61 BC – Pompey the Great celebrates his third triumph for victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.
1011 – Danes capture Canterbury after a siege, taking Ælfheah, archbishop of Canterbury, as a prisoner.
1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.
1267 – The Treaty of Montgomery recognises Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as Prince of Wales, but only as a vassal of King Henry III.
1364 – English forces defeat the French in Brittany, ending the War of the Breton Succession.
1578 – Tegucigalpa, capital city of Honduras, is claimed by the Spaniards.
1637 – 42-year-old Lorenzo Ruiz dies.
1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture.
1789 – The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
1789 – The 1st United States Congress adjourns.
1829 – The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.
1848 – The Battle of Pákozd is a stalemate between Hungarian and Croatian forces, and is the first battle of the Hungarian Revolution.
1850 – The papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae restores the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales.
1855 – The Philippine port of Iloilo is opened to world trade by the Spanish administration.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chaffin’s Farm is fought.
1864 – The Treaty of Lisbon defines the boundaries between Spain and Portugal and abolishes the Couto Misto microstate.
1885 – The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.
1907 – The cornerstone is laid at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (better known as Washington National Cathedral) in Washington, D.C.
1911 – Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
1918 – World War I: Bulgaria signs the Armistice of Salonica.
1918 – The Hindenburg Line is broken by an Allied attack.
1918 – Germany’s Supreme Army Command tells the Kaiser and the Chancellor to open negotiations for an armistice.
1923 – The British Mandate for Palestine takes effect, creating Mandatory Palestine.
1923 – The French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon takes effect.
1923 – The First American Track & Field championships for women are held.
1932 – Chaco War: Last day of the Battle of Boquerón between Paraguay and Bolivia.
1940 – Two Avro Ansons collide in mid-air over New South Wales, Australia, remain locked together, then land safely.
1941 – World War II: German forces, with the aid of local Ukrainian collaborators, begin the two-day Babi Yar massacre.
1949 – The Communist Party of China writes the Common Programme for the future People’s Republic of China.
1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed.
1957 – The Kyshtym disaster is the third-worst nuclear accident ever recorded.
1971 – Oman joins the Arab League.
1972 – China–Japan relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.
1975 – WGPR becomes the first black-owned-and-operated television station in the US.
1979 – The dictator Francisco Macias of Equatorial Guinea is shot by soldiers from Western Sahara.
1988 – NASA launches STS-26, the first mission since the Challenger disaster.
1990 – Construction of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (better known as Washington National Cathedral) is completed in Washington, D.C.
1990 – The YF-22, which would later become the F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time.
1991 – A Haitian coup d’état occurs.
1992 – Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello is impeached.
2004 – The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.
2004 – Burt Rutan’s Ansari SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the Ansari X Prize.
2006 – A Boeing 737 and an Embraer 600 collide in mid-air, killing 154 people and triggering a Brazilian aviation crisis.
2007 – Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, is demolished in a controlled explosion.
2009 – The 8.1 Mw Samoa earthquake results in a tsunami that kills 189 and injures hundreds.
2011 – The special court in India convicted all 269 accused officials for atrocity on Dalits and 17 for rape in the Vachathi case.
2013 – Over 42 people are killed by members of Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Nigeria.
2016 – Eleven days after the Uri attack, the Indian Army conducts “surgical strikes” against suspected militants in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
2019 – Violence and low turnout mar the 2019 Afghan presidential election.
2019 – At least 59 people are reported dead due to monsoon rains in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India. 350 people have died this year due to rain in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Births on September 29
106 BC – Pompey, Roman general and politician (d. 48 BC)
929 – Qian Chu, Chinese king (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 988)
1240 – Margaret of England, Queen consort of Scots (d. 1275)
1276 – Christopher II of Denmark (d. 1332)
1373 – Margaret of Bohemia, Burgravine of Nuremberg (d. 1410)
1402 – Fernando, the Saint Prince, of Portugal (d. 1443)
1403 – Elisabeth of Brandenburg, Duchess of Brzeg-Legnica and Cieszyn, German princess (d. 1449)
1460 – Louis II de la Trémoille, French military leader (d. 1525)
1463 – Louis I, Count of Löwenstein, founder of the House of Löwenstein-Wertheim (d. 1523)
1511 – Michael Servetus, Spanish physician, cartographer, and theologian (d. 1553)
1527 – John Lesley, Scottish bishop (d. 1596)
1538 – Joan Terès i Borrull, Spanish archbishop and academic (d. 1603)
1547 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1616)
1548 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1626)
1561 – Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish priest and mathematician (d. 1615)
1574 – Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, Scottish nobleman and politician (d. 1624)
1602 – Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, English military leader (d. 1668)
1636 – Thomas Tenison, English archbishop (d. 1715)
1639 – William Russell, Lord Russell, English politician (d. 1683)
1640 – Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor and educator (d. 1720)
1674 – Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, French flute player and composer (d. 1763)
1678 – Adrien Maurice de Noailles, French soldier and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1766)
1691 – Richard Challoner, English bishop (d. 1781)
1703 – François Boucher, French painter and set designer (d. 1770)
1718 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier and politician, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1783)
1725 – Robert Clive, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire (d. 1774)
1758 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, English admiral (d. 1805)
1766 – Charlotte, Princess Royal of England (d. 1828)
1786 – Guadalupe Victoria, Mexican general, lawyer, and politician, 1st President of Mexico (d. 1843)
1803 – Mercator Cooper, American captain and explorer (d. 1872)
1803 – Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician and theorist (d. 1850)
1808 – Henry Bennett, American lawyer and politician (d. 1868)
1810 – Elizabeth Gaskell, English author (d. 1865)
1816 – Paul Féval, père, French author and playwright (d. 1887)
1832 – Joachim Oppenheim, rabbi and author (d. 1891)
1832 – Miguel Miramón, Unconstitutional president of Mexico, 1859-1860 (d. 1867)
1843 – Mikhail Skobelev, Russian general (d. 1882)
1844 – Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 10th President of Argentina (d. 1909)
1853 – Luther D. Bradley, American cartoonist (d. 1917)
1863 – Hugo Haase, German lawyer, jurist, and politician (d. 1919)
1864 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher and author (d. 1936)
1866 – Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Ukrainian historian, academic, and politician (d. 1934)
1876 – Charlie Llewellyn, South African cricketer (d. 1964)
1880 – Liberato Pinto, Portuguese colonel and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1949)
1881 – Ludwig von Mises, Austrian-American economist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1973)
1882 – Lilias Armstrong, English phonetician (d. 1937)
1885 – George Scott, English footballer (d. 1916)
1891 – Ian Fairweather, Scottish-Australian painter (d. 1974)
1895 – Clarence Ashley, American singer, guitarist, and banjo player (d. 1967)
1895 – Joseph Banks Rhine, American botanist and parapsychologist (d. 1980)
1895 – Roscoe Turner, American pilot (d. 1970)
1897 – Herbert Agar, American journalist and historian (d. 1980)
1898 – Trofim Lysenko, Ukrainian-Russian biologist and agronomist (d. 1976)
1899 – László Bíró, Hungarian-Argentinian journalist and inventor, invented the ballpoint pen (d. 1985)
1899 – Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, founded Butlins (d. 1980)
1901 – Lanza del Vasto, Italian poet, philosopher, and activist (d. 1981)
1901 – Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1903 – Miguel Alemán Valdés, Mexican lawyer and civilian politician, 46th President of Mexico (1946-1952) (d. 1983)
1903 – Diana Vreeland, American journalist (d. 1989)
1904 – Greer Garson, English-American actress (d. 1996)
1907 – Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and businessman (d. 1998)
1907 – George W. Jenkins, American businessman, founded Publix (d. 1996)
1908 – Eddie Tolan, American sprinter and educator (d. 1967)
1910 – Bill Boyd, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1910 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (d. 1982)
1911 – Charles Court, English-Australian politician, 21st Premier of Western Australia (d. 2007)
1912 – Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1913 – Trevor Howard, English actor (d. 1988)
1913 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (d. 2001)
1915 – Vincent DeDomenico, American businessman, founded the Napa Valley Wine Train (d. 2007)
1915 – Oscar Handlin, American historian and academic (d. 2011)
1915 – Brenda Marshall, American actress (d. 1992)
1916 – Carl Giles, English cartoonist (d. 1995)
1919 – Kira Zvorykina, Belarusian chess player (d. 2014)
1920 – Peter D. Mitchell, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
1920 – Václav Neumann, Czech violinist and conductor (d. 1995)
1921 – John Ritchie, New Zealand composer and educator (d. 2014)
1921 – Albie Roles, English footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1922 – Lizabeth Scott, American actress (d. 2015)
1923 – Stan Berenstain, American author and illustrator (d. 2005)
1923 – Bum Phillips, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
1925 – Steve Forrest, American actor (d. 2013)
1925 – Paul MacCready, American engineer, founded AeroVironment (d. 2007)
1926 – Chuck Cooper, American basketball player (d. 1984)
1926 – Pete Elliott, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
1927 – Adhemar da Silva, Brazilian triple jumper and actor (d. 2001)
1927 – Sherwood Johnston, American race car driver (d. 2000)
1927 – Pete McCloskey, American colonel and politician
1927 – Barbara Mertz, American historian and author (d. 2013)
1928 – Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, English lieutenant, engineer, and politician (d. 2016)
1928 – Brajesh Mishra, Indian politician and diplomat, 1st Indian National Security Advisor (d. 2012)
1928 – Nathan Shamuyarira, Zimbabwean journalist and politician, Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2014)
1930 – Richard Bonynge, Australian pianist and conductor
1930 – Colin Dexter, English author and educator (d. 2017)
1931 – James Cronin, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
1931 – Anita Ekberg, Swedish-Italian model and actress (d. 2015)
1931 – Paul Oestreicher, German-English priest and theologian
1932 – Robert Benton, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1932 – Paul Giel, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2002)
1933 – Samora Machel, Mozambican commander and politician, 1st President of Mozambique (d. 1986)
1934 – Skandor Akbar, American wrestler and manager (d. 2010)
1934 – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Hungarian-American psychologist and academic
1934 – Lance Gibbs, Guyanese cricketer and manager
1934 – Stuart M. Kaminsky, American author and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1934 – Lindsay Kline, Australian cricketer (d. 2015)
1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1936 – Silvio Berlusconi, Italian businessman and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Italy
1936 – James Fogle, American author (d. 2012)
1936 – Hal Trosky, Jr., American baseball player (d. 2012)
1938 – Dave Harper, English footballer (d. 2013)
1938 – Wim Kok, Dutch union leader and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2018)
1939 – Fikret Abdić, Bosnian economist and politician
1939 – Jim Baxter, Scottish footballer (d. 2001)
1939 – Larry Linville, American actor (d. 2000)
1939 – Rhodri Morgan, Welsh politician, 2nd First Minister of Wales (d. 2017)
1940 – Brute Force, American singer-songwriter
1940 – Carlos Morales Troncoso, Dominican politician, 34th Vice President of the Dominican Republic (d. 2014)
1941 – David Steele, English cricketer
1942 – Felice Gimondi, Italian cyclist
1942 – Madeline Kahn, American actress and singer (d. 1999)
1942 – Ian McShane, English actor
1942 – Bill Nelson, American captain and politician
1942 – Jean-Luc Ponty, French violinist and composer
1942 – Janet Powell, Australian educator and politician (d. 2013)
1942 – Steve Tesich, Serbian-American screenwriter and playwright (d. 1996)
1943 – Wolfgang Overath, German footballer
1943 – Lech Wałęsa, Polish electrician and politician, 2nd President of Poland, Nobel Prize laureate
1944 – Mike Post, American composer and producer
1945 – Kyriakos Sfetsas, Greek composer and poet
1945 – Nadezhda Chizhova, Russian shot putter
1946 – Patricia Hodge, English actress
1947 – Ülo Kaevats, Estonian philosopher, academic, and politician (d. 2015)
1947 – S. H. Kapadia, Indian lawyer, judge, and politician, 38th Chief Justice of India (d. 2016)
1947 – Gary Wetzel, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient
1948 – Mark Farner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948 – Bryant Gumbel, American journalist and sportscaster
1948 – Theo Jörgensmann, German clarinet player and composer
1948 – Mike Pinera, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1949 – George Dalaras, Greek singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Ken Macha, American baseball player and manager
1951 – Michelle Bachelet, Chilean physician and politician, 34th President of Chile
1951 – Pier Luigi Bersani, Italian educator and politician, 6th President of Emilia-Romagna
1951 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1977)
2018 – Otis Rush, American blues guitarist and singer (b. 1934)
Holidays and observances on September 29
Christian feast day:
Rhipsime
September 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. One of the four quarter days in the Irish calendar. (England and Ireland). Called Michaelmas in some western liturgical traditions
306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.
677 – Climax of the Siege of Thessalonica by the Slavs in a three-day assault on the city walls.
864 – The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
1137 – Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Prince Louis, later King Louis VII of France, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux.
1139 – Battle of Ourique: The Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques who is proclaimed King of Portugal.
