1783 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 was performed for the first time in Linz, Austria.
1839 – The Newport Rising took place, which is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority on mainland Britain.
1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.
1918 – Wilfred Owen, English soldier and poet died, 6 days before the end of the war.
1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
1952 – The United States government established the National Security Agency, or NSA.
1999 - Wallace and Gromit's animated adventure A Grand Day Out was first shown.
2008 – Barack Obama became the first man of African-American descent to be elected President of the United States.