1764 - Edward Gibbon observed a group of friars singing in the ruins of the Roman Forum, inspiring him to write his famous work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1783 - Frenchman Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier made the first manned flight in a hot air balloon, created by the Montgolfier brothers. His flight demonstrated the feasibility of human air travel.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. He would spend the remainder of his life there, dying in 1821.

1928 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin completed its first transatlantic flight, landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey, after flying from Friedrichshafen, Germany, marking a new era in air travel.

1966 - The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California, to challenge police brutality and racial injustice, becoming a significant force in the Civil Rights Movement.


1993 - South Africa's future president Nelson Mandela and then-president F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to peacefully end apartheid and lay the groundwork for a new democratic South Africa.