1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
1278 – The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile.
1467 – The Battle of Molinella: The first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.
1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the city of Santiago de Cali.
1538 – The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.
1547 – Henry II of France is crowned.
1554 – Mary I marries Philip II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral.
1567 – Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
1593 – Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
1603 – James VI of Scotland is crowned king of England (James I of England), bringing the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.
1609 – The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there.
1693 – Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico.
1722 – Dummer’s War begins along the Maine-Massachusetts border.
1755 – British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians.
1759 – French and Indian War: In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: The war’s last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, is ended by a preliminary peace agreement.
1788 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).
1792 – The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French royal family is harmed.
1797 – Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).
1799 – At Abu Qir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
1814 – War of 1812: An American attack on Canada is repulsed.
1824 – Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.
1837 – The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated in London by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.
1853 – Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as the “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, is killed.
1861 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
1866 – The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
1868 – The Wyoming Territory is established.
1869 – The Japanese daimyōs begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
1898 – In the Puerto Rican Campaign, the United States seizes Puerto Rico from Spain.
1908 – Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
1909 – Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom in 37 minutes.
1915 – RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British pursuit aviator to earn the Victoria Cross.
1917 – Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a “temporary” measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
1925 – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
1934 – The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
1940 – General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.
1942 – The Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the German occupation.
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by the Grand Council of Fascism and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1944 – World War II: Operation Spring is one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war.
1946 – Nuclear weapons testing: Operation Crossroads: An atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll.
1956 – Forty-five miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
1957 – The Republic of Tunisia is proclaimed, under President Habib Bourguiba.
1958 – The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.
1961 – Cold War: In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.
1969 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the “Vietnamization” of the war.
1973 – Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
1976 – Viking program: Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo.
1978 – Puerto Rican police shoot two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders.
1978 – Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.
1979 – Another section of the Sinai Peninsula is peacefully returned by Israel to Egypt.
1983 – Black July: Thirty-seven Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
1984 – Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
1993 – Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.
1993 – The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, that formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.
1995 – A gas bottle explodes in Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight are killed and 80 wounded.
1996 – In a military coup in Burundi, Pierre Buyoya deposes Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.
2000 – Concorde Air France Flight 4590 crashes at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, killing 113 people.
2007 – Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India’s first female president.
2010 – WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.
2018 – As-Suwayda attacks: Coordinated attacks occur in Syria.
2019 – National extreme heat records set this day in the UK, Belgium and Germany during the July 2019 European heatwave.
Births on July 25
975 – Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg (d. 1018)
1016 – Casimir I the Restorer, duke of Poland (d. 1058)
1109 – Afonso I, king of Portugal (d. 1185)
1165 – Ibn Arabi, Andalusian Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher (d. 1240)
1261 – Arthur II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1312)
1291 – Hawys Gadarn, Welsh noblewoman (d. 1353)
1336 – Albert I, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1404)
1394 – James I, king of Scotland (d. 1437)
1404 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1430)
1421 – Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (d. 1461)
1450 – Jakob Wimpfeling, Renaissance humanist (d. 1528)
1486 – Albrecht VII, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1547)
1498 – Hernando de Aragón, Archbishop of Zaragoza (d. 1575)
1532 – Alphonsus Rodriguez, Jesuit lay brother and saint (d. 1617)
1556 – George Peele, English translator, poet, and dramatist (d. 1596)
1562 – Katō Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord (d. 1611)
1573 – Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer and Jesuit (d. 1650)
1581 – Brian Twyne, English archivist (d. 1644)
1605 – Theodore Haak, German scholar (d. 1690)
1633 – Joseph Williamson, English politician (d. 1701)
1654 – Agostino Steffani, Italian composer and diplomat (d. 1728)
1657 – Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, German composer (d. 1714)
1658 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish general (d. 1703)
1683 – Pieter Langendijk, Dutch playwright and poet (d. 1756)
1750 – Henry Knox, American general and politician, 1st United States Secretary of War (d. 1806)
1753 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires, French-Spanish captain and politician, 10th Viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (d. 1810)
1797 – Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1889)
1806 – Maria Weston Chapman, American abolitionist (d. 1885)
1839 – Francis Garnier, French captain and explorer (d. 1873)
1844 – Thomas Eakins, American painter, sculptor, and photographer (d. 1916)
1847 – Paul Langerhans, German pathologist, physiologist and biologist (d. 1888)
1848 – Arthur Balfour, Scottish-English lieutenant and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)
1857 – Frank J. Sprague, American naval officer and inventor (d. 1934)
1865 – Jac. P. Thijsse, Dutch botanist and conservationist (d. 1945)
1866 – Frederick Blackman, English physiologist and academic (d. 1947)
1867 – Max Dauthendey, German author and painter (d. 1918)
1867 – Alexander Rummler, American painter (d. 1959)
1869 – Platon, Estonian bishop and saint (d. 1919)
1870 – Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator (d. 1966)
1875 – Jim Corbett, Indian hunter, environmentalist, and author (d. 1955)
1878 – Masaharu Anesaki, Japanese philosopher and scholar (d. 1949)
1882 – George S. Rentz, American commander (d. 1942)
1883 – Alfredo Casella, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1947)
1886 – Edward Cummins, American golfer (d. 1926)
1894 – Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)
1894 – Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian Serb revolutionary (d. 1918)
1895 – Ingeborg Spangsfeldt, Danish actress (d. 1968)
1896 – Jack Perrin, American actor and stuntman (d. 1967)
1896 – Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (d. 1952)
1901 – Ruth Krauss, American author and poet (d. 1993)
1901 – Mohammed Helmy, Egyptian physician and Righteous Among the Nations (d.1982)
1901 – Lila Lee, American actress and singer (d. 1973)
1902 – Eric Hoffer, American philosopher and author (d. 1983)
1905 – Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-Swiss novelist, playwright, and memoirist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1905 – Georges Grignard, French race car driver (d. 1977)
1905 – Denys Watkins-Pitchford, English author and illustrator (d. 1990)
1906 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist and clarinet player (d. 1970)
1908 – Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
1908 – Ambroise-Marie Carré, French priest and author (d. 2004)
1908 – Jack Gilford, American actor (d. 1990)
1914 – Woody Strode, American football player and actor (d. 1994)
1915 – S. U. Ethirmanasingham, Sri Lankan businessman and politician
1915 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., American lieutenant and pilot (d. 1944)
1916 – Lucien Saulnier, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1989)
1917 – Fritz Honegger, Swiss lawyer and politician (d. 1999)
1918 – Jane Frank, American painter and sculptor (d. 1986)
1920 – Rosalind Franklin, English biophysicist, chemist, and academic (d. 1958)
1921 – Adolph Herseth, American soldier and trumpet player (d. 2013)
1921 – Lionel Terray, French mountaineer (d. 1965)
1923 – Estelle Getty, American actress (d. 2008)
1923 – Edgar Gilbert, American mathematician and theorist (d. 2013)
1923 – Maria Gripe, Swedish journalist and author (d. 2007)
1924 – Frank Church, American lawyer and politician (d. 1984)
1924 – Scotch Taylor, South African cricketer and hockey player (d. 2004)
1925 – Benny Benjamin, American R&B drummer (The Funk Brothers) (d. 1969)
1925 – Jerry Paris, American actor and director (d. 1986)
1925 – Dick Passwater, American race car driver
1925 – Jutta Zilliacus, Finnish journalist and politician
1926 – Whitey Lockman, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2009)
1926 – Bernard Thompson, British television producer and director (d. 1998)
1926 – Beatriz Segall, Brazilian actress (d. 2018)
1927 – Daniel Ceccaldi, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1927 – Midge Decter, American journalist and author
1927 – Sadiq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani politician, 10th Governor of Punjab (d. 2000)
1927 – Jean-Marie Seroney, Kenyan activist and politician (d. 1982)
1928 – Dolphy, Filipino actor, singer, and producer (d. 2012)
1928 – Mario Montenegro, Filipino actor (d. 1988)
1928 – Nils Taube, Estonian-English businessman (d. 2008)
1929 – Judd Buchanan, Canadian businessman and politician, 36th Canadian Minister of Public Works
1929 – Somnath Chatterjee, Indian lawyer and politician, 14th Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 2018)
1929 – Eddie Mazur, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1995)
1930 – Murray Chapple, New Zealand cricketer and manager (d. 1985)
1930 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian actress and singer (d. 2010)
1930 – Alice Parizeau, Polish-Canadian journalist and criminologist (d. 1990)
1930 – Herbert Scarf, American economist and academic (d. 2015)
1930 – Annie Ross, Scottish-American singer and actress
1931 – James Butler, English sculptor and educator
1932 – Paul J. Weitz, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017)
1934 – Don Ellis, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1978)
1934 – Claude Zidi, French director and screenwriter
1935 – Barbara Harris, American actress and singer (d. 2018)
1935 – Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi Arabian businessman (d. 2017)
1935 – Gilbert Parent, Canadian educator and politician, 33rd Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d. 2009)
1935 – John Robinson, American football player and coach
1935 – Larry Sherry, American baseball player and coach (d. 2006)
1935 – Lars Werner, Swedish lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1936 – Gerry Ashmore, English race car driver
1936 – Glenn Murcutt, English-Australian architect and academic
1937 – Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, English archaeologist and academic
1940 – Richard Ballantine, American-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
1941 – Manny Charlton, Spanish-born Scottish rock musician and songwriter
1941 – Nate Thurmond, American basketball player (d. 2016)
1941 – Emmett Till, American lynching victim (d. 1955)
1942 – Bruce Woodley, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Jim McCarty, English singer and drummer
1943 – Erika Steinbach, Polish-German politician
1944 – Sally Beauman, English journalist and author (d. 2016)
1946 – José Areas, Nicaraguan drummer
1946 – Nicole Farhi, French fashion designer and sculptor
1946 – John Gibson, American radio host
1946 – Rita Marley, Cuban-Jamaican singer
1946 – P. Selvarasa, Sri Lankan politician
1946 – Ljupka Dimitrovska, Macedonian-Croatian pop singer (d. 2016)
1948 – Steve Goodman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1984)
1950 – Mark Clarke, English singer-songwriter and bass player
1951 – Jack Thompson, American lawyer and activist
1951 – Verdine White, American bass player and producer
1952 – Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portuguese architect, designed the Estádio Municipal de Braga
1953 – Joseph A. Tunzi, Chicago based author, foremost expert on Elvis Presley
1953 – Robert Zoellick, American banker and politician, 14th United States Deputy Secretary of State
1954 – Ken Greer, Canadian guitarist, keyboard player, and producer
1954 – Sheena McDonald, Scottish journalist
1954 – Walter Payton, American football player and race car driver (d. 1999)
1954 – Jochem Ziegert, German footballer and manager
1955 – Iman, Somalian-English model and actress
1955 – Randall Bewley, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2009)
1956 – Andy Goldsworthy, English-Scottish sculptor and photographer
1956 – Frances Arnold, American scientist and engineer
1957 – Mark Hunter, English politician
1957 – Steve Podborski, Canadian skier
1958 – Alexei Filippenko, American astrophysicist and academic
1958 – Thurston Moore, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1959 – Fyodor Cherenkov, Russian footballer and manager (d. 2014)
1959 – Geoffrey Zakarian, American chef and author
1960 – Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
1960 – Justice Howard, American photographer
1960 – Māris Martinsons, Latvian film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor
1962 – Carin Bakkum, Dutch tennis player
1962 – Doug Drabek, American baseball player and coach
1963 – Denis Coderre, Canadian politician, 44th Mayor of Montreal
1963 – Julian Hodgson, Welsh chess player
1964 – Anne Applebaum, American journalist and author
1964 – Tony Granato, American ice hockey player and coach
1964 – Breuk Iversen, American designer and journalist
1965 – Marty Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Illeana Douglas, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
1965 – Dale Shearer, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Daryl Halligan, New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster
1966 – Maureen Herman, American bass player
1966 – Diana Johnson, English politician
1967 – Matt LeBlanc, American actor and producer
1967 – Ruth Peetoom, Dutch minister and politician
1967 – Tommy Skjerven, Norwegian footballer and referee
1968 – Rudi Bryson, South African cricketer
1968 – Shi Tao, Chinese journalist and poet
1969 – Jon Barry, American basketball player and sportscaster
1969 – Annastacia Palaszczuk, Australian politician, 39th Premier of Queensland
1971 – Roger Creager, American singer-songwriter
1971 – Tracy Murray, American basketball player
1971 – Billy Wagner, American baseball player and coach
1972 – David Penna, Australian rugby league player and coach
1973 – Dani Filth, English singer-songwriter
1973 – Kevin Phillips, English footballer
1973 – Igli Tare, Albanian footballer
1974 – Lauren Faust, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
1974 – Julia Laffranque, Estonian lawyer and judge
1974 – Kenzo Suzuki, Japanese rugby player and wrestler
1975 – Jody Craddock, English footballer and coach
180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
1048 – Damasus II is elected pope.
1203 – The Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.
1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.
1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of Hundred Years’ War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel’s Water Music is premiered.
