On September 16

A lone gunman fatally shot twelve people and injured three others at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C.

Seventeen Iraqi civilians were shot and killed by Academi guards in Baghdad.

The British pound (coin pictured) was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday and suffered a major devaluation.

Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway (terminus pictured) was completed between Ürümqi South and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of China and Kazakhstan and adding a sizeable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.

During a tour of the United States, Soviet politician Boris Yeltsin visited a grocery store in Texas that had a major impact on his views regarding the Soviet Union's economic system.

A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, killing at least 460 civilians.

Eight people escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a home-made hot air balloon.

The prototype of the Soviet Mikoyan MiG-31, one of the fastest combat jets in the world, made its maiden flight.

Malaysia was formed as an independent nation from the Federation of Malaya, the Colony of Singapore, the Crown Colony of North Borneo, and the Crown Colony of Sarawak.

The U.S. National Hurricane Research Project sought to weaken Hurricane Esther by seeding it with silver iodide, leading to the establishment of Project Stormfury.

Typhoon Nancy, which possibly had the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, made landfall in Muroto, Japan.

Second World War: Italian forces captured the town of Sidi Barrani, but their invasion of Egypt progressed no further.

A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon exploded in front of 23 Wall Street in New York City, killing 38 people and injuring several hundred others.

Felix Mendelssohn completed the score of his Violin Concerto, his final concerto.

American Revolutionary War: American colonists defeated British troops at the Battle of Harlem Heights (depicted) on the island of Manhattan.

Owain Glyndŵr proclaimed himself Prince of Wales, declaring that he could save the Welsh from English invasions.

At the Third Council of Constantinople, Pope Honorius I was posthumously excommunicated, with his support for monothelitism deemed to be heretical.