Source: HistoryNet.com
1588: The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.
1776: The British occupy Manhattan.
1788: An alliance between Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands is ratified at the Hague.
1891: The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma.
1916: Armored tanks are introduced by the British during the Battle of the Somme.
1928: Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.
1935: In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag.
1937: Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.
1959: Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet leader to visit the U.S.
1963: Four young African-American girls are killed by the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
1968: The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceship to orbit the moon and reenter Earth's atmosphere.
1971: The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.
1981: Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.
1998: MCI WorldCom begins operations after a landmark merger between World Com and MCI Communications.
2004: National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union.
2008: The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.