Today:
1444: The Battle of Varna ends as forces of the Ottoman Empire defeat the Polish and Hungarian armies.
1674: The Netherlands formally cedes New Netherland to England as part of the Treaty of Westminster.
1775: The United States Marine Corps is founded in Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
1871: Journalist Henry Morton Stanley locates the missing explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, Tanzania.
1885: German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the “Reitwagen,” considered the world’s first motorcycle.
1928: Hirohito is formally enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
1951: Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.
1969: The children’s educational television program “Sesame Street” premieres in the United States.
1975: The American Great Lakes freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members.
1989: Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall, five days after the East German government opened its borders.