On this day in 1950, President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
On this day in 1989, Mayumi Moriyama became Japan's first female Cabinet Secretary.
Also on this day in 1989, Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.
On this day in 1991, the Battle of Vukovar began. An 87-day siege of a Croatian city by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serbian paramilitary forces, took place between August–November, during the Croatian War of Independence