30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: 6th day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the Ten’o (天応) era).
1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
1423 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
1618 – Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.
1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.
1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
1712 – Action of 31 July 1712 (Great Northern War): Danish and Swedish ships clash in the Baltic Sea; the result is inconclusive.
1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
1763 – Odawa Chief Pontiac’s forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac’s War.
1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
1865 – The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
1874 – Dr. Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.
1913 – The Balkan States sign an armistice in Bucharest.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14.
1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1972 – The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.
1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
1975 – The Troubles: three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
1987 – A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Canada.
1988 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries’ stockpiles.
1992 – The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon’s surface.
2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
Births on July 31
1143 – Emperor Nijō of Japan (d. 1165)
1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1526 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (d. 1586)
1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
1595 – Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1641)
1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (d. 1654)
1686 – Charles of France, Duke of Berry (d. 1714)
1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (d. 1768)
1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1752)
1718 – John Canton, English physicist and academic (d. 1772)
1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (d. 1801)
1759 – Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (d. 1796)
1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentinian priest and politician (d. 1849)
1796 – Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (d. 1846)
1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (d. 1882)
1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)
1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1826 – William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (d. 1886)
1835 – Henri Brisson, French lawyer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (d. 1912)
1835 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and explorer (d. 1903)
1836 – Vasily Sleptsov, Russian author and activist (d. 1878)
1837 – William Quantrill, American captain (d. 1865)
1839 – Ignacio Andrade, Venezuelan general and politician, 25th President of Venezuela (d. 1925)
1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (d. 1918)
1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1905)
1854 – José Canalejas, Spanish academic and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1912)
1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English seismologist and geologist (d. 1936)
1858 – Marion Talbot, influential American educator (d. 1948)
1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American painter and illustrator (d. 1940)
1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (d. 1966)
1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (d. 1963)
1877 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (d. 1970)
1880 – Premchand, Indian author and playwright (d. 1936)
1883 – Ramón Fonst, Cuban fencer (d. 1959)
1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Polish-German economist and politician (d. 1945)
1886 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1931)
1886 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (d. 1965)
1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1969)
1892 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and publisher, founded Worldwide Church of God (d. 1986)
1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1959)
1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (d. 1972)
1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1902 – Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer and soldier (d. 1989)
1904 – Brett Halliday, American engineer, surveyor, and author (d. 1977)
1909 – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian theorist and author (d. 1999)
1911 – George Liberace, American violinist (d. 1983)
1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (d. 2008)
1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American football player and journalist (d. 2003)
1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
1914 – Paul J. Christiansen, American conductor and composer (d. 1997)
1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter (d. 1983)
1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (d. 1986)
1916 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
1916 – Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1979)
1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2010)
1918 – Frank Renouf, New Zealand businessman and financier (d. 1998)
1919 – Hemu Adhikari, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2006)
1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (d. 1987)
1920 – James E. Faust, American religious leader, lawyer, and politician (d. 2007)
1921 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer and activist, founded Amnesty International (d. 2005)
1921 – Donald Malarkey, American sergeant and author (d. 2017)
1921 – Whitney Young, American activist (d. 1971)
1922 – Hank Bauer, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
1923 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American songwriter and producer, founded Atlantic Records (d. 2006)
1923 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and engineer, invented Kevlar (d. 2014)
1924 – Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (d. 2015)
1925 – Carmel Quinn, Irish singer, actress and writer
1925 – John Swainson, Canadian-American jurist and politician, 42nd Governor of Michigan (d. 1994)
1926 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (d. 2011)
1926 – Hilary Putnam, American mathematician, computer scientist, and philosopher (d. 2016)
1927 – Peter Nichols, English author and playwright (d. 2019)
1928 – Bill Frenzel, American lieutenant and politician (d. 2014)
1929 – Lynne Reid Banks, English author
1929 – Gilles Carle, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1929 – Don Murray, American actor
1929 – José Santamaría, Uruguayan footballer and manager
1931 – Nick Bollettieri, American tennis player and coach
1931 – Kenny Burrell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1979)
1932 – John Searle, American philosopher and academic
1933 – Cees Nooteboom, Dutch journalist, author, and poet
1935 – Yvon Deschamps, Canadian comedian, actor, and producer
1935 – Geoffrey Lewis, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1939 – Steuart Bedford, English pianist and conductor
1939 – Susan Flannery, American actress
1939 – France Nuyen, Vietnamese-French actress
1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, 8th Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 2004)
1943 – William Bennett, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Education
1943 – Lobo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Geraldine Chaplin, American actress and screenwriter
1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, English journalist and author
1944 – Sherry Lansing, American film producer
1944 – Robert C. Merton, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1944 – David Norris, Irish scholar and politician
1945 – William Weld, American lawyer and politician, 68th Governor of Massachusetts
1946 – Gary Lewis, American pop-rock musician
1947 – Karl Green, English bass player and songwriter (Herman’s Hermits)
1947 – Richard Griffiths, English actor (d. 2013)
1947 – Mumtaz, Indian actress
1947 – Hubert Védrine, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
1947 – Ian Beck, English children’s illustrator and author
1948 – Russell Morris, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Mike Jackson, American basketball player
1949 – Alan Meale, English journalist and politician
1950 – Richard Berry, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1951 – Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australian tennis player
1952 – Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
1952 – Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician, 23rd Mayor of Fresno, California
1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
1952 – João Barreiros, Portuguese author and critic
1952 – Faye Kellerman, American author
1953 – Ted Baillieu, Australian architect and politician, 46th Premier of Victoria
1953 – Jimmy Cook, South African cricketer and coach
1953 – Hugh McDowell, English cellist
1954 – Derek Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Bill Callahan, American football player and coach
1956 – Ron Kuby, American lawyer and radio host
1956 – Deval Patrick, American lawyer and politician, 71st Governor of Massachusetts
1956 – Lynne Rae Perkins, American author and illustrator
1957 – Daniel Ash, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1957 – Mark Thompson, English business executive
1958 – Bill Berry, American drummer and songwriter
1958 – Mark Cuban, American businessman and television personality
1958 – Suzanne Giraud, French music editor and composer
1959 – Stanley Jordan, American guitarist, pianist, and songwriter
1959 – Andrew Marr, Scottish journalist and author
1959 – Kim Newman, English journalist and author
1960 – Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1960 – Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
1961 – Frank Gardner, English captain and journalist
1961 – Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Nigerian banker, royal
1962 – John Chiang, American lawyer and politician, 31st California State Controller
1962 – Kevin Greene, American football player and coach
1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor and producer
1963 – Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), English DJ and musician
1963 – Fergus Henderson, English chef and author
1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1964 – Jim Corr, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Urmas Hepner, Estonian footballer and coach
1965 – Scott Brooks, American basketball player and coach
1965 – John Laurinaitis, American wrestler and producer
1965 – Ian Roberts, English-Australian rugby league player and actor
1965 – J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer
1966 – Dean Cain, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1967 – Tony Massenburg, American basketball player
1967 – Tim Wright, Welsh composer
1968 – Saeed-Al-Saffar, Emirati cricketer
1968 – Julian Richards, Welsh director and producer
1969 – Antonio Conte, Italian footballer and manager
1969 – Loren Dean, American actor
1969 – Kenneth D. Schisler, American lawyer and politician
1970 – Ahmad Akbarpour, Iranian author and poet
1970 – Ben Chaplin, English actor
1970 – Andrzej Kobylański, Polish footballer and manager
1970 – Giorgos Sigalas, Greek basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
1971 – Gus Frerotte, American football player and coach
1973 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player and coach
1974 – Emilia Fox, English actress
