1284 – The legendary
Pied Piper led 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany.
1483 – Richard III was crowned king of England.
1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States.
1917 – The first U.S. troops arrived in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco.
1948 – The Western allies began an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin.
1960 – The former British Protectorate of Somaliland British Somaliland gained its independence.
1963 – John F. Kennedy spoke the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a doughnut), on a visit to West Berlin.
1974 - The bar code, allowing for the electronic scanning of prices, was used for the first time on a pack of gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
1977 – The Yorkshire Ripper killed 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.
1977 - Elvis Presley gave his last concert.
1991 – The Ten-Day War began in Slovenia.
1996 – Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin was shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin.
