1876 - Colorado became a U.S. state.
1936 - Opening of the Olympic Games in Hitler's Berlin.

1945 - Conclusion of the Potsdam Conference.
1990 - Start of the Persian Gulf War.

1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain, on his journey to reach the Indies by sailing west.
1949 - Founding of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

1892 - Axe murder of Lizzie Borden's parents in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1914 - Great Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invaded Belgium (World War I).
1944 - The Nazis discovered Anne Frank and her family in hiding in Amsterdam.

1914 - Cleveland, Ohio, became home to the first electric traffic lights.

1825 - Bolivia declared its independence.
1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
1965 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1991 - The first website was launched at info.cern.ch and was dedicated to the World Wide Web, with instructions on how to use it.

1789 - United States War Department established by Congress.
1964 - Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed by Congress.

1588 - Spanish armada attacked by English forces.
1969 - Charles Manson's "family" killed Sharon Tate and others in California.

1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

1821 - Missouri became a U.S. state.
1846 - Establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

1960 - Chad achieved independence.

1851 - Sewing machine patented by Isaac Singer.
1898 - Formal U.S. annexation of Hawaii.

1521 - Spanish conquistadors defeated the Aztecs, taking control of the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlán.

1935 - Social Security Act became law.
2003 - Start of the largest blackout in U.S. history.

1057 - Scotland's Macbeth killed.

1960 - Cyprus gained its independence.

1969 - Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast.

1227 - Death of Genghis Khan.

1934 - Adolf Hitler was elected as Führer of Germany.

1964 - Economic Opportunity Act was signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1831 - Nat Turner Rebellion occurred in Virginia.
1940 - Leon Trotsky was killed in Mexico City, Mexico.
1959 - Hawaii became a state.
1983 - Benigno Aquino was assassinated in the Philippines.
1991 - Latvia became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

1642 - Start of the English Civil War, fought between the Cavaliers (Royalists) and Roundheads.
1846 - Annexation of New Mexico by the United States.
1910 - Annexation of Korea by Japan.

1305 - Execution of Scotland's William Wallace in London (Mel Gibson's character in "Braveheart").
1939 - Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed.

79 C.E. - Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
1814 - White House and Capitol burnt by the British as part of the War of 1812.
1821 - Treaty of Cordoba gave Mexico independence from Spain.

1270 - Saint Louis died of dysentery in Tunis, Tunisia, while leading the Eighth Crusade.
1718 - French settlers founded New Orleans.
1825 - Uruguay became independent.
1916 - National Park Service was created.
1944 - Paris was liberated from the Nazis.

1847 - Liberia became an independent republic.
1920 - 19th Amendment became law (women's suffrage).

1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact signed.

1609 - Henry Hudson sailed into Delaware Bay.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

1533 - Atahualpa, ruler of the Incas, was murdered in Peru.
1786 - Shays's Rebellion started in Massachusetts.
2005 - Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

30 BCE - Suicide of Cleopatra VII.
1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court justice.

1887 - Thomas Edison received a patent for the Kinetoscope.
1962 - Trinidad and Tobago became independent.