708: Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
1521: The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
1526: At the Battle of Mohács, the Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
1541: The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.1786: Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1811: Henry Bergh, founder of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is born.
1825: Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.1831: Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1833: The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.1869: The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first rack railway.
1876: Charles F. Kettering is born. Among his more than 300 patents are the electric starting motor for cars and leaded gasoline.1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle.
1898: The Goodyear tire company is founded.
1898: Preston Sturges is born. He was pioneer of the screwball comedy.
1910: Japan changes Korea's name to Cho-sen and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
1915: Ingrid Bergman is born. Who couldn't feel for Rick when he told her "you're getting on that plane."
1917: Isabel Sanford is born. She played Weezy on The Jeffersons.
1920: Charlie Parker is born.1923: Richard Attenborough is born.
1928: Charles Gray is born. He played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever and The Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.1930: The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
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1938: Elliot Gould is born.
1939: William Friedkin is born. He directed The Exorcist and The French Connection.
1939: Joel Schumacher is born. These days, he's best known for torpedoing the Tim Burton-era Batman movies below the waterline. But he also did The Lost Boys which is still a heck of a movie.
1941: Robin Leach, host of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous is born.
1944: The Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
1958: United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1958: Michael Jackson is born. He's hit a rough patch (to put it mildly) but Thriller is still one of the greatest albums of the 1980's.
1959: Rebecca De Mornay is born.
1966: The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.1991: The Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
