Death of Constantius II
361 Roman Emperor Constantius II dies at Mopsucrene on route to put down his general and cousin Julian, whose troops had proclaimed him Augustus
Peace of Étaples
1492 Peace of Étaples signed between Henry VII of England and Charles VIII of France, ending an English invasion of France and French support for the Yorkist Pretender Perkin Warbeck
Columbus Discovers Dominica
1493 Christopher Columbus first sights land on his second voyage - the island of Dominica in the Windward Islands
Act of Supremacy
1534 English parliament passes the Act of Supremacy making Henry VIII and all subsequent monarchs the Head of the Church of England
Drake Arrives at Ternate
1579 Francis Drake arrives at Ternate in the East Indies and makes a trade treaty with the Sultan of Ternate, buys a cargo of cloves [1]
- 1620 Great Patent granted to Plymouth Colony
Event of Interest
1629 Prince Frederick Henry festival in The Hague
Treaty of Interest
1716 Pacification Treaty of Warsaw: Tsar Peter the Great guarantees Saxon monarch August I's Polish kingdom
Music History
1752 George Frideric Handel undergoes (failed) eye operation
Event of Interest
1783 George Washington orders Continental Army disbanded
- 1783 John Austin, a footpad turned murderer, is the last to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows
- 1791 Battle at Wabash: Indians assault general St Clair, 637 soldiers killed
Event of Interest
1793 French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined
- 1794 French troops conquer Maastricht
Election of Interest
1796 John Adams elected as 2nd president of the United States of America
Victory in Battle
1812 Napoleonic armies defeated at Vyazma
- 1813 US troops under General Coffee annihilate the Red Stick Creek Indian village at Tallasseehatchee, Alabama
- 1817 First permanent bank in British North America - the Bank of Montreal founded [1]
- 1820 Cuenca (Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca), Ecuador, declares independence
- 1838 The Times of India, world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
- 1839 First Opium War - 2 British frigates engage several Chinese junks
- 1839 Palace of Gulhane Turkey, freedom of religion proclaimed
- 1848 Johan Thorbeckes revises the Constitution of the Netherlands
- 1856 A British fleet bombards Canton
Event of Interest
1860 Poet and critic Matthew Arnold begins his series of lectures "On Translating Home" as Oxford Professor of Poetry at Oxford University
Event of Interest
1867 Battle at Mentana: French & Papal troops beat Giuseppe Garibaldi
- 1868 John Willis Menard from Louisiana is elected the first black US Congressman (opposition to his election means he never sits in Congress)
Election of Interest
1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) wins US presidential election over Horatio Seymour (D)
- 1869 Canada's Hamilton Football Club forms
- 1874 James Theodore Holly, elected bishop of Haiti
- 1883 American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture
- 1883 Race riots kill 4 blacks in Danville Virginia
- 1883 US Supreme Court decides federal courts have no jurisdiction over Native American tribal Council (Ex parte Crow Dog)
- 1885 Tacoma vigilantes drive out Chinese, burn their homes & businesses
- 1886 Friars of Tilburg arrives on Curacao
- 1888 Concertgebouw Orchestra debuts in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, under the baton of founding conductor Willem Kes
- 1889 Chaplain Ariëns founds first Roman Catholic Workers group
Royal Coronation
1889 Menelik II is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia at the Church of Mary on Mount Entoto
- 1896 J H Hunter patents portable weighing scales
- 1896 Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah elected 1st female state senator in the US
Election of Interest
1896 William McKinley (R) defeats William Jennings Bryan (D) to be President of the United States
Boxing Title Fight
1899 World heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries retains title; beats Irishman Tom Sharkey on points in 25 rounds at Coney Island Athletic Club, Brooklyn, NYC
Event of Interest
1905 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia signs a document of amnesty for the political prisoners
- 1906 International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin selects "SOS" (· · · – – – · · ·) distress signal as the worldwide standard for help
Election of Interest
1908 William Howard Taft (R) elected 27th U.S. President over William Jennings Bryan (D)
- 1914 1st modern elastic brassiere is patented by New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob
- 1916 Treaty establishes British suzerainty over Qatar
- 1917 1st class US mail now costs 3 cents per ounce
- 1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolves
- 1918 Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I
- 1918 Thousands of revolutionary German sailors with the fleet at Kiel mutiny, seize the city, and set up councils of workers and sailors
- 1922 Greek parliament bans Prince Andreas for life
- 1927 22.3 cm rainfall at Somerset, Vermont (state record)
Music Premiere
1927 Rodgers & Hart's musical "Connecticut Yankee", based on Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court", opens at the Vanderbilt Theatre, NYC; runs for 421 performances
