1775: During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.
1789: Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
1805: Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the "frankfurter."
1850: Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
1909: 250 miners were killed in a fire and explosion at the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, IL.
1927: The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
1933: In Austin, MN, the first sit-down labor strike in America took place.
1940: The Walt Disney movie "Fantasia" had its world premiere at New York's Broadway Theater.
Disney movies, music and books
1942: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.
1956: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
1971: The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars.
1977: The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
1984: A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.
1985: About 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city. The slide was triggered by a mild eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
1986: U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent "defensive weapons and spare parts" to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.
1991: Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award for the American League.
1994: In San Francisco, CA, a heavily armed gunman traded fire with police, hitting two police officers, a paramedic and another person before being killed.
1994: Sweden voted to join the European Union.
1995: Greg Maddox (Atlanta Braves) became the first major league pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.
1995: Seven people, including five Americans are killed in a car bomb attack at a U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
1997: Iraq expelled six U.N. arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.
1998: "The Wizard of Oz" was released on the big screen by Warner Bros. 59 years after its original release.
1998: Monica Lewinsky signed a deal with St. Martin's Press for the North American rights to her story about her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1998: U.S. President Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, without an apology or admission of guilt, to throw out her sexual harassment lawsuit.
2001: U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.
2009: NASA announced that water had been discoved on the moon. The discovery came from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
