1588 – The Battle of Gravelines – Spanish Armada damaged and scattered by the English fleet
1609 – Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
1836 – The Arc de Triomphe, the largest triumphal arch in the world, was officially inaugurated in Paris.
1848 – Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police
1858 – Townsend Harris persuaded the Japanese to sign the Harris Treaty, an agreement securing commercial and diplomatic privileges for the United States in Japan.
1905 – US Secretary of War William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines
1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
1949 – Moscow ends the blockade of West Berlin
1954 – The first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings—which became a sociocultural phenomenon and was adapted into a series of blockbuster films in the early 2000s—was published.
1958 – Criticized for allowing the Soviet Union to launch the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth (Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957), U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation this day in 1958 that created NASA.
1981 – Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
2005 – Planetary scientists formally announced the discovery of what was believed to be the 10th planet; it was later designated a dwarf planet and given the name Eris.
Births & Deaths: 1883 – Benito Mussolini, who was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy, was born on this day.
Sport: 1751 – 1st international world title prize fight: Jack Stack of England, beats challenger M. Petit of France in 29 mins in England
Music: 1973 – Led Zeppelin have more than $200,000 in cash stolen from a safety-deposit box at the New York Hilton
TV & Film: 1928 – Test footage first created for Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” with Mickey Mouse
