Events in History
- 982 King Otto II and his Frankish army defeated in pitched battle with Muslim army of al-Qasim at Cape Colonna, Southern Italy
- 1223 Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II
- 1420 Battle at Vitkov Zizka's hill (Prague): Taboriets beat Bohemia
- 1581 English jesuit Edmund Campion arrested
- 1698 The Darien scheme begins with five ships, bearing about 1,200 people, departing Leith for the Isthmus of Panama
- 1714 Battle of Aland, Russian fleet overpowers larger Swedish fleet
- 1769 The de Portolá Expedition establishes a base in California, and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California)
- 1771 Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in California
Bastille Day
1789 Bastille Day - the French Revolution begins with the fall of the Bastille Prison
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Event of Interest
1790 The Fête de la Fédération, attended by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, is held across France on the first anniversary of the French Revolution
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Event of Interest
1791 The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England
Joseph Priestley
- 1798 1st direct US federal tax on states-on dwellings, land and slaves
- 1798 US Sedition Act prohibits "false, scandalous & malicious" writing against government
- 1822 Date planned for the slave revolt in Charleston, South Carolina by Denmark Vesey and Peter Poyas (plot already uncovered in June)
- 1823 Switzerland signs boundaries for fugitives
- 1832 Opium exempted from federal tariff duty
- 1845 1st postmasters' provisional stamps issued, NYC
- 1850 1st public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration by Florida physician John Gorrie
- 1853 Commodore Perry requests trade relations with Japan
Event of Interest
1853 US President Franklin Pierce opens World Fair - Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York
Franklin Pierce
- 1853 New Zealand holds its first general election
- 1861 General McDowell advances toward Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia with 40,000 troops
- 1861 Naval Engagement at Wilmington North Carolina - USS Daylight establishes blockade
- 1863 Battle of Falling Waters, Maryland (Beaver Creek)
- 1863 Jews of Holstein Germany granted equality
- 1864 Gold is discovered in Helena, Montana
- 1865 English mountaineer Edward Whymper leads first expedition to climb the Matterhorn (four die on the descent)
- 1865 The Chickasaw Nation is the last of the Five Tribes to surrender to the Union following the Confederate defeat
- 1868 Alvin J Fellows patents tape measure
Event of Interest
1870 The United States Congress grants Mary Todd Lincoln a life pension in the amount of $3,000 a year
Mary Todd Lincoln
- 1877 General strike brings US railroad to a stand still
- 1891 John T Smith patents corkboard
- 1902 The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta
- 1909 Germany chancellor Bernhard von Bulow resigns
- 1909 Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg nominated Germany Chancellor
- 1911 46" of rain begins to fall in Baguio, Philippines
Historic Invention
1914 Robert Goddard is granted the first patent for liquid-fueled rocket design
Robert H. Goddard
- 1916 33.6 cm rainfall at Effingham SC (state record)
- 1916 St Louis Brown Ernie Koob pitches all 17 inns in a 0-0 tie vs Boston
- 1918 Dutch government reclaims South seas
- 1921 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti convicted of killing their shoe company's paymaster and sentenced to death, in Dedham Massachusetts
- 1927 1st commercial airplane flight in Hawaii
- 1932 Belgian Chamber rules Dutch language for education of Flanders
- 1933 Germany begins mandatory sterilization of people with hereditary illnesses
- 1933 All non-Nazi parties are banned in Germany
- 1933 Verity bowls out Essex twice in a day, 8-47 & 9-44, at Leyton
- 1934 116°F (47°C), Orogrande NM (state record, broken on June 27, 1994)
- 1934 NY Times erroneously declares Ruth 700 HR record to stand for all time
