217 BC, Hannibal's Carthaginian forces ambushed and crushed a Roman army under Gaius Flaminius at Lake Trasimene during the Second Punic War. Learn more →
1582, Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga, betrayed by his general Akechi Mitsuhide, was forced to commit suicide at Honnoji Temple in Kyoto. Learn more →
1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, giving it the votes needed to take effect. Learn more →
1893, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.'s colossal 264-foot revolving steel wheel debuted at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Learn more →
1942, General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps captured the British-Allied garrison and port of Tobruk, Libya, in a decisive North African battle. Learn more →
1963, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was elected as Pope Paul VI, succeeding John XXIII and completing the Second Vatican Council. Learn more →
1964, Three civil rights workers vanished in Meridian, Mississippi, later found murdered by Ku Klux Klan members in a landmark civil rights case. Learn more →
2004, SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike Melvill, became the first privately funded spacecraft to cross the 100-kilometer boundary into space. Learn more →