1762 – Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people.
1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.
1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.
1821: The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.
1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.
1917 – King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the “wrong way” to Ireland and becomes known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
1944 – World War II: At Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery. in Normandy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was strafed by allied aircraft while returning to his headquarters.
1945 – World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1953 – The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.
1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The “Small Boy” test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
1968 – Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba’ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
1976 – East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.
1976 – The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the games because of New Zealand’s participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Zealand because of their participation in South African sporting events during apartheid.
1979 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida, United States.
1981 – A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.
1984 – The national drinking age in the United States was changed from 18 to 21.
1985 – Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).
1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
1989 – Holy See–Poland relations are restored.
1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
1998 – The 7.0 Mw Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.
1998 – A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2000 – During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, killing 60 people.
2001 – Concorde is brought back into service nearly a year after the July 2000 crash.
2006 – The 7.7 Mw Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.
2007 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway, killing 199 people.
2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.
2014 – A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in at least 25 injuries.
2015 – At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
2018 – 12 new moons are discovered orbiting. Jupiter
Births on July 17
1487 – Ismail I of Iran (d. 1524)
1499 – Maria Salviati, Italian noblewoman (d. 1543)
1531 – Antoine de Créqui Canaples, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1574)
1674 – Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter and theologian (d. 1748)
1695 – Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim (d. 1766)
1698 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1759)
1708 – Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (d. 1769)
1714 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (d. 1762)
1744 – Elbridge Gerry, American merchant and politician, 5th Vice President of the United States (d. 1814)
1763 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1848)
1774 – John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (d. 1856)
1797 – Paul Delaroche, French painter and academic (d. 1856)
1823 – Leander Clark, American businessman, judge, and politician (d. 1910)
1831 – Xianfeng Emperor of China (d. 1861)
1837 – Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 7th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1886)
1839 – Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (d. 1916)
1853 – Alexius Meinong, Ukrainian-Austrian philosopher and academic (d. 1920)
1868 – Henri Nathansen, Danish director and playwright (d. 1944)
1870 – Charles Davidson Dunbar, Scottish soldier and bagpipe player (d. 1939)
1871 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (d. 1956)
1879 – Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1960)
1882 – James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (d. 1949)
1888 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
1889 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (d. 1970)
1894 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist (d. 1966)
1896 – Rupert Atkinson, English RAF officer (d. 1919)
1898 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991)
1898 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian soldier and cinematographer (d. 1999)
1899 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (d. 1986)
1900 – Marcel Dalio, French actor (d. 1983)
1901 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver (d. 1994)
1901 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (d. 1938)
1901 – Patrick Smith, Irish farmer and politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (d. 1982)
1902 – Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (d. 1983)
1905 – William Gargan, American actor (d. 1979)
1910 – James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (d. 2012)
1910 – Frank Olson, American chemist and microbiologist (d. 1953)
1911 – Lionel Ferbos, American trumpet player (d. 2014)
1911 – Heinz Lehmann, German-Canadian psychiatrist and academic (d. 1999)
1912 – Erwin Bauer, German race car driver (d. 1958)
1912 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (d. 2010)
1913 – Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, designed the Marina City Building (d. 1997)
1914 – Eleanor Steber, American soprano and educator (d. 1990)
1915 – Bijon Bhattacharya, Indian actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1978)
1915 – Arthur Rothstein, American photographer and educator (d. 1985)
1917 – Lou Boudreau, American baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
1917 – Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist (d. 2012)
1917 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (d. 2015)
1917 – Christiane Rochefort, French author (d. 1998)
1918 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan soldier and politician, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
1918 – Red Sovine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1980)
1920 – Gordon Gould, American physicist and academic, invented the laser (d. 2005)
1920 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, 7th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 2010)
1921 – George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (d. 1977)
1921 – Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (d. 1955)
1921 – Mary Osborne, American guitarist (d. 1992)
1921 – Toni Stone, American baseball player (d. 1996)
1921 – František Zvarík, Slovak actor (d. 2008)
1923 – Jeanne Block, American psychologist (d. 1981)
1923 – John Cooper, English car designer, co-founded the Cooper Car Company (d. 2000)
1924 – Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (d. 2013)
1925 – Jimmy Scott, American singer and actor (d. 2014)
1925 – Mohammad Hasan Sharq, Afghan politician
1926 – Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian wrestler (d. 2010)
1926 – Willis Carto, American activist and theorist (d. 2015)
1928 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1976)
1929 – Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician and academic
1932 – Niccolò Castiglioni, Italian composer (d. 1996)
1932 – Red Kerr, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
1932 – Wojciech Kilar, Polish pianist and composer (d. 2013)
1932 – Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (d. 2009)
1932 – Slick Leonard, American basketball player and coach
1932 – Quino, Spanish-Argentinian cartoonist
1932 – Hal Riney, American businessman, founded Publicis & Hal Riney (d. 2008)
1933 – Keiko Awaji, Japanese actress (d. 2014)
1933 – Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Maltese politician, 9th Prime Minister of Malta
1933 – Tony Pithey, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (d. 2006)
1934 – Lucio Tan, Chinese-Filipino billionaire businessman and educator
1935 – Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
1935 – Peter Schickele, American composer and educator
1935 – Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer
1938 – Hermann Huppen, Belgian author and illustrator
1939 – Andrée Champagne, Canadian actress and politician
1939 – Spencer Davis, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Ali Khamenei, Iranian cleric and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran
1940 – Tim Brooke-Taylor, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2020)
1941 – Daryle Lamonica, American football player
1941 – Bob Taylor, English cricketer
1941 – Achim Warmbold, German race car driver and manager
1942 – Don Kessinger, American baseball player and manager
1942 – Gale Garnett, New Zealand–born Canadian singer
1942 – Connie Hawkins, American basketball player (d. 2017)
1942 – Zoot Money, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1943 – LaVyrle Spencer, American author and educator
1944 – Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricketer and footballer
1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch.
1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet, defeats an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta.
1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island.
1709 – Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, thus effectively ending Sweden’s status as a major power in Europe.
1716 – The Battle of Dynekilen forces Sweden to abandon its invasion of Norway.
1730 – An estimated magnitude 8.7 earthquake causes a tsunami that damages more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of Chile’s coastline.
1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.
1760 – British forces defeat French forces in the last naval battle in New France.
1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies of North America.
1776 – Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
1808 – Joseph Bonaparte approves the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain.
1822 – Chippewas turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
1853 – The Perry Expedition arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade.
1859 – King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.
1864 – Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi’s planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya.
1874 – The Mounties begin their March West.
1876 – The Hamburg massacre prior to the 1876 United States presidential election results in the deaths of six African-Americans of the Republican Party, along with one white assailant.
1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole.
1889 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
1892 – St. John’s, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
1898 – The death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
1912 – Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves.
1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
1933 – The first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa is played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.
1937 – Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Saadabad.
1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.
1948 – The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).
1960 – Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
1962 – Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement.
1966 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.
1968 – The Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit, Michigan.
1970 – Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.
1980 – The inaugural 1980 State of Origin game is won by Queensland who defeat New South Wales 20–10 at Lang Park.
1982 – A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.
1988 – The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.
1994 – Kim Jong-il begins to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.
2003 – Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashes near Port Sudan Airport during an emergency landing attempt, killing 116 of the 117 people on board.
2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.
2014 – Israel launches an offensive on Gaza amid rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.
Births on July 8
1478 – Gian Giorgio Trissino, Italian linguist, poet, and playwright (d. 1550)
1528 – Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (d. 1580)
1538 – Alberto Bolognetti, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1585)
1545 – Carlos, Prince of Asturias (d. 1568)
1593 – Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian painter (d. 1653)
1621 – Jean de La Fontaine, French author and poet (d. 1695)
1760 – Christian Kramp, French mathematician and academic (d. 1826)
1766 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (d. 1842)
1779 – Giorgio Pullicino, Maltese painter and architect (d. 1851)
1819 – Francis Leopold McClintock, Irish admiral and explorer (d. 1907)
1830 – Frederick W. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1915)
1831 – John Pemberton, American chemist and pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola (d. 1888)
1836 – Joseph Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1914)
1838 – Eli Lilly, American soldier, chemist, and businessman, founded Eli Lilly and Company (d. 1898)
1838 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and businessman, founded the Zeppelin Airship Company (d. 1917)
1839 – John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company (d. 1937)
1851 – Arthur Evans, English archaeologist and academic (d. 1941)
1851 – John Murray, Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Victoria (d. 1916)
1857 – Alfred Binet, French psychologist and graphologist (d. 1911)
1867 – Käthe Kollwitz, German painter and sculptor (d. 1945)
1876 – Alexandros Papanastasiou, Greek sociologist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)
1882 – Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (d. 1961)
1885 – Ernst Bloch, German philosopher, author, and academic (d. 1977)
1885 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer, founded Hugo Boss (d. 1948)
1890 – Stanton Macdonald-Wright, American painter (d. 1973)
1892 – Richard Aldington, English author and poet (d. 1962)
1892 – Pavel Korin, Russian painter (d. 1967)
1893 – R. Carlyle Buley, American historian and author (d. 1968)
1894 – Pyotr Kapitsa, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
1895 – Igor Tamm, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1898 – Melville Ruick, American actor (d. 1972)
1900 – George Antheil, American pianist, composer, and author (d. 1959)
1904 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician and academic (d. 2008)
1905 – Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator and director (d. 1997)
1906 – Philip Johnson, American architect, designed the IDS Center and PPG Place (d. 2005)
1907 – George W. Romney, American businessman and politician, 43rd Governor of Michigan (d. 1995)
1908 – Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter, saxophonist, and actor (d. 1975)
1908 – Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman and politician, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
1908 – V. K. R. Varadaraja Rao, Indian economist, politician, professor and educator (d. 1991)
1909 – Alan Brown, English soldier (d. 1971)
1909 – Ike Petersen, American football back (d. 1995)
1910 – Carlos Betances Ramírez, Puerto Rican general (d. 2001)
1911 – Ken Farnes, English cricketer (d. 1941)
1913 – Alejandra Soler, Spanish politician (d. 2017)
1914 – Jyoti Basu, Indian politician, 6th Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 2010)
1914 – Billy Eckstine, American singer and trumpet player (d. 1993)
1915 – Neil D. Van Sickle, American Air Force major general (d. 2019)
1915 – Lowell English, United States Marine Corps general (d. 2005)
1916 – Jean Rouverol, American author, actress and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1917 – Pamela Brown, English actress (d. 1975)
1917 – Faye Emerson, American actress (d. 1983)
1917 – J. F. Powers, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1999)
1918 – Paul B. Fay, American businessman, soldier, and diplomat, 12th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 2009)
1918 – Irwin Hasen, American illustrator (d. 2015)
1918 – Oluf Reed-Olsen, Norwegian resistance member and pilot (d. 2002)
