EVENTS:
- 1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings including St Paul’s Cathedral.
- 1789 – The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
- 1811 – The University of Oslo is founded as The Royal Fredericks University, after Frederick VI of Denmark and Norway.
- 1833 – Oberlin College is founded by John Jay Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart in Oberlin, Ohio.
- 1945 – Vietnam declares its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
- 1946 – The interim government of India is formed, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice President with the powers of a Prime Minister.
- 1960 – The first election of the Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration, in history of Tibet. The Tibetan community observes this date as the Democracy Day.
- 1970 – NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation is re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.
- 1992 – An earthquake in Nicaragua kills at least 116 people.
- 2013 – The Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic as the widest bridge in the world.
- 2018 – The National Museum of Brazil is destroyed by a fire, with the loss of over 90% of the museum’s collection.
- 2019 – Hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, devastates the Bahamas, killing at least five.[13]
- 2019 – The dive boat MV Conception catches fire and sinks near Santa Cruz Island, killing 34.[14]
- 2023 – India’s first solar observation mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches Aditya-L1 from Satish Dhawan space centre.
BIRTHS:
- 1853 – Wilhelm Ostwald, Latvian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
- 1857 – Thomas Groube, Australian cricketer (d. 1927)
- 1866 – Charles Vintcent, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 1943)
- 1877 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1956)
- 1912 – Ernest Bromley, Australian cricketer (d. 1967)
- 1913 – Bill Shankly, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 1981)
- 1948 – Terry Bradshaw, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
- 1965 – Partho Sen-Gupta, Indian director and screenwriter
- 1969 – Stephen Peall, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1971 – Pawan Kalyan, Indian actor, martial artist, director, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Indika de Saram, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1988 – Ishant Sharma, Indian cricketer
- 1988 – Ishmeet Singh, Indian singer (d. 2008)
- 1994 – Kishen Velani, English cricketer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