1974 – Leona Naess, American-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 – Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1975 – Randy Flores, American baseball player and coach
1975 – Andrew Hall, South African cricketer
1975 – Gabe Kapler, American baseball player and manager
1976 – Joshua Cain, American guitarist and producer
1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer and manager
1978 – Zac Brown, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Nick Sorensen, American football player and sportscaster
1978 – Justin Wilson, English race car driver (d. 2015)
1979 – Jaco Erasmus, South African-Italian rugby player
1979 – J.J. Furmaniak, American baseball player
1979 – Per Krøldrup, Danish footballer
1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
1979 – B.J. Novak, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1980 – Mikko Hirvonen, Finnish race car driver
1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby player
1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
1981 – Vernon Carey, American football player
1981 – Paul Whatuira, New Zealand rugby league player
1981 – M. Shadows, American musician, lead singer of Avenged Sevenfold
1982 – Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player
1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
1985 – Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer
1985 – Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist
1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player
1986 – Brian Orakpo, American football player
1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
1988 – Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belorussian tennis player
1991 – Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player
1992 – José Fernández, Cuban baseball player (d. 2016)
1992 – Ryan Johansen, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Kyle Larson, American race car driver
1994 – Lil Uzi Vert, American hip hop artist
Deaths on July 31
54 BC – Aurelia Cotta, Roman mother of Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 120 BC)
450 – Peter Chrysologus, Italian bishop and saint (b. 380)
910 – Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlord
975 – Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (b. 898)
1098 – Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
1358 – Étienne Marcel, French rebel leader (b. 1302)
1396 – William Courtenay, English archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
1508 – Na’od, Ethiopian emperor
1556 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish priest and theologian, founded the Society of Jesus (b. 1491)
1616 – Roger Wilbraham, Solicitor-General for Ireland (b. 1553)
1638 – Sibylla Schwarz, German poet (b. 1621)
1653 – Thomas Dudley, English soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
1693 – Willem Kalf, Dutch still life painter (b. 1619)
1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and theorist (b. 1695)
1750 – John V, king of Portugal (b. 1689)
1762 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (b. 1711)
1781 – John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (b. 1719)
1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and critic (b. 1713)
1805 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (b. 1756)
1864 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
1875 – Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1884 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1869)
1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
1891 – Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, Belgian stained glass painter (b. 1814)
1913 – John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. (b. 1850)
1914 – Jean Jaurès, French journalist and politician (b. 1859)
1917 – Hedd Wyn, Welsh language poet (b. 1887)
1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish soldier and poet (b. 1881)
1920 – Ion Dragoumis, Greek philosopher and diplomat (b. 1878)
1940 – Udham Singh, Indian activist (b. 1899)
1943 – Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1905)
1942 – Francis Younghusband, British Army Officer, explorer and spiritual writer (b.1863)
1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and poet (b. 1900)
1953 – Robert A. Taft, American soldier and politician (b. 1889)
1954 – Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1923)
1958 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (b. 1890)
1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
1966 – Bud Powell, American pianist (b. 1924)
1968 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
1971 – Walter P. Carter, American soldier and activist (b. 1923)
1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
1973 – Azumafuji Kin’ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (b. 1921)
1979 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress and director (b. 1903)
1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist, author, and academic (b. 1902)
1980 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
1981 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (b. 1929)
1985 – Eugene Carson Blake, American religious leader (b. 1906)
1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
1987 – Joseph E. Levine, American film producer (b, 1905)
1990 – Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
1992 – Leonard Cheshire, English captain and pilot (b. 1917)
1992 – Md. Abdul Wajed Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician.
1993 – Baudouin, King of Belgium (b. 1930)
2000 – William Keepers Maxwell Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1908)
2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (b. 1914)
2001 – Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1910)
2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian author and illustrator (b. 1933)
2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1917)
2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, 1st President of the European Central Bank (b. 1935)
2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
2009 – Harry Alan Towers, English-Canadian screenwriter and producer (b. 1920)
2012 – Mollie Hunter, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1922)
2012 – Alfredo Ramos, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1924)
2012 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1925)
2012 – Tony Sly, American musician, singer-songwriter (b. 1970)
2013 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (b. 1922)
2013 – Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (b. 1917)
2013 – John Graves, American captain and author (b. 1920)
2013 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (b. 1930)
2014 – Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (b. 1925)
2014 – Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (b. 1948)
2014 – Jeff Bourne, English footballer (b. 1948)
2014 – Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (b. 1920)
2015 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (b. 1940)
2015 – Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (b. 1910)
2015 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1927)
2015 – Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (b. 1954)
2015 – Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1926)
2016 – Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (b. 1955)
2016 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (b. 1928)
2017 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress (b. 1928)
2018 – Tony Bullimore, British sailor & businessman (b. 1939)
2019 – Harold Prince, noted Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (b. 1928)
Holidays and observances on July 31
Christian feast day:
Abanoub
Germanus of Auxerre
Ignatius of Loyola
Neot
July 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which the Feast of Kamál (Perfection) can fall, while August 1 is the latest; observed on the first day of the eighth month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
Ka Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Hawaii, United States), and its related observance:
Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian sovereignty movement)
Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Haryana and Punjab, India)
1364 – Troops of the Republic of Pisa and the Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.
1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1571 – La Laguna encomienda, known today as the Laguna province in the Philippines is founded by the Spaniards as one of the oldest encomiendas (provinces) in the country.
1635 – In the Eighty Years’ War the Spanish capture the strategic Dutch fortress of Schenkenschans.
1656 – Second Northern War: Battle of Warsaw begins.
1778 – Constitution of the province of Cantabria ratified at the Assembly Hall in Bárcena la Puente, Reocín, Spain.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France.
1808 – Mahmud II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley’s British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
1821 – José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain.
1854 – USS Constellation(1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
1866 – At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream becomes the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln).
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
1896 – The city of Miami, Florida is incorporated.
1914 – In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, igniting World War I.
1915 – The United States begins a 19-year occupation of Haiti.
1917 – The Silent Parade took place in New York City, in protest to murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans.
1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
1938 – Hawaii Clipper disappears between Guam and Manila as the first loss of an airliner in trans-Pacific China Clipper service.
1939 – The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered.
1942 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227. In response to alarming German advances, all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be tried in a military court, with punishment ranging from duty in a shtrafbat battalion, imprisonment in a Gulag, or execution.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah: The Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
1957 – Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, kills 992.
1960 – The German Volkswagen Act came into force.
1965 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
1974 – Spetsgruppa A, Russia’s elite special force, was formed.
1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
1984 – The Summer Olympics officially known as the games of the XXIII were opened in Los Angeles.
1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championship.
2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
2002 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560 crashes after takeoff from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing 14 of the 16 people on board.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
2010 – Airblue Flight 202 crashes into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people aboard. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Pakistan history and the first involving an Airbus A321.
2011 – While flying from Seoul, South Korea to Shanghai, China, Asiana Airlines Flight 991 develops an in-flight fire in the cargo hold. The Boeing 747-400F freighter attempts to divert to Jeju International Airport, but crashes into the sea South-West of Jeju island, killing both crew members on board.
2017 – Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for lifetime by Supreme Court of Pakistan founding him guilty of corruption charges.
