• 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.
• 351 - Battle of Mursa Major: the Roman Emperor Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
• 365 - Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself Roman emperor.
• 935 - Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslav I of Bohemia.
• 995 - Members of Slavník's dynasty - Spytimír, Pobraslav, Pořej and Čáslav are murdered by Boleslaus's son, Boleslaus II the Pious.
• 1066 - William the Conqueror invades England: the Norman Conquest begins.
• 1106 - The Battle of Tinchebrai - Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.
• 1322 - Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
• 1448 - Christian I is crowned king of Denmark.
• 1542 - Navigator João Rodrigues Cabrilho of Portugal arrives as what is now San Diego, California, United States.
• 1708 - Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya.
• 1779 - American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
• 1781 - American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1787 - The newly completed United States Constitution is voted on by the U.S. Congress to be sent to the state legislatures for approval.
• 1844 - Oscar I of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
• 1867 - Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario.
• 1867 - The United States takes control of Midway Island.
• 1868 - Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
• 1889 - The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
• 1928 - UK passes the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis.
• 1939 - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
• 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazi Germany during World War II.
• 1941 - Major League Baseball: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hits a batting average of .406 that was originally at .3995. He is the last player to have a batting average of .400 or better.
• 1944 - Battle of Arnhem - Germans defeat British airborne at Arnhem, Netherlands.
• 1944 - Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
• 1958 - France ratifies a new Constitution of France; the French Fifth Republic is then formed upon the formal adoption of the new constitution on October 4. Guinea rejects the new constitution, voting for independence instead.
• 1961 - A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
• 1962 - Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.
• 1971 - UK passes the Misuse of Drugs Act banning the medicinal use of cannabis.
• 1972 - The Canadian national men's hockey team, led by Paul Henderson, defeat the Soviet Union national ice hockey team 6-5 to win decisive Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series.
• 1973 - ITT Building in New York City bombed to protest ITT's involvement in the September 11 1973 coup d'état in Chile.
• 1975 - The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people were taken as hostages, takes place in London.
• 1994 - The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
• 1995 - Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of Comoros in a coup.
• 2000 - Al-Aqsa Intifada: Arial Sharon visits the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Births