| 1244 |
|
Turks expel the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. |
| 1305 |
|
Scottish patriot William Wallace is hanged, drawn, beheaded, and quartered in London. |
| 1541 |
|
Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec on his third voyage to North America. |
| 1711 |
|
A British attempt to invade Canada by sea fails. |
| 1775 |
|
King George III of England refuses the American colonies’ offer of peace and declares them in open rebellion. |
| 1821 |
|
After 11 years of war, Spain grants Mexican independence as a constitutional monarchy. |
| 1863 |
|
Union batteries cease their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers. |
| 1900 |
|
Booker T. Washington forms the National Negro Business League in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1902 |
|
Fanny Farmer, among the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opens her School of Cookery in Boston. |
| 1914 |
|
The Emperor of Japan declares war on Germany. |
| 1926 |
|
American film star Rudolph Valentino dies, causing world-wide hysteria and a number of suicides. |
| 1927 |
|
Immigrant laborers Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for a robbery they did not commit.
Fifty years later, in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis
establishes a memorial in the victims’ honor. |
| 1939 |
|
Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Adolf Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland. |
| 1942 |
|
German forces begin an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad. |
| 1944 |
|
German SS engineers begin placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. |
| 1950 |
|
Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps are called involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War. |
| 1952 |
|
The Arab League security pact linking seven Arab States in a military, political and economic alliance goes into effect. |
| 1954 |
|
The first flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft takes place. |
| 1958 |
|
The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins: the People’s Liberation Army bombards the island of Quemoy during Chinese Civil War. |
| 1961 |
|
Belgium sends troops to Rwanda-Urundi during bloody Tutsi-Hutu conflict. |
| 1966 |
|
Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from the moon. |
| 1975 |
|
Pathet Lao communists occupy Vientiane, Laos. |
| 1977 |
|
Bryan Allen, piloting the Gossamer Condor, wins the Kremer prize for the first human-powered aircraft to fly a one-mile, figure-eight course. |
| 1979 |
|
The Iranian army opens an offensive against the Kurds. |
| 1979 |
|
Bolshoi Ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects in New York City. |
| 1990 |
|
Armenia declares independence from the USSR. |
| 1990 |
|
East and West Germany announce they will unite on Oct 3. |
| 1996 |
|
Osama bin Laden issues a message entitled
“A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the
two holy places.” |
| 2006 |
|
Natascha Kampusch, abducted at the age of
10 in Austria, escapes from her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8
years of captivity. |
| 2011 |
|
Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi is
overthrown after National Transitional Council forces take control of
the Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan Civil War. |
| 2011 |
|
A 5.8 earthquake centered at Mineral, Virginia, damages the Washington Monument, forcing the landmark to close for repairs. |
The father of a former Ohio high school football player who had been
convicted of rape shot and wounded a judge in an ambush outside an Ohio
courthouse on Monday and was fatally shot by a probation officer, law
enforcement authorities said. 
