• 1192 - Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
• 1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1611 - Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world.
• 1788 - Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
• 1789 - Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
• 1792 - France invades Austrian Netherlands (present day Belgium), beginning the French Revolutionary War.
• 1796 - The Armistice of Cherasco is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III, the King of Sardinia, expanding French territory along the Mediterranean coast.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 1902 - Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date.
• 1920 - Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.
• 1930 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
• 1932 - A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.
• 1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
• 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
• 1949 - Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.
• 1950 - Bhumibol Adulyadej marries Queen Sirikit after their quiet engagement in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949.
• 1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns as Supreme Commander of NATO.
• 1952 - Occupied Japan: The United States occupation of Japan ends.
• 1965 - United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. Army troops.
• 1967 - Expo 67 opens to the public in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• 1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
• 1969 - Terence O'Neill announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
• 1977 - The Red Army Faction trial ends, with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe found guilty of four counts of murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder.
• 1977 - The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed.
• 1978 - President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
• 1981 - Galician current Statute of Autonomy.
• 1986 - The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea, on station across the "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra off the coast of Libya. The transit began at 0300 and lasted 12 hours.
• 1987 - American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
• 1988 - Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle "C.B." Lansing is blown out of Aloha Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane's fuselage rips open in mid-flight.
• 1994 - Former C.I.A. official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
• 1996 - Whitewater controversy: Bill Clinton gives a 4½ hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
• 1996 - In Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 37 more.
• 1996 - The NHL's Winnipeg Jets play their last game, a 4-1 playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
• 1997 - The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention goes into effect, with Russia, Iraq and North Korea notable nations who have not ratified the treaty.
• 2001 - Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
• 2005 - The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.

Births