- 1927 Tropical storm flooding kills 84 in Winooski River Valley, Vermont
- 1928 Turkey switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet
Event of Interest
1930 Bank of Italy renamed Bank of America
- 1930 First vehicular tunnel to a foreign country (Detroit-Windsor) opens
Coup d'état
1930 Getúlio Dornelles Vargas became Head of the Provisional Government in Brazil after a bloodless coup on October 24.
- 1931 First commercially produced synthetic rubber manufactured
Baseball Record
1934 NY Yankees 1st baseman Lou Gehrig wins American League Triple Crown after hitting .363 with 49 HRs and 165 RBI; but Philadelphia A's catcher Mickey Cochrane (.320, 2 HRs, 76 RBI) is named AL MVP
- 1935 George II returns to Greece after 12 years and regains monarchy
- 1935 Korean runner Sohn Kee-chung sets new men's marathon world record, 2:26:42 in Tokyo, Japan
- 1935 Philadelphia Eagles beat Boston Redskins, 7-6 at Fenway Park; respective quarterbacks combine to throw an NFL record 11 interceptions
Election of Interest
1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt wins a second term in office, defeating Republican candidate Alf Landon in the most lopsided election in American history in terms of electoral vote
Attack on Pearl Harbor
1941 Hirohito's accord on Yamamoto's attack plan on Pearl Harbor fails
- 1942 12th day of battle at El Alamein: Scottish assault
Baseball Record
1942 Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams wins American League Triple Crown (.356 average, 36 HRs, 137 RBI); but NY Yankees pitcher Joe Gordon is AL MVP
- 1942 William L. Dawson elected to the US Congress from Chicago
Music Premiere
1943 Dmitri Shostakovich's 8th Symphony premieres in Moscow
- 1943 P-47D Thunderbolt shot down above North Holland
- 1944 Allied commandos land at Westkapelle, on the Dutch island of Walcheren
- 1944 German troops in Vlissingen surrender
- 1944 Pro-German government of Hungary flees
- 1944 US 28th Infantry division occupies Schmidt Hurtgenwald
- 1945 Australian Test cricket batsman Lindsay Hassett is 124 not out as Australian Services draws with Prince's XI at Delhi; follows his 187 in 1st innings
- 1945 Dmitri Shostakovich's 9th Symphony premieres in 25th season opening concert of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, under Yevgeny Mravinsky
NHL All-Star Game
1948 2nd NHL All-Star Game, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: All-Stars beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1; Gordie Howe's first of 23 All-Star appearances
- 1948 Kleggie Hermsen and Bones McKinney each score 17 points as Washington Capitols beat Philadelphia Warriors, 77-70 at Washington Coliseum to win first of 15 straight games to start season; best start in NBA history
Event of Interest
1952 Clarence Birdseye markets frozen peas
- 1952 Egypt protests German retribution payments to Israel
- 1953 "Tokyo Story", Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Chishū Ryū, Chieko Higashiyama and Setsuko Hara, is released
- 1953 MLB Rules Committee restores the sacrifice fly rule, eliminated in 1939; rule says a sacrifice fly is not charged as a time at bat
- 1954 Nobel for physics awarded to Max Born & Walter Bothe
Event of Interest
1955 Argentine ex-president Juan Perón arrives in Nicaragua
- 1955 Australia takes control of Cocos Islands
- 1955 Bernardus J Alfrink installed as archbishop of Utrecht
- 1955 First virus crystallized (announced)
The Wizard of Oz
1956 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" televised for 1st time - hosted by Bert Lahr and 10 year old Liza Minnelli, as the finale of the Ford Star Jubilee series (CBS-TV)
- 1956 Suez Crisis: After several days of fighting, Israeli forces capture the Gaza Strip
Space Dog Laika Launched to her Death
1957 Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard, a mostly-Siberian husky, the 1st animal in space
- 1958 USSR performs nuclear test
Election of Interest
1959 David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party wins Israeli parliamentary election
- 1960 Ivory Coast adopts constitution
- 1960 Meredith Willson's musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", starring Tammy Grimes, opens at Winter Garden, NYC; runs for 532 performances, and wins a Tony Award
- 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates starter Vern Law (20-9, 18 complete games) wins MLB's Cy Young Award
Election of Interest
1961 UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant as acting Secretary-General after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash
NBA Record
1962 SF Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 72 points in 127-115 defeat to LA Lakers at LA Memorial Sports Arena; then 4th-highest point total in NBA history; remains 6th highest game total
