1513 - Italian Wars: Battle of Novara - Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
1981 - A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the actual figure is closer to 1,000 killed.
1984 - The Indian Armed Forces attack the Golden Temple in Amritsar in an effort to flush out terrorists, following an order from Indira Gandhi. 576 combatants are killed and 335 are wounded; independent observers estimate that thousands of unarmed Sikh civilians are also killed in the crossfire.
1985 - The grave of one Wolfgang Gerhard is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz' "Angel of Death". Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
1990 - U.S. District court judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew violates Florida's obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is "directed to the 'dirty' thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind."
1991 - George and Barbara Loeb, members of the Church of the Creator, are arrested and charged with murder.
1991 - Former Diff'rent Strokes child star Dana Plato is given a six-year suspended sentence for robbing a Las Vegas video store five weeks earlier.
1997 - New Jersey teenager Melissa Drexler gives birth to a health baby in a bathroom stall during her senior prom, then strangles the child with a plastic bag and stashes the corpse in the trash.
1999 - 345 prisoners run from the main gate of the Putim maximum security prison in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the 3-year old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
