1440 – Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, was taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.

1830 – First passenger to be killed by a railway train was William Huskisson (in England).

1831 – The locomotive “John Bull” operated for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

1835 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reached the Galápagos Islands. The ship landed at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.

1853 – Antoinette Blackwell became the first US woman to be ordained a minister.

1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces captured Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia).

1916 – World War I: Tanks were used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

1928 – Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while studying influenza.

1935 – The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of citizenship.

1935 – Nazi Germany adopted a new national flag bearing the swastika.

1940 – World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated attack of the entire campaign.

1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp was sunk by Japanese torpedoes at Guadalcanal.

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in Quebec as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1944 – Battle of Peleliu began as the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division and the United States Army’s 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.

1945 – A hurricane struck southern Florida and the Bahamas, and destroyed 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.

1947 – First four-engined jet-propelled fighter plane tested, Columbus, Ohio.

1948 – The F-86 Sabre set the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).

1949 – “Lone Ranger” premiered on ABC.

1958 – A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train ran through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, and killed 48 people.

1959 – Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava headed toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963 – Baptist Church bombing: Four children were killed in the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1965 – US TV series “Lost in Space” premiered.

1965 – Volt/Stax records released Otis Redding’s third studio album “Otis Blue -Otis Redding Sings Soul” in the US, Atlantic releases it in the UK.

1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship was launched.  It became the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

1970 – Decca awarded Bing Crosby a second platinum disc for selling 300 million records.

1971 – First broadcast of “Columbo” starring Peter Falk on NBC.

1977 – TV LA drama “CHiPs” debued on NBC.

1981 – The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1981 – The John Bull became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operated it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.

1983 – Police officers beat Michael Stewart to death for graffiting NYC subway.

1993 – Single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” sung by Meat Loaf and composed by Jim Steinman was released. It went to no. 1 in 28 countries.

1995 – “Se7en” directed by David Fincher and starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey premiered in New York.

1997 – Google.com is registered as a domain name.

2018 – Archaeologists found the oldest-known brewery and remains of 13,000-year-old beer in Haifa cave, Israel, which belonged to nomadic Natufian people.

2020 – Scientific American issued its first ever presidential endorsement in 175 years by backing Joe Biden.

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