- 1936 1 million demonstrate to support French People's Front government
- 1936 116°F (47°C), Collegeville, Indiana (state record)
Historic Publication
1938 Benito Mussolini publishes anti-Jewish/African manifesto
Benito Mussolini
- 1940 Due to beanball wars, Spalding advertises batting helmet with earflaps
- 1940 Lithuania becomes Lithuanian SSR
- 1941 6,000 Lithuanian Jews are exterminated at Viszalsyan Camp
- 1941 Cease fire of Joan of Arc (ends combat in Lebanon & Syria)
- 1941 Jam rationed in Holland
- 1942 1st transport of Amsterdam Jews to Westerbork
- 1942 Riots against Jews in Amsterdam
- 1944 Attempt to liberate prisoners in Amsterdam fails, John Post arrested
- 1944 US assault on Coutances Cotentin
- 1945 Battleship USS South Dakota is 1st US ship to bombard Japan
Historic Publication
1946 Dr Benjamin Spock's "Common Sense Book of Baby & Child Care" published
Benjamin Spock
Event of Interest
1951 George Washington Carver monument unveiled
George Washington Carver
- 1952 SS United States crosses Atlantic in 84:12 (record westward)
- 1953 First US national monument dedicated to a black American, to preserve the boyhood home of agricultural scientist and inventor George Washington Carver in Newton County, Missouri
- 1954 117°F (47°C), East St Louis, Illinois (state record)
- 1954 118°F (48°C), Warsaw & Union, Missouri (state record)
- 1955 2 killed, many dazed when lightning strikes Ascot racecourse, England
- 1957 Soviet steamer "Eshghbad" sinks in Caspian Sea, drowning 270
- 1958 General Abdul K Kassem forms a military government in Iraq overthrowing the monarchy
- 1958 Pope Pius XII publishes his 39th and last encyclical Meminisse juvat
- 1959 USS Long Beach, first nuclear powered cruiser launched at Quincy, Mass
- 1960 Fire rages through a Guatemala City insane asylum killing 225 and severely injuring 300
- 1961 Finland's Miettunen government forms
- 1962 Borehole for Mont Blanc tunnel finished
- 1962 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1964 Oriole Bob Johnson's 6th straight hit as a pinch hitter
- 1965 Australian Ronald Clarke runs world record 10k (27:39.4)
- 1965 Israeli/Jordanian border fights
- 1965 US Mariner IV, 1st Mars probe, passes at 6,100 miles (9,800 km)
- 1966 Richard Speck rapes and kills 8 nurses in a Chicago dormitory
- 1967 Surveyor 4 launched to Moon; explodes just before landing
- 1968 Houston Astro Don Wilson strikes out 18, beats Reds 6-1
- 1969 "Futbol War" between El Salvador and Honduras begins
- 1969 The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
- 1969 A 67-year-old Catholic civilian dies after being attacked by RUC officers in Dungiven; many consider this the first death of 'the Troubles'
- 1972 Jean Westwood is 1st woman chosen to head Democratic National Committee
- 1972 USSR performs underground nuclear Test
- 1974 Bundy victims Janice Ott and Denise Naslund disappear, Lake Sammamish, Washington
- 1975 EPCOT Center (Florida) plans announced
Presidential Convention
1976 Jimmy Carter wins Democratic presidential nomination in NYC
Jimmy Carter
- 1976 USSR banishes dissident Andrei Amalrik to Netherlands
- 1977 North Korea shoots down US helicopter, killing 3
- 1977 US House establishes permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- 1978 Anatoly Scharansky convicted of anti-Soviet agitation
- 1978 Allen Ginsburg completes "Plutonian Ode" - blocks trainload of fissile material headed for Rockwell's nuclear bomb trigger factory, Colorado
Birthdays in History
- 1454 Poliziano, Florentine humanist (d. 1494)
- 1486 Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (Recollets)
- 1602 Jules Mazarin, French cardinal, French 1st Minister (1642-61)
- 1608 George Goring, Lord Goring, English royalist soldier (d. 1657)
- 1610 Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1670)
- 1634 Pasquier Quesnel, French Jansenist theologian (d. 1719)
- 1671 Jacques D'Allonville, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1732)
- 1675 Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, French soldier (d. 1747)