1918 – Julia Pirie, British spy working for MI5 (d. 2008)
1918 – Edward B. Giller, U.S Major General (d. 2017)
1918 – Craig Stevens, American actor (d. 2000)
1919 – Walter Scheel, German soldier and politician, 4th President of West Germany (d. 2016)
1920 – Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, Danish businessman (d. 1995)
1921 – John Money, New Zealand psychologist and sexologist, responsible for controversial sexual identity study on David Reimer (d. 2006)
1923 – Harrison Dillard, American sprinter and hurdler (d. 2019)
1924 – Johnnie Johnson, American pianist and songwriter (d. 2005)
1924 – Charles C. Droz, American politician
1925 – Marco Cé, Italian cardinal (d. 2014)
1925 – Arthur Imperatore Sr., Italian-American businessman from New Jersey
1925 – Bill Mackrides, American football quarterback (d. 2019)
1925 – Dominique Nohain, French actor, screenwriter and director (d. 2017)
1926 – David Malet Armstrong, Australian philosopher and author (d. 2014)
1926 – John Dingell, American lieutenant and politician (d. 2019)
1926 – Martin Riesen, Swiss professional ice hockey goaltender
1926 – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and author (d. 2004)
1927 – Maurice Hayes, Irish educator and politician (d. 2017)
1927 – Khensur Lungri Namgyel, Tibetan religious leader
1927 – Bob Beckham, American country singer (d. 2013)
1928 – Balakh Sher Mazari, former Prime Minister of Pakistan
1930 – Jerry Vale, American singer (d. 2014)
1933 – Antonio Lamer, Canadian lawyer and politician, 16th Chief Justice of Canada (d. 2007)
1934 – Raquel Correa, Chilean journalist (d. 2012)
1934 – Marty Feldman, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1934 – Edward D. DiPrete, American politician
1935 – John David Crow, American football player and coach (d. 2015)
1935 – Steve Lawrence, American actor and singer
1935 – Vitaly Sevastyanov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2010)
1938 – Diane Clare, English actress (d. 2013)
1939 – Ed Lumley, Canadian businessman and politician, 8th Canadian Minister of Communications
1940 – Joe B. Mauldin, American bass player and songwriter (d. 2015)
1941 – Dario Gradi, Italian-English footballer, coach, and manager
1942 – Phil Gramm, American economist and politician
1944 – Jaimoe, American drummer
1944 – Jeffrey Tambor, American actor and singer
1945 – Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss politician, 91st President of the Swiss Confederation
1947 – Kim Darby, American actress
1947 – Jenny Diski, English author and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1947 – Luis Fernando Figari, Peruvian religious leader, founded the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae
1948 – Raffi, Egyptian-Canadian singer-songwriter
1948 – Ruby Sales, American civil-rights activist
1949 – Wolfgang Puck, Austrian-American chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur
1949 – Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Indian politician, 14th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (d. 2009)
1951 – Alan Ashby, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster
1951 – Anjelica Huston, American actress and director
1952 – Larry Garner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Jack Lambert, American football player and sportscaster
1952 – Marianne Williamson, American author and activist
1956 – Terry Puhl, Canadian baseball player and coach
1957 – Carlos Cavazo, Mexican-American guitarist and songwriter
1957 – Aleksandr Gurnov, Russian journalist and author
1958 – Kevin Bacon, American actor and musician
1958 – Andreas Carlgren, Swedish educator and politician, 8th Swedish Minister for the Environment
1958 – Tzipi Livni, Israeli lawyer and politician, 18th Justice Minister of Israel
1959 – Pauline Quirke, English actress
1960 – Mal Meninga, Australian rugby league player and coach
1961 – Ces Drilon, Filipino journalist
1961 – Andrew Fletcher, English keyboard player
1961 – Toby Keith, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1961 – Karl Seglem, Norwegian saxophonist and record producer
1962 – Joan Osborne, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1963 – Mark Christopher, American director and screenwriter
1964 – Alexei Gusarov, Russian ice hockey player and manager
1965 – Dan Levinson, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and bandleader
1966 – Ralf Altmeyer, German-Chinese virologist and academic
1966 – Shadlog Bernicke, Nauruan politician
1967 – Jordan Chan, Hong Kong actor and singer
1968 – Billy Crudup, American actor
1968 – Shane Howarth, New Zealand rugby player and coach
1969 – Sugizo, Japanese singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
1970 – Beck, American singer-songwriter and producer
1970 – Sylvain Gaudreault, Canadian educator and politician
1970 – Todd Martin, American tennis player and coach
1971 – Neil Jenkins, Welsh rugby player and coach
1972 – Karl Dykhuis, Canadian ice hockey player
1972 – Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
1972 – Shōsuke Tanihara, Japanese actor
1974 – Hu Liang, Chinese field hockey player
1976 – Talal El Karkouri, Moroccan footballer
1976 – David Kennedy, American guitarist and songwriter
1976 – Ellen MacArthur, English sailor
1977 – Christian Abbiati, Italian footballer
1977 – Paolo Tiralongo, Italian cyclist
1977 – Milo Ventimiglia, American actor, director, and producer
1977 – Wang Zhizhi, Chinese basketball player
1978 – Urmas Rooba, Estonian footballer
1979 – Mat McBriar, American football player
1979 – Ben Jelen, Scottish-American singer-songwriter
1980 – Eric Chouinard, American-Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Robbie Keane, Irish footballer
1981 – Wolfram Müller, German runner
1981 – Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
1982 – Sophia Bush, American actress and director
1982 – Hakim Warrick, American basketball player
1983 – John Bowker, American baseball player
1983 – Rich Peverley, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Jaime Garcia, Mexican baseball player
1986 – Renata Costa, Brazilian footballer
1988 – Miki Roqué, Spanish footballer (d. 2012)
1988 – Jesse Sergent, New Zealand cyclist
1988 – Dave Taylor, Australian rugby league player
1989 – Yarden Gerbi, Israeli Judo champion
1989 – Tor Marius Gromstad, Norwegian footballer (d. 2012)
1991 – Virgil van Dijk, Dutch footballer
1992 – Ariel Camacho, Mexican singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1992 – Son Heung-min, Korean footballer
1992 – Xander Mobus, American voice actor
1997 – Bryce Love, American football player
1997 – Lauran Hibberd, English singer-songwriter
1998 – Jaden Smith, American actor and rapper
Deaths on July 8
689 – Kilian, Irish bishop
810 – Pepin of Italy, son of Charlemagne (b. 773)
873 – Gunther, archbishop of Cologne
900 – Qatr al-Nada, wife of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu’tadid
901 – Grimbald, French-English monk and saint (b. 827)
975 – Edgar the Peaceful, English king (b. 943)
1153 – Pope Eugene III (b. 1087)
1253 – Theobald I of Navarre (b. 1201)
1261 – Adolf IV of Holstein, Count of Schauenburg
1390 – Albert of Saxony, Bishop of Halberstadt and German philosopher (b. circa 1320)
1538 – Diego de Almagro, Spanish general and explorer (b. 1475)
1623 – Pope Gregory XV (b. 1554)
1689 – Edward Wooster, English-American settler (b. 1622)
324 – Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Revolution in 1792.
1035 – William the Conqueror becomes the Duke of Normandy, reigns until 1087.
1608 – Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
1767 – Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1767 – Norway’s oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded and the first edition is published.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Iroquois allied to Britain kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in the United States, opens.
1839 – The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today’s Framingham State University, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with three students.
1844 – The last pair of great auks is killed.
1848 – Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipates all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.
1849 – France invades the Roman Republic and restores the Papal States.
1852 – Congress establishes the United States’ 2nd mint in San Francisco.
1863 – American Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett’s Charge.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgrätz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
1884 – Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.
1886 – The New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
1890 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
1898 – A Spanish squadron, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is defeated by an American squadron under William T. Sampson in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett’s Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
1938 – World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
1938 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1940 – World War II: The Royal Navy attacks the French naval squadron in Algeria, to ensure that it will not fall under German control. Of the four French battleships present, one is sunk, two are damaged, and one escapes back to France.
1944 – World War II: The Minsk Offensive clears German troops from the city.
1952 – The Constitution of Puerto Rico is approved by the United States Congress.
1952 – The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
1967 – The Aden Emergency: The Battle of the Crater in which the British Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders retake the Crater district following the Arab Police mutiny.
1969 – Space Race: The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
1970 – The Troubles: The “Falls Curfew” begins in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashes into the Les Agudes mountain in the Montseny Massif near the village of Arbúcies in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
1988 – United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
1988 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.
1996 – British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland.
2013 – Egyptian coup d’état: President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is overthrown by the military after four days of protests all over the country calling for Morsi’s resignation, to which he did not respond. President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour is declared acting president.
Births on July 3
321 – Valentinian I, Roman emperor (d. 375)
1423 – Louis XI of France (d. 1483)
1442 – Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500)
1518 – Li Shizhen, Chinese physician and mineralogist (d. 1593)
1530 – Claude Fauchet, French historian and author (d. 1601)
1534 – Myeongjong of Joseon, Ruler of Korea (d. 1567)
1550 – Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (d. 1591)
1569 – Thomas Richardson, English politician and judge (d. 1635)
1683 – Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic (Night-Thoughts) (d. 1765)
1685 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, English field marshal and politician (d. 1768)
1728 – Robert Adam, Scottish-English architect, designed Culzean Castle (d. 1792)
1738 – John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)
1778 – Carl Ludvig Engel, German architect (d. 1840)
1789 – Johann Friedrich Overbeck, German-Italian painter and engraver (d. 1869)
1814 – Ferdinand Didrichsen, Danish botanist and physicist (d. 1887)
1823 – Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Greek-Ottoman statesman, diplomat, playwright, and translator (d. 1891)
1844 – Dankmar Adler, German-born American architect and engineer (d. 1900)
1846 – Achilles Alferaki, Russian composer and politician, Governor of Taganrog (d. 1919)
1851 – Charles Bannerman, English-Australian cricketer and umpire (d. 1930)
1854 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer and theorist (d. 1928)
1860 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist and author (d. 1935)
1866 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (d. 1906)
1869 – Svend Kornbeck, Danish actor (d. 1933)
1870 – R. B. Bennett, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
1871 – William Henry Davies, Welsh poet and writer (d.1940)
1874 – Jean Collas, French rugby player and tug of war competitor (d. 1928)
1875 – Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon and academic (d. 1951)
1876 – Ralph Barton Perry, American philosopher and academic (d. 1957)
1878 – George M. Cohan, American songwriter, actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1942)
1879 – Alfred Korzybski, Polish-American mathematician, linguist, and philosopher (d. 1950)
1880 – Carl Schuricht, Polish-German conductor (d. 1967)
1883 – Franz Kafka, Czech-Austrian author (d. 1924)
1886 – Raymond A. Spruance, American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (d. 1969)
1888 – Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Spanish author and playwright (d. 1963)
1889 – Richard Cramer, American actor (d. 1960)
1893 – Sándor Bortnyik, Hungarian painter and graphic designer (d. 1976)
1896 – Doris Lloyd, English actress (d. 1968)
1897 – Jesse Douglas, American mathematician and academic (d. 1965)
1898 – Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1982)
1900 – Alessandro Blasetti, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1901 – Ruth Crawford Seeger, American composer (d. 1953)
1903 – Ace Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1992)
1905 – Johnny Gibson, American hurdler and coach (d. 2006)
1906 – George Sanders, Russian-born British actor (d. 1972)
1908 – M. F. K. Fisher, American author (d. 1992)
1908 – Robert B. Meyner, American lawyer and politician, 44th Governor of New Jersey (d. 1990)
226 – Cao Rui succeeds his father as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei.
1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi.
1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway, leading to his excommunication by the Catholic Church and civil war.
1444 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll.
1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare‘s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, burns to the ground.
1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge.
1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians led by Prince Trubetskoy.
1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.
1807 – Russo-Turkish War: Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.
1864 – At least 99 people, mostly German and Polish immigrants, are killed in Canada’s worst railway disaster after a train fails to stop for an open drawbridge and plunges into the Rivière Richelieu near St-Hilaire, Quebec.
1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled “Who’s to Blame?” leveling complaints against King George. Trikoupis is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.
1880 – France annexes Tahiti, renaming the independent Kingdom of Tahiti as “Etablissements de français de l’Océanie”.
1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.
1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.
1915 – The North Saskatchewan River flood of 1915 is the worst flood in Edmonton history.
1916 – British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
1922 – France grants 1 km2 at Vimy Ridge “freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes”.
1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
1945 – The Soviet Union annexes the Czechoslovak province of Carpathian Ruthenia.
1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.
1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
1974 – Vice President Isabel Perón assumes powers and duties as Acting President of Argentina, while her husband President Juan Peron is terminally ill.
1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.
1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.
1976 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin.
1987 – Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, was bought for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England.
1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho District of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.
2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.
2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.
