1297: The Scots, led by William Wallace, defeat the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
1609: Henry Hudson discovers Manhattan Island.
1649: The Siege of Drogheda ends as Oliver Cromwell's English Parliamentarian troops take the town and execute its garrison.
1714: Barcelona surrenders to Spanish and French Bourbon armies in the War of the Spanish Succession.
1773: The Public Advertiser publishes a satirical essay titled Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One, written by Benjamin Franklin.
1777: The British achieve a major victory in the Battle of Brandywine in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
1789: Alexander Hamilton is appointed as first United States Secretary of the Treasury.
1792: The Hope Diamond is stolen along with other crown jewels when six men broke into the house used to store the jewels.
1814: The United States wins the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812.1816: Carl Zeiss, German lens maker, is born.
1847: Stephen Foster's well-known song, Oh! Susanna, is first performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.1862: O. Henry is born. He is most famous for writing the short stories The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief, but he also coined the term "banana republic."
1885: D.H. Lawrence is born. He wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover, which turned out to be a pretty big disappointment to teenage boys everywhere.
1906: Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha to characterize the Non-Violence movement in South Africa.
1924: Tom Landry, football god, is born.
1940: Brian de Palma is born.1941: Ground is broken for construction of The Pentagon.
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1941: Charles Lindberg gives his infamous Des Moines speech accusing the British, Jews and FDR's administration of pressing for war with Germany.
1958: Roxann Dawson is born. She played the fiery Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.
1961: Virginia Madsen is born.
1961: Elizabeth Daily is born. She played Pee-Wee's love interest Dottie in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.1962: Kristy McNichol is born.
1967: Harry Connick, Jr. is born.1969: Gigdet Gein, Marilin Manson's bassist is born. I wonder if anyone's ever told them that their names aren't nearly as clever as they think they are.
1970: The Ford Pinto is introduced.
1973: A CIA backed coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende. Pinochet remains in power for almost 17 years.
1985: Pete Rose gets his 4,192nd career base hit, breaking Ty Cobb's record which stood for over 60 years.
2001: Coordinated attacks result in the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City, destruction of the western portion of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and an unplanned passenger airliner crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which happened after airplane passengers fought back on the plane. In total, 2,974 people are killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2002: Through extreme and coordinated effort, The Pentagon is rededicated after repairs are completed, exactly one year after the attack on the building.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.
