295 – 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1903 – 7th Boston Marathon won by Irishman John Lorden in 2:41:29.8
1904 – Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis
1914 – US President W Wilson, having dispatched more naval ships to Mexico, asks a joint session of Congress to approve armed force if necessary; Congress approves
1934 – Heinrich Himmler becomes inspector Prussian secret state police
1936 – Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1969 – Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh
1974 – ‘The Troubles’, the Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim
1982 – Atlanta Braves become 1st team to win 1st 12 games of the season
2012 – Plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 127 people