48 BC – Pompey the Great is assassinated on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.
235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He and Hippolytus, church leader of Rome, are exiled to the mines of Sardinia.
1538 – The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
1787 – The newly completed United States Constitution is voted on by the U.S. Congress to be sent to the state legislatures for approval.
1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil.
1924 – First round-the-world flight completed.
1928 – Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
2008 – SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, the Falcon 1, into orbit.
Births
551 BC – Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history (d. 479 BC)
1852 – Henri Moissan, chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
1901 – William S. Paley, broadcaster, founded CBS (d. 1990)
1901 – Ed Sullivan, television host (d. 1974)
1909 – Al Capp, author and illustrator (d. 1979)
1924 – Marcello Mastroianni, actor and singer (d. 1996)
1987 - Hilary Duff, actress and singer
Deaths
48 BC – Pompey, Roman general and politician (b. 106 BC)
1891 – Herman Melville, American author and poet (b. 1819)
1895 – Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist (b. 1822)
1964 – Harpo Marx, American comedian, actor, and singer (b. 1888)
1966 – André Breton, French author and poet (b. 1896)
1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser, colonel, second President of Egypt (b. 1918)
1978 – Pope John Paul I (b. 1912)
1991 – Miles Davis, trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (b. 1926)
2003 – Elia Kazan, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
2016 – Shimon Peres, Polish-born Israeli statesman and politician (b. 1923)