- 1676 Caspar Abel, German theologian, historian, and poet (d. 1763)
- 1696 William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer (d. 1761)
- 1721 John Douglas, Scottish Anglican bishop and man of letters (d. 1807)
- 1743 Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Russian poet (d. 1816)
- 1756 Thomas Rowlandson, English painter/cartoonist/etcher
- 1762 Joseph Lakanal, Serres Ariège, French Politician and Educator
- 1785 Mordecai Manuel Noah, American writer, journalist (d. 1851)
- 1794 John G Lockhart, [Scorpion], biographer (Life of Sir Walter Scott)
- 1801 Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist (d. 1858)
- 1804 Ludwig A Benedek, Austrian general
- 1816 Arthur de Gobineau, French philosopher (d. 1882)
- 1818 Nathaniel Lyon, American Brigadier General (Union Army), 1st Union General to die in battle, born in Ashford, Connecticut (d. 1861)
- 1830 Richard Henry Jackson, Irish-American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Kinnegad County, Westmeath, Ireland (d. 1892)
- 1831 William Dwight, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1888)
- 1857 Frederick Louis Maytag, American businessman, head of Maytag, born in Elgin, Illinois (d. 1937)
- 1862 Florence Bascom, American geologist and 1st woman hired by the US Geological Survey, born in Williamstown, Massachusetts (d. 1945)
- 1862 Gustav Klimt, Austrian Art Nouveau painter
- 1865 Annie Jones, Virginia, bearded lady
Gertrude Bell
1868 Gertrude Bell, British archaeologist (Desert & The Sown), born in Washington Hall, County Durham, England (d. 1926)
Gertrude Bell
Ante Pavelić
1889 Ante Pavelić, Croatian leader of Nazi Germany puppet Independent State of Croatia, born in Bradina, Austria-Hungary (d. 1959)
Ante Pavelić
- 1890 Ossip Zadkine, [Zadkin], Russ/French sculptor (Destroyed City)
- 1893 John G Strijdom, premier of South-Africa (1954-58)
- 1893 Clarence J. Brown, Newspaper publisher and politician (d. 1965)
- 1895 Frank Raymond Leavis, British literary critic (Culture & Environment)
- 1896 Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarchist (d. 1936)
- 1902 Richard Clarkson, aerodynamicist
- 1902 Truman J Hedding, US vice-admiral (WWII)
- 1903 Irving Stone, American author (Love is Eternal, Lust for Life)
- 1906 Tom Carvel, ice cream mogul (Carvels)
- 1908 Chaim Raphael, English Jewish scholar and novelist, born in Middlesbrough (d. 1994)
- 1911 J de Graaf, Dutch ethicist/president (Church & Peace)
- 1912 Northrop Frye, Canadian literary critic (d. 1991)
- 1913 Fritz Erler, German politician (SDP)
Gerald Ford
1913 Gerald Ford [Leslie King], 38th US President (R: 1974-77) and 41st US Vice President (R: 1973-74), born in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 2006)
Gerald Ford
Ben Enwonwu
1917 Ben Enwonwu, Nigerian painter (Portrait of Tutu), born in Onitsha, Nigeria (d. 1994)
Ben Enwonwu
- 1918 Jay Forrester, Engineer, invented random-access magnetic core memory, born near Anselmo, Nebraska (d. 2016)
- 1921 Geoffrey Wilkinson, chemist
- 1921 Leon Garfield, English children's author (d. 1996)
- 1921 Sixto Durán Ballén, Ecuadorian politician, President of Ecuador (1992-96), born in Boston, America (d. 2016)
- 1922 Robin Olds, American World War II and Vietnam War ace fighter pilot (d. 2007)
- 1922 Elfriede Rinkel, Nazi concentration camp guard
- 1923 Frances Lear, Larchmont NY, Woman's magazine publisher (Lears)
- 1924 James W. Black, Scottish pharmacologist, Nobel laureate
- 1928 Elizabeth Jane Lloyd, artist/teacher
- 1931 Donald Eugene Webb, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- 1933 Robert Bourassa, Prime Minister of Quebec province (1970-76, 85-93), born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 1996)
- 1934 Leo Joseph Koury, Pitts, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
- 1936 Robert F Overmyer, Lorain Ohio, Col USMC/astronaut (STS 5, STS 51B)
- 1937 Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician
- 1938 Jerry Rubin, American activist (Chicago 7), stockbroker, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1994)
