1981: Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. Federal Government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
1973: In the Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the Thanom military government, 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
1969: The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaces, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world.
1968: Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.
1968: The 6.5 Mw Meckering earthquake shook the southwest portion of Western Australia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing $2.2 million in damage and leaving 20-28 people dead.
1968: Apollo program: The first live TV broadcast by American astronauts in orbit performed by the Apollo 7 crew.
1968: Vietnam War: Twenty-seven soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco in California for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
1967: Vietnam War: American folk singer and activist Joan Baez is arrested concerning a physical blockade of the U.S. Army's induction center in Oakland, California.
1966: The city of Montreal begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid transit system.
1957: At least 81 people are killed in the most devastating flood in the history of the Spanish city of Valencia.
1957: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open up an annual session of the Canadian Parliament, presenting her Speech from the throne in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1956: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Untouchable caste leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism).
1947: Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1.06 (700 miles per hour (1,100 km/h; 610 kn) over the high desert of Southern California and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.
1944: World War II: Linked to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is forced to commit suicide.
1944: World War II: Athens, Greece, is liberated by British Army troops entering the city as the Wehrmacht pulls out. This clears the way for the Greek government-in-exile to return to its historic capital city, with Georgios Papandreou, as the head of government.
1920: Part of Petsamo Province is ceded by the Soviet Union to Finland.
1915: World War I: Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.
1913: Senghenydd colliery disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident claims the lives of 439 miners.
1912: While campaigning in Milwaukee, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.
1656: Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.