Today:
1400 – Owain Glyndŵr declared himself Prince of Wales, beginning the Welsh Revolt against English rule.
1620 – The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World.
1810 – Mexican War of Independence: Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla launched the revolt against Spanish rule, beginning Mexico’s fight for independence.
1863 – The Battle of Chickamauga, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, began in Georgia.
1908 – General Motors Corporation was founded by William C. Durant in Flint, Michigan.
1919 – The American Legion was formally chartered by the U.S. Congress as an organization for U.S. war veterans.
1920 – A bomb exploded on Wall Street, New York City, killing 38 people and injuring hundreds, in what was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil at the time.
1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, initiating the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
1975 – Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia.
1992 – Black Wednesday occurred, when the British government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM).