1419 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.

1509 – An earthquake known as “The Lesser Judgment Day” hit Constantinople.

1570 – Spanish Jesuit missionaries landed in present-day Virginia and established the short-lived Ajacán Mission.

1573 – German pirate Klein Henszlein and 33 of his crew were beheaded in Hamburg.

1608 – John Smith was elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteered to spy for the Continental Army.  He was later captured and executed by the British.

1813 – The United States defeated a British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

1846 – Elias Howe was granted a patent for the sewing machine.

1849 – First performance by American actor Edwin Booth (Richard III), brother of John Wilkes Booth.

1897 – Lattimer massacre: A sheriff’s posse killed 19 unarmed striking immigrant miners in Lattimer, Pennsylvania, United States.

1913 – The Lincoln Highway opened as the first paved coast-to-coast highway.

1924 – Leopold and Loeb were found guilty of the murder of Robert Franks in Chicago in the “the crime of the century.”

1936 – First World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship was held at London’s Wembley Stadium.

1940 – Buckingham Palace in London was hit by a German bomb.

1950 – Joe DiMaggio became the first baseball player to hit 3 homeruns in a game at Griffith Stadium.

1953 – Swanson sold its first “TV dinner”.

1955 – “Gunsmoke” premiered on CBS TV.

1960 – At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila became the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.

1960 – New York Yankee Mickey Mantle hit a 643′ homerun over the right field roof in Detroit.

1961 – In the Italian Grand Prix, a crash caused the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who were hit by his Ferrari.  It was the deadliest accident in F1 history.

1961 – Mickey Mantle became the 7th baseball player to hit 400 homeruns.

1964 – Rod Stewart recorded his first single “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”.

1966 – The Beatles’ “Revolver,” album reached #1 and stayed at #1 for 6 weeks in the UK.

1966 – Neil Diamond had his first Billboard chart success with single “Cherry Cherry”.

1975 – KISS released their first live album entitled “Alive!”

1977 – Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, was the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.

1979 – Three Puerto Rican nationalists who attempted to kill President Harry Truman in 1950 were freed.

1981 – “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso returned to Spain.

1982 – Decca released Beatle audition “Complete Silver Beatles” album.

1984 – First episode of daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! aired with Alex Trebek as host.

1990 – Ellis Island reopened as a museum.

1991 – Rock band Nirvana released their single “Smells like Teen Spirit”, often dubbed the anthem of Generation X.

1992 – Lucy in Peanuts comics raised her Psychiatric Help from 5 cents to 47 cents.

1993 – “The X-Files”, created by Chris Carter and starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, debuted on Fox.

2001 – During his appearance on the British TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, contestant Charles Ingram reached the £1 million top prize, but it was later revealed that he had cheated to the top prize by listening to coughs from his wife and another contestant.

2015 – A new human-like species denoted as Homo Naledi was announced by Scientists and a team of female archaeologists.  The new species was found deep in caves in South Africa.

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