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
Sports History
1963 Joe Weatherly finishes 7th in the season ending Golden State 400 at Riverside International Raceway; retains NASCAR Sprint Cup by 2,228 points from 14-time winner Richard Petty
- 1964 For 1st time since 1800, residents of Washington, D.C. permitted to vote
Election of Interest
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson is elected President of the United States in a landslide, with Hubert Humphrey as his vice president, defeating Republican candidate Barry Goldwater
- 1964 Philadelphia voters narrowly approve $25 million to build a new multi-purpose stadium that would become Veterans Stadium, home to MLB Phillies and NFL Eagles
Baseball Record
1965 Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax is named Cy Young Award winner by a unanimous vote and for a third time; posts 26-8 record, 1.73 ERA and record-shattering 382 strikeouts
- 1967 Vietnam War: The Battle of Dak To begins, becoming one of the bloodiest battles of the war
Election of Interest
1968 Bob Packwood is elected senator of Oregon
Sports History
1968 David Pearson is declared NASCAR Grand National champion as Cale Yarborough wins season ending Peach State 200 at Jefferson, Georgia; Pearson finishes 126 points ahead of Bobby Isaac to secure his 2nd title
F1 World Champion
1968 English Lotus driver Graham Hill wins his 2nd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by taking out the Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez; wins title by 12 points from Scotsman Jackie Stewart
- 1968 Ex-Prime Minister of Greece Georgios Papandreou buried. 300,000 demonstrate against fascist junta
- 1968 New York Jets kicker Jim Turner lands 6 field goals and an extra point to beat Buffalo Bills, 25-21 at Shea Stadium
- 1969 Congo president Mobutu visits Belgium
- 1970 "The President's Daughter" opens at Billy Rose Theater, NYC; runs for 72 performances
- 1970 Future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson wins his second NL Cy Young Award (23-7 record, 274 strikeouts and 3.12 ERA
Event of Interest
1970 Marxist Salvador Allende inaugurated as President of Chile
Event of Interest
1970 US President Richard Nixon promises gradual troop removal of Vietnam
- 1971 "Play Misty For Me" premieres
- 1973 Atlantic Records releases "Abandoned Luncheonette", the second studio album by the American pop rock duo Daryl Hall & John Oates
- 1973 BYU receiver Jay Miller sets an NCAA football single game record with 22 catches (for 263 yards) en route to a 56-21 victory over New Mexico at Cougar Stadium, Provo, Utah
- 1973 Mariner 10 launched-1st Venus pics, 1st mission to Mercury
- 1974 "Lorelei" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 320 performances
Sports History
1975 Chris Evert becomes first tennis player to achieve the No. 1 ranking as the WTA Tour rankings debut; Evert holds top-spot for first 26 weeks
- 1975 Good Morning America premieres on ABC (David Hartman & Nancy Dussault)
- 1975 U.S. advice columnist for "Good Housekeeping" Ann Landers asks parents in a mail-in survey "‘If you had it to do over again, would you have children?" 70% of participants say no
- 1978 Dominica gains independence from UK & adopts constitution
- 1978 First broadcast of "Different Strokes" on NBC TV
- 1978 USSR & Vietnam sign peace & friendship treaty
- 1979 Five people mortally wounded during anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration in NC
- 1979 Moroccan offensive against Polisario Front
- 1980 After acquiring MLB's Oakland A's for $12.7m, Walter Haas Jr. appoints himself CEO; leads team to 4 AL West Divisional titles and 1989 World Series Championship
- 1980 Ianford Wilson's "5th of July" premieres in NYC
- 1980 Walter Hass Jr becomes CEO of Oakland A's
- 1981 Milwaukee Brewers future Baseball Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers (6-3 record, 28 saves and 1.04 ERA) wins American League Cy Young Award, with 22 of 28 possible 1st-place votes
Baseball Record
1982 Pitcher Pete Vuckovich becomes Milwaukee Brewers' second consecutive American League Cy Young Award winner; edges Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles; Vuckovich, 18-6 with 105 strikeouts and 3.34 ERA
- 1982 San Diego guard Randy Smith plays his 845th consecutive game in Clippers' 130-111 loss in Philadelphia; passes Johnny “Red” Kerr's NBA record; goes on to play in 906 straight games
- 1983 Jesse Jackson launches his 1st campaign for presidency (D)
- 1983 Nashville Network begins on cable TV
- 1984 3,000 die in 3 day anti-Sikh riot in India
Assassination
1984 Body of assassinated Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi cremated
Sports History
