| 0 | | Feast of St. Andrea Avellino, Patron of Naples and of Sicily, and that of St. Baudolino, Patron of Alessandria |
| 846 | | pursuing Moslem raiders southwards from Rome on the Appian Way, Lothair I's Frankish army was dispersed in an ambush just north of Itri, in the Kingdom of Naples |
| 911 | | Duke Conrad of Franconia was elected King Conrad I of the Germans (911-918) |
| 1444 | | Battle of Varna: Polish & Hungarian Crusaders under King Wladyslaw III of Poland are defeated by Sultan Murad II's Turks |
| 1500 | | Cesare Borgia lays siege to Faenza (Falls, Apr 26, 1501) |
| 1567 | | Battle of St. Denis: French Catholics defeat French Protestants |
| 1580 | | Massacre of Dún an Óir: Although they surrendered on terms after a siege, 600 Irish, Spanish, and Papal troops are killed by the English Protestants |
| 1674 | | Treaty of Westminster: Ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War, as the Nehterlands cedes New Netherlands to England, for the second - and final - time |
| 1775 | | Gen. George Washington issued the first Chief of Staff’s reading list -- Learn More |
| 1782 | | Battle of Chillicote, Ohio, George Rodgers Clark defeats Indians and Tories; the final battle of the Revolutionary War. |
| 1801 | | Kentucky outlaws dueling, which continues anyway |
| 1808 | | Battle of Espinosa: The French defeat the Spanish |
| 1808 | | US-Osage Treaty signed |
| 1814 | | Congress enacts a draft; War of 1812 ends before it is implemented |
| 1836 | | Imperial nephew and heir presumptive Louis Napoleon is banished to America |
| 1861 | | Skirmish at Guyandott, WVa |
| 1864 | | Austrian Archduke Maximilian becomes Emperor of Mexico (shot in 1867) |
| 1871 | | Stanley presumes to meet Livingston, Ujiji, Central Africa |
| 1898 | | White residents of Wilmington, N.C., overthrew the elected government of the city, burned black businesses and homes, and expelled African Americans from the town, leaving scores dead |
| 1915 | | Fourth Battle of the Isonzo begins (to Dec 2) |
| 1918 | | German Emperor Wilhelm II flees to the Netherlands |
| 1928 | | Official enthronement of Prince Hirohito as Emperor of Japan (1926-1989) |
| 1937 | | Brazilian dictator Gaetulio Vargas proclaims a fascistic "Estado novo" |
| 1938 | | Kate Smith introduced Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on radio -- Learn More |
| 1942 | | the B-40 “Escort Bomber" flew for the first time -- Learn More |
| 1942 | | French North African forces cease resisting the Allies |
| 1943 | | Fifth Air Force makes a major attack on Rabaul. |
| 1944 | | China: Japanese capture the U.S. air bases at Kweilin and Liuchow |
| 1945 | | General Enver Hoxha becomes Communist leader of Albania (1945-1985) |
| 1954 | | Lt Col John Strapp attains 632 MPH on a rocket sled |
| 1954 | | USMC ["Iwo Jima"] Memorial dedicated in Arlington |
| 1975 | | The SS 'Edmund Fitzgerald,' largest ship on the Great Lakes, goes down in a storm on Lake Superior, 29 die |
| 1278 | | Prince Philip I of Taranto (1294-1332), titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Despot of Epirus, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto, & Lord of Durazzo. |
| 1433 | | Duke Charles "the Rash" of Burgundy (1467-1477), noted thickhead, kia 1477 |
| 1483 | | Martin Luther, theologian, revolutionary, anti-Semite, d. 1546 |
| 1566 | | Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, soldier, favorite of Queen Elizabeth "Gloriana", who beheads him in 1601 |
| 1775 | | The United States Marine Corps: Established by Congress |
| 1827 | | Alfred Howe Terry, Maj Gen, U.S., Indian fighter, d. 1890 |
| 1830 | | Albert Gallatin Jenkins, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1864 |
| 1871 | | Winston Churchill, popular American author ("Mr. Keegan's Elopement ," "The Crisis", etc), not to be confused with Winston S. Churchill, d. 1947 |
| 1888 | | Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev, Russian aircraft designer, d. 1972 |
| 1889 | | Claude Rains, sometime soldier, actor (Captain Renault in "Casablanca", Caesar in "Caesar & Cleopatra", etc.), d. 1967 |
| 1895 | | John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft designer, d. 1981 |
| 1919 | | Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, soldier, weapons designer, d. 2013 |
| 1925 | | Richard Burton, RAF cadet, actor ("Where Eagles Dare"), d. 1984 |
| 461 | | Pope St. Leo I "The Great" (440-461), c. 60 |
| 1068 | | Agnes of Burgundy, Duchess of Aquitaine & Countess of Anjou, seriously determined mother, at c. 68 -- Learn More |
| 1143 | | Count Fulk V of Anjou (1109-1143), King of Jerusalem (1131-1143), hunting accident at 50 |
| 1285 | | King Pedro "the Great" III of Aragon, who is also King Pedro I of Valencia and of Majorca, Count Pedro II of Barcelona (1276-1285), and King Pietro I of Sicily (1282-1285), c. 46 |
| 1299 | | Count Jean I of Holland and Zeeland (1296-1299), 16 |
| 1444 | | King Wladyslaw III of Poland (1434-1444) , King Ladislaus I of Hungary and Croatia (1440-1444), 20, kia at Varna |
| 1549 | | Pope Paul III - Alexander Farnese (1534-1549), 81 |
| 1850 | | General Sir Phineas Riall, KCH, at 74 -- Learn More |
| 1865 | | Henry Wirz, 42, former superintendent of Andersonville, executed as a war criminal |
| 1891 | | Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud, 37, French poet, sometime soldier and arms dealer |
| 1938 | | Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the "Father of Modern Turkey", at 57 -- Learn More |
| 1940 | | Neville Chamberlain, hapless -- or wily -- British PM (1937-40), at 71 |
| 1943 | | the Lübeck Martyrs were beheaded by the Nazis for opposing the regime -- Roman Catholic priests Johannes Prassek at 32, Eduard Müller at 32, and Hermann Lange at 31, and Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink at 49 |
| 1944 | | Wang Ching-Wei/Wang Jingwei, Premier of China (1932-35), Japanese puppet-President of China (1940-1944), b. 1884 |
| 1954 | | Hossein Fatemi, c. 35, Iranian Foreign minister, executed |
| 1970 | | Charles de Gaulle, leader of the "Free French," President of France (1959-1969), at 79 |
| 1982 | | General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev of the Communist Party of the USSR (1964-1982), 75, WW II Hero of the Soviet Union |
| 2012 | | Birger Stromsheim, 101, Norwegian commando who led the "Heroes of Telemark" |