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636 - Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.

917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.

1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1391 - Konrad IV von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.

1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.

1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.

1882 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.

1888 - Mutineers imprison Emin Pasha at Dufile.

1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.

1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.

1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.

1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.

1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam - a record that still stands.

1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice axe. He dies the next day.

1944 - The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.

1955 - In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.

1960 - Senegal breaks from the Mali federation, declaring independence.

1968 - 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.

1975 - Viking Program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

1977 - Voyager Program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

1982 - Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.

1986 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.

1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

1991 - Estonia reclaims its independence and secedes from the Soviet Union. It had been occupied by the Soviets for more than 50 years.

1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the next month.

1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.

1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Québec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

1998 - U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.

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1517 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French church leader (d. 1586)

1561 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)

1601 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)

1625 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (d. 1709)

1632 - Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit preacher (d. 1704)

1710 - Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (d. 1761)

1719 - Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (d. 1783)

1719 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1791)

1779 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)

1833 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (d. 1901)

1845 - St. Albert Chmielowski, Polish Catholic Saint (d. 1916)

1847 - Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (d. 1912)

1860 - Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (d. 1934)

1873 - Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1950)

1881 - Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)

1897 - Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian writer (d. 1970)

1890 - H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)

1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

1905 - Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist, and poet (d. 1973)

1905 - Jack Teagarden, American musician (d. 1964)

1908 - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)

1910 - Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1961)

1913 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)

1916 - Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian–German chess player (d. 1984)

1918 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (d. 1974)

1923 - Jim Reeves, American singer (d. 1964)

1930 - Mario Bernardi, Canadian conductor

1932 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (d. 2004)

1932 - Vasily Aksyonov, Russian novelist

1934 - Armi Kuusela, Finnish beauty queen

1935 - Ron Paul, American politician

1936 - Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1937 - Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian film director

1939 - Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor and presidential candidate

1940 - Rubén Hinojosa, American politician

1941 - Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia (d. 2006)

1941 - Rich Brooks, American football coach

1941 - Robin Oakley, British journalist

1942 - Isaac Hayes, American singer, songwriter, and actor

1942 - Fred Norman, baseball player

1943 - Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor

1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)

1946 - Connie Chung, American journalist

1946 - N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman

1948 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)

1948 - John Noble, Australian actor

1949 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (d. 1986)

1951 - Greg Bear, American author

1952 - John Hiatt, American musician

1954 - Al Roker, American television broadcaster

1955 - Agnes Chan, Hong Kong singer and writer

1956 - Joan Allen, American actress

1961 - Greg Egan, Australian author

1962 - Sophie Aldred, English actress

1962 - James Marsters, American actor

1965 - KRS-One, American rapper

1966 - Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist (Pantera and Damageplan) (d. 2004)

1967 - Andy Benes, Baseball player

1968 - Yuri Shiratori, Japanese voice actress and singer

1969 - Duke Droese, American Professional Wrestler

1970 - John Carmack, American computer game programmer

1970 - Fred Durst, American singer (Limp Bizkit)

1971 - Steve Stone, English footballer

1973 - Todd Helton, baseball player

1974 - Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist

1975 - Amy Adams, American actress

1976 - Chris Drury, American hockey player

1977 - Mayra Veronica, Cuban model and actress

1979 - Cory Sullivan, baseball player

1981 - Bernard Mendy, French footballer

1982 - Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer

1984 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor

1986 - Robert Clark, Canadian actor

1987 - Cătălina Ponor, Romanian gymnast

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535 - Mochta of Louth, disciple of St. Patrick

984 - Pope John XIV

1384 - Geert Groote, Dutch founder of the Brethren of the Common Life (b. 1340)

1572 - Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (b. 1502)

1580 - Jeronymo Osorio, Portuguese historian (b. 1506)

1611 - Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer (b. 1548)

1639 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)

1643 - Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (b. 1591)

1648 - Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, English diplomat, poet, and philosopher (b. 1583)

1672 - Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1625)

1672 - Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1623)

1680 - William Bedloe, English informer (b. 1650)

1701 - Charles Sedley, English playwright (b. 1639)

1707 - Nicolas Gigault, French organist and composer (b. 1627)

1773 - Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (b. 1701)

1811 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (b. 1729)

1823 - Pope Pius VII (b. 1740)

1825 - William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1753)

1887 - Jules Laforgue, French poet (b. 1860)

1904 - René Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (b. 1846)

1912 - William Booth, English founder of the Salvation Army (b. 1829)

1914 - Pope Pius X (b. 1835)

1915 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)

1917 - Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)

1961 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)

1965 - Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Civil Rights Martyr (b. 1939)

1971 - Rashid Minhas, Pakistani Air Force pilot (b. 1951)

1980 - Joe Dassin, American singer (b. 1938)

1986 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet (b. 1923)

1997 - Norris Bradbury, American physicist (b. 1909)

1998 - Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (b. 1915)

2001 - Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)

2001 - Kim Stanley, American actress (b. 1925)

2005 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (heart disease) (b. 1981)

2005 - Krzysztof Raczkowski, Polish drummer (b. 1970)

2006 - Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (b. 1911)

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World Union - World Union Day.

Roman Catholic saints - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Asmá (Names) - First day of the ninth month of the Bahá'í Calendar.

Estonia - Restoration Day.

Hungary - St. Stephen's day, the main national holiday in Hungary.

Morocco - Revolution of the King and the People Day.