1. 878 - Battle of Edington: Alfred the Great and his West Saxon army defeat the Viking army of Guthrum the Old (earliest possible date).

2. 1312 - Pope Clement V closes the Council of Vienna.

3. 1432 - The Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck is consecrated at St. Bravo's Cathedral, Belgium.

4. 1527 - Spanish and German imperial troops sack Rome, ending the Renaissance.

5. 1529 - Battle at Gogra: Mughal emperor Babur beats Afghans and Bengals.

6. 1541 - King Henry VIII of England orders a Bible in English to be placed in every church.

7. 1542 - Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, then the capital of Portuguese India.

8. 1598 - Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, and Isabella, daughter of Philip II of Spain, are granted rule of the Habsburg Netherlands.

9. 1604 - Leon VII, Spanish poet, has his first poem published: La cocina.

10. 1626 - Dutch colonist Peter Minuit organizes the purchase of Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of goods.

11. 1644 - Johan Mauritius resigns as governor of Brazil.

12. 1672 - Brandenburg monarch Frederik Willem signs a treaty with the Netherlands.

13. 1682 - Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles.

14. 1733 - The first international boxing match takes place in London.

15. 1753 - French King Louis XV observes the transit of mercury at Mondon Castle.

16. 1757 - Battle of Prague: Frederick II of Prussia's forces defeat the Austrian army.

17. 1787 - The 1st African American masonic lodge (African #459) forms in Boston.

18. 1794 - Haiti, under Toussaint Louverture, revolts against France.

19. 1804 - Suriname is sold to Great Britain (until Feb 1816).

20. 1835 - James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.

21. 1837 - US blacksmith John Deere creates the first steel plough in Grand Detour, Illinois.

22. 1840 - The world's first adhesive postage stamp, the "Penny Black", is first used in Great Britain.

23. 1844 - Johan Thorbecke argues for the general right to vote.

24. 1848 - Otto Tank ends slavery in the Suriname colony.

25. 1851 - Dr. John Gorrie patents a "refrigeration machine".

26. 1851 - Linus Yale, Jr. patents the Yale cylinder lock.

27. 1851 - The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce starts.

28. 1853 - The 1st major US rail disaster kills 46 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

29. 1859 - The German scientist Humboldt dies in Berlin.

30. 1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi's Red Shirts set sail from Genoa to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

31. 1860 - The San Francisco Olympic Club, the 1st US athletic club, forms.

32. 1861 - Arkansas becomes the 9th state to secede from the US.

33. 1864 - The Battle of Port Walthall Junction begins in Virginia.

34. 1864 - The Battle of the Wilderness is fought in Virginia.

35. 1864 - Union Army General Sherman begins his advance to Atlanta, Georgia.

36. 1882 - The US Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

37. 1882 - Epping Forest, England, is dedicated by Queen Victoria.

38. 1882 - Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed in Dublin.

39. 1889 - The Exposition Universelle in Paris opens with the Eiffel Tower serving as the entrance arch.

40. 1891 - Conductors on the London General Omnibus Company go on strike.

41. 1895 - The 21st Kentucky Derby is held.

42. 1896 - The 22nd Kentucky Derby is held.

43. 1896 - Samuel Pierpont Langley flies his unpiloted aircraft.

44. 1902 - The British SS Cam Orta sinks off Rangoon.

45. 1902 - The Zulu assault at Holk Rantz, South Africa, takes place.

46. 1904 - The American Lung Association holds its 1st meeting.

47. 1906 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia claims the right to legislate by decree.

48. 1907 - The 33rd Kentucky Derby is held.

49. 1916 - Twenty - one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Beirut.

50. 1916 - Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured and later deposed.