- 1939 George E. Slusser, American scholar and writer
- 1939 Ljubisa Beara, Bosnian general convicted of overseeing Srebrenica Massacre, born in Sarajevo (d. 2017)
- 1940 Susan Howatch, English author
- 1941 Tatyana Dmitryevna Kuznetsova, cosmonaut
- 1941 Maulana Karenga, American author and activist
- 1941 Andreas Khol, Austrian politician
- 1942 Javier Solana, Spanish European Union foreign policy chief
- 1946 Maureen O'Connor, Mayor (San Diego)
- 1947 Claudia Kennedy, U.S. Army officer
- 1949 Lukas D Barnard, head of South Africa secret service (NIS)
- 1950 Bruce Oldfield, British mode-designer
- 1951 Esther Dyson, computer publisher (Release 1.0), born in Zurich, Switzerland
- 1952 Joel Silver, producer (Warriors, Xanadu, Die Hard), born in South Orange, New Jersey
- 1952 Franklin Graham, American evangelist
- 1955 L. Brent Bozell, American author and activist
- 1959 Susana Martinez, American politician (Governor of New Mexico) 1st female Hispanic US governor, born in El Paso, Texas
- 1960 Anna Bligh, Australian politician, 1st woman Premier of Queensland (2007-12), born in Warwick, Australia
- 1963 Phil Rosenthal, American newspaper columnist
- 1966 Brian Selznick, American author and illustrator
- 1967 Patrick J. Kennedy, politician
- 1973 Adam Quinn, American bagpipe player
- 1977 Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
- 1979 Axel Teichmann, German cross-country skier
- 1982 Dmitry Chaplin, So You Think You Can Dance finalist
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1820 British PM Robert Peel (32) weds Sir John Floyd's daughter Julia at St George's, Hanover Square in London
Robert Peel
Wedding of Interest
1930 1st Filipino President Emilio Aguinaldo (61) weds second wife Maria Agoncillo (51) at Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan
Emilio Aguinaldo
Deaths in History
- 664 Deusdedit of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 937 Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria
- 1223 King Philip II of France (1180-1223) dies at 57
- 1298 Jacob de Voragine, Italian bishop/writer (Golden Legend), dies
- 1575 Richard Taverner, English Bible translator
- 1614 Camillus de Lellis, Italian Roman Catholic saint (founder of the Ministers of the Sick), dies at 64
- 1671 Méric Casaubon, French-English classical scholar, dies at 71
- 1711 Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange and monarch of Nassau-Dietz, drowns at 23
- 1723 Claude Fleury, French priest and historian, dies at 82
- 1742 Richard Bentley, English classical scholar (b. 1662)
- 1744 Immanuel J. Pyra, German poet (Temple of True Poetry), dies at 28
- 1762 Cornelis Hop, Amsterdams regent/diplomat, dies at 77
- 1766 František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect and builder, dies at 91
- 1770 David 't Kindt, Flemish architect (Mammelokker, Ghent), dies at 71
- 1774 James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and Kilmaine, British field marshal (b. 1682)
- 1779 George Ross, American judge/signer (Declaration of Independence), dies at 49
- 1780 Charles Batteux, French philosopher, dies at 67
- 1789 Jacques de Flesselles, French provost (assassinated) (b. 1721)
- 1789 Bernard-René de Launay, governor of the Bastille, murdered during the Storming of the Bastille (b.1740)
- 1790 Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (b. 1717)
- 1793 Jacques Cathelineau, French royalist, dies in battle at 44
- 1812 Christian G. Heyne, German archaeologist, dies at 82
- 1816 Francisco de Miranda, Venezuela freedom fighter, dies at 66
- 1817 Madame de Staël [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein], French-Swiss author (De l’Allemagne), dies at 51
- 1827 Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist (b. 1788)
- 1830 Anthony van Haersolte, Dutch politician and member of Executing Regime, dies at 73
- 1834 Edmond Charles Genêt, French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution (b. 1763)
- 1850 August Neander, German theologian (b. 1789)