Births on June 29
1136 – Petronilla of Aragon (d. 1173)
1326 – Murad I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1389)
1398 – John II of Aragon and Navarre (d. 1479)
1443 – Anthony Browne, English knight (d. 1506)
1482 – Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1517)
1488 – Pedro Pacheco de Villena, Catholic cardinal (d. 1560)
1517 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish physician and botanist (d. 1585)
1525 – Peter Agricola, German humanist, theologian, diplomat and statesman (d. 1585)
1528 – Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1589)
1543 – Christine of Hesse, Duchess consort of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1604)
1596 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (d. 1680)
1621 – Willem van der Zaan, Dutch Admiral (d. 1669)
1686 – Pietro Paolo Troisi, Maltese artist (d. 1743)
1746 – Joachim Heinrich Campe, German linguist, author, and educator (d. 1818)
1768 – Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor (d. 1831)
1787 – Lavinia Stoddard, American poet, school founder (d. 1820)
1793 – Josef Ressel, Czech-Austrian inventor, invented the propeller (d. 1857)
1798 – Willibald Alexis, German author and poet (d. 1871)
1798 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet and philosopher (d. 1837)
1801 – Frédéric Bastiat, French economist and theorist (d. 1850)
1803 – John Newton Brown, American minister and author (d. 1868)
1818 – Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer and academic (d. 1878)
1819 – Thomas Dunn English, American poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1902)
1833 – Peter Waage, Norwegian chemist and academic (d. 1900)
1835 – Celia Thaxter, American poet and story writer (d. 1894)
1844 – Peter I of Serbia (d. 1921)
1849 – Pedro Montt, Chilean lawyer and politician, 15th President of Chile (d. 1910)
1849 – Sergei Witte, Russian politician, 1st Chairmen of Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (d. 1915)
1849 – John Hunn, American businessman and politician, 51st Governor of Delaware (d. 1926)
1858 – George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designed the Panama Canal (d. 1928)
1858 – Julia Lathrop, American activist and politician (d. 1932)
1861 – William James Mayo, American physician and surgeon, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939)
1863 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1934)
1866 – Bartholomeus Roodenburch, Dutch swimmer (d. 1939)
1868 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and journalist (d. 1938)
1870 – Joseph Carl Breil, American tenor, composer, and director (d. 1926)
1873 – Leo Frobenius, German ethnologist and archaeologist (d. 1938)
1879 – Benedetto Aloisi Masella, Italian cardinal (d. 1970)
1880 – Ludwig Beck, German general (d. 1944)
1881 – Harry Frazee, American director, producer, and agent (d. 1929)
1881 – Curt Sachs, German-American composer and musicologist (d. 1959)
1882 – Henry Hawtrey, English runner (d. 1961)
1882 – Franz Seldte, German captain and politician, Reich Minister for Labour (d. 1947)
1886 – Robert Schuman, Luxembourgian-French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1963)
1888 – Squizzy Taylor, Australian gangster (d. 1927)
1889 – Willie Macfarlane, Scottish-American golfer (d. 1961)
1890 – Robert Laurent, American sculptor and academic (d. 1970)
1890 – Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, Dutch supercentenarian (d. 2005)
1893 – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Indian economist and statistician (d. 1972)
1893 – Aarre Merikanto, Finnish composer and educator (d. 1958)
1897 – Fulgence Charpentier, Canadian journalist and publisher (d. 2001)
1898 – Yvonne Lefébure, French pianist and educator (d. 1986)
1900 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French poet and pilot (d. 1944)
1901 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (d. 1967)
1903 – Alan Blumlein, English engineer, developed the H2S radar (d. 1942)
1904 – Witold Hurewicz, Polish mathematician (d. 1956)
1906 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Ukrainian general (d. 1945)
1906 – Heinz Harmel, German general (d. 2000)
1908 – Leroy Anderson, American composer and conductor (d. 1975)
1908 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish javelin thrower (d. 1963)
1910 – Frank Loesser, American composer and conductor (d. 1969)
1910 – Burgess Whitehead, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1911 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (d. 2004)
1911 – Katherine DeMille, Canadian-American actress (d. 1995)
1911 – Bernard Herrmann, American composer and conductor (d. 1975)
1912 – José Pablo Moncayo, Mexican pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1958)
1912 – Émile Peynaud, French oenologist and academic (d. 2004)
1912 – John Toland, American historian and author (d. 2004)
1913 – Earle Meadows, American pole vaulter (d. 1992)
1914 – Rafael Kubelík, Czech-American conductor and composer (d. 1996)
1914 – Christos Papakyriakopoulos, Greek-American mathematician and academic (d. 1976)
1916 – Ruth Warrick, American actress and activist (d. 2005)
1917 – Ling Yun, Chinese politician (d. 2018)
1918 – Heini Lohrer, Swiss ice hockey player (d. 2011)
1918 – Gene La Rocque, U.S admiral (d. 2016)
1918 – Francis W. Nye, United States Air Force major general (d. 2019)
1919 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (d. 2008)
1919 – Walter Babington Thomas, Commander of British Far East Land Forces (d. 2017)
1919 – Slim Pickens, American actor and rodeo performer (d. 1983)
1920 – César Rodríguez Álvarez, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
1920 – Ray Harryhausen, American animator and producer (d. 2013)
1920 – Nicole Russell, Duchess of Bedford (d. 2012)
1921 – Frédéric Dard, French author and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1921 – Jean Kent, English actress (d. 2013)
1921 – Reinhard Mohn, German businessman (d. 2009)
1921 – Harry Schell, French-American race car driver (d. 1960)
1922 – Ralph Burns, American songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist (d. 2001)
1922 – Vasko Popa, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1991)
1922 – John William Vessey, Jr., American general (d. 2016)
1923 – Chou Wen-chung, Chinese-American composer and educator (d. 2019)
1924 – Ezra Laderman, American composer and educator (d. 2015)
1924 – Roy Walford, American pathologist and gerontologist (d. 2004)
1924 – Philip H. Hoff, American politician (d. 2018)
1925 – Francis S. Currey, American World War II Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2019)
1925 – Giorgio Napolitano, Italian journalist and politician, 11th President of Italy
1925 – Chan Parker, American dancer and author (d. 1999)
1925 – Jackie Lynn Taylor, American actress (d. 2014)
1925 – Cara Williams, American actress
1926 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler, 3rd Emir of Kuwait (d. 2006)
1926 – Julius W. Becton, Jr., U.S lieutenant general
1926 – Roger Stuart Bacon, Nova Scotia politician
1926 – Bobby Morgan, American professional baseball player
1927 – Pierre Perrault, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 1999)
1927 – Marie Thérèse Killens, Canadian politician
1928 – Ian Bannen, Scottish actor (d. 1999)
1928 – Jean-Louis Pesch, French author and illustrator
1928 – Radius Prawiro, Indonesian economist and politician (d. 2005)
1929 – Pat Crawford Brown, American actress
1929 – Pete George, American weightlifter
1929 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and author (d. 2006)
1930 – Ernst Albrecht, German economist and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (d. 2014)
1930 – Robert Evans, American actor and producer (d. 2019)
1930 – Viola Léger, American-Canadian actress and politician
1930 – Sławomir Mrożek, Polish-French author and playwright (d. 2013)
1931 – Sevim Burak, Turkish author (d. 1983)
1932 – Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, British jurist; Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
1933 – Bob Shaw, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
1933 – John Bradshaw, American theologian and author (d. 2016)
1934 – Corey Allen, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
1935 – Vassilis C. Constantakopoulos, Greek captain and businessman (d. 2011)
1935 – Katsuya Nomura, Japanese baseball player and manager
1936 – Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2011)
1939 – Alan Connolly, Australian cricketer
1939 – Amarildo Tavares da Silveira, Brazilian footballer and coach
1940 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
1940 – John Dawes, Welsh rugby player and coach
1941 – John Boccabella, American baseball player
1941 – Stokely Carmichael, Trinidadian-American activist (d. 1998)
1942 – Charlotte Bingham, English author and screenwriter
1942 – Mike Willesee, Australian journalist and producer (d. 2019)
1943 – Little Eva, American singer (d. 2003)
1943 – Louis Nicollin, French entrepreneur and chairman of Montpellier HSC (d. 2017)
1944 – Gary Busey, American actor
1944 – Andreu Mas-Colell, Spanish economist, academic, and politician
1944 – Seán Patrick O’Malley, American cardinal
1945 – Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sri Lankan journalist and politician, 5th President of Sri Lanka
1946 – Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Panamanian politician, 33rd President of Panama
1946 – Egon von Fürstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (d. 2004)
1947 – Richard Lewis, American actor and screenwriter
1948 – Sean Bergin, South African-Dutch saxophonist and flute player (d. 2012)
1948 – Fred Grandy, American actor and politician
1948 – Ian Paice, English drummer, songwriter, and producer
221 – Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.
363 – Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire.
684 – Pope Benedict II is chosen.
699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.
1243 – Mongols defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Dağ.
1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland, following Ducal period. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.
1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
1409 – Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with a rebel army and march on London.
1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.
1522 – Ottomans begin the second Siege of Rhodes.
1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
1579 – Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory begins.
1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great’s son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
1723 – After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
1740 – A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine during the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.
1830 – William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.
1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British “in perpetuity”.
1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
1857 – The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.
1889 – Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.
1906 – The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans.
1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
1917 – World War I: The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.
1918 – World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.
1924 – The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.
1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
1934 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
1940 – World War II: Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
1941 – World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.
1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
1944 – World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.
1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.
1948 – Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.
1948 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
1948 – Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.
1952 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.
1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.
1955 – The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
1959 – Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.
1960 – The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
1960 – Madagascar gains its independence from France.
1963 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
1967 – Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
1977 – Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena.
1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.
1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People’s Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d’état.
1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
2000 – The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a “rough draft” sequence.
2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
2006 – Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.
2007 – Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.
2008 – A suicide bomber dressed as an Iraqi policeman detonates an explosive vest, killing 25 people.
2012 – The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.
2013 – Riots in China’s Xinjiang region kill at least 36 people and injure 21 others.
2013 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
2015 – Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.
2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Births on June 26
12 BC – Agrippa Postumus, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder (d. 14)
1399 – John, Count of Angoulême (d. 1467)
1575 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (d. 1612)
1581 – San Pedro Claver, Spanish Jesuit saint (d. 1654)
1600 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish-born bishop and viceroy of New Spain (d. 1659)
1681 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden (d. 1708)
1689 – Edward Holyoke, American pastor and academic (d. 1769)
1694 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
1699 – Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, French businesswoman (d. 1777)
1702 – Philip Doddridge, English hymn-writer and educator (d. 1751)
1703 – Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (d. 1767)
1726 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (d. 1796)
1730 – Charles Messier, French astronomer and academic (d. 1817)
1764 – Jan Paweł Łuszczewski, Polish politician (d. 1812)
1796 – Jan Paweł Lelewel, Polish painter and engineer (d. 1847)
1798 – Wolfgang Menzel, German poet and critic (d. 1873)
1817 – Branwell Brontë, English painter and poet (d. 1848)
1819 – Abner Doubleday, American general (d. 1893)
1821 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentinian soldier, journalist, and politician, 6th President of Argentina (d. 1906)
1824 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer (d. 1907)
1835 – Thomas W. Knox, American journalist and author (d. 1896)
1839 – Sam Watkins, American soldier and author (d. 1901)
1852 – Daoud Corm, Lebanese painter (d. 1930)
1854 – Robert Laird Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1937)
1865 – Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian-American historian and author (d. 1959)
1866 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English archaeologist and banker (d. 1923)
1869 – Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish journalist and author (d. 1954)
1878 – Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (d. 1957)
1880 – Mitchell Lewis, American actor (d. 1956)
1881 – Ya’akov Cohen, Israeli linguist, poet, and playwright (d. 1960)
1892 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
1893 – Dorothy Fuldheim, American journalist and news anchor(d. 1989)
1895 – George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player and politician (d. 1950)
1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German engineer and businessman (d. 1978)
1898 – Chesty Puller, US general (d. 1971)
1899 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1901 – Stuart Symington, American lieutenant and politician, 1st United States Secretary of the Air Force (d. 1988)
1902 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor and educator (d. 2010)
1903 – Big Bill Broonzy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1958)
1904 – Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
1904 – Peter Lorre, Slovak-American actor and singer (d. 1964)
1905 – Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (d. 1985)
1906 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer (d. 1974)
1906 – Viktor Schreckengost, American sculptor and educator (d. 2008)
1907 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (d. 1984)
1908 – Salvador Allende, Chilean physician and politician, 29th President of Chile (d. 1973)
1909 – Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-American talent manager (d. 1997)
1909 – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer (d. 1985)
1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American golfer and basketball player (d. 1956)
1911 – Bronisław Żurakowski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2009)
1913 – Aimé Césaire, French poet, author, and politician (d. 2008)
1913 – Maurice Wilkes, English computer scientist and physicist (d. 2010)
1914 – Laurie Lee, English author and poet (d. 1997)
1914 – Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, European royalty (d. 2001)
1915 – Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
1915 – George Haigh, English professional footballer (d. 2019)
1915 – Charlotte Zolotow, American author and poet (d. 2013)
1916 – Virginia Satir, American psychotherapist and author (d. 1988)
1916 – Giuseppe Taddei, Italian actor and singer (d. 2010)
1917 – Idriz Ajeti, Albanian albanologist (d. 2019)
1918 – Leo Rosner, Polish-born Austrian Jewish musician (d. 2008)
