is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf. 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage. 2012 – At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province. 2012 – The XIV Paralympic Games open in London, England, United Kingdom. 2022 – Russo-Ukrainian War: Ukraine begins its southern counteroffensive in the Kherson Oblast, eventually culminating in the liberation of the city of Kherson. Births Pre-1600 979 – Otto (or Eudes), French nobleman (d. 1045) 1321 – John of Artois, French nobleman (d. 1387) 1347 – John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English nobleman and soldier (d. 1375) 1434 – Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop and poet (d. 1472) 1514 – García Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Marquis of Villafranca, Spanish noble and admiral (d. 1577) 1534 – Nicholas Pieck, Dutch Franciscan friar and martyr (d. 1572) 1597 – Henry Gage, Royalist officer in the English Civil War (d. 1645) 1601–1900 1619 – Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (d. 1683) 1628 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1701) 1632 – John Locke, English physician and philosopher (d. 1704) 1724 – Giovanni Battista Casti, Italian poet and author (d. 1803) 1725 – Charles Townshend, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1767) 1728 – Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, electress of Bavaria (d. 1797) 1756 – Jan Śniadecki, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1830) 1756 – Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Austrian general and politician (d. 1845) 1772 – James Finlayson, Scottish Quaker (d. 1852) 1773 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (d. 1858) 1777 – Hyacinth, Russian religious leader, founded Sinology (d. 1853) 1780 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter and illustrator (d. 1867) 1792 – Charles Grandison Finney, American minister and author (d. 1875) 1805 – Frederick Denison Maurice, English priest, theologian, and author (d. 1872) 1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., American physician and author (d. 1894) 1810 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentinian theorist and diplomat (d. 1884) 1813 – Henry Bergh, American activist, founded the ASPCA (d. 1888) 1842 – Alfred Shaw, English cricketer, rugby player, and umpire (d. 1907) 1843 – David B.