- 1941 – World War II: French resistance member Guy Môquet and 29 other hostages are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the death of a German officer.
- 1943 – World War II: in the Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless.
- 1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
- 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
- 1963 – A BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes in UK with the loss of all on board.
- 1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor.
- 1964 – Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.
- 1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).
- 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
- 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
- 1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.
- 1975 – The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus.
- 1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders ofdogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
- 1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for itsstrike the previous August.
- 1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires theSupermax model of prisons.
- 1999 – Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
- 2005 – Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.
- 2006 – A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama.
- 2007 – Raid on Anuradhapura Air Force Base is carried out by 21 Tamil Tiger commandos. All except one died in this attack. Eight Sri Lankan Air Force planes are destroyed and 10 damaged.
- 2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.