2018 – Australian Wendy Tuck becomes the first woman skipper to win the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Births on July 28
1347 – Margaret of Durazzo, Queen of Naples and Hungary (d. 1412)
1516 – William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, German nobleman (d. 1592)
1609 – Judith Leyster, Dutch painter (d. 1660)
1635 – Robert Hooke, English physicist and chemist (d. 1703)
1645 – Marguerite Louise d’Orléans, French princess (d. 1721)
1659 – Charles Ancillon, French jurist and diplomat (d. 1715)
1746 – Thomas Heyward, Jr., American judge and politician (d. 1809)
1750 – Fabre d’Églantine, French actor, playwright, and politician (d. 1794)
1783 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, German army officer and writer (d. 1860)
1796 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, Austrian businessman, founded the Bösendorfer Company (d. 1859)
1804 – Ludwig Feuerbach, German anthropologist and philosopher (d. 1872)
1815 – Stefan Dunjov, Bulgarian colonel (d. 1889)
1844 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
1857 – Ballington Booth, English-American activist, co-founded Volunteers of America (d. 1940)
1860 – Elias M. Ammons, American businessman and politician, 19th Governor of Colorado (d. 1925)
1860 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (d. 1922)
1863 – Huseyn Khan Nakhchivanski, Russian general (d. 1919)
1866 – Beatrix Potter, English children’s book writer and illustrator (d. 1943)
1866 – Albertson Van Zo Post, American fencer (d. 1938)
1867 – Charles Dillon Perrine, American-Argentinian astronomer (d. 1951)
1872 – Albert Sarraut, French journalist and politician, 106th Prime Minister of France (d. 1962)
1874 – Ernst Cassirer, Polish-American philosopher and academic (d. 1945)
1879 – Lucy Burns, American activist, co-founded the National Woman’s Party (d. 1966)
1879 – Stefan Filipkiewicz, Polish painter (d. 1944)
1887 – Marcel Duchamp, French-American painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
1887 – Willard Price, Canadian-American journalist and author (d. 1983)
1893 – Rued Langgaard, Danish organist and composer (d. 1952)
1896 – Barbara La Marr, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1926)
1898 – Lawrence Gray, American actor (d. 1970)
1901 – Freddie Fitzsimmons, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1979)
1901 – Rudy Vallée, American actor, singer, and saxophonist (d. 1986)
1902 – Albert Namatjira, Australian painter (d. 1959)
1902 – Sir Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1994)
1907 – Earl Tupper, American inventor and businessman, founded Tupperware Brands (d. 1983)
1909 – Aenne Burda, German publisher (d. 2005)
1909 – Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (d. 1957)
1914 – Carmen Dragon, American conductor and composer (d. 1984)
1915 – Charles Hard Townes, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
1915 – Dick Sprang, American illustrator (d. 2000)
1915 – Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (d. 1998)
1916 – David Brown, American journalist and producer (d. 2010)
1920 – Andrew V. McLaglen, English-American director and producer (d. 2014)
1922 – Jacques Piccard, Belgian-Swiss oceanographer and engineer (d. 2008)
1923 – Ray Ellis, American conductor and producer (d. 2008)
1924 – Luigi Musso, Italian race car driver (d. 1958)
1924 – C. T. Vivian, American minister, author, and activist
1925 – Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
1926 – Charlie Biddle, American-Canadian bassist (d. 2003)
1927 – John Ashbery, American poet (d. 2017)
1929 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist and socialite, 37th First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
1929 – Shirley Ann Grau, American novelist and short story writer
1930 – Firoza Begum, Bangladeshi singer (d. 2014)
1930 – Junior Kimbrough, American singer and guitarist (d. 1998)
1930 – Jean Roba, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 2006)
1930 – Ramsey Muir Withers, Canadian general (d. 2014)
1931 – Alan Brownjohn, English poet and author
1931 – Johnny Martin, Australian cricketer (d. 1992)
1932 – Natalie Babbitt, American author and illustrator (d. 2016)
1932 – Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, Brazilian colonel (d. 2015)
1933 – Charlie Hodge, Canadian ice hockey player and scout (d. 2016)
1934 – Jacques d’Amboise, American dancer and choreographer
1935 – Neil McKendrick, English historian and academic
1936 – Russ Jackson, Canadian football player and coach
1936 – Garfield Sobers, Barbadian cricketer
1937 – Francis Veber, French director and screenwriter
1938 – Luis Aragonés, Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
1938 – Arsen Dedić, Croatian singer-songwriter and poet (d. 2015)
1938 – Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian engineer, academic, and politician, 90th President of Peru
1938 – Chuan Leekpai, Thai lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Thailand
1939 – Richard Johns, English air marshal
1940 – Philip Proctor, American voice actor and screenwriter
1941 – Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor and educator
1941 – Susan Roces, Filipino actress and producer
1942 – Marty Brennaman, American sportscaster
1942 – Tonia Marketaki, Greek director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
1943 – Mike Bloomfield, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1981)
1943 – Bill Bradley, American basketball player and politician
1943 – Richard Wright, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (d. 2008)
1945 – Jim Davis, American cartoonist, created Garfield
1946 – Jonathan Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Linda Kelsey, American actress
1946 – Fahmida Riaz, Pakistani poet and activist
1947 – Peter Cosgrove, Australian general and politician, 26th Governor General of Australia
1947 – Sally Struthers, American actress
1948 – Gerald Casale, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and director
1948 – Eiichi Ohtaki, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1949 – Vida Blue, American baseball player and sportscaster
1949 – Peter Doyle, Australian singer and guitarist (d. 2001)
1949 – Simon Kirke, English drummer
1949 – Steve Peregrin Took, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1980)
1949 – Randall Wallace, American screenwriter and producer
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
AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defeats Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI at the Battle of Marcellae.
911 – Rollo lays siege to Chartres.
1189 – Richard I of England officially invested as Duke of Normandy.
1225 – Treaty of San Germano is signed at San Germano between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX. A Dominican named Guala is responsible for the negotiations.
1398 – The Battle of Kellistown was fought on this day between the forces of the English led by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March against the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles under the command of Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach, the most powerful Chieftain in Leinster.
1402 – Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara: Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.
1592 – During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it.
1715 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Empire captures Nauplia, the capital of the Republic of Venice’s “Kingdom of the Morea”, thereby opening the way to the swift Ottoman reconquest of the Morea.
1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
1799 – Tekle Giyorgis I begins his first of six reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.
1807 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world’s first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.
1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
1831 – Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish their land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.
1848 – The first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a two-day event, concludes.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa: The Austrian Navy, led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1885 – The Football Association legalizes professionalism in association football under pressure from the British Football Association.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.
1917 – World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
1920 – The Greek Army takes control of Silivri after Greece is awarded the city by the Paris Peace Conference; by 1923 Greece effectively lost control to the Turks.
1922 – The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
1932 – In the Preußenschlag (“Prussian coup”), German President Paul von Hindenburg dissolves the government of Prussia
1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S.: Police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.
1934 – West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
1935 – Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.
1936 – The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
1938 – The United States Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.
1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrentiy Beria its chief.
1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1949 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month war.
1950 – Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
1954 – Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany’s secret service, defects to East Germany.
1960 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
1961 – French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Định Tường Province, Cái Bè, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of whom are children).
1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11’s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.
1969 – A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the “Football War”.
1974 – Turkish invasion of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a coup d’état, organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios.
1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
1977 – The Johnstown flood of 1977 kills 84 people and causes millions of dollars in damages.
