1. 218 - The 7th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

2. 352 - Liberius begins his reign as Catholic Pope, replacing Julius I.

3. 884 - St. Adrian III begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

4. 1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

5. 1525 - Battle at Zabern: The Duke of the Lutherans beats rebels.

6. 1536 - George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, and four other men are executed for treason, accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn.

7. 1544 - The Scottish Earl of Lennox, Matthew Stewart, signs a secret treaty with English King Henry VIII.

8. 1579 - Artois, Hainaut, and French - Flanders sign the Treaty of Parma, recognizing the Spanish Duke of Parma as land guardian.

9. 1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.

10. 1620 - The 1st merry - go - round is seen at a fair in Philippopolis, Turkey.

11. 1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolò Zucchi is the 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter's surface.

12. 1631 - Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maag denburg.

13. 1642 - Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, founds Ville - Marie - de - Montréal, the predecessor of modern - day Montreal, Canada.

14. 1645 - Li Zicheng, the emperor of the Shun Dynasty, dies in Jiugong Mountain, Hubei.

15. 1648 - Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria.

16. 1672 - Frontenac becomes governor of New France (Canada).

17. 1673 - Frenchmen Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit, set out from the Saint - Ignace mission on an expedition to explore the Mississippi River.

18. 1683 - Pirates sack Veracruz, New Spain, taking 4,000 prisoners for ransom.

19. 1689 - English King William III declares war on France in support of the Dutch Republic (Nine Years' War).

20. 1712 - Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria is honored as "Sovereign of the Netherlands".

21. 1733 - Great Britain passes the Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions.

22. 1742 - Battle of Chotusitz: Prussia led by Frederick the Great defeats Austria.

23. 1744 - The French army takes the Austrian Netherlands.

24. 1749 - English medical scientist Edward Jenner is born.

25. 1750 - Tax revolt in Gorinchem.

26. 1756 - Britain declares war on France, starting the Seven Years' War.

27. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.

28. 1787 - The English slave ship Sisters, en route from Africa to Cuba, capsizes, killing hundreds.

29. 1792 - 24 merchants in New York sign the Buttonwood Agreement, establishing the earliest prototype of the New York Stock Exchange.

30. 1794 - Hard frost in southern New England.

31. 1803 - John Hawkins and Richard French patent the reaping machine.

32. 1809 - French Emperor Napoleon I annexes the Papal States into the First French Empire, triggering Pope Pius VII to excommunicate him.

33. 1814 - The Norwegian Constitution is officially signed, and the Norwegian National Assembly elects Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark as the King of Norway.

34. 1814 - Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden (Norwegian National Day).

35. 1814 - The occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.

36. 1824 - The diaries of Lord Byron are burnt by six of the poet's friends at the office of John Murray in London, sometimes described as "the greatest crime in literary history".

37. 1846 - Adolphe Sax obtains the patent for the saxophone.

38. 1848 - Gerrit, Count Schimmelpenning.

39. 1861 - The world's first color photograph is exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy.

40. 1863 - In the American Civil War, the Union Army led by John A. McClernand defeats the Confederate rear - guard at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi, capturing about 1,700 men.

41. 1865 - France, Germany, and 20 other countries sign the International Telegraph Convention in Paris, founding the International Telecommunication Union.

42. 1923 - Chinese - American biochemist Tsou Chen - lu is born.

43. 1927 - Xia Douyin mutinies in Yichang, Hubei during the Northern Expedition.

44. 1928 - The 9th Summer Olympic Games open in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

45. 1932 - The Japanese 10th Division cavalry regiment and the puppet army cavalry regiment capture Yilan; the Japanese army attacks Tangyuan west of Jiamusi, and the Northeast Volunteer Army retreats northward.

46. 1936 - The National Liberation Vanguard holds a congress to focus on the "united front" slogan. The Beiping vanguard members hold a military exercise in Beiping. The Shanghai Student Federation organizes more than 200 students to publicize anti - Japanese salvation in Pudong, Fahua, Hongqiao, and other places.

47. 1938 - Cao Kun, the 5th President of the Republic of China, dies of illness.

48. 1940 - The movie Waterloo Bridge premieres. During World War II, Nazi Germany occupies Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

49. 1941 - The Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi destroys the Tongpu Railway, cutting off its northern section of traffic.

50. 1943 - During World War II, the British Royal Air Force's 617 Squadron begins "Operation Chastise", using special "bouncing bombs" to attack German dams. The Möhne and Eder dams are damaged, causing heavy losses.