1091 – London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.
1558 – Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded.
1604 – Kepler’s Supernova: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.
1610 – French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral.
1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.
1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 15.
1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood. A huge vat of beer at the Muex and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road ruptured, sending 162,000 gallons of beer rushing through the building causing other vats to also rupture resulting in more than 387,000 imperial gallons gushing through the streets destroying two homes. Minutes later nearby George Street and New Street were also flooded and a roomful of people attending a wake and a mother and daughter having tea were killed by the rush of beer.
1861 – Nineteen people are killed in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, the deadliest massacre of Europeans by aborigines in Australian history.
1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1907 – Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
1931 – Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.
1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.
1941 – World War II: a German submarine attacks an American ship for the first time in the war.
1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.
1965 – The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event.
1979 – Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994 – Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.
Births
1915 – Arthur Miller, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 2005)
1930 – Jimmy Breslin, American journalist and author
1938 – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle rider and stuntman (d. 2007)
Deaths
1587 – Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1541)
1849 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1810)
1979 – S. J. Perelman, American humorist and screenwriter (b. 1904)
1991 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (b. 1919)