1982 – Hyde Park and Regent’s Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent’s Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
1989 – Burma’s ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
1992 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
1999 – The Chinese Communist Party begins a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, arresting thousands nationwide.
2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalizes same-sex marriage in Canada.
2012 – James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.
2013 – Seventeen government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.
2015 – A huge explosion in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruç, Turkey, targeting the Socialist Youth Associations Federation, kills at least 31 people and injures over 100.
2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.
2017 – O. J. Simpson is granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.
Births on July 20
356 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (d. 323 BC)
647 – Yazid I, Arabian caliph (d. 683)
682 – Taichō, Japanese monk and scholar (d. 767)
1304 – Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1374)
1313 – John Tiptoft, 2nd Baron Tibetot (d. 1367)
1346 – Margaret, Countess of Pembroke, daughter of King Edward III of England (d. 1361)
1470 – John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath, English noble (d. 1539)
1519 – Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
1537 – Arnaud d’Ossat, French cardinal (d. 1604)
1583 – Alban Roe, English Benedictine martyr (d. 1642)
1591 – Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (d. 1643)
1592 – Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden (d. 1663)
1601 – Robert Wallop, English politician (d. 1667)
1620 – Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder, Dutch poet and scholar (d. 1681)
1649 – William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1709)
1754 – Antoine Destutt de Tracy, French philosopher and academic (d. 1836)
1757 – Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian politician and diplomat (d. 1811)
1762 – Jakob Haibel, Austrian tenor and composer (d. 1826)
1774 – Auguste de Marmont, French general (d. 1852)
1789 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1839)
1804 – Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (d. 1892)
1822 – Gregor Mendel, Austro-German monk, geneticist and botanist (d. 1884)
1838 – Augustin Daly, American playwright and manager (d. 1899)
1838 – William Paine Lord, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Oregon (d. 1911)
1838 – Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, English civil servant and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (d. 1928)
1847 – Max Liebermann, German painter and academic (d. 1935)
1849 – Robert Anderson Van Wyck, American lawyer and politician, 91st Mayor of New York City (d. 1918)
1852 – Theo Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1932)
1854 – Philomène Belliveau, Canadian artist (d. 1940)
1864 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
1864 – Ruggero Oddi, Italian physiologist and anatomist (d. 1913)
1868 – Miron Cristea, Romanian cleric and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1939)
1873 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian pilot (d. 1932)
1876 – Otto Blumenthal, German mathematician and academic (d. 1944)
1877 – Tom Crean, Irish sailor and explorer (d. 1938)
1882 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1937)
1889 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (d. 1971)
1890 – Verna Felton, American actress (d. 1966)
1890 – Julie Vinter Hansen, Danish-Swiss astronomer and academic (d. 1960)
1890 – Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter (d. 1964)
1893 – George Llewelyn Davies, English soldier (d. 1915)
1895 – László Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian painter, photographer, and sculptor (d. 1946)
1897 – Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
1900 – Maurice Leyland, English cricketer and coach (d. 1967)
1901 – Vehbi Koç, Turkish businessman and philanthropist, founded Koç Holding (d. 1996)
1901 – Eugenio Lopez Sr., Filipino businessman and founder of the Lopez Group of Companies (d. 1975)
1901 – Heinie Manush, American baseball player and manager (d. 1971)
1902 – Leonidas Berry, American gastroenterologist (d. 1995)
1905 – Joseph Levis, American foil fencer (d. 2005)
1909 – Eric Rowan, South African cricketer (d. 1993)
1910 – Vilém Tauský, Czech-English conductor and composer (d. 2004)
1911 – Baqa Jilani, Indian cricketer (d. 1941)
1911 – José Zabala-Santos, Filipino author and illustrator (d. 1985)
1912 – George Johnston, Australian journalist and author (d. 1970)
1914 – Dobri Dobrev, Bulgarian philanthropist (d. 2018)
1914 – Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (d. 2005)
1914 – Ersilio Tonini, Italian cardinal (d. 2013)
1918 – Cindy Walker, American singer-songwriter and dancer (d. 2006)
1919 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (d. 2008)
1919 – Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge, English writer (d. 2012)
1920 – Elliot Richardson, American lieutenant and politician, 11th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 1999)
1921 – Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (d. 2013)
1922 – Alan Stephenson Boyd, American lawyer and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Transportation
1923 – Stanisław Albinowski, Polish economist and journalist (d. 2005)
1924 – Lola Albright, American actress and singer (d. 2017)
1924 – Thomas Berger, American author and playwright (d. 2014)
1924 – Mort Garson, Canadian-American songwriter and composer (d. 2008)
1925 – Jacques Delors, French economist and politician, 8th President of the European Commission
1925 – Frantz Fanon, French–Algerian psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1961)
1927 – Barbara Bergmann, American economist and academic (d. 2015)
1927 – Heather Chasen, English actress (d. 2020)
1927 – Michael Gielen, Austrian conductor and composer (d. 2019)
1927 – Ian P. Howard, English-Canadian psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
1928 – Józef Czyrek, Polish economist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2013)
1928 – Belaid Abdessalam, Prime Minister of Algeria
1929 – Hazel Hawke, Australian social worker and pianist, 23rd Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2013)
1929 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman, co-founded Little Caesars (d. 2017)
1929 – Rajendra Kumar, Pakistani-Indian actor and producer (d. 1999)
1929 – David Tonkin, Australian politician, 38th Premier of South Australia (d. 2000)
1930 – Giannis Agouris, Greek journalist and author (d. 2006)
1930 – Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
1930 – William H. Goetzmann, American historian and author (d. 2010)
1930 – Sally Ann Howes, English-American singer and actress
1931 – Tony Marsh, English race car driver (d. 2009)
1932 – Nam June Paik, American artist (d. 2006)
1932 – Otto Schily, German lawyer and politician, German Minister of the Interior
1933 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
1933 – Cormac McCarthy, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
1933 – Rex Williams, English snooker player
1935 – Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, English businessman and art collector
1935 – Sleepy LaBeef, American rockabilly singer and musician (d. 2019)
1936 – Alistair MacLeod, Canadian novelist and short story writer (d. 2014)
1936 – Barbara Mikulski, American social worker and politician
1938 – Deniz Baykal, Turkish lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
1938 – Roger Hunt, English footballer
1938 – Tony Oliva, Cuban-American baseball player and coach
1938 – Diana Rigg, English actress
1938 – Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
1939 – Judy Chicago, American painter and sculptor
1941 – Don Chuy, American football player (d. 2014)
1941 – Periklis Korovesis, Greek author and journalist
1941 – Kurt Raab, German actor, screenwriter, and production designer (d. 1988)
1942 – Pete Hamilton, American race car driver
1943 – Chris Amon, New Zealand race car driver (d. 2016)
1943 – Bob McNab, English footballer
1943 – Adrian Păunescu, Romanian poet, journalist, and politician (d. 2010)
1943 – Wendy Richard, English actress (d. 2009)
1944 – Mel Daniels, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1944 – W. Cary Edwards, American politician (d. 2010)
1944 – Olivier de Kersauson, French sailor
1944 – T. G. Sheppard, American country music singer-songwriter
1945 – Kim Carnes, American singer-songwriter
1945 – Larry Craig, American soldier and politician
1945 – John Lodge, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1945 – Bo Rein, American football player and coach (d. 1980)
1946 – Randal Kleiser, American actor, director, and producer
1947 – Gerd Binnig, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1947 – Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948 – Muse Watson, American actor and producer
1950 – Edward Leigh, English lawyer and politician
1950 – Lucille Lemay, Canadian archer
1951 – Jeff Rawle, English actor and screenwriter