1985 Bill Elliott wins Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta Raceway to become first driver to win 11 super-speedway races in 1 season; also first driver to win $2m in prize money in a single season
F1 World Champion
1985 French McLaren driver Alain Prost wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship, finishing 4th in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide; wins title by 20 points from Italian Michele Alboreto
- 1985 President Alfonsín's Radical Burgerunie wins in Argentine legislative elections
- 1986 Federated States of Micronesia signs Compact of Free Association with US
- 1986 Joaquim Chissano elected president Mozambique
Menlove Avenue
1986 John Lennon's "Menlove Avenue" album released posthumously
- 1986 Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra reveals secret US arms sales to Iran
- 1986 Northern Mariana Islands becomes a Commonwealth associated with US
Historic Invention
1987 Gordon Gould issued US patent US4704583 for the laser, ending his 30-year battle to be credited as the inventor of the laser
Sports History
1987 New York Rangers' center Marcel Dionne becomes just the 2nd NHL player to register 1,700 career points, scoring a goal in 5-3 loss at Calgary
Baseball Record
1987 Oakland A's first baseman Mark McGwire wins American League Rookie of the Year with 49 home runs, 118 RBI; second to win AL award unanimously; first Carlton Fisk 1972
- 1987 On Wall Street, after 5 consecutive gains, Dow Jones down 50.56
- 1988 Pakistan claims it downed Afghan warplane
Event of Interest
1988 President Reagan signs credit-card disclosure-bill
- 1988 Soviet Union agrees to allow teaching of Hebrew
Film & TV History
1988 Talk-show host Geraldo Rivera's nose is broken as Roy Innis brawls with skinheads at TV taping
- 1989 100s of Bulgarian demonstrate in Sofia for democratic rights
- 1989 NBA expansion Minnesota Timberwolves make NBA debut; lose 106-94 against SuperSonics at Seattle Center Coliseum; Tyrone Corbin T-Wolves top scorer with 20 points
- 1989 Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Alexander Volkov become first Russians to play in a regular season NBA game; Marciulionis scores 19 as Golden State lose 136-106 to Phoenix; Volkov held scoreless in Atlanta's 126-103 defeat by Indiana
NBA Record
1990 Atlanta Hawks' center Moses Malone sets an NBA record for free throws made in a career by hitting 7-of-9 in a 121-120 win over Indiana Pacers at the Omni; passes Oscar Robinson's record (7,694)
- 1990 Gro Harlem Brundtland is installed as Prime Minister of Norway
- 1990 MLB club owners agree to pay players $280 million in damages under a settlement to close aftermath of the owners' 3-year conspiracy case against free agents; largest owner-to-player payment ever made in sports
- 1990 TCU quarterback Matt Vogler completes 44 passes including 5 touchdowns for an NCAA football record 690 passing yards in a 56-35 loss to Houston at the Astrodome; Cougars quarterback David Klingler throws for 7 TDs
F1 World Champion
1991 Ayrton Senna wins Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide; shortest F1 race ever run (14 laps) because of wet conditions; Senna retains his 3rd World Drivers Championship by 24 points from Nigel Mansell
- 1991 New York City Marathon: Salvador Garcia of Mexico men's champion in 2:09:28; Liz McColgan of Scotland wins women's title, 2:27.0
I Will Always Love You
1992 "I Will Always Love You" (Dolly Parton cover) single released by Whitney Houston (Billboard Song of the Year 1993)
- 1992 Carol Moseley-Braun elected first African-American woman in US Senate, representing Illinois
Election of Interest
1992 Democrat Bill Clinton is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent President George H. W. Bush
Rage Against the Machine
1992 Rock band Rage Against the Machine releases their debut album "Rage Against the Machine" featuring single "Killing in the Name"
- 1993 Defenseman Ken Daneyko sets New Jersey Devils 'Ironman' record by playing 322nd consecutive NHL game in 2-3 loss at LA Kings
Sports History
1993 Greg Maddux becomes first pitcher since Sandy Koufax to win the National League's Cy Young Award in successive MLB seasons and the first in successive seasons with different teams; Cubs 1992, Braves 1993
- 1994 Dutch & British astronomers find spiral nebula Dwingeloo 1
- 1994 First PlayStation console released by Sony Interactive Entertainment in Japan
- 1994 Small forward Glenn Robinson signs the then most lucrative rookie contract in NBA history, a 10-year, $68.15 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-66 (Atlantis 13), launches
- 1994 Susan Smith who claimed her two children were carjacked arrested for murder
- 1994 Total solar eclipse in South America (4m23s)
