You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <logevents lestart="2009-04-25T17:47:55Z" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <logevents>
      <item logid="45" ns="2" title="User:Mkosta" pageid="0" type="newusers" action="byemail" userid="35" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2015-08-14T16:56:59Z" comment="" />
      <item logid="44" ns="0" title="Main Page" pageid="1" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2014-08-09T07:11:24Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="224" prev="185" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="43" ns="8" title="MediaWiki:Common.css" pageid="18" type="patrol" action="patrol" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2014-08-08T07:53:32Z" comment="">
        <patrol cur="223" prev="179" auto="1" />
      </item>
      <item logid="42" ns="2" title="User:Dolzmann" pageid="0" type="rights" action="rights" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2014-08-08T07:33:41Z" comment="">
        <rights new="sysop, bureaucrat, registered_users" old="" />
      </item>
      <item logid="41" ns="2" title="User:Dolzmann" pageid="0" type="newusers" action="byemail" userid="34" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2014-08-08T07:32:00Z" comment="" />
      <item logid="40" ns="10" title="Template:Infobox Package" pageid="0" type="delete" action="delete" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2012-03-14T15:14:22Z" comment="Author request:&amp;#32;content was: &#039;&lt;includeonly&gt;{| style=&quot;font-size:90%; vertical-align:top; text-align:left; empty-cells:collapse; width:21em;&quot; class=&quot;toccolours float-right&quot; cellspacing…&#039; (and the only contributor was &#039;[[Special:Contributions/Thomas-st" />
      <item logid="39" ns="0" title="Vsl" pageid="0" type="move" action="move" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2012-03-14T12:42:36Z" comment="">
        <move new_ns="0" new_title="VSL" suppressedredirect="" />
      </item>
      <item logid="38" ns="0" title="Qepcad" pageid="0" type="move" action="move" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2011-07-11T16:31:10Z" comment="">
        <move new_ns="0" new_title="QEPCAD" suppressedredirect="" />
      </item>
      <item logid="37" ns="0" title="Packages" pageid="0" type="delete" action="delete" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2009-04-26T18:49:11Z" comment="content was: &#039;REDUCE is complemented by numerous packages serving specialized mathematical purposes, which have to be loaded explicitly. The following is a very incom...&#039; (and the only contributor was &#039;[[Special:Contributions/Thomas-sturm|Thomas-sturm]]&#039;)" />
      <item logid="36" ns="6" title="File:MediaWikiSidebarLogo.png" pageid="7" type="upload" action="overwrite" user="Thomas-sturm" timestamp="2009-04-26T14:29:20Z" comment="" />
    </logevents>
  </query>
</api>