1. 1260: Kublai Khan becomes the ruler of the Mongol Empire after the death of his brother Möngke.

2. 1430: Jews are expelled from Speyer, Germany.

3. 1494: Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica on his second voyage to the New World.

4. 1640: The English Short Parliament is dissolved by King Charles I.

5. 1646: King Charles I surrenders in Scotland.

6. 1665: Dutch politician Nicolaas Witsen visits Patriarch Nikon in Moscow.

7. 1726: Marie de Camargo, a 16 - year - old French ballerina, makes her premiere at the Paris Opera Ballets.

8. 1762: Russia and Prussia sign the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, ending the Seven Years' War.

9. 1764: The Smolny Institute is founded in St. Petersburg for noble girls.

10. 1778: George Washington appoints Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben as inspector general of the Continental Army.

11. 1789: The French Estates - General meets for the first time since 1614.

12. 1792: Jean - Baptiste Joseph Delambre is commissioned to measure the meridian.

13. 1795: Great Britain passes a tax on hair powder.

14. 1809: Jews in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland, are denied citizenship.

15. 1809: Mary Kies becomes the first woman to be issued a US patent for weaving straw.

16. 1814: The British attack Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York.

17. 1816: The American Bible Society is organized in New York.

18. 1818: Karl Marx is born in Trier, Prussia (now Germany).

19. 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies on the island of Saint Helena.

20. 1835: King Leopold I of Belgium opens the Brussels - Mechelen railway.

21. 1840: Thomas Carlyle begins his lecture series "The Hero as Divinity".

22. 1842: A city - wide fire burns for over 100 hours in Hamburg, Germany.

23. 1847: The American Medical Association is organized in Philadelphia.

24. 1854: British Commodore James Plumridge attacks Finnish settlements in the Gulf of Bothnia.

25. 1861: Confederate troops abandon Alexandria, Virginia.

26. 1862: The Mexican army defeats the French forces at the Battle of Puebla.

27. 1862: The Peninsular Campaign - Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia.

28. 1863: Irish boxer Joe Coburn knocks out American Mike McCool in the 67th round.

29. 1864: The Atlanta Campaign begins with 5 days of fighting at Rocky Face Ridge.

30. 1864: Battle between Confederate and Union ships at the mouth of the Roanoke.

31. 1864: The Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia.

32. 1865: The first US train robbery occurs in North Bend, Ohio.

33. 1870: The British and Foreign Society adopts Braille as the best format for the blind.

34. 1874: The Dutch Second Chamber passes a child labor law.

35. 1877: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada.

36. 1881: Anti - Jewish rioting breaks out in Kyiv, Ukraine.

37. 1886: The Bay View tragedy occurs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

38. 1891: Carnegie Hall opens in New York City with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.

39. 1893: The Panic of 1893 causes a large crash on the NY Stock Exchange.

40. 1900: "The Billboard" begins weekly publication.

41. 1904: Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in "modern" baseball.

42. 1905: Robert S. Abbott publishes the first issue of the newspaper "Chicago Defender".

43. 1908: The 34th Kentucky Derby is won by Stone Street.

44. 1908: The US Great White Fleet arrives in San Francisco.

45. 1912: The Soviet communist party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.

46. 1915: German U - 20 captures and sinks the British schooner Earl of Lathom.

47. 1916: US marines invade the Dominican Republic.

48. 1917: Eugene Bullard becomes the first African - American military pilot.

49. 1920: The German - Latvian peace treaty is signed.

50. 1920: The Communist Labor Party is banned in the US.