1690: Belgrade is retaken by the Turks.
1840: King William I of Holland abdicates.
1871: The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed.
1897: Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds.
1906: Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrates a machine in London that puts permanent waves in hair. The client wears a dozen brass curlers, each weighing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
1922: Lilian Gatlin becomes the first woman pilot to fly across the United States.
1939: Nazi Germany annexes Western Poland.
1956: Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitches the first perfect game in World Series history against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1967: Guerrilla Che Guevara captured in Bolivia.
1978: Ken Warby of Australia sets the world water speed record, 317.60 mph, at Blowering Dam in Australia; no other human has yet (2013) exceeded 300 mph on water and survived.
1982: The musical Cats begins a run of nearly 18 years on Broadway.
1991: Croatia votes to sever its ties with Yugoslavia.
2001: U.S. President George W. Bush establishes the Office of Homeland Security.
Source: HistoryNet.com