October 1
- 331 BC – Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.
- 959 – Edgar the Peaceable becomes king of all England.
- 1189 – Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184, is killed in the Siege of Acre.
- 1553 – Coronation of Queen Mary I of England
- 1787 – Russians under Alexander Suvorov defeat the Turks at Kinburn.
- 1791 – First session of the French Legislative Assembly.
- 1795 – Belgium is conquered by France.
- 1800 – Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
- 1811 – The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana.
- 1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoléon the previous spring.
- 1827 – Russo-Persian War: The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia.
- 1829 – South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; it will later separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
- 1843 – The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London.
- 1847 – German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske.
- 1854 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American system of watch manufacturing.
- 1880 – John Philip Sousa becomes leader of the United States Marine Band.
- 1880 – First electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison.
- 1887 – Balochistan is conquered by the British Empire.
- 1890 – Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1891 – In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.
- 1898 – The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.
- 1903 – Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.
- 1905 – František Pavlík is killed in a demonstration in Prague, inspiring Leoš Janáček to the piano composition 1. X. 1905.
- 1908 – Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of US$825.
- 1910 – Los Angeles Times bombing: A large bomb destroys the Los Angeles Times building in downtown Los Angeles, California, killing 21.
- 1918 – World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia" capture Damascus.
- 1920 – Sir Percy Cox lands in Basra to assume his responsibilities as high commissioner in Iraq.
- 1928 – The Soviet Union introduces its First Five-Year Plan.
- 1931 – The George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York opens.
- 1936 – Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain.
- 1937 – The Japanese city Handa is founded in Aichi Prefecture.
- 1938 – Germany annexes the Sudetenland.
- 1939 – After a one-month Siege of Warsaw, hostile forces enter the city.
- 1940 – The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic.
- 1942 – USS Grouper torpedoes Lisbon Maru not knowing she is carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong
- 1942 – First flight of the Bell XP-59 "Aircomet".
- 1943 – World War II: Naples falls to Allied soldiers.
- 1946 – Nazi leaders are sentenced at Nuremberg Trials.
- 1946 – Mensa International is founded in the United Kingdom.
- 1947 – The F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.
- 1949 – The People's Republic of China is established and declared by Mao Zedong.
- 1957 – First appearance of In God We Trust on U.S. paper currency.
- 1958 – NASA is created to replace NACA.
- 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
- 1962 – First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
- 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.
- 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka.
- 1965 – General Suharto crushes an attempted coup in Indonesia.
- 1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatalities and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
- 1968 – The Guyanese government takes over the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS).
- 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
- 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, United States.
- 1971 – The first brain-scan using x-ray computed tomography (CT or CAT scan) is performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
- 1975 – The Seychelles gain internal self-government. The Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands and take the name Tuvalu.
- 1975 – Thrilla in Manila: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.
- 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1978 – The Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party is founded.
- 1979 – The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama.
- 1982 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.
- 1982 – EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
- 1982 – Sony launches the first consumer compact disc player (model CDP-101).
- 1985 – The Israeli air force bombs PLO Headquarters in Tunis.
- 1987 – The Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley, registering as magnitude 5.9.
- 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal modern same-sex civil union called "registered partnership".
- 1991 – New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 comes into force.
- 1994 – Palau gains independence from the United Nations (trusteeship administered by the United States of America).
- 1998 – Vladimir Putin becomes a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
- 2009 – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords.
September 30
- 1399 – Henry IV is proclaimed King of England.
- 1744 – France and Spain defeat the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo.
- 1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria.
- 1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre and Jérôme Pétion as "incorruptible patriots".
- 1813 – Battle of Bárbula: Simón Bolívar defeats Santiago Bobadilla.
- 1860 – Britain's first tram service begins in Birkenhead, Merseyside.
- 1882 – Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States.
- 1888 – Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.
- 1895 – Madagascar becomes a French protectorate.
- 1903 – The new Gresham's School is officially opened by Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood.
- 1906 – The Real Academia Galega, Galician language's biggest linguistic authority, starts working in Havana.
- 1907 – McKinley National Memorial, final resting place of assassinated U.S. President William McKinley and his family, dedicated in Canton, Ohio.
- 1927 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.
- 1931 – Start of "Die Voortrekkers" youth movement for Afrikaners in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
- 1935 – The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated.
- 1938 – At 2:00 am, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
- 1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations".
- 1939 – General Władysław Sikorski becomes commander-in-chief of the Polish Government in exile.
