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1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1614 - Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.

1776 - American Revolution: Battle of Valcour Island - On Lake Champlain 15 American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.

1809 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.

1811 - Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).

1852 - The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.

1862 - American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.

1864 - Campina Grande , Brazil was established as a city.

1865 - Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.

1890 - In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.

1899 - Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.

1906 - San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.

1910 - Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch aviation field(now St Louis/Lambert Int'l airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1929 - JC Penney opens store
1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 U.S. states.

1930 - Collingwood Football Club in Melbourne, Australia, won the premiership (football competition) for the fourth consecutive year.

1939 - Franklin D. Roosevelt receives letter from Einstein about atom bomb.

1942 - World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.

1944 - Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva was annexed by the U.S.S.R

1950 - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).

1954 - First Indochina War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.

1958 - Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).

1962 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

1967 - Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal resigns for health reasons

1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.

1975 - The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host and Janis Ian and Billy Preston as musical guests.

1982 - The Mary Rose, a Tudor gunship which sunk on July 18th 1545, is raised from the sea bed in the Solent Channel, near Portsmouth.

1984 - Aboard the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'', astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

1986 - Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.

1987 - March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights attracts an estimated 200,000 people to protest the Bowers v. Hardwick decision and the U.S. government's handling of the AIDS epidemic; first public display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

1998 - A Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40

1999 - ''The Lord of the Rings'' movies begin principal photography.

2000 - The 100th Space Shuttle mission (STS-92) is flown.

2001 - The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.

2002 - A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.

2006 - A small plane, owned and piloted by New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, crashes into a high rise apartment block in Manhattan, New York City, damaging several apartments and sending fiery debris crashing to the street. Lidle is killed, along with his instructor.

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1616 - Andreas Gryphius, German writer (d. 1664)

1661 - Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (d. 1742)

1671 - Frederick IV of Denmark (d. 1730)

1675 - Samuel Clarke, English philosopher (d. 1729)

1738 - Arthur Phillip, Governor of New South Wales (d. 1814)

1758 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, German astronomer (d. 1840)

1786 - Stevenson Archer , American Congressman (d. 1848)

1788 - Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher (d. 1867)

1814 - Jean Baptiste Lamy, first Archbishop of Santa Fe (d. 1888)

1815 - Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, Italian-born adventurer (d. 1881)

1821 - George Williams, English founder of the YMCA (d. 1905)

1844 - Henry Heinz, American food manufacturer (d. 1916)

1872 - Harlan Fiske Stone, 12th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1946)

1881 - Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist (d. 1973)

1884 - Friedrich Bergius, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)

1884 - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)

1884 - Sig Ruman, German-American actor (d. 1967)

1885 - François Mauriac, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

1895 - Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (d. 1982)

1897 - Nathan Twining, USAF general (d. 1982)

1899 - Eddie Dyer, baseball player (d. 1964)

1918 - Jerome Robbins, American choreographer (d. 1998)

1919 - Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990)

1919 - Jean Vander Pyl, American voice actress (d. 1999)

1924 - Mal Whitfield, American athlete

1925 - Elmore Leonard, American novelist

1926 - Neville Wran, Premier of New South Wales

1926 - Thich Nhat Hanh, religious leader

1928 - Alfonso de Portago, Spanish race car driver (d. 1957)

1929 - Liselotte Pulver, Swiss actress

1930 - Sam Johnson, American politician

1930 - LaVell Edwards, Former college football coach

1932 - Dottie West, American singer (d. 1991)

1936 - Billy Higgins, American jazz drummer (d. 2001)

1937 - Bobby Charlton, English footballer

1937 - R. H. W. Dillard, American poet

1939 - Maria Bueno, Brazilian tennis player

1939 - Austin Currie, Northern Irish politician

1941 - Lester Bowie, American jazz trumpet player (d. 1999)

1942 - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor

1943 - John Nettles, English actor

1944 - Mike Fiore, baseball player

1946 - Sawao Kato, Japanese gymnast

1946 - Daryl Hall, American musician

1946 - Gary Mallaber, American musician (The Steve Miller Band)

