Events Pre-1600 472 – Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is killed by troops of the Roman Gothic general Ricimer. 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius). 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor. 1276 – Election of pope Adrian V under the influence of Charles I of Anjou following the death of pope Gregory X earlier that year. Adrian V dies the following month. 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army. 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans. 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time. 1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne. 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances. 1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland".
1601–1900 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec. 1708 – A coalition army of Dutch, English and German troops under the duke of Marlborough defeats a French army under the duke of Burgundy and the Marshal Vendome in the battle of Oudenarde. 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979. 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille. 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty. 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War. 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history. 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. 1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed. 1836 – The Fly-fisher's Entomology is published by Alfred Ronalds. The book transformed the sport and went to many editions. 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C. 1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War. 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded. 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto. 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua. 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. 1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.
1901–present 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball. 1914 – The US Navy launches the as its first standard-type battleship. 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1924 – Eric Liddell wins the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State. 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain, killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1982 – Italy defeats West Germany 3–1 to win the FIFA World Cup. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board. 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins, lasting until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2007 – The Siege of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, Pakistan, ends after the Pakistan Army storms the mosque which had been occupied by Islamist militants. 2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others. 2010 – In Johannesburg, Spain defeat the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first FIFA World Cup title. 2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus. 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape. 2021 – Virgin Galactic launches its founder, Richard Branson, into space, the first company ever to do so.
Births Pre-1600 154 – Bardaisan, Syrian astrologer, scholar, and philosopher (died 222) 1274 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (died 1329) 1406 – William, Margrave of Hachberg-Sausenberg (died 1482) 1459 – Kaspar, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, German nobleman (died 1527) 1558 – Robert Greene, English author and playwright (died 1592) 1561 – Luis de Góngora, Spanish cleric and poet (died 1627)
1601–1900 1603 – Kenelm Digby, English astrologer, courtier, and diplomat (died 1665) 1628 – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese daimyō (died 1701) 1653 – Sarah Good, American woman accused of witchcraft (died 1692) 1657 – Frederick I of Prussia (died 1713) 1662 – Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (died 1726) 1709 – Johan Gottschalk Wallerius, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (died 1785) 1723 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and author (died 1799) 1754 – Thomas Bowdler, English physician and philanthropist (died 1825) 1760 – Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (died 1804) 1767 – John Quincy Adams, American lawyer and politician, 6th President of the United States (died 1848) 1811 – William Robert Grove, Welsh physicist and inventor of the first fuel cell (died 1896) 1826 – Alexander Afanasyev, Russian ethnographer and author (died 1871) 1832 – Charilaos Trikoupis, Greek lawyer and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Greece (died 1896) 1834 – James McNeill Whistler, American-English painter and illustrator (died 1903) 1836 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, Brazilian composer (died 1896) 1846 – Léon Bloy, French author and poet (died 1917) 1849 – N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents (died 1934) 1850 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary (died 1938) 1866 – Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (died 1953) 1875 – H. M. Brock, British painter and illustrator (died 1960) 1880 – Friedrich Lahrs, German architect and academic (died 1964) 1881 – Isabel Martin Lewis, American astronomer and author (died 1966) 1882 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (died 1946) 1886 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (died 1939) 1888 – Carl Schmitt, German philosopher and jurist (died 1985) 1892 – Thomas Mitchell, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1962) 1894 – Erna Mohr, German zoologist (died 1968) 1895 – Dorothy Wilde, English author and poet (died 1941) 1897 – Bull Connor, American police officer (died 1973) 1899 – Wilfrid Israel, German businessman and philanthropist (died 1943) 1899 – E. B. White, American essayist and journalist (died 1985)
1901–present 1901 – Gwendolyn Lizarraga, Belizean businesswoman, activist, and politician (died 1975) 1902 – Samuel Goudsmit, Dutch-American physicist (formulated concept of electron spin) (died 1978) 1903 – Rudolf Abel, English-Russian colonel and Soviet spy (died 1971) 1903 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (died 1976) 1904 – Niño Ricardo, Spanish guitarist and composer (died 1972) 1905 – Betty Allan, Australian statistician and biometrician (died 1952) 1906 – Herbert Wehner, German politician, Minister of Intra-German Relations (died 1990) 1909 – Irene Hervey, American actress (died 1998) 1909 – Jacques Clemens, Dutch catholic priest (died 2018) 1910 – Sally Blane, American actress (died 1997) 1911 – Erna Flegel, German nurse who was still present in the Führerbunker when it was captured by Soviet troops (died 2006) 1913 – Cordwainer Smith, American sinologist, author, and academic (died 1966) 1915 – Leonard Goodwin, British protozoologist (died 2008) 1916 – Mortimer Caplin, American tax attorney, educator, and IRS Commissioner (died 2019) 1916 – Hans Maier, Dutch water polo player (died 2018) 1916 – Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002) 1916 – Gough Whitlam, Australian lawyer, and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (died 2014) 1918 – Venetia Burney, English educator, who named Pluto (died 2009) 1918 – Roy Krenkel, American illustrator (died 1983) 1920 – Yul Brynner, Russian-American actor and dancer (died 1985)