• 475 - The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna, and appoints Romulus Augustus, his own son, as emperor.
• 489 - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
• 1189 - The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
• 1349 - 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz, accused to be the cause of the plague.
• 1511 - Portuguese conquer Malacca.
• 1521 - The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
• 1542 - Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp in the Battle of Wofla. The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
• 1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
• 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
• 1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1640 - King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn
• 1830 - The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States.
• 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue.
• 1849 - After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
• 1859 - A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it's seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as further afield as Japan.
• 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas.
• 1867 - The United States occupies Midway Island.
• 1879 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
• 1898 - Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
• 1899 - 122 houses, smelting factory, hospital, many facilities destroyed on hill, cause by heavy rain with debris blow, at Sumitomo Besshi bronze mine erea, Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, at least 512 killed.
• 1907 - UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
• 1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
• 1914 - The Royal Navy beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
• 1914 - German troops conquer Namur.
• 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
• 1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
• 1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
• 1924 - Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
• 1931 - France and Soviet Union sign a trety of non-aggression.
• 1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
• 1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
• 1944 - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
• 1953 - Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
• 1961 - Motown releases what would be its first number one hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
• 1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
• 1964 - The Philadelphia race riot begins.
• 1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
• 1971 - The dollar is allowed to float against the yen for the first time.
• 1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Grand Place in Brussels.
• 1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
• 1982 - The first Gay Games are held in San Francisco.
• 1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
• 1988 - Ramstein airshow disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and fall into the crowd. 75 are killed, 346 seriously injured.
• 1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
• 1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
• 1991 - Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns from Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
• 1996 - Britons Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, are divorced.
• 1998 - Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.

Births