- 1941 – World War II: Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C complete Babi Yar massacre.
- 1945 – The Bourne End rail crash, in Hertfordshire, England, kills 43
- 1947 – The Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations.
- 1947 – The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.
- 1949 – The Berlin Airlift ends.
- 1954 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world's first nuclear reactor powered vessel.
- 1955 – Film star James Dean dies in a road accident aged 24.
- 1962 – Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers.
- 1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.
- 1965 – General Suharto rises to power after an alleged coup by the Communist Party of Indonesia. In response, Suharto and his army massacre over a million Indonesians suspected of being communists.
- 1965 – The Lockheed L-100, the civilian version of the C-130 Hercules, is introduced.
- 1966 – The British protectorate of Bechuanaland declares its independence, and becomes the Republic of Botswana. Seretse Khama takes office as the first President.
- 1967 – BBC Radio 1 is launched and Tony Blackburn presents its first show; the BBC's other national radio stations also adopt numeric names.
- 1968 – The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory.
- 1970 – Jordan makes a deal with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for the release of the remaining hostages from the Dawson's Field hijackings.
- 1972 – Roberto Clemente records the 3,000th and final hit of his career.
- 1975 – The Hughes (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.
- 1977 – Because of US budget cuts and dwindling power reserves, the Apollo program's ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon are shut down.
- 1979 – The Hong Kong MTR commences service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka. Kwun Tong Line).
- 1980 – Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.
- 1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all.
- 1986 – Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel's covert nuclear program to British media, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy by the Israeli Mossad.
- 1990 – The Dalai Lama unveils the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Canada's capital city of Ottawa.
- 1993 – An earthquake hits India's Latur and Osmanabad district of Marathwada (Aurangabad division) in Maharashtra state leaving tens of thousands of people dead and many more homeless.
- 1994 – Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground closes after eighty-eight years of service.
- 1999 – Japan's second worst nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tōkai-mura, northeast of Tokyo.
- 2004 – The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo.
- 2004 – The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, is retired from service. Almost two years later, the Tomcat is retired.
- 2005 – The controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
- 2009 – The 2009 Sumatra earthquakes occur, killing over 1,115 people.
September 29
- 522 BC – Darius I of Persia kills the Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire.
- 480 BC – Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.
- 61 BC – Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.
- 1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.
- 1364 – Battle of Auray: English forces defeat the French in Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession.
- 1567 – At a dinner, the Duke of Alba arrests the Count of Egmont and the Count of Hoorn for treason.
- 1650 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters in Threadneedle Street, London.
- 1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city's architecture and making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city.
- 1789 – The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
- 1789 – The 1st United States Congress adjourns.
- 1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.
- 1848 – Battle of Pákozd: Hungarian forces defeat Croats at Pákozd; the first battle of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
- 1850 – The Roman Catholic hierarchy is re-established in England and Wales by Pope Pius IX.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chaffin's Farm is fought.
- 1885 – The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.
- 1907 – The cornerstone is laid at Washington National Cathedral in the U.S. capital.
- 1911 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
- 1916 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the second billionaire.
- 1918 – World War I, Battle of St. Quentin Canal: The Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces. Bulgaria signs an armistice.
- 1932 – Chaco War: Last day of the Battle of Boquerón between Paraguay and Bolivia.
- 1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany was given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting occurred in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attended.
- 1941 – World War II: Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C begins the Babi Yar massacre, according to the Einsatzgruppen operational situation report.
- 1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.
- 1949 – The Communist Party of China writes the Common Programme for the future People's Republic of China.
- 1951 – The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.
- 1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed.
- 1957 – 20 MCi (740 petabecquerels) of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk.
- 1960 – Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.
- 1962 – Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
- 1963 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council opens.
- 1963 – The University of East Anglia is established in Norwich, England.
- 1964 – The Argentine comic strip Mafalda is published for the first time.
- 1966 – The Chevrolet Camaro, originally named Panther, is introduced.
- 1971 – Oman joins the Arab League.
- 1972 – Sino-Japanese relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.
- 1975 – WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes the world's first black-owned-and-operated television station.
- 1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to set foot on Irish soil with his pastoral visit to the Republic of Ireland.
- 1982 – The 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders begin when the first of seven individuals dies in metropolitan Chicago.
- 1988 – Space Shuttle: NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
- 1990 – Construction of the Washington National Cathedral is completed.
- 1990 – The YF-22, which would later become the F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time.
