42 BC: Second Battle of Philippi: Brutus’s army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian during the Roman Republican civil wars causing Brutus to fall on his sword

1911: First aerial reconnaissance mission is flown by an Italian pilot over Turkish lines during the Italo-Turkish War

1926: Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are expelled from the Soviet Politburo [1]

1942: Britain and its Allies launch a major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt, during ​World War II

1977: Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces the discovery of a 3.4 billion-year-old single-celled fossil, one of the earliest life forms on Earth

1981: US national debt reaches $1 trillion

2001: Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament following peace talks

Source: Onthisday.com