1918 – Raleigh Rhodes, American combat fighter pilot (d. 2007)
1918 – J. B. Fuqua, American entrepreneur and philanthropist (d. 2006)
1919 – Richard Neustadt, American political scientist and academic (d. 2003)
1919 – Jimmy Newberry, American pitcher (d. 1983)
1919 – George Athan Billias, American historian (d. 2018)
1919 – Donald M. Ashton, English art director (d. 2004)
1920 – Jean-Pierre Roy, Canadian-American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
1921 – Violette Szabo, French-British secret agent (d. 1945)
1921 – Robert Everett, American computer scientist (d. 2018)
1922 – Walter Farley, American author (d. 1989)
1922 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (d. 2013)
1922 – Enzo Apicella, English artist, cartoonist, designer, and restaurateur (d. 2018)
1923 – Franz-Paul Decker, German conductor (d. 2014)
1923 – Ed Bearss, American veteran of World War II
1924 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (d. 2010)
1924 – James W. McCord Jr., CIA officer (d. 2017)
1925 – Pavel Belyayev, Russian soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1970)
1925 – Wolfgang Unzicker, German chess player (d. 2006)
1925 – Jean Frydman, French resistant and businessman
1926 – Kenny Baker, American fiddler (d.2011)
1926 – Mahendra Bhatnagar, Indian poet
1926 – Fernando Mönckeberg Barros, Chilean surgeon
1926 – Dinu Zamfirescu, Romanian politician
1927 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author and poet (d. 2011)
1928 – Jacob Druckman, American composer and academic (d. 1996)
1928 – Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
1928 – Bill Sheffield, American politician; 5th Governor of Alaska
1928 – Samuel Belzberg, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2018)
1929 – June Bronhill, Australian soprano and actress (d. 2005)
1929 – Fred Bruemmer, Latvian-Canadian photographer and author (d. 2013)
1929 – Milton Glaser, American illustrator and graphic designer
1930 – Jackie Fargo, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2013)
1930 – Wolfgang Schwanitz, East German secret police
1931 – Colin Wilson, English philosopher and author (d. 2013)
1931 – Robert Colbert, American actor
1932 – Dame Marguerite Pindling, Bahamian politician; Governor-General of the Bahamas
1932 – Don Valentine, American venture capitalist (d. 2019)
1933 – Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (d. 2014)
1933 – Gene Green, American baseball player (d. 1981)
1933 – David Winnick, English politician
1934 – Dave Grusin, American pianist and composer
1934 – Toru Goto, Japanese swimmer
1935 – Carlo Facetti, Italian race car driver
1935 – Sandro Riminucci, Italian basketball player
1935 – Dwight York, American singer
1936 – Benjamin Adekunle, Nigerian general (d. 2014)
1936 – Hal Greer, American basketball player (d. 2018)
1936 – Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, Scottish politician (d. 2020)
1936 – Edith Pearlman, American short story writer
1936 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (d. 2015)
1936 – Nancy Willard, American author and poet (d. 2017)
1937 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1937 – Reggie Workman, American bassist and composer
1938 – Neil Abercrombie, American sociologist and politician, 7th Governor of Hawaii
1938 – Billy Davis Jr., American pop-soul singer
1938 – Gerald North, American climatologist and academic
1939 – Chuck Robb, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 64th Governor of Virginia
1939 – Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysian politician (d. 2018)
1941 – Yves Beauchemin, Canadian author and academic
1942 – J.J. Dillon, American wrestler and manager
1942 – Gilberto Gil, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and politician, Brazilian Minister of Culture
1943 – Georgie Fame, English singer, pianist, and keyboard player
1943 – Warren Farrell, American author and educator
1944 – Gennady Zyuganov, Russian colonel and politician
1946 – Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (d. 2013)
1949 – Fredric Brandt, American dermatologist and author (d. 2015)
1949 – Adrian Gurvitz, English singer-songwriter and producer
1949 – Mary Styles Harris, American biologist and geneticist
1951 – Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer and manager (d. 2014)
1952 – Gordon McQueen, Scottish footballer and manager
1952 – Olive Morris, Jamaican-English civil rights activist (d. 1979)
1954 – Luis Arconada, Spanish footballer
1955 – Mick Jones, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 – Gedde Watanabe, American actor
1956 – Chris Isaak, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1956 – Catherine Samba-Panza, interim president of the Central African Republic
1956 – Patrick Mercer, English colonel and politician
1957 – Al Hunter Ashton, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1957 – Philippe Couillard, Canadian surgeon and politician, 31st Premier of Quebec
1957 – Patty Smyth, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and screenwriter
1960 – Mark Durkan, Irish politician
1961 – Greg LeMond, American cyclist
1961 – Terri Nunn, American singer-songwriter and actress
1962 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1963 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian-Swiss businessman and philanthropist
1963 – Mark McClellan, American economist and politician
1963 – Harriet Wheeler, English singer-songwriter
1964 – Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish race car driver
1966 – Dany Boon, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1966 – Kirk McLean, Canadian ice hockey player
1966 – Jürgen Reil, American drummer
1967 – Inha Babakova, Ukrainian high jumper
1967 – Olivier Dahan, French director and screenwriter
1968 – Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, Icelandic lecturer and politician, 6th President of Iceland
1968 – Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
1968 – Shannon Sharpe, American football player and sportscaster
1969 – Colin Greenwood, English bass player and songwriter
1969 – Ingrid Lempereur, Belgian swimmer
1969 – Geir Moen, Norwegian sprinter
1969 – Mike Myers, American baseball player
1970 – Paul Thomas Anderson, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1970 – Paul Bitok, Kenyan runner
1970 – Irv Gotti, American record producer, co-founded Murder Inc Records
1970 – Sean Hayes, American actor
1970 – Adam Ndlovu, Zimbabwean footballer
1970 – Chris O’Donnell, American actor
1970 – Nick Offerman, American actor
1971 – Max Biaggi, Italian motorcycle racer
1972 – Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper and police officer
1973 – Gretchen Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 – Derek Jeter, American baseball player
1974 – Jason Kendall, American baseball player
1975 – Chris Armstrong, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Terry Skiverton, English footballer and manager
1976 – Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Pommie Mbangwa, Zimbabwean cricketer and sportscaster
1976 – Chad Pennington, American football player and sportscaster
1976 – Dave Rubin, American political commentator
1977 – Quincy Lewis, American basketball player
1979 – Ryō Fukuda, Japanese race car driver
1979 – Walter Herrmann, Argentinian basketball player
1979 – Ryan Tedder, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal, Roman forces suffer several attacks from the Persians.
632 – Yazdegerd III ascends the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
1487 – Battle of Stoke Field: King Henry VII of England defeats the leaders of a Yorkist rebellion in the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.
1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, New France (Old Style date).
1746 – War of the Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
1755 – French and Indian War: The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
1795 – French Revolutionary Wars: In what became known as Cornwallis’s Retreat, a British Royal Navy squadron led by Vice Admiral William Cornwallis strongly resists a much larger French Navy force and withdraws largely intact, setting up the French Navy defeat at the Battle of Groix six days later.
1811 – Survivors of an attack the previous day by Tla-o-qui-aht on board the Pacific Fur Company’s ship Tonquin, intentionally detonate a powder magazine on the ship, destroying it and killing about 100 attackers.
1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
1819 – A major earthquake strikes the Kutch district of western India, killing over 1,543 people and raising a 6 m high, 6 km wide, ridge, extending for at least 80 km, that was known as the Allah Bund (“Dam of God”).
1836 – The formation of the London Working Men’s Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
1871 – The Universities Tests Act 1871 allows students to enter the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).
1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England, kills 183 children.
1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s “Switchback Railway”, opens in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.
1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
1903 – Roald Amundsen leaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.
1904 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called “Bloomsday”.
1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party wins a large majority.
1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, Artek, is established.
1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR.
1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed in the United States, allowing businesses to avoid antitrust prosecution if they establish voluntary wage, price, and working condition regulations on an industry-wide basis.
1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l’État Français).
1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
1944 – In a gross miscarriage of justice, George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14, becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century after being convicted in a two-hour trial for the rape and murder of two teenage white girls.
1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
1955 – In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
1961 – While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
1981 – US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
1997 – Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M’sila) massacre in Algeria.
2000 – The Secretary-General of the UN reports that Israel has complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 22 years after its issuance, and completely withdrew from Lebanon. The Resolution does not encompass the Shebaa farms, which is claimed by Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.
2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
2012 – The United States Air Force’s robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission
2013 – A multi-day cloudburst, centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, causes devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
2016 – Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public.
2019 – Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong’s history.
Births on June 16
1139 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (d. 1155)
1332 – Isabella de Coucy, English daughter of Edward III of England (d. 1379)
1454 – Joanna of Aragon, Queen of Naples (d. 1517)
1514 – John Cheke, English academic and politician, English Secretary of State (d. 1557)
1516 – Yang Jisheng, Ming dynasty official and Confucian martyr (d. 1555)
1583 – Axel Oxenstierna, Swedish politician, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)
1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
1606 – Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1675)
1613 – John Cleveland, English poet and educator (d. 1658)
1625 – Samuel Chappuzeau, French scholar (d. 1701)
1633 – Jean de Thévenot, French linguist and botanist (d. 1667)
1644 – Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of Scotland, England and Ireland (d. 1670)
1653 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)
1713 – Meshech Weare, American farmer, lawyer, and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1786)
1723 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and economist (d. 1790)
1738 – Mary Katherine Goddard, American publisher (d. 1816)
1754 – Salawat Yulayev, Russian poet (d. 1800)
1792 – John Linnell, English painter and engraver (d. 1882)
1801 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
1806 – Edward Davy, English physician and chemist (d. 1885)
1813 – Otto Jahn, German archaeologist and philologist (d. 1869)
1820 – Athanase Josué Coquerel, Dutch-French preacher and theologian (d. 1875)
1821 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer and architect (d. 1908)
1826 – Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)
1836 – Wesley Merritt, American general and politician, Military Governor of the Philippines (d. 1910)
1837 – Ernst Laas, German philosopher and academic (d. 1885)
1838 – Frederic Archer, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1901)
1838 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, American lieutenant and politician, 7th Governor of Minnesota (d. 1900)
1840 – Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer and author (d. 1913)
1850 – Max Delbrück, German chemist and academic (d. 1919)
1857 – Arthur Arz von Straußenburg, Austrian-Hungarian general (d. 1935)
1858 – Gustaf V of Sweden (d. 1950)
1863 – Francisco León de la Barra, Mexican politician and diplomat (d. 1939)
1866 – Germanos Karavangelis, Greek-Austrian metropolitan (d. 1935)
1874 – Arthur Meighen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1960)
1880 – Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist and author (d. 1963)
1882 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian educator and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
1885 – Erich Jacoby, Estonian-Polish architect (d. 1941)
1888 – Alexander Friedmann, Russian physicist and mathematician (d. 1925)
1888 – Peter Stoner, American mathematician and astronomer (d. 1980)
1890 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965)
1896 – Murray Leinster, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976)
1897 – Georg Wittig, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1899 – Helen Traubel, American operatic soprano (d. 1972)
1902 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
1902 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist and author (d. 1984)
1906 – Alan Fairfax, Australian cricketer (d. 1955)
1907 – Jack Albertson, American actor (d. 1981)
1909 – Archie Carr, American ecologist and zoologist (d. 1987)
1910 – Juan Velasco Alvarado, Peruvian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (d. 1977)
1912 – Albert Chartier, Canadian illustrator (d. 2004)
1912 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Health (d. 1998)
1914 – Eleanor Sokoloff, American pianist and teacher
1915 – John Tukey, American mathematician and academic (d. 2000)
1915 – Marga Faulstich, German glass chemist (d. 1998)
1917 – Phaedon Gizikis, Greek general and politician, President of Greece (d. 1999)
1917 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)
1917 – Aurelio Lampredi, Italian automobile and aircraft engine designer (d. 1989)
1917 – Irving Penn, American photographer (d. 2009)
1920 – Isabelle Holland, Swiss-American author (d. 2002)
1920 – Raymond Lemieux, Canadian chemist and academic (d. 2002)
1920 – José López Portillo, Mexican lawyer and politician, 31st President of Mexico (d. 2004)
1920 – Hemanta Mukharjee, Indian singer and music director
1922 – Ilmar Kullam, Estonian basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
1923 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish race car driver (d. 1962)
1924 – Faith Domergue, American actress (d. 1999)
1925 – Jean d’Ormesson, French journalist and author (d. 2017)
1925 – Otto Muehl, Austrian-Portuguese painter and director (d. 2013)
1926 – Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan general and politician, 26th President of Guatemala (d. 2018)
1927 – Tom Graveney, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2015)
1927 – Herbert Lichtenfeld, German author and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1927 – Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian author and playwright (d. 2014)
1929 – Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
1930 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer and producer (d. 2016)
1934 – Eileen Atkins, English actress and screenwriter
1934 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
1935 – Jim Dine, American painter and illustrator
1937 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Bulgarian politician, 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
1937 – Erich Segal, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1938 – Thomas Boyd-Carpenter, English general
1938 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish author and poet (d. 2017)
1938 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet
1939 – Billy “Crash” Craddock, American singer-songwriter
1940 – Māris Čaklais, Latvian poet, writer, and journalist (d. 2003)
1940 – Neil Goldschmidt, American lawyer and politician, 33rd Governor of Oregon
1941 – Rosalind Baker, Australian author
1941 – Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer
1941 – Tommy Horton, English golfer (d. 2017)
1941 – Mumtaz Hamid Rao, Pakistani journalist (d. 2011)
1942 – Giacomo Agostini, Italian motorcycle racer and manager
1942 – Eddie Levert, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1944 – Henri Richelet, French painter and etcher
1945 – Claire Alexander, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1945 – Lucienne Robillard, Canadian social worker and politician, 59th Secretary of State for Canada
1946 – Rick Adelman, American basketball player and coach