1953 – Dave Evans, Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter
1953 – Thomas Friedman, American journalist and author
1953 – Marcia Hines, American-Australian singer and actress
1954 – Moira Harris, American actress
1954 – Jay Jay French, American guitarist and producer
1955 – Desmond Douglas, Jamaican-English table tennis player
1955 – René-Daniel Dubois, Canadian actor and playwright
1955 – Jem Finer, English banjo player and songwriter
1956 – Paul Cook, English drummer
1956 – Thomas N’Kono, Cameroonian footballer
1956 – Jim Prentice, Canadian lawyer and politician, 16th Premier of Alberta (d. 2016)
1958 – Mick MacNeil, Scottish keyboard player and songwriter
1959 – Radney Foster, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1960 – Claudio Langes, Italian race car driver
1960 – Prvoslav Vujčić, Serbian-Canadian poet and philosopher
1960 – Sudesh Berry, Indian actor
1961 – Óscar Elías Biscet, Cuban physician and activist, founded the Lawton Foundation
1962 – Carlos Alazraqui, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1962 – Giovanna Amati, Italian race car driver
1962 – Julie Bindel, English journalist, author, and academic
1963 – Frank Whaley, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1964 – Chris Cornell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
1964 – Terri Irwin, American-Australian zoologist and author
1964 – Sebastiano Rossi, Italian footballer
1964 – Bernd Schneider, German race car driver
1965 – Jess Walter, American journalist and author
1966 – Stone Gossard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1966 – Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican lawyer and politician, 57th President of Mexico
1967 – Courtney Taylor-Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 – Jimmy Carson, American ice hockey player
1968 – Hami Mandıralı, Turkish footballer and manager
1968 – Kool G Rap, American hip-hop artist
1969 – Josh Holloway, American actor
1969 – Kreso Kovacec, Croatian-German footballer
1969 – Giovanni Lombardi, Italian cyclist
1969 – Joon Park, South Korean-American singer
1969 – Tobi Vail, American singer and guitarist
1971 – Charles Johnson, American baseball player
1971 – Sandra Oh, Canadian actress
1972 – Jamie Ainscough, Australian rugby league player
1972 – Jozef Stümpel, Slovak ice hockey player
1972 – Erik Ullenhag, Swedish jurist and politician
1972 – Vitamin C, American singer-songwriter
1973 – Omar Epps, American actor
1973 – Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
1973 – Peter Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player and manager
1973 – Nixon McLean, Caribbean cricketer
1973 – Roberto Orci, Mexican-American screenwriter and producer
1973 – Claudio Reyna, American soccer player
1975 – Ray Allen, American basketball player and actor
1975 – Judy Greer, American actress and producer
1975 – Erik Hagen, Norwegian footballer
1975 – Birgitta Ohlsson, Swedish journalist and politician, 5th Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs
1975 – Jason Raize, American singer and actor
1975 – Yusuf Şimşek, Turkish footballer and manager
1976 – Erica Hill, American journalist
1976 – Debashish Mohanty, Indian cricketer and coach
1976 – Andrew Stockdale, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
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
587 BC – Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem ends following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.
1174 – William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173–74, is captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England.
1249 – Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots.
1260 – The Livonian Order suffers its greatest defeat in the 13th century in the Battle of Durbe against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
1558 – Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes at Gravelines.
1573 – Eighty Years’ War: The Siege of Haarlem ends after seven months.
1643 – English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down: In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, heavily defeats the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller.
1787 – The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.
1793 – Journalist and French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat is assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a member of the opposing political faction.
1794 – The Battle of Trippstadt is fought between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria.
1814 – The Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, is established.
1830 – The General Assembly’s Institution, now the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushered the Bengali Renaissance, is founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India.
1831 – Regulamentul Organic, a quasi-constitutional organic law is adopted in Wallachia, one of the two Danubian Principalities that were to become the basis of Romania.
1854 – In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.
1863 – New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription begin three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.
1878 – Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.
1919 – The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.
1941 – World War II: Montenegrins begin a popular uprising against the Axis powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak).
1956 – The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence.
1962 – In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.
1973 – Watergate scandal: Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee.
1977 – Somalia declares war on Ethiopia, starting the Ogaden War.
1977 – New York City: Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting.
1985 – The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Moscow and Sydney.
1985 – Vice President George H. W. Bush becomes the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan undergoes surgery to remove polyps from his colon.
2003 – French DGSE personnel abort an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details are leaked to the press.
2008 – Battle of Wanat begins when Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas attack US Army and Afghan National Army troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. deaths were, at that time, the most in a single battle since the beginning of operations in 2001.
2011 – Mumbai is rocked by three bomb blasts during the evening rush hour, killing 26 and injuring 130.
2011 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1999 is adopted, which admits South Sudan to member status of the United Nations.
2013 – Typhoon Soulik kills at least nine people and affects more than 160 million in East China and Taiwan.
2016 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron resigns, and is succeeded by Theresa May.
Births on July 13
100 BC – Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (d. 44 BC)
1426 – Anne Neville, Countess of Warwick (d. 1492)
1478 – Giulio d’Este, illegitimate son of Italian noble (d. 1561)
1470 – Francesco Armellini Pantalassi de’ Medici, Catholic cardinal (d. 1528)
1527 – John Dee, English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer (d. 1609)
1579 – Arthur Dee, English physician and chemist (d. 1651)
1590 – Pope Clement X (d. 1676)
1606 – Roland Fréart de Chambray (d. 1676)
1607 – Wenceslaus Hollar, Czech-English painter and illustrator (d. 1677)
1608 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1657)
1745 – Robert Calder, Scottish-English admiral (d. 1818)
1756 – Thomas Rowlandson, English artist and caricaturist (d. 1827)
1760 – István Pauli, Hungarian-Slovene priest and poet (d. 1829)
1770 – Alexander Balashov, Russian general and politician, Russian Minister of Police (d. 1837)
1793 – John Clare, English poet and author (d. 1864)
1821 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American general and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (d. 1877)
1831 – Arthur Böttcher, German pathologist and anatomist (d. 1889)
1841 – Otto Wagner, Austrian architect, designed the Austrian Postal Savings Bank and Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station (d. 1918)
1858 – Stewart Culin, American ethnographer and author (d. 1929)
1859 – Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, English economist and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1947)
1863 – Margaret Murray, British archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist (d. 1963)
1864 – John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel and businessman (d. 1912)
1877 – Robert Henry Mathews, Australian linguist and missionary (d. 1970)
1884 – Yrjö Saarela, Finnish wrestler and coach (d. 1951)
1889 – Emma Asson, Estonian educator and politician (d. 1965)
1889 – Stan Coveleski, American baseball player (d. 1984)
1892 – Léo-Pol Morin, Canadian pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1941)
1892 – Jonni Myyrä, Finnish-American discus and javelin thrower (d. 1955)
1894 – Isaac Babel, Russian short story writer, journalist, and playwright (d. 1940)
1895 – Sidney Blackmer, American actor (d. 1973)
1896 – Mordecai Ardon, Israeli painter and educator (d. 1992)
