1494 – Piero the Unfortunate of the de’ Medici family, ruler of Florence, loses his power and flees the state.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte pulls off a coup and becomes the dictator of France under the title of First Consul.
1888 – Jack the Ripper’s infamous killing spree in the Whitechapel district of London’s East End came to an end.
1922 – Albert Einstein was named the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect; the Nobel committee had delayed awarding the 1921 physics prize until 1922.
1943 – The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created by a 44-nation agreement.
1980 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran.
1989 – Long a symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961 and eventually extending 28 miles (45 km) to divide the western and eastern sectors of Berlin, was opened by the East German government on this day in 1989.
1994 – Chemical element Darmstadtium discovered at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, German.
1998 – Brokerage houses are ordered to pay 1.03 billion USD to NASDAQ investors to compensate for price-fixing – largest civil settlement in US history.
Sport: 1985 Garry Kasparov becomes the youngest ever world chess champion (22), with a 13-11 win over fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov.
1923 – Alice Coachman, the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal, was born.
1996 – Evander Holyfield scored a technical knockout of Mike Tyson to win the heavyweight boxing championship for the third time.
Music: 1858 – 1st performance of the NY Symphony Orchestra.
TV & Film: 1922 – American singer and film actress Dorothy Dandridge, the first black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress, was born.
1984 – Wes Craven’s horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” premieres in the US
