

Flynn, Sean L., ; British TV crew found remains May, 1991

Stone, Dana, ; British TV crew found remains May, 1991

Takagi, Yujiro, (Japan)

Klingner, Michael Lee, USAF (NE); F100D shot down, KIA / BNR

Brassfield, Andrew T., US Army SF (OH); KIA / BNR

1972
The following USAF pesonnel reported MIA when their HH53C was shot down:
Alley, James H. (FL); remains ID'd September, 1997

Avery, Allen J. (MA); remains returned October, 1997

Call, James Henry III; remains returned October, 1997

Chapman, Peter H., (OH); remains returned October, 1997

Pearson, William R. (NH); remains returend October, 1997

Prater, Roy Dewitt (OH); remains returned October, 1997

Also reported MIA this day in 1972:
Dunlop, Thomas E., USN (FL); A7E shot down