2017: Hurricane Irma makes landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean. Irma resulted in at least 134 deaths and over $62 billion (2017 USD) in damage.
2008: The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in history, is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
2007: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999.
2002: Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations.
2000: Operation Barras successfully frees six British soldiers held captive for over two weeks and contributes to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.
1977: Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by guillotine in France.
1974: Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.
1967: The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.
1961: Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari.
1960: At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
1943: World War II: German forces begin their occupation of Rome.
1942: World War II: The British Army carries out an amphibious landing on Madagascar to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.
1939: World War II: Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, joining the Allies: Poland, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
1939: World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss of a submarine in the war.
1937: Nine nations attend the Nyon Conference to address international piracy in the Mediterranean Sea.
1936: First World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship, Held at London's (England) Wembley Stadium
1932: The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally-owned IND, is opened.
1919: Austria and the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
1570: Spanish Jesuit missionaries land in present-day Virginia to establish the short-lived Ajacán Mission.
1561: Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
1547: The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, the last full-scale military confrontation between England and Scotland, resulting in a decisive victory for the forces of Edward VI.