498 – After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius is elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore.
845 – The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe, defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon.
1307 – Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
1574 – Spanish navigator Juan Fernández discovers islands now known as the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile.
1635 – Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launch a pacification campaign against native villages, resulting in Dutch control of the middle and south of the island.
1718 – Off the coast of North Carolina, British pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") is killed in battle with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
1837 – Canadian journalist and politician William Lyon Mackenzie calls for a rebellion against the United Kingdom in his essay "To the People of Upper Canada", published in his newspaper The Constitution.
1864 – American Civil War: John Bell Hood begins the Franklin–Nashville Campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to draw William Tecumseh Sherman back out of Georgia.
1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched and is one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.
1908 – The Congress of Manastir establishes the Albanian alphabet.
1928 – The premier performance of Ravel's Boléro takes place in Paris.
1931 – Al-Mina'a SC is founded in Iraq.
1935 – The China Clipper inaugurates the first commercial transpacific air service, connecting Alameda, California with Manila.
1940 – World War II: Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Stalingrad: General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th Army is surrounded.
1943 – World War II: Cairo Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
1943 – Lebanon gains independence from France.
1954 – The Humane Society of the United States is founded.
1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald
1963 – William Clay Ford Sr. buys the Detroit Lions for $4.5 million.
1967 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab–Israeli peace settlement.
1968 – The Beatles release The Beatles (known popularly as The White Album).
1973 – The Italian Fascist organization Ordine Nuovo is disbanded.
1974 – The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
1975 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.
1977 – British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
1987 – Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom.
1988 – In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed.
1989 – In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President René Moawad, killing him.
1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her Prime-Ministership.
1995 – Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.
1995 – The 7.3 Mw Gulf of Aqaba earthquake shakes the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 30, and generating a non-destructive tsunami.
2002 – In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
2003 – Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile and forced to land.
2004 – The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections.
2005 – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.
2012 – Ceasefire begins between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel after eight days of violence and 150 deaths.
2015 – A landslide in Hpakant, Kachin State, northern Myanmar killed at least 116 people near a jade mine, with around 100 more missing.
