| 1762 - French Huguenot Jean Calas, who was wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform |
| 1801 - First census in Great Britain |
| 1831 - The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria. |
| 1945 - The Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians. |
| 1975 - Sanyo Shinkansen open between Osaka and Fukuoka. |
| 1982 - The United States places an embargo on Libyan petroleum imports because of their support of terrorist groups. |