*1688* James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
*1816* Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state.
*1861* A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state.
*1862* Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
*1863* Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and
Caroline enter St. Andrew's Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks.
*1882* A production of Gilbert and Sullivan's
Iolanthe at Boston's Bijou Theatre becomes the first performance in a theatre lit by incandescent electric lights.
*1927* Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
*1930* *As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.*
*1933* Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco.
*1936* Britain's King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
*1941* The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
*1943* U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
*1945* A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.
*1951* Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball.
*1955* Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
*1967* The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world's first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
*1972* *Challenger , the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon's surface, the last time that men visit the moon.*
*1978* Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
*1981* Military forces in El Salvador kill over 800 civilians in what is known as the El Mozote massacre during the Salvadoran Civil War.
*1997* The Kyoto Protocol international treaty intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses, opens for signature.
*2001* *People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.*
*2005* Cronulla riots begin in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
*2006* President of Mexico Felipe Calderon launches a military-led offensive against drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacan.
*2008* Bernard "Bernie" Madoff arrested and charged with securities fraud in what was called a $50-billion Ponzi scheme.