EVENTS:
- 1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
- 1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society describing “animalcules“: the first known description of protozoa.
- 1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
- 1908 – The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.
- 1939 – Taisto Mäki becomes the first man to run the 10,000 metres in under 30 minutes, in a time of 29:52.6
- 1948 – The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.
- 1957 – Malaysia joins the United Nations.
- 1974 – Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations.
- 1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
- 2006 – Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years.
- 2011 – Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City.
- 2016 – Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan, New York. 31 people are injured in the Manhattan bombing.
- 2018 – A Russian reconnaissance aircraft carrying 15 people on board was brought down by a Syrian surface-to-air missile over the Mediterranean Sea.
BIRTHS:
- 1677 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist and chemist, invented Forceps (d. 1761)
- 1854 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick Motor Company (d. 1929)
- 1879 – Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, Indian businessman, politician, and activist (d. 1973)
- 1915 – M. F. Husain, Indian painter and director (d. 2011)
- 1930 – Lalgudi Jayaraman, Indian violinist and composer (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Indarjit Singh, Indian-English journalist
- 1945 – Bhakti Charu Swami, Indian religious leader
- 1948 – Karl Alber, German footballer
- 1950 – Narendra Modi, Indian politician, 15th Prime Minister of India
- 1986 – Ravichandran Ashwin, Indian Cricketer
- 1987 – Paul Huntington, English footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
