48 BC: Caesar’s Civil War: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus, forcing Pompey to flee to Egypt

378: Battle of Adrianople: Gothic rebel army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens, who is killed

1790: Robert Gray’s Columbia Rediviva returns to Boston after a 3-year journey as the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe

1898: Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine

1942: Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others are arrested in Bombay after the passing of a “Quit India” motion and campaign by the All India Congress Committee

1945: US drops second atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city

1965: Singapore separates from the Federation of Malaysia and gains independence

1974: Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States, and Vice President Gerald Ford takes the oath of office to become the 38th US President

2020: Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees longtime dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, sparking widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation

Source: Onthisday.com