1946 – John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, English businessman and politician
1946 – Karen Dunnell, English statistician and academic
1946 – Tom Harrell, American trumpet player and composer
1946 – Neil MacGregor, Scottish historian and curator
1946 – Iain Matthews, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Jodi Rell, American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut
1946 – Mark Ritts, American actor, puppeteer, and producer (d. 2009)
1946 – Derek Sanderson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1946 – Simon Williams, English actor and playwright
1947 – Tom Malone, American trombonist, composer, and producer
1947 – Buddy Roberts, American wrestler (d. 2012)
1947 – Al Cowlings, American ex-NFL player and close friend of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson
1947 – Tom Wyner, English-American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1948 – Ron LeFlore, American baseball player and manager
1949 – Paulo Cézar Caju, Brazilian footballer
1949 – Ralph Mann, American hurdler and author
1950 – Mithun Chakraborty, Indian actor and politician
1950 – Michel Clair, Canadian lawyer and politician
1950 – Jerry Petrowski, American politician and farmer
1951 – Charlie Dominici, American singer and guitarist
1951 – Roberto Durán, Panamanian boxer
1952 – George Papandreou, Greek sociologist and politician, 182nd Prime Minister of Greece
1952 – Gino Vannelli, Canadian singer-songwriter
1953 – Valerie Mahaffey, American actress
1953 – Ian Mosley, English drummer
1954 – Matthew Saad Muhammad, American boxer and trainer (d. 2014)
1954 – Garry Roberts, Irish guitarist
1955 – Grete Faremo, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Defence
1955 – Laurie Metcalf, American actress
1955 – Artemy Troitsky, Russian journalist and critic
1957 – Ian Buchanan, Scottish-American actor
1957 – Leeona Dorrian, Lady Dorrian, Scottish lawyer and judge
1958 – Darrell Griffith, American basketball player
1958 – Ulrike Tauber, German swimmer
1958 – Warren Rodwell, Australian soldier, educator and musician
1959 – The Ultimate Warrior, American wrestler (d. 2014)
1960 – Peter Sterling, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1961 – Can Dündar, Turkish journalist and author
1961 – Robbie Kerr, Australian cricketer
1961 – Steve Larmer, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Margus Metstak, Estonian basketball player and coach
1962 – Wally Joyner, American baseball player and coach
1962 – Arnold Vosloo, South African-American actor
1962 – Anthony Wong, Hong Kong singer
1963 – The Sandman, American wrestler
1964 – Danny Burstein, American actor and singer
1965 – Michael Richard Lynch, Irish computer scientist and entrepreneur; co-founded HP Autonomy
1965 – Richard Madaleno, American politician
1966 – Mark Occhilupo, Australian surfer
1966 – Olivier Roumat, French rugby player
1966 – Phil Vischer, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-created VeggieTales
1966 – Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower and coach
1967 – Charalambos Andreou, Cypriot footballer
1967 – Jürgen Klopp, German footballer and manager
1968 – Adam Schmitt, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1969 – Shami Chakrabarti, English lawyer and academic
1969 – Mark Crossley, English-Welsh footballer and manager
1970 – Younus AlGohar, Pakistani poet and academic, co-founded Messiah Foundation International
1970 – Clifton Collins Jr., American actor
1970 – Cobi Jones, American soccer player and manager
1970 – Phil Mickelson, American golfer
1971 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper and producer (d. 1996)
1972 – Kiko Loureiro, Brazilian guitarist
1973 – Eddie Cibrian, American actor
1974 – Glenicia James, Saint Lucian cricketer
1975 – Anthony Carter, American basketball player and coach
1977 – Craig Fitzgibbon, Australian rugby league player and coach
1977 – Duncan Hames, English accountant and politician
1977 – Kerry Wood, American baseball player
1978 – Daniel Brühl, Spanish-German actor
1978 – Dainius Zubrus, Lithuanian ice hockey player
1978 – Fish Leong, Malaysian singer
1980 – Brandon Armstrong, American basketball player
1980 – Phil Christophers, German-English rugby player
1980 – Henry Perenara, New Zealand rugby league player and referee
1980 – Martin Stranzl, Austrian footballer
1980 – Joey Yung, Hong Kong singer
1981 – Benjamin Becker, German tennis player
1981 – Kevin Bieksa, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Alexandre Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Ola Kvernberg, Norwegian violinist
1981 – Miguel Villalta, Peruvian footballer
1982 – May Andersen, Danish model and actress
1982 – Missy Peregrym, Canadian model and actress
1983 – Armend Dallku, Albanian footballer
1984 – Rick Nash, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Dan Ryckert, American writer and entertainer
1984 – Steven Whittaker, Scottish footballer
1986 – Rodrigo Defendi, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Urby Emanuelson, Dutch footballer
1986 – Fernando Muslera, Uruguayan footballer
1987 – Diana DeGarmo, American singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Per Ciljan Skjelbred, Norwegian footballer
1987 – Christian Tshimanga Kabeya, Belgian footballer
1988 – Keshia Chante, Canadian singer
1988 – Jermaine Gresham, American football player
1990 – John Newman, English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
1991 – Joe McElderry, English singer-songwriter
1991 – Siya Kolisi, South African rugby player
1991 – Matt Moylan, Australian rugby league player
1992 – Vladimir Morozov, Russian swimmer
1993 – Park Bo-gum, South Korean actor
1993 – Gnash, American singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ and record producer
1994 – Grete-Lilijane Küppas, Estonian footballer
1994 – Rezar, Albanian professional wrestler
1995 – Euan Aitken, Australian rugby league player
1995 – Joseph Schooling, Singaporean swimmer
1995 – Akira Ioane, New Zealand rugby Union player
2000 – Bianca Andreescu, Canadian tennis player
Deaths on June 16
840 – Rorgon I, Frankish nobleman (or 839)
924 – Li Cunshen, general of Later Tang (b. 862)
956 – Hugh the Great, Frankish nobleman (b. 898)
1185 – Richeza of Poland, queen of León (b. c. 1140)
1286 – Hugh de Balsham, English bishop
1332 – Adam de Brome, founder of Oriel College, Oxford
1361 – Johannes Tauler, German mystic theologian
1397 – Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, French soldier (b. 1358)
1424 – Johannes Ambundii, archbishop of Riga
1468 – Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy, Burgundian historian and author (b. 1395)
1487 – John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (b. c. 1463)
1540 – Konrad von Thüngen, German nobleman (b. c. 1466)
1622 – Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1555)
1626 – Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader (b. 1599)
1666 – Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, English poet and diplomat, English Ambassador to Spain (b. 1608)
1722 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (b. 1650)
1743 – Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, eldest daughter of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1673)
1752 – Joseph Butler, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1692)
1762 – Anne Russell, Countess of Jersey (formerly Duchess of Bedford) (b. c.1705)
1777 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and playwright (b. 1709)
1779 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, English lawyer and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1712)
1804 – Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor (b. 1728)
1824 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French lawyer and politician (b. 1739)
1849 – Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, German theologian and scholar (b. 1780)
1850 – William Lawson, English-Australian explorer and politician (b. 1774)
1858 – John Snow, English epidemiologist and physician (b. 1813)
1862 – Hidenoyama Raigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 9th Yokozuna (b. 1808)
1869 – Charles Sturt, Indian-English botanist and explorer (b. 1795)
1872 – Norman MacLeod, Scottish minister and author (b. 1812)
1878 – Crawford Long, American surgeon and pharmacist (b. 1815)
1878 – Kikuchi Yōsai, Japanese painter (b. 1781)
1881 – Josiah Mason, English businessman and philanthropist (b. 1795)
1885 – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter and academic (b. 1818)
1886 – Alexander Stuart, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1824)
1902 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician and academic (b. 1841)
1918 – Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer (b. 1860)
1925 – Chittaranjan Das, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1870)
1929 – Bramwell Booth, English 2nd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
1929 – Vernon Louis Parrington, American historian and scholar (b. 1871)
1930 – Ezra Fitch, American lawyer and businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1866)
1930 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor, co-invented the gyrocompass (b. 1860)
1939 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1905)
1940 – DuBose Heyward, American author (b. 1885)
1944 – Marc Bloch, French historian and academic (b. 1886)
1945 – Aris Velouchiotis, Greek general (b. 1905)
1946 – Gordon Brewster, Irish cartoonist (b 1889)
1952 – Andrew Lawson, Scottish-American geologist and academic (b. 1861)
1953 – Margaret Bondfield, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (b. 1873)
1955 – Ozias Leduc, Canadian painter (b. 1864)
1958 – Pál Maléter, Hungarian general and politician, Minister of Defence of Hungary (b. 1917)
1958 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1895)
1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914)
1961 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician and anesthesiologist (b. 1904)
1967 – Reginald Denny, English actor (b. 1891)
1969 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada (b. 1891)
1970 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (b. 1888)
1970 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (b. 1943)
1971 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (b. 1889)
1974 – Amalie Sara Colquhoun, Australian landscape and portrait painter (b. 1894)
1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1912)
1979 – Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghanaian general and politician, 6th Head of state of Ghana (b. 1931)
1979 – Nicholas Ray, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
1981 – Thomas Playford IV, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia (b. 1896)
1982 – James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (b. 1956)
1984 – Lew Andreas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
1984 – Erni Krusten, Estonian author and poet (b. 1900)
1986 – Maurice Duruflé, French organist and composer (b. 1902)
1987 – Marguerite de Angeli, American author and illustrator (b. 1889)
1988 – Miguel Piñero, Puerto Rican-American actor and playwright (b. 1946)
1993 – Lindsay Hassett, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1913)
1994 – Kristen Pfaff, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1967)
1996 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster and game show host (b. 1913)
1997 – Dal Stivens, Australian soldier and author (b. 1911)
1998 – Fred Wacker, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1918)
1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer and activist (b. 1940)
2003 – Pierre Bourgault, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1934)
2003 – Georg Henrik von Wright, Finnish–Swedish philosopher and author (b. 1916)
2004 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai field marshal and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1911)
2004 – Jacques Miquelon, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1911)
2005 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican-American author and critic (b. 1906)
2008 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian soldier and author (b. 1921)
2010 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (b. 1932)
2010 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian singer and academic (b. 1930)
2010 – Ronald Neame, English director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
2011 – Östen Mäkitalo, Swedish engineer and academic (b. 1938)
2012 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (b. 1917)
2012 – Jorge Lankenau, Mexican banker and businessman (b. 1944)
2012 – Sławomir Petelicki, Polish general (b. 1946)
2012 – Susan Tyrrell, American actress (b. 1945)
2013 – Sam Farber, American businessman, co-founded OXO (b. 1924)
2013 – Hans Hass, Austrian biologist and diver (b. 1919)
671 – Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku. The instrument, which measures time and indicates hours, is placed in the capital of Ōtsu.
1190 – Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem.
1329 – The Battle of Pelekanon results in a Byzantine defeat by the Ottoman Empire.
1523 – Copenhagen is surrounded by the army of Frederick I of Denmark, as the city will not recognise him as the successor of Christian II of Denmark.
1539 – Council of Trent: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice.
1596 – Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island.
1619 – Thirty Years’ War: Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt.
1624 – Signing of the Treaty of Compiègne between France and the Netherlands.
1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries”.
1719 – Jacobite risings: Battle of Glen Shiel
1782 – King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) is crowned.
1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China.
1793 – The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris. A year later, it becomes the first public zoo.
1793 – French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
1805 – First Barbary War: Yusuf Karamanli signs a treaty ending the hostilities between Tripolitania and the United States.
1829 – The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on the Thames in London.
1838 – Myall Creek massacre: Twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians are murdered.
1854 – The United States Naval Academy graduates its first class of students.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Brice’s Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
1868 – Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia is assassinated.
1871 – Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea.
1878 – League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in the Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece.
1886 – Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and burying the famous Pink and White Terraces. Eruptions continue for three months creating a large, 17 km long fissure across the mountain peak.
1898 – Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines begin the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba.
1916 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.
1918 – The Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István sinks off the Croatian coast after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat; the event is recorded by camera from a nearby vessel.
1924 – Fascists kidnap and kill Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
1935 – Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson.
1935 – Chaco War ends: A truce is called between Bolivia and Paraguay who had been fighting since 1932.
1940 – World War II: The Kingdom of Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
1940 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy’s actions in his “Stab in the Back” speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
1940 – World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ends.
1942 – World War II: The Lidice massacre is perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
1944 – World War II: Six hundred forty-two men, women and children massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France.
1944 – World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.
1944 – In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game.
1945 – Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei.
1947 – Saab produces its first automobile.
1957 – John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset in the 1957 Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party government.
1963 – The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program.
1964 – United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill’s passage.
1967 – The Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire.
1977 – James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later.
1980 – The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.
1982 – Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.
1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities.
1991 – Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009.
1994 – China conducts a nuclear test for DF-31 warhead at Area C (Beishan), Lop Nur, its prominence being due to the Cox Report.
1996 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin.
1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen’s family members.
1999 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
2001 – Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon’s first female saint, Saint Rafqa.
2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
2003 – The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.
2009 – James Wenneker von Brunn, who was 88-years-old, opened fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended.
2019 – An Agusta A109E Power crashed onto the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, which sparked a fire on the top of the building. The pilot of the helicopter was killed.
