• 711 - Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by their king Roderic.
• 1333 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill - The final battle of the war.
• 1544 - Italian War of 1542: The Siege of Boulogne began.
• 1545 - The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth.
• 1553 - Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after having that title for just nine days.
• 1588 - Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines - The Spanish Armada sighted in the English Channel.
• 1692 - Salem Witch Trials: Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
• 1760 - The formal request to found the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is filed by its founders.
• 1843 - Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
• 1848 - Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Morgan's Raid - At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
• 1879 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon.
• 1908 - Dutch footballclub Feyenoord Rotterdam is founded.
• 1912 - A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg explodes over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
• 1919 - Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall.
• 1940 - World War II: Twelve men were promoted Generalfeldmarschall by Adolf Hitler, see List of German Field Marshals.
• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Cape Spada - The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
• 1940 - World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.
• 1947 - Burmese nationalist Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members were assassinated.
• 1963 - Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
• 1967 - A Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727 and a Cessna 310 collided in mid-air over Hendersonville, North Carolina killing 82.
• 1976 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
• 1979 - The Sandinista rebels overthrow the U.S.-backed government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
• 1983 - The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
• 1985 - The Val di Stava Dam collapse killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
• 1989 - United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 of the 296 passengers.

Births