1951 - Jean-Jacques Goldman, French singer/songwriter

1953 - David Morse, American actor

1956 - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay

1957 - Dawn French, Welsh comedienne

1960 - Curt Ford, baseball player

1961 - Amr Diab, Egyptian pop-star

1961 - Steve Young, NFL Player

1962 - Nicola Bryant, British actress

1962 - Joan Cusack, American actress

1964 - Michael J. Nelson, American actor/writer

1965 - Sean Patrick Flanery, American actor

1965 - Luke Perry, American actor

1966 - Donita Dunes, American Actress and Porn Star

1967 - David Starr, American race car driver

1967 - Tazz, American professional wrestler/commentator

1967 - Tony Chimel, American professional wrestling announcer

1967 - Artie Lange, American actor/comedian

1968 - Claude Lapointe, National Hockey League player

1968 - Jane Krakowski, American actress

1969 - Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands

1970 - U-God, American rapper

1970 - Andy Marriott, English footballer

1971 - Petra Haden, American musician (The Rentals)

1972 - Claudia Black, Australian actress

1973 - Dmitri Young, baseball player

1973 - Takeshi Kaneshiro, Actor/Model

1974 - Terje Haakonsen, Norwegian Snowboarder

1976 - Emily Deschanel, American actress

1977 - Claudia Palacios, Colombian television journalist

1977 - Ty Wigginton, American baseball player

1978 - Carlos Alonso Kali, Angolan footballer

1979 - Andy Douglas, American professional wrestler

1985 - Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress

1989 - Michelle Wie, American golfer

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1188 - Robert I of Dreux, son of Louis VI of France

1303 - Pope Boniface VIII

1347 - Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1282)

1424 - Jan Zizka, leader of the Hussites (b. 1370)

1531 - Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss Protestant leader (b. 1484)

1611 - John Cowell, English jurist (b. 1554)

1705 - Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (b. 1663)

1708 - Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician (b. 1651)

1721 - Edward Colston, English merchant and philanthropist (b. 1636)

1725 - Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (b. 1639)

1779 - Kazimierz Pułaski, Polish fighter for American independence (b. 1745)

1809 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (b. 1774)

1811 - Johann Conrad Ammann, Swiss physician and naturalist (b. 1724)

1821 - John Ross Key, American judge and lawyer (b. 1754)

1852 - Ferdinand Eisenstein, German mathematician (b. 1823)

1889 - James Prescott Joule, English physicist (b. 1818)

1896 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)

1896 - Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)

1935 - Steele Rudd, Australian author (b. 1868)

1940 - Lluís Companys, President of Generalitat of Catalonia (shot) (b. 1882)

1940 - Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1860)

1961 - Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)

1963 - Jean Cocteau, French writer (b. 1889)

1963 - Édith Piaf, French singer and actress (b. 1915)

1965 - Dorothea Lange, American photographer (b. 1895)

1965 - Walther Stampfli, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1884)

1976 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b. 1897)

1977 - MacKinlay Kantor, American author (b. 1904)

1988 - Bonita Granville, American actress (b. 1923)

1989 - M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist (b. 1904)

1991 - Steven Jesse Bernstein, American underground poet (suicide) (b. 1950)

1991 - Redd Foxx, American comedian and actor (b. 1922)

1993 - Jess Thomas, American tenor (b. 1927)

1996 - Lars Ahlfors, Finnish mathematician (b. 1907)

2000 - Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (b. 1937)

2004 - Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (b. 1919)

2005 - Edward Szczepanik, Polish economist and Prime Minister in exile (b. 1915)

2005 - Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Linguist, and writer of Pakistan (b. 1917)

2006 - Cory Lidle, American baseball pitcher, NY Yankees (b. 1972)

2006 - Howard Kerzner, Chief Executive Officer of Kerzner International (b. 1964)

2006 - Benito Martínez, Cuban who claimed to be the oldest person (b. ?1880)

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Roman Empire - Meditrinalia is held in honor of Meditrina

RC Saints - memorial of the blessed Pope John XXIII; Saints Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus

United States - National Coming Out Day

United States - General Pulaski Memorial Day

French Republican Calendar

Pressoir (Wine-Press) Day, twentieth day in the Month of Vendémiaire

United States - National Edge Day - (Straight Edge)