Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 16

• 1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708.
• 1513 – Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) – King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who are then forced to retreat.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden – The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
• 1792 – Maximilien Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
• 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
• 1819 – Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.
• 1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
• 1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
• 1859 – The Tuscan National Assembly formally deposes the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
• 1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country.
• 1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-La-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
• 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.
• 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
• 1906 – An estimated 8.2 M_W earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people.
• 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tōhoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students.
• 1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary.
• 1914 – World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
• 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.
• 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.
• 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.
• 1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in the British Mandate of Palestine between Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.
• 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
• 1942 – World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
• 1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
• 1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
• 1945 – Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.
• 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin, in which more than 4,000 would be killed in 72 hours.
• 1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
• 1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official.
• 1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.
• 1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
• 1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
• 1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 15

• 778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed.
• 927 – The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.
• 982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in the battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria
• 1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles blinds and captures Ibatzes of Bulgaria by a ruse, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.
• 1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
• 1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.
• 1185 – The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
• 1281 – Mongol invasion of Japan: The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a "divine wind" for the second time in the Battle of Kōan.
• 1248 – The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)
• 1261 – Michael VIII Palaeologus is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.
• 1309 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island and rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes.
• 1430 – Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.
• 1461 – The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II. This is regarded by some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later murdered.
• 1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.
• 1517 – Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
• 1519 – Panama City, Panama, is founded.
• 1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.
• 1537 – Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.
• 1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.
• 1549 – Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
• 1599 – Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass – Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.
• 1695 – French forces end the Bombardment of Brussels, leaving a third of the buildings in the city in ruins.
• 1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst von Laudon.
• 1843 – The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
• 1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 1863 – The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
• 1869 – The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.
• 1907 – Ordination in Constantinople of Fr. Raphael Morgan, first African-American Orthodox priest, "Priest-Apostolic" to America and the West Indies.
• 1914 – A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters to the ground.
• 1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.
• 1914 – The First Russian Army, led by Pavel Rennenkampf, enters Eastern Prussia.
• 1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.
• 1939 – 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice at Neuhammer. No survivors.
• 1940 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbour during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.
• 1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 7:12am, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for treason.
• 1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal – The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.
• 1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land in southern France.
• 1945 – World War II: Japan surrenders to end the war.
• 1947 – India gains Independence from the British Indian Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1947 – Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor General of Pakistan in Karachi.
• 1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.
• 1952 – A flash flood drenches the town of Lynmouth, England, killing 34 people.
• 1954 – Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.
• 1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.
• 1961 – Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.
• 1962 – James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.
• 1963 – Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland.
• 1963 – President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
• 1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth of stadium rock.
• 1969 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
• 1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
• 1971 – Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.
• 1974 – Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during an apparent assassination attempt upon President of South Korea, Park Chung-hee.
• 1975 – Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed along with most members of his family during a military coup.
• 1975 – Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
• 1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
• 1984 – The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military
• 1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).
• 1998 – Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles
• 1999 – Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.
• 2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 14

• 1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
• 1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King João I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King Juan I.
• 1592 – Imjin War: Battle of Hansando Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese Navy at Hasan Island.
• 1598 – Nine Years War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
• 1816 – the United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
• 1842 – Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
• 1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.
• 1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
• 1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
• 1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London.
• 1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
• 1897 – Franco-Hova War: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
• 1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
• 1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
• 1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
• 1912 – United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
• 1916 – Romania declares war on Austro-Hungary, joining Antante in World War I
• 1921 – Tannu Tuva, later Tuvinian People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).
• 1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).
• 1935 – United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired.
• 1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
• 1937 – Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
• 1941 – World War II – Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
• 1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
• 1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Indian Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
• 1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
• 1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
• 1972 – An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
• 1973 – The Pakistani Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.
• 1974 – The second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins; 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. Elsewhere, 126 Turkish Cypriots are massacred.
• 1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
• 1987 – All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
• 1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal," is captured.
• 1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
• 2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
• 2006 – Chencholai bombing in which 61 Tamil girls are killed in Sri Lankan Airforce bombing.
• 2007 – The 2007 Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 796 people.
• 2010 – The first-ever Youth Olympic Games are held in Singapore.

 

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 13

• 3114 BC – According to the Lounsbury correlation, the start of the Maya calendar.
• 1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognises Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor recognises Francis's claim to Milan.
• 1521 – Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
• 1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
• 1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
• 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim – English and Austrian forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.
• 1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.
• 1806 – Battle of Mišar during the Serbian revolution begins. The battle will end two days later, with a decisive Serbian victory over the Ottomans.
• 1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.
• 1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
• 1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engaged in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.
• 1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.
• 1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is purportedly crowned King of Albania.
• 1913 – First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
• 1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
• 1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
• 1920 – Polish-Soviet War: the Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
• 1937 – The Battle of Shanghai begins.
• 1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.
• 1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
• 1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
• 1961 – The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
• 1962 – Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See meet in Metz, France, and come to an agreement wherein the Russian church would send observers to the Second Vatican Council and in exchange, the Roman Catholic Church would refuse to condemn Communism.
• 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.
• 1977 – Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
• 1978 – 150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
• 1979 – The roof of the uncompleted Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, Illinois collapses, killing 5 workers and injuring 16.
• 2004 – Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area.
• 2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
• 2008 – South Ossetian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.

Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 12

• 30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
• 1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon  Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
• 1121 – Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
• 1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
• 1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.
• 1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
• 1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
• 1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.
• 1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
• 1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottomans.
• 1793 – The Rhône and Loire (Lêre) départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
• 1806 – Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion.
• 1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
• 1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
• 1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
• 1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.
• 1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
• 1914 – World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
• 1944 – Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
• 1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
• 1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow.
• 1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
• 1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
• 1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
• 1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
• 1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England.
• 1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
• 1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
• 1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
• 1977 – The Sri Lankan riots of 1977, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
• 1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.
• 1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
• 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
• 1982 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
• 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
• 1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
• 1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
• 2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
• 2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
• 2007 – The bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.