- 1991 – Military coup in Haiti (1991 Haitian coup d'état).
- 1992 – Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello resigns.
- 1995 – The United States Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers".
- 2001 – The Syracuse Herald-Journal, a U.S. newspaper dating back to 1839, ceases publication.
- 2004 – The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.
- 2004 – The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize.
- 2005 – United States Senate confirms John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States.
- 2006 – US Representative Mark Foley resigns after allegations of inappropriate emails.
- 2006 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collides in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet near Peixoto de Azevedo, Mato Grosso, Brazil, killing 154 total people, and triggering a Brazilian aviation crisis.
- 2007 – Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station, is demolished in a controlled explosion.
- 2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.
- 2009 – An 8.0 magnitude earthquake near the Samoan Islands causes a tsunami.
September 28
- 48 BC – Pompey the Great is assassinated on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.
- 235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He and Hippolytus, church leader of Rome, are exiled to the mines of Sardinia.
- 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, Boleslaus 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 Bastard (as he was known at the time) invades England beginning the Norman Conquest.
- 1106 – The Battle of Tinchebrai – Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.
- 1238 – Muslim Valencia surrenders to the besieging King James I of Aragon the Conqueror.
- 1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
- 1448 – Christian I is crowned king of Denmark.
- 1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
- 1542 – Navigator João Rodrigues Cabrilho of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California, United States.
- 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.
- 1791 – France becomes the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population.
- 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.
- 1871 – Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil.
- 1901 – Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers in a surprise attack in the town of Balangiga on Samar Island.
- 1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by half a million Ultonians in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
- 1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
- 1919 – Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska, US.
- 1928 – The U.K. Parliament passes the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis.
- 1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
- 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.
- 1944 – Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
- 1950 – Indonesia joins the United Nations.
- 1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than month later.
- 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.
- 1960 – Mali and Senegal join the United Nations.
- 1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
- 1962 – The Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.
- 1971 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 banning the medicinal use of cannabis.
- 1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the September 11, 1973 coup d'état in Chile.
- 1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, 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.
- 1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
- 1996 – Former president of Afghanistan Mohammad Najibullah is tortured and brutally murdered by the Taliban.
- 2000 – Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
- 2008 – SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
- 2009 – The military junta leading Guinea, headed by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, raped, killed and wounded protesters during a protest rally in a stadium called Stade du 28 Septembre.
September 27
- 489 – Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.
- 1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.
- 1331 – The Battle of Płowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order is fought.
- 1422 – after the brief Gollub War the Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- 1529 – The Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.
- 1540 – The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) receives its charter from Pope Paul III.
- 1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.
- 1605 – The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.
- 1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.
- 1777 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day.
- 1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain.
- 1822 – Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.
- 1825 – The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
- 1854 – The steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board. This marks the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1903 – Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name.
- 1905 – The physics journal Annalen der Physik received Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².
- 1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1916 – Iyasu is proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zauditu.
- 1922 – King Constantine I of Greece abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, King George II.
- 1928 – The Republic of China is recognised by the United States.
- 1930 – Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of golf. The old structure of the grand slam was the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.
- 1937 – Balinese Tiger declared extinct.
- 1938 – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.
- 1940 – World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.
- 1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.
- 1942 – Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.
- 1944 – The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
- 1949 – The first Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves the design of the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
- 1954 – The nationwide debut of Tonight! (The Tonight Show) hosted by Steve Allen on NBC.
- 1956 – USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.
- 1959 – Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshū as the result of a typhoon.
- 1961 – Sierra Leone joins the United Nations.
- 1962 – The Yemen Arab Republic is established.
- 1964 – The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 makes its maiden flight from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
- 1968 – The stage musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973.
- 1979 – The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.
- 1983 – Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
- 1993 – The Sukhumi massacre takes place in Abkhazia.
- 1995 – The Government of the United States unveils the first of its redesigned bank notes with the $100 bill featuring a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin slightly off-center.
- 1996 – In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
- 1996 – The Julie N. tanker ship crashes into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine spilling thousands of gallons of oil.
- 1997 – Communications are suddenly lost with the Mars Pathfinder space probe.
- 1997 – The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.
- 2001 – Zug massacre: In Zug, Switzerland, Friedrich Leibacher shoots 18 citizens, killing 14 and then kills himself.
- 2002 – Timor-Leste (East Timor) joins the United Nations.
- 2003 – Smart 1 satellite is launched.
- 2008 – CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.