1898 – Julius Schreck, German commander (d. 1936)
1898 – Ivan Triesault, Estonian-born American actor (d. 1980)
1900 – George Lewis, American clarinet player and songwriter (d. 1969)
1901 – Eric Portman, English actor (d. 1969)
1903 – Kenneth Clark, English historian and author (d. 1983)
1905 – Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (d. 1990)
1905 – Eugenio Pagnini, Italian modern pentathlete (d. 1993)
1905 – Magda Foy, American child actress (d. 2000)
1907 – George Weller, American author, playwright, and journalist (d. 2002)
1908 – Dorothy Round, English tennis player (d. 1982)
1908 – Tim Spencer, American country & western singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1974)
1910 – Lien Gisolf, Dutch high jumper (d. 1993)
1910 – Loren Pope, American journalist and author (d. 2008)
1911 – Bob Steele (broadcaster), American radio personality (d. 2002)
1913 – Dave Garroway, American journalist and television personality (d. 1982)
1913 – Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish businessman (d. 2012)
1913 – Kay Linaker, American actress and screenwriter (d. 2008)
1915 – Kaoru Ishikawa, Japanese author and educator (d. 1989)
1918 – Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
1918 – Ronald Bladen, American painter and sculptor (d. 1988)
1918 – Marcia Brown, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
1919 – Hau Pei-tsun, 13th Premier of the Republic of China (d. 2020)
1919 – William F. Quinn, American lawyer (d. 2006)
1921 – Ernest Gold, Austrian-American composer and conductor (d. 1999)
1922 – Leslie Brooks, American actress (d. 2011)
1922 – Anker Jørgensen, Danish trade union leader and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 2016)
1922 – Helmy Afify Abd El-Bar, Egyptian military commander (d. 2011)
1922 – Ken Mosdell, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2006)
1923 – Ashley Bryan, American children’s book author and illustrator
1924 – Johnny Gilbert, American game show host and announcer
1925 – Suzanne Zimmerman, American competition swimmer and Olympic medalist
1925 – Huang Zongying, Chinese actress and writer
1926 – Robert H. Justman, American director, producer, and production manager (d. 2008)
1926 – T. Loren Christianson, American politician (d. 2019)
1926 – Thomas Clark, American politician (d. 2020)
1927 – Simone Veil, French lawyer and politician, President of the European Parliament (d. 2017)
1927 – Ian Reed, Australian discus thrower
1928 – Bob Crane, American actor (d. 1978)
1928 – Sven Davidson, Swedish-American tennis player (d. 2008)
1928 – Al Rex, American musician (d. 2020)
1929 – Sofia Muratova, Russian gymnast (d. 2006)
1929 – Svein Ellingsen, Norwegian visual artist and hymnist (d. 2020)
1930 – Sam Greenlee, American author and poet (d. 2014)
1930 – Naomi Shemer, Israeli singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
1931 – Frank Ramsey, American basketball player and coach (d. 2018)
1932 – Hubert Reeves, Canadian-French astrophysicist and author
1933 – David Storey, English author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1933 – Piero Manzoni, Italian artist (d. 1963)
1934 – Peter Gzowski, Canadian journalist and academic (d. 2002)
1934 – Gordon Lee, English footballer and manager
1934 – Wole Soyinka, Nigerian author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
1934 – Aleksei Yeliseyev, Russian engineer and astronaut
1935 – Jack Kemp, American football player and politician, 9th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (d. 2009)
1935 – Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian journalist, author, and playwright
1935 – Kurt Westergaard, Danish cartoonist
1936 – Albert Ayler, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1970)
1937 – Ghillean Prance, English botanist and ecologist
1939 – Lambert Jackson Woodburne, South African admiral (d. 2013)
1940 – Tom Lichtenberg, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
1940 – Paul Prudhomme, American chef and author (d. 2015)
1940 – Patrick Stewart, English actor, director, and producer
1941 – Grahame Corling, Australian cricketer
1941 – Robert Forster, American actor and producer (d. 2019)
1941 – Ehud Manor, Israeli songwriter and translator (d. 2005)
1941 – Jacques Perrin, French actor, director, and producer
1942 – Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
1942 – Roger McGuinn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Chris Serle, English journalist and actor
1944 – Eric Freeman, Australian cricketer
1944 – Cyril Knowles, English footballer and manager (d. 1991)
1944 – Erno Rubik, Hungarian game designer, architect, and educator, invented the Rubik’s Cube
1945 – Ashley Mallett, Australian cricketer and author
1946 – Bob Kauffman, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1946 – Cheech Marin, American actor and comedian
1948 – Catherine Breillat, French director and screenwriter
1949 – Bryan Murray, Irish actor
1950 – George Nelson, American astronomer and astronaut
1950 – Ma Ying-jeou, Hong Kong-Taiwanese commander and politician, 12th President of the Republic of China
1950 – Jurelang Zedkaia, Marshallese politician, 5th President of the Marshall Islands (d. 2015)
1951 – Rob Bishop, American educator and politician
1951 – Didi Conn, American actress and singer
1953 – David Thompson, American basketball player
1954 – Ray Bright, Australian cricketer
1954 – Louise Mandrell, American singer-songwriter and actress
1956 – Mark Mendoza, American bass player and songwriter
1956 – Michael Spinks, American boxer
1957 – Thierry Boutsen, Belgian race car driver and businessman
1957 – Cameron Crowe, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Richard Leman, English field hockey player
1959 – Fuziah Salleh, Malaysian politician
1960 – Robert Abraham, American football player
1960 – Ian Hislop, Welsh-English journalist and screenwriter
1960 – Curtis Rouse, American football player (d. 2013)
1961 – Tahira Asif, Pakistani politician (d. 2014)
1961 – Anders Jarryd, Swedish tennis player
1961 – Khalid Mahmood, Pakistani-English engineer and politician
1961 – Stelios Manolas, Greek footballer and manager
1961 – Tim Watson, Australian footballer, coach, and journalist
1962 – Tom Kenny, American voice actor and screenwriter
1962 – Rhonda Vincent, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player
1963 – Neal Foulds, English snooker player and sportscaster
1963 – Kenny Johnson, American actor, producer, and model
1964 – Charlie Hides, American drag queen and comedian
1964 – Paul Thorn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Eileen Ivers, American fiddler
1965 – Colin van der Voort, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Gerald Levert, American R&B singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
1966 – Natalia Luis-Bassa, Venezuelan-English conductor and educator
1967 – Richard Marles, Australian lawyer and politician, 50th Australian Minister for Trade and Investment
1967 – Mark McGowan, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Western Australia
1969 – Brad Godden, Australian rugby league player
1969 – Ken Jeong, American actor, comedian, and physician
1969 – Oleg Serebrian, Moldovan political scientist and politician
1970 – Andrei Tivontchik, German pole vaulter and trainer
1971 – Mark Neeld, Australian footballer and coach
1972 – Sean Waltman, American professional wrestler
1974 – Deborah Cox, Canadian singer-songwriter and actress
1974 – Jarno Trulli, Italian race car driver
1975 – Diego Spotorno, Ecuadorian actor
1975 – Mariada Pieridi, Cypriot singer-songwriter
1976 – Sheldon Souray, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Chris Horn, American football player
1978 – Ryan Ludwick, American baseball player
1978 – Prodromos Nikolaidis, Greek basketball player
1979 – Craig Bellamy, Welsh footballer
1979 – Daniel Díaz, Argentinian footballer
1979 – Libuše Průšová, Czech tennis player
1979 – Lucinda Ruh, Swiss figure skater and coach
1981 – Ágnes Kovács, Hungarian swimmer
1981 – Mirco Lorenzetto, Italian cyclist
1982 – Shin-Soo Choo, South Korean baseball player
1982 – Simon Clist, English footballer
1982 – Dominic Isaacs, South African footballer
1982 – Nick Kenny, Australian rugby league player
1982 – Yadier Molina, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
1983 – Kristof Beyens, Belgian sprinter
1983 – Marco Pomante, Italian footballer
1983 – Liu Xiang, Chinese hurdler
1984 – Ida Maria, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1985 – Trell Kimmons, American sprinter
1985 – Guillermo Ochoa, Mexican footballer
1985 – Charlotte Dujardin, English equestrian
1988 – Marcos Paulo Gelmini Gomes, Brazilian-Italian footballer
1988 – Colton Haynes, American actor, model and singer
1988 – Steven R. McQueen, American actor and model
1988 – Raúl Spank, German high jumper
1988 – Tulisa, English singer-songwriter and actress
1989 – Leon Bridges, American soul singer, songwriter and record producer
1989 – Charis Giannopoulos, Greek basketball player
1990 – Kieran Foran, New Zealand rugby league player
491 – Odoacer makes a night assault with his Heruli guardsmen, engaging Theoderic the Great in Ad Pinetam. Both sides suffer heavy losses, but in the end Theodoric forces Odoacer back into Ravenna.
