447 – A powerful earthquake destroys large portions of the Walls of Constantinople, including 57 towers.
963 – Synod of Rome: Emperor Otto I calls a council at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Pope John XII is deposed on charges of an armed rebellion against Otto.
1217 – The Charter of the Forest is sealed at St Paul's Cathedral, London by King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke which re-establishes for free men rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs.
1792 – Battle of Jemappes in the French Revolutionary Wars.
1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States with only 40% of the popular vote, defeating John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas in a four-way race.
1869 – In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.
1900 – President William McKinley is re-elected, along with his vice-presidential running mate, Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York. Republicans also swept the congressional elections, winning increased majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: The republican government flees from Madrid to Valencia, leading to the formation of the Madrid Defense Council in its stead.
1943 – World War II: The 1st Ukrainian Front liberates Kyiv from German occupation.
1947 – Meet the Press, the longest running television program in history, makes its debut on NBC Television.
1963 – Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ is appointed to head the South Vietnamese government by General Dương Văn Minh's junta, five days after the latter deposed and assassinated President Ngô Đình Diệm.
1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.
1977 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.