43 B.C.-Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him consul

1839-Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published "free to the world" in Paris as a gift from the French government

1942-World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers are killed, wounded, or captured during a raid on Dieppe, France

1985-Japan launches Suisei, the country's second probe of Halley's Comet

1988-Iran and Iraq begin a ceasefire in their eight-year-old war at 11 pm EDT

1989-First crack in the Iron Curtain as Hungary opens its borders to Austria for a Pan-European Picnic for a few hours

1996-Major South African political parties begin their submissions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

1991-Conservative members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempt to depose Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup d'état

2010-Operation Iraqi Freedom winds down as the last of the United States Brigade Combat Teams cross the border into Kuwait