551 – A major earthquake strikes Beirut, triggering a devastating tsunami that affected the coastal towns of Byzantine Phoenicia, causing thousands of deaths.
660 – Korean forces under general Kim Yu-sin of Silla defeat the army of Baekje in the Battle of Hwangsanbeol.
869 – The 8.4–9.0 Mw Sanriku earthquake strikes the area around Sendai in northern Honshu, Japan. Inundation from the tsunami extended several kilometers inland.
969 – The Fatimid general Jawhar leads the Friday prayer in Fustat in the name of Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah, thereby symbolically completing the Fatimid conquest of Egypt.
1357 – Emperor Charles IV assists in laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.
1386 – The Old Swiss Confederacy makes great strides in establishing control over its territory by soundly defeating the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Sempach.
1401 – Timur attacks the Jalairid Sultanate and destroys Baghdad.
1540 – King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1572 – Nineteen Catholics suffer martyrdom for their beliefs in the Dutch town of Gorkum.
1609 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion through the Letter of Majesty by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II.
1701 – A Bourbon force under Nicolas Catinat withdraws from a smaller Habsburg force under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Battle of Carpi.
1745 – French victory in the Battle of Melle allows them to capture Ghent in the days after.
1755 – The Braddock Expedition is soundly defeated by a smaller French and Native American force in its attempt to capture Fort Duquesne in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.
1762 – Catherine the Great becomes Empress of Russia following the coup against her husband, Peter III.
1776 – George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
1789 – In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
1790 – The Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian Baltic fleet.
1793 – The Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada bans the importation of slaves and will free those who are born into slavery after the passage of the Act at 25 years of age.
1807 – The Treaties of Tilsit are signed by Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia.
1810 – Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland as part of the First French Empire.
1811 – Explorer David Thompson posts a sign near what is now Sacajawea State Park in Washington state, claiming the Columbia District for the United Kingdom.
1815 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord becomes the first Prime Minister of France.
1816 – Argentina declares independence from Spain.
1821 – Four hundred and seventy prominent Cypriots including Archbishop Kyprianos are executed in response to Cypriot aid to the Greek War of Independence.
1850 – U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit and iced milk; he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
1850 – Persian prophet Báb is executed in Tabriz, Persia.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Port Hudson ends, giving the Union complete control of the Mississippi River.
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
1875 – The Herzegovina Uprising against Ottoman rule begins, which would last until 1878 and have far-reaching implications throughout the Balkans.
1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championships begins.
1893 – Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performs the first successful open-heart surgery in United States without anesthesia.
1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1900 – The Federation of Australia is given royal assent.
1900 – The Governor of Shanxi province in North China orders the execution of 45 foreign Christian missionaries and local church members, including children.
1918 – In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 and injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history.
1922 – Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record and the ‘minute barrier’.
1932 – The state of São Paulo revolts against the Brazilian Federal Government, starting the Constitutionalist Revolution.
1937 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.
1943 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Sicily soon causes the downfall of Mussolini and forces Hitler to break off the Battle of Kursk.
1944 – World War II: American forces take Saipan, bringing the Japanese archipelago within range of B-29 raids, and causing the downfall of the Tojo government.
1944 – World War II: Continuation War: Finland wins the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army withdraws its troops from Ihantala and digs into a defensive position, thus ending the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.
1955 – The Russell–Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.
1956 – The 7.7 Mw Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the destructive tsunami that followed left fifty-three people dead. A damaging M7.2 aftershock occurred minutes after the mainshock.
1958 – A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay; five people were killed.
1962 – Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes.
1979 – A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by “Nazi hunters” Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
1982 – Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.
1986 – The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.
1993 – The Parliament of Canada passes the Nunavut Act leading to the 1999 creation of Nunavut, dividing the Northwest Territories into arctic (Inuit) and sub-arctic (Dene) lands based on a plebiscite.
1995 – The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.
1999 – Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.
2002 – The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The organization’s first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
2006 – One hundred and twenty-five people are killed when S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310 passenger jet, veers off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia.
2011 – South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan.