- 1876 Thomas Hazlehurst, English Methodist chapel builder, dies at 60
Billy the Kid
1881 Billy the Kid [William H Bonney], American frontier outlaw, shot by sheriff Pat Garrett and dies of gunshot wounds at 21
Billy the Kid
- 1887 Alfred Krupp, German arms merchant, dies at 75
- 1897 John Franklin Farnsworth, American politician and Brigadier General (Union Army), dies at 77
- 1902 Mark M Antokolski, Russian/French sculptor, dies at 58
- 1904 Paul Kruger, the face of Boer resistance against the British during the South African or Second Boer War (1899–1902), dies of heart failure at 78
- 1907 William Henry Perkin, English chemist and inventor (b. 1838)
- 1918 Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of United States President Theodore Roosevelt, killed in aerial combat over France on Bastille Day at 20
- 1939 Alphonse Mucha, Czech Nouveau painter and artist, dies at 78
- 1950 Āpirana Ngata, Māori New Zealand politician and lawyer known for promoting and protecting Māori culture and language, dies at 76
- 1953 Richard von Mises, Austrian scientist and mathematician (probability theory), dies at 70
- 1954 Jacinto Benavente y Martinez, Spanish playwright, dies at 87
- 1958 Abdoel Illah, crown prince of Iraq, murdered
- 1958 Faisal II, King of Iraq (1939-58), son of Ghasi I, assassinated at Baghdad at 23
- 1958 Franciscus J. Feron, vicaris-general of Roermond, dies at 62
- 1958 Noeri el-Said, premier of Iraq, murdered
- 1959 Grock [Adrien Wettach], Swiss clown and circus director, dies at 79
Adlai Stevenson II
1965 Adlai Stevenson II, US ambassador to UN (1961-65), Governor of Illinois (1949-53) and Democratic presidential candidate (1952, 56), dies at 65
Adlai Stevenson II
- 1966 Julie Manet, French painter (b. 1878)
- 1967 Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (b. 1880)
- 1968 Konstatin G Paustovski, Russian sailor/author, dies at 76
- 1968 Westbrook Van Voorhis, announcer (March of Time), dies at 64
- 1968 Konstantin Georgiyevich Paustovsky, Russian writer (b. 1892)
- 1974 Henri Smajda, Tunis/French publisher (Combat), commits suicide at 77
- 1974 Carl Spaatz, American World War II general and 1st Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, dies at 83
- 1980 Felix Berezin, Russian physicist and mathematician (Berezin integral), dies at 49
- 1983 Arnout Colnot, Dutch painter and graphic artist, dies at 96
- 1984 Ernest Tidyman, American writer (b. 1928)
- 1986 Raymond Loewy, French-American industrial designer, dies at 92
- 1989 Frank Bell, British educator and founder of The Bell Educational Trust Limited, dies at 72
- 1990 Philip Leacock, dies of collapsed lungs at 73
- 1991 Nic van Bridges, Flemish poet, dies
- 1994 Robert Jungk, German/French/Us/Austrian philosopher/historian, dies
- 1995 Michael Naylor, English insurance broker (Endsleigh Insurance), dies at 59
- 1996 Kenneth Bainbridge, American physicist (measurements of mass differences between nuclear isotopes), dies at 91
- 1996 Kim Besly, Peace activist (Greenham Common), dies at 69
- 1998 Richard McDonald, American fast food pioneer (b. 1909)
- 1998 Robert A. W. Lowndes, American sci-fi author (Puzzle Planet), dies at 81
- 2000 William Roscoe Estep, American Baptist historian (b. 1920)
- 2000 René Ríos Boettiger, Chilean cartoonist (b. 1911)
- 2002 Joaquín Balaguer, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1906)
- 2003 Éva Janikovszky, Hungarian novelist (b. 1926)
- 2003 François-Albert Angers, French Canadian economist (b. 1909)
Cicely Saunders
2005 Cicely Saunders, English Nurse, physician and writer who founded the first modern hospice, dies of cancer at 87
Cicely Saunders
- 2005 Dorothy Bolden, American civil and women's rights activist, and founder of the National Domestic Worker's Union of America, dies at 81
- 2009 Phyllis Gotlieb, Canadian sci-fi novelist (Sunburst), dies at 83
- 2010 Mădălina Manole, Romanian pop recording artist (b. 1967)
- 2012 Sixten Jernberg, Swedish skier, dies at 83
- 2017 Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician, dies of breast cancer at 40