Births on June 10
867 – Emperor Uda of Japan (d. 931)
940 – Abu al-Wafa’ Buzjani, Persian mathematician and astronomer (d. 998)
1213 – Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi, Persian poet and philosopher (d. 1289)
1465 – Mercurino Gattinara, Italian statesman and jurist (d. 1530)
1513 – Louis, Duke of Montpensier (1561–1582) (d. 1582)
1557 – Leandro Bassano, Italian painter (d. 1622)
1632 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (d. 1710)
1688 – James Francis Edward Stuart, claimant to the English and Scottish throne (d. 1766)
1713 – Princess Caroline of Great Britain (d. 1757)
1716 – Carl Gustaf Ekeberg, Swedish physician and explorer (d. 1784)
1753 – William Eustis, American physician and politician, 12th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1825)
1804 – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist and herpetologist (d. 1884)
1819 – Gustave Courbet, French-Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 1877)
1825 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (d. 1897)
1832 – Edwin Arnold, English poet and journalist (d. 1904)
1832 – Nicolaus Otto, German engineer (d. 1891)
1832 – Stephen Mosher Wood, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1920)
1835 – Rebecca Latimer Felton, American educator and politician (d. 1930)
1839 – Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Danish lawyer and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1912)
1840 – Theodor Philipsen, Danish painter (d. 1920)
1843 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1900)
1854 – Sarah Grand, Irish feminist writer (d. 1943)
1859 – Emanuel Nobel, Swedish-Russian businessman (d. 1932)
1862 – Mrs. Leslie Carter, American actress (d. 1937)
1863 – Louis Couperus, Dutch author and poet (d. 1923)
1864 – Ninian Comper, Scottish architect (d. 1960)
1865 – Frederick Cook, American physician and explorer (d. 1940)
1880 – André Derain, French painter and sculptor (d. 1954)
1882 – Nils Økland, Norwegian Esperantist and teacher (d. 1969)
1884 – Leone Sextus Tollemache, English captain (d. 1917)
1886 – Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor and producer (d. 1973)
1891 – Al Dubin, Swiss-American songwriter (d. 1945)
1895 – Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)
1897 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1898 – Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt (d. 1983)
1899 – Stanisław Czaykowski, Polish race car driver (d. 1933)
1901 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (d. 1988)
1904 – Lin Huiyin, Chinese architect and poet (d. 1955)
1907 – Fairfield Porter, American painter and critic (d. 1975)
1907 – Dicky Wells, American jazz trombonist (d. 1985)[n 1]
1909 – Lang Hancock, Australian soldier and businessman (d. 1992)
1910 – Frank Demaree, American baseball player and manager (d. 1958)
1910 – Howlin’ Wolf, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1976)
1911 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harpsichord player and musicologist (d. 1984)
1911 – Terence Rattigan, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 1977)
1912 – Jean Lesage, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Premier of Quebec (d. 1980)
1913 – Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian pianist and composer (d. 2007)
1913 – Benjamin Shapira, German-Israeli biochemist and academic (d. 1993)
1914 – Oktay Rıfat Horozcu, Turkish poet and playwright (d. 1988)
1915 – Saul Bellow, Canadian-American novelist, essayist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
1916 – Peride Celal, Turkish author (d. 2013)
1916 – William Rosenberg, American entrepreneur, founded Dunkin’ Donuts (d. 2002)
1918 – Patachou, French singer and actress (d. 2015)
1918 – Barry Morse, English-Canadian actor and director (d. 2008)
1919 – Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Palestinian physician and politician (d. 2007)
1919 – Kevin O’Flanagan, Irish footballer, rugby player, and physician (d. 2006)
1921 – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
1921 – Jean Robic, French cyclist (d. 1980)
1922 – Judy Garland, American singer, actress, and vaudevillian (d. 1969)
1922 – Bill Kerr, South African-Australian actor (d. 2014)
1923 – Paul Brunelle, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1994)
1923 – Robert Maxwell, Czech-English captain, publisher, and politician (d. 1991)
1924 – Friedrich L. Bauer, German mathematician, computer scientist, and academic (d. 2015)
1925 – Leo Gravelle, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1925 – Nat Hentoff, American historian, author, and journalist (d. 2017)
1925 – James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer (d. 2015)
1926 – Bruno Bartoletti, Italian conductor (d. 2013)
1926 – Lionel Jeffries, English actor, screenwriter and film director (d. 2010)
293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
878 – Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege.
879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1349 – Dušan’s Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
1659 – In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.
1660 – The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.
1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
1703 – Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.
1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.
1792 – A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that kills nearly 15,000 people.
1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
1851 – Slavery in Colombia is abolished.
1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
1864 – The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week”, some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire’s military forces.
1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover’s severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan’s most notorious scandals.
1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition: A gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1976 – Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.
1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
1981 – Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven’s Gate.
1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
1998 – President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 – The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
2012 – A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen.
2017 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Births on May 21
1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (d. 1528)
1497 – Al-Hattab, Muslim jurist (d. 1547)
1527 – Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
1653 – Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (d. 1744)
1755 – Alfred Moore, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
1756 – William Babington, Irish-born, English physician and mineralogist (d. 1833)
1763 – Joseph Fouché, French lawyer and politician (d. 1820)
1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French soldier and politician (d. 1840)
1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, philanthropist and Quaker (d. 1845)
1790 – William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, English politician, Lord Chamberlain of the Household (d. 1858)
1792 – Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1843)
1799 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (d. 1847)
1801 – Princess Sophie of Sweden, Swedish princess (d. 1865)
1806 – Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, English duchess (d. 1868)
1808 – David de Jahacob Lopez Cardozo, Dutch Talmudist (d. 1890)
1827 – William P. Sprague, American banker and politician (d. 1899)
1828 – Rudolf Koller, Swiss painter (d. 1905)
1835 – František Chvostek, Czech-Austrian physician and academic (d. 1884)
1837 – Itagaki Taisuke, Japanese soldier and politician (d. 1919)
1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
1843 – Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
1844 – Henri Rousseau, French painter (d. 1910)
1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest and volcanologist (d. 1914)
1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French police officer and politician, 64th Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan journalist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1929)
1860 – Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
1861 – Abel Ayerza, Argentinian physician and academic (d. 1918)
1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria (d. 1954)
1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
1873 – Hans Berger, German neurologist and academic (d. 1941)
1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American cyclist and engineer (d. 1930)
1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1967)
1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet and publisher (d. 1920)
1885 – Princess Sophie of Albania, (Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg) (d. 1936)
1893 – Arthur Carr, English cricketer (d. 1963)
1893 – Giles Chippindall, Australian public servant (d. 1969)
1895 – Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican general, president (1934–1940) and father of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (d. 1970)
1898 – Armand Hammer, American physician and businessman, founded Occidental Petroleum (d. 1990)
1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and judge (d. 1967)
1898 – Carl Johnson, American long jumper (d. 1932)
1898 – John McLaughlin, American painter and translator (d. 1976)
1901 – Regina M. Anderson, Multiracial playwright and librarian (d. 1993)
1901 – Horace Heidt, American pianist, bandleader, and radio host (d. 1986)
1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer and agent (d. 2000)
1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian author and playwright (d. 1992)
1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
1902 – Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-American architect and academic, designed the Ameritrust Tower (d. 1981)
1902 – Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1974)
1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
1904 – Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1943)
1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
1912 – Chen Dayu, Chinese painter and calligrapher (d. 2001)
1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist and academic (d. 1986)
1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player and coach (d. 1982)
1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist and composer (d. 1976)
1915 – Cathleen Cordell, American actress (d. 1997)
1915 – Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, Indian Civil Service Officer and former Under Secretary-General of the UN (d. 2003)
1916 – Dennis Day, American singer and actor (d. 1988)
1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch sprinter and police officer (d. 2002)
1916 – Harold Robbins, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor and director (d. 1993)
1918 – Anthony Steel, English actor and singer (d. 2001)
1919 – George P. Mitchell, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
1920 – Bill Barber, American tuba player and educator (d. 2007)
1920 – Forrest White, American businessman, co-founded the Music Man Company (d. 1994)
1921 – Sandy Douglas, English computer scientist and academic, designed OXO (d. 2010)
1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss-American mathematician and academic (d. 2003)
1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football player and coach (d. 2017)
1923 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian feminist poet, novelist and playwright (d. 2002)
1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress (d. 2012)
1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress, comedian, and game show panelist (d. 1999)
1926 – Robert Creeley, American novelist, essayist, and poet (d. 2005)
1927 – Kay Kendall, English actress and comedian (d. 1959)
1927 – Péter Zwack, Hungarian businessman and diplomat (d. 2012)
1928 – Tom Donahue, American radio host and producer (d. 1975)
1928 – Alice Drummond, American actress (d. 2016)
1929 – Larance Marable, American drummer (d. 2012)
1929 – Robert Welch, English silversmith and industrial designer (d. 2000)
1930 – Tommy Bryant, American bassist (d. 1982)
1930 – Keith Davis, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2019)
1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2015)
1932 – Inese Jaunzeme, Latvian javelin thrower and surgeon (d. 2011)
1932 – Leonidas Vasilikopoulos, Greek admiral and intelligence chief (d. 2014)
1933 – Maurice André, French trumpet player (d. 2012)
1933 – Yevgeny Minayev, Russian weightlifter (d. 1993)
1934 – Jocasta Innes, Chinese-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
1934 – Bob Northern, American horn player and bandleader
1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1935 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player and bandleader (d. 2013)
1936 – Günter Blobel, Polish-American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1938 – Lee “Shot” Williams, American singer (d. 2011)
1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor
1940 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1941 – Martin Carthy, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
1941 – Ambrose Greenway, 4th Baron Greenway, English photographer and politician
1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – David Hunt, Baron Hunt of Wirral, English politician, Secretary of State for Wales
1942 – John Konrads, Australian swimmer
1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
1943 – Vincent Crane, English pianist and composer (d. 1989)
1943 – John Dalton, English bass player
1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar, Iranian-English academic and politician
1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
1944 – Janet Dailey, American author and entrepreneur (d. 2013)
1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Ireland
1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
1945 – Richard Hatch, American actor, writer, and producer (d. 2017)
1946 – Allan McKeown, English-American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1946 – Wayne Roycroft, Australian equestrian rider and coach
1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1947 – Linda Laubenstein, American physician and academic (d. 1992)
1947 – İlber Ortaylı, Turkish historian and academic
1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, English author and critic
1948 – Joe Camilleri, Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter and saxophonist
1948 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian-English actor
1948 – Denis MacShane, Scottish journalist and politician, UK Minister of State for Europe
1948 – Leo Sayer, English-Australian singer-songwriter and musician
1949 – Andrew Neil, Scottish journalist and academic
1949 – Denis O’Connor, British police officer
1949 – Rosalind Plowright, English soprano
1950 – Will Hutton, English economist and journalist
1951 – Al Franken, American actor, screenwriter, and politician
1951 – Adrian Hardiman, Irish lawyer and judge (d. 2016)
1952 – Mr. T, American actor and wrestler
1953 – Nora Aunor, Filipino actress and recording artist
1954 – D. B. S. Jeyaraj, Sri Lankan-Canadian journalist and blogger
1954 – Janice Karman, American film producer, record producer, singer, and voice actress
1954 – Marc Ribot, American guitarist and composer
1955 – Paul Barber, English field hockey player
1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
1957 – Nadine Dorries, English nurse and politician
1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor and producer
1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
1958 – Christian Audigier, French fashion designer (d. 2015)
1958 – Muffy Calder, Canadian-Scottish computer scientist and academic
1958 – Michael Crick, English journalist and author
1958 – Naeem Khan, Indian-American fashion designer
1958 – Jefery Levy, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1959 – Abdulla Yameen, Maldivian politician, 6th President of the Maldives
1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player and sportscaster
1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
1960 – Mark Ridgway, Australian cricketer
1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
1962 – David Crumb, American composer and educator
1963 – Richard Appel, American screenwriter and producer
1963 – Patrick Grant, American musician and producer
1963 – David Lonsdale, English actor
1964 – Pete Sandoval, Salvadoran-American drummer
1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1963 – Dave Specter, American guitarist
1963 – Laurie Spina, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer and coach
1965 – Josh Richman, American actor and producer
1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
1966 – Tatyana Ledovskaya, Belarusian hurdler
1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007)
1968 – Ilmar Raag, Estonian director, producer, and screenwriter
1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German-Australian rower
1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino actress and singer (d. 1985)
1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
1969 – Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (d. 2000)
1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress and singer
1969 – George LeMieux, American lawyer and politician
1969 – Brian Statham, Rhodesian born English footballer, defender and manager
1970 – Brigita Bukovec, Slovenian hurdler
1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Pauline Menczer, Australian surfer
1970 – Carl Veart, Australian footballer and coach
1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997)
1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
1973 – Noel Fielding, English comedian, musician and television presenter
1974 – Brad Arthur, Australian rugby league coach
1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
1974 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress, and physician, Mrs. World 2001
1974 – Havoc, American rapper and producer
1975 – Anthony Mundine, Australian rugby league player and boxer
1976 – Stuart Bingham, English snooker player
1976 – Abderrahim Goumri, Moroccan runner (d. 2013)
1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African international footballer midfielder and coach
1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player and coach
1978 – Max B, American rapper and songwriter
1978 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player and coach
2020 – Alan Merten, fifth President of George Mason University (b. 1941)
Holidays and observances on May 21
Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
Christian feast day:
Arcangelo Tadini
Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González
Blessed Franz Jägerstätter
Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church)
Emperor Constantine I
Eugène de Mazenod
Helena of Constantinople, also known as “Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles.” (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion)
John Elliot (Episcopal Church)
Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes
May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro)
Navy Day (Chile)
Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502. (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha)
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)
