September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 112 days remaining until the end of the year.
1419 – John of Burgundy is assassinated by friends of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France.
1509 – A strong earthquake hits Constantinople, referred to by people at the time as the 'Lesser Judgement Day'.
1515 – Thomas Wolsey becomes a cardinal. The highest political position Wolsey attained was Lord Chancellor, Henry VIII’s chief adviser (formally, as his successor and disciple Thomas Cromwell was not). In that position, he enjoyed great freedom and was often depicted as the alter rex ('other king'). After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles
1547 – Battle of Pinkie Cleugh: Last major battle engagement between England and Scotland, which ends in victory for the forces of Edward VI of England.
1608 – John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown, Virginia.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Nathan Hale volunteers to spy.
1813 – The U.S. defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
1823 – Simón Bolívar is named President of Peru.
1846 – Elias Howe gets a patent for the sewing machine. Howe originated significant refinements to the design concepts of his predecessors, and he was awarded the first United States patent for a sewing machine using a lockstitch design. His machine contained the three essential features common to most modern machines: a needle with the eye at the point, a shuttle operating beneath the cloth to form the lock stitch, and an automatic feed.
1897 – In the Lattimer Massacre, a sheriff's posse kills more than nineteen unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States.
1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by an Italian anarchist at Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
1913 – The first paved coast–to–coast U.S. highway opens.
1918 – Russian Civil War: The Red Army captures the city of Kazan.
1919 – Austria and the Allies sign the Treaty of Saint-Germain recognizing the independence of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
1927 – France had its first Davis Cup win, though it had competed since 1905.
1932 – The New York City Subway's third competing subway system, the municipally–owned 'IND', is opened.
1933 – Ramon Grau San Martin becomes leader of Cuba.
1936 – The first World Individual Motorcycle Speedway Championship is held at Wembley Stadium 1939 – The submarine HMS Oxley is sunk by mistake by the submarine HMS Triton off the coast of Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss in World War II.
1939 – World War II: Canada declares war on Nazi Germany.
1942 – World War II: The Allies carry out an amphibious landing at Majunga, north–west Madagascar, to re– launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.
1943 – Tottori, Japan is struck by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, killing 1,190 people.
1943 – World War II: German forces began their occupation of Rome during World War II.
1944 – World War II: American troops liberate Luxembourg.
1945 – In Norway, Vidkun Quisling is sentenced to death for collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1951 – The United Kingdom began an economic boycott of Iran.
1960 – Mickey Mantle hits what is thought to be the Major League baseball's longest home run, sending the ball an estimated 643 feet.
1960 – At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila becomes the first person from Sub Saharan Africa to win an Olympic gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
1961 – Italian Grand Prix: German racing driver Wolfgang von Trips is killed in a crash, crushed under his Ferrari. Thirteen spectators are also killed.
1963 – 20 African– American students enter public schools in the U.S. state of Alabama.
1967 – The people of Gibraltar vote to remain a British dependency rather than becoming part of Spain.
1972 – The United States loses its first international basketball game in a disputed match versus the Soviet Union at Munich, Germany.
1977 – Last execution by guillotine takes place in France. Hamida Djandoubi, convicted for torture and murder, is executed at Baumettes Prison in Marseille.
1988 – Steffi Graf wins the Singles Title at the U.S. Open Tennis, managing to win all four Grand Slams in one year. She later wins the Olympic Gold in the same year to achieve a historic 'Golden Slam'.
1989 – A Bulgarian tug boat collides with Romanian passenger ship Mogasoaia on the Danube, near Galati, Romania, killing 207 people.
1990 – The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire – the largest church in Africa and perhaps the world – is consecrated by Pope John Paul II.