1580: Sir Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, aboard the Golden Hind, after a 33-month voyage to circumnavigate the globe.
1777: The British army launches a major offensive, capturing Philadelphia.
1786: France and Britain sign a trade agreement in London.
1820: The legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly at the Defiance, Mo., home of his son Nathan, at age 85.
1829: Scotland Yard, the official British criminal investigation organization, is formed.
1913: The first boat is raised in the locks of the Panama Canal.
1955: The New York Stock Exchange suffers a $44 million loss.
1960: Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy participate in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates.
1961: Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan makes his New York singing debut at Gerde’s Folk City.
1969: The Beatles' last album, Abbey Road, is released.
1983: In the USSR, Stanislav Petrov disobeys procedures and ignores electronic alarms indicating five incoming nuclear missiles, believing the US would launch more than five if it wanted to start a war. His decision prevented a retaliatory attack that would have begun a nuclear war between the superpowers.
1984: The UK agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.