1859 - Jules Leotard performs the first flying trapeze circus act in Paris; he also designs the garment that bears his name.

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1969 – Vietnam War: Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre.

1954 – Ellis Island ceases operations.

1948 – Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

1938 – Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

1933 – Nazi Germany uses a referendum to ratify its withdrawal from the League of Nations.

1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1923 – Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.

1869 – The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act is enacted in Australia, giving the government control of indigenous people's wages, their terms of employment, where they could live, and of their children, effectively leading to the Stolen Generations.

1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1983 – Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0.

1969 – National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street.

50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 'rock star' ship, sank in Lake Superior

2004 – Firefox 1.0 is released.

1979 – Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, detect a purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

1938 – Kristallnacht occurs, instigated by the Nazis using the killing of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan as justification.

1923 – In Munich, police and government troops crush the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch.

1921 – The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF) is founded in Italy.

2016 – Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to receive a major party's nomination.