1099

First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1456

Hungarian forces led by János Hunyadi, including an untrained army of peasants, won one of the most remarkable victories in the history of Turkish wars, resisting the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II’s siege of Belgrade.

1515

First Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire – rise of the Habsburgs influence.

1812

The duke of Wellington defeated “40,000 Frenchmen in 40 minutes” at Salamanca, Spain, during the Peninsular War.

1862

Lincoln tells his cabinet about the Emancipation Proclamation.

1923

American baseball player Walter Johnson became the first pitcher in the MLB to strike out 3,000 batters; his career record of 3,508 strikeouts stood until 1983.

1923

John Dillinger joins the Navy in an attempt to avoid prosecution.

1933

American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world; he covered 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes.

1933

Caterina Jarboro sings “Aida” at the New York Hippodrome, becoming the 1st black female opera singer to perform in the US.

1942

Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent to Treblinka Extermination Camp.

1943

Led by U.S. General George S. Patton, Allied forces took Palermo, on the northwest corner of Sicily, giving them a strategic foothold from which to invade mainland Italy during World War II.

1946

A violent Jewish right-wing underground movement in Palestine, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 soldiers and civilians.

1955

The sci-fi film Plan 9 from Outer Space—starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Ed Wood, Jr., considered by some as the most inept director in film history—was released in American theatres; described as the “worst movie ever made,” it became a cult classic.

1963

Sarawak achieves independence from British colonial rule.

1977

After falling from favour during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Deng Xiaoping returned to power on this day in 1977 after the Chinese Communist Party reinstated all his former high posts, including that of vice-premier.

1987

Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1992

Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar escaped from police custody as he faced transfer from La Catedral, a luxurious prison that he had built, to a more secure facility; he remained a fugitive until December 1993, when he was killed during a shootout with law enforcement.

2003

 U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia.

2003

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s sons, Qusay and Uday Hussein, are killed after a three-hour firefight with U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

2011

Terrorist attacks on Oslo and the island of Utøya in Norway resulted in the deaths of 77 people; Anders Behring Breivik later confessed to the attacks.

2013

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, the first child of Prince William, duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, was born in London.

2017

South African golfer Branden Grace records lowest round for a men’s major championship – 62 in 3rd round at British Open, Royal Birkdale, England.