1923 - Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake.
1939 - Nazi Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II.

1666 - Start of the Great Fire in London.
1789- Establishment of the U.S. Treasury Department.
1945 - V-J (Victory in Japan) Day: Japan's formal surrender.

1189 - Richard I, the "Lionhearted," crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1783 - Treaty of Paris signed between Great Britain and the United States.

1781 - Los Angeles founded by the Spanish.
1888 - Kodak trademark patented by George Eastman.

1774 - Meeting of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1905 - Treaty of Portsmouth signed.

1901 - President William McKinley shot by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York.

1822 - Brazil independent.
1940 - Start of the German Blitzkrieg over London.

1966 - Television premiere of Star Trek.
1974 - Richard Nixon pardoned by Gerald Ford.

1850 - California became a U.S. state.
1948 - Birth of People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea).

1846 - A patent was granted to Elias Howe for his sewing machine.
1963 - Twenty African-American students entered public schools in three Alabama cities under the protection of the National Guard.
WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY

1936 - Boulder (Now "Hoover") Dam dedicated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
2001 - Terrorists hijacked four airplanes in an event that became known as "9/11." Two were used to knock down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

1609 - Henry Hudson began exploring the Hudson River.
1953 - Jacqueline Bouvier and John Fitzgerald Kennedy married.

1941 - Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek became China's president.

September 15-October 15 - Hispanic Heritage Month
1821 - Independence for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
1935 - Nuremberg Laws enacted in Germany.
1963- Bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four African-American girls.

1630 - Shawmut, Massachusetts, changed its name to Boston.
1919 - The American Legion was incorporated by the U.S. Congress.
1944 - The first public Jewish religious service in Germany since the rise of Adolf Hitler (1933) took place, led by U.S. Army Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz.  NBC in the U.S. broadcast a service led by Rabbi Lefkowitz, with Max Fuchs serving as cantor, on October 26, during which the artillery shells of advancing American troops could be heard in the background.
1975 - Independence for Papua New Guinea.

1787 - Completion of the U.S. Constitution.
1862 - Battle of Antietam (U.S. Civil War).
1920 - American Professional Football Association (today's NFL) organized in Canton, Ohio.
2011 - Occupy Wall Street Movement began in New York City's Zuccotti Park.

1810 - Chile independent.
1850 - Fugitive Slave Act passed by the U.S. Congress.
1947 - National Security Act passed.

2001 - Combat aircraft were ordered to the Persian Gulf by the U.S. government under President George W. Bush.

1870 - Papal states taken from the French by Victor Emmanuel II.
2001 - Tom Ridge named as head of the Office of Homeland Security by U.S. President George W. Bush.

1792 - The monarchy was abolished by the French National Convention as part of the French Revolution (1789-1799).
1949 - The People's Republic of China was proclaimed.
1964 - Malta independent.
1981 - Belize independent.

1792 - The French Republic was proclaimed.

1779 - "I have not yet begun to fight!" was proclaimed by John Paul Jones from the warship Bonhomme Richard.

1789 - First Judiciary Act passed by Congress.
1957 - Last game by the Brooklyn Dodgers played at Ebbets Field.

1775 - Capture of Ethan Allen during the American Revolutionary War.
1890 - Polygamy renounced by the Mormon Church.
1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor, first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice, sworn in.

1789 - Thomas Jefferson appointed Secretary of State by President George Washington.
1914 - Establishment of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

1540 - Charter for the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) approved by Pope Paul II.
1939 - Surrender of Warsaw, Poland, to Nazi German forces.
1964 - The Warren Commission, a group organized to research the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, concluded its investigation.

1542 - San Diego reached by Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.
1939 - Nazi-Soviet Pact signed.

1399 - Abdication of England's Richard II.

1938 - Munich Pact signed.
1949 - End of the Berlin Airlift.
1966 - Botswana independent.