Births on July 9
1249 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (d. 1305)
1455 – Frederick IV of Baden, Dutch bishop (d. 1517)
1511 – Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (d. 1571)
1526 – Elizabeth of Austria, Polish noble (d. 1545)
1577 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English-American soldier and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1618)
1578 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1637)
1654 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (d. 1732)
1686 – Philip Livingston, American merchant and politician (d. 1749)
1689 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist and playwright (d. 1773)
1721 – Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet and author (d. 1781)
1753 – William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, English admiral and politician, 34th Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1825)
1764 – Ann Ward, English author and poet (d. 1823)
1775 – Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (d. 1818)
1800 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician, pathologist, and anatomist (d. 1885)
1808 – Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and colonel (d. 1887)
1819 – Elias Howe, American inventor, invented the sewing machine (d. 1867)
1825 – A. C. Gibbs, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Oregon (d. 1886)
1828 – Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, Italian cardinal (d. 1913)
1834 – Jan Neruda, Czech journalist and poet (d. 1891)
1836 – Camille of Renesse-Breidbach (d. 1904)
1848 – Robert I, Duke of Parma (d. 1907)
1853 – William Turner Dannat, American painter (d. 1929)
1856 – John Verran, English-Australian politician, 26th Premier of South Australia (d. 1932)
1858 – Franz Boas, German-American anthropologist and linguist (d. 1942)
1867 – Georges Lecomte, French author and playwright (d. 1958)
1879 – Carlos Chagas, Brazilian physician and parasitologist (d. 1934)
1879 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1936)
1887 – James Ormsbee Chapin, American-Canadian painter and illustrator (d. 1975)
1887 – Saturnino Herrán, Mexican painter (d. 1918)
1887 – Samuel Eliot Morison, American admiral and historian (d. 1976)
1889 – Léo Dandurand, American-Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and referee (d. 1964)
1893 – George Geary, English cricketer and coach (d. 1981)
1901 – Barbara Cartland, prolific English author (d. 2000)
1902 – Peter Acland, English soldier (d. 1993)
1905 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (d. 1984)
1907 – Eddie Dean, American singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
1908 – Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani philosopher and scholar (d. 1973)
1908 – Minor White, American photographer, critic, and educator (d. 1976)
1909 – Basil Wolverton, American author and illustrator (d. 1978)
1910 – Govan Mbeki, South African anti-apartheid and ANC leader and activist (d. 2001)
1911 – Mervyn Peake, English author and illustrator (d. 1968)
1911 – John Archibald Wheeler, American physicist and author (d. 2008)
1914 – Willi Stoph, German engineer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of East Germany (d. 1999)
1914 – Mac Wilson, Australian rules footballer (d. 2017)
1915 – David Diamond, American composer and educator (d. 2005)
1915 – Lee Embree, American sergeant and photographer (d. 2008)
1916 – Dean Goffin, New Zealand composer (d. 1984)
1916 – Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
1917 – Krystyna Dańko, Polish orphan, survivor of Holocaust (d. 2019)
1918 – Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn, Dutch mathematician and academic (d. 2012)
1918 – Jarl Wahlström, Finnish 12th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1999)
1921 – David C. Jones, American general (d. 2013)
1922 – Angelines Fernández, Spanish-Mexican actress (d. 1994)
1922 – Jim Pollard, American basketball player and coach (d. 1993)
1924 – Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer (d. 1984)
1925 – Guru Dutt, Indian actor, director, and producer (d. 1964)
1925 – Charles E. Wicks, American engineer, author, and academic (d. 2010)
1925 – Ronald I. Spiers, American ambassador
1926 – Murphy Anderson, American illustrator (d. 2015)
1926 – Ben Roy Mottelson, American-Danish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1926 – Pedro Dellacha, Argentine football defender and coach (d. 2010)
1926 – Mathilde Krim, Italian-American medical researcher and health educator (d. 2018)
1927 – Ed Ames, American singer and actor
1927 – Red Kelly, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and politician (d. 2019)
1928 – Federico Bahamontes, Spanish cyclist
1928 – Vince Edwards, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1996)
1929 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2007)
1929 – Jesse McReynolds, American singer and mandolin player
1929 – Chi Haotian, Chinese general
1929 – Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)
1930 – K. Balachander, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1930 – Buddy Bregman, American composer and conductor (d. 2017)
1930 – Janice Lourie, American computer scientist and graphic artist
1930 – Elsa Lystad, Norwegian actress
1930 – Roy McLean, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 2007)
1931 – Haynes Johnson, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1931 – Sylvia Bacon, American judge
1932 – Donald Rumsfeld, American captain and politician, 13th United States Secretary of Defense
1932 – Amitzur Shapira, Israeli sprinter and long jumper (d. 1972)
1933 – Oliver Sacks, English-American neurologist, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1934 – Michael Graves, American architect, designed the Portland Building and the Humana Building (d. 2015)
1935 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, Dutch Minister of Finance (d. 2005)
1935 – Mercedes Sosa, Argentinian singer and activist (d. 2009)
1935 – Michael Williams, English actor (d. 2001)
1936 – June Jordan, American poet and educator (d. 2002)
1936 – David Zinman, American violinist and conductor
1937 – David Hockney, English painter and photographer
1938 – Brian Dennehy, American actor (d. 2020)
1938 – Sanjeev Kumar, Indian film actor (d. 1985)
1940 – David B. Frohnmayer, American lawyer and politician, 12th Oregon Attorney General (d. 2015)
1940 – Eugene Victor Wolfenstein, American psychoanalyst and theorist (d. 2010)
1941 – Mac MacLeod, English musician
1942 – David Chidgey, Baron Chidgey, English engineer and politician
1942 – Richard Roundtree, American actor
1943 – John Casper, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1944 – Judith M. Brown, Indian-English historian and academic
1944 – John Cunniff, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2002)
1945 – Dean Koontz, American author and screenwriter
1945 – Root Boy Slim, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1993)
1946 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (d. 1980)
1947 – Haruomi Hosono, Japanese singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1947 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (d. 2008)
1947 – O. J. Simpson, American football player and actor
1947 – Patrick Wormald, English historian (d. 2004)
1948 – Hassan Wirajuda, Indonesian lawyer and politician, 15th Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1949 – Raoul Cédras, Haitian military officer and politician
1950 – Amal ibn Idris al-Alami, Moroccan physician and neurosurgeon
1950 – Adriano Panatta, Italian tennis player and sailor
1950 – Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 4th President of Ukraine
1951 – Chris Cooper, American actor
1951 – Māris Gailis, Latvian politician, businessman, and former Prime Minister of Latvia
1952 – John Tesh, American pianist, composer, and radio and television host
1953 – Margie Gillis, Canadian dancer and choreographer
1953 – Thomas Ligotti, American author
1954 – Théophile Abega, Cameroonian footballer and politician (d. 2012)
1954 – Kevin O’Leary, Canadian journalist and businessman
1955 – Steve Coppell, English footballer and manager
1955 – Lindsey Graham, American colonel, lawyer, and politician
1955 – Jimmy Smits, American actor and producer
1955 – Willie Wilson, American baseball player and manager
1956 – Tom Hanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Michael Lederer, American author, poet, and playwright
1957 – Marc Almond, English singer-songwriter
1957 – Tim Kring, American screenwriter and producer
1957 – Kelly McGillis, American actress
1957 – Paul Merton, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1958 – Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Malaysian politician
1958 – Jacob Joseph, Malaysian football coach
1959 – Jim Kerr, Scottish singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1959 – Kevin Nash, American wrestler
1959 – Clive Stafford Smith, English lawyer and author
1960 – Yūko Asano, Japanese actress and singer
1960 – Wally Fullerton Smith, Australian rugby league player
1960 – Eduardo Montes-Bradley, Argentinian journalist, photographer, and author
1963 – Klaus Theiss, German footballer
1964 – Courtney Love, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1964 – Gianluca Vialli, Italian footballer and coach
1965 – Frank Bello, American bass player
1965 – Thomas Jahn, German director and screenwriter
1965 – Jason Rhoades, American sculptor (d. 2006)
1966 – Pamela Adlon, American actress and voice artist
1966 – Zheng Cao, Chinese-American soprano and actress (d. 2013)
1966 – Gary Glasberg, American television writer and producer (d. 2016)
1966 – Marco Pennette, American screenwriter and producer
1967 – Gunnar Axén, Swedish politician
1967 – Yordan Letchkov, Bulgarian footballer
1967 – Mark Stoops, American football player and coach
1968 – Paolo Di Canio, Italian footballer and manager
1968 – Lars Gyllenhaal, Swedish historian and author
1969 – Nicklas Barker, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Jason Kearton, Australian footballer and coach
1970 – Trent Green, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Masami Tsuda, Japanese author and illustrator
1971 – Marc Andreessen, American software developer, co-founded Netscape
1972 – Ara Babajian, American drummer and songwriter
1973 – Kelly Holcomb, American football player and sportscaster
1974 – Siân Berry, English environmentalist and politician
1974 – Ian Bradshaw, Barbadian cricketer
1974 – Gary Kelly, Irish footballer
1974 – Nikola Šarčević, Swedish singer-songwriter and bass player
1975 – Shelton Benjamin, American wrestler
1975 – Isaac Brock, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1975 – Robert Koenig, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Craig Quinnell, Welsh rugby player
1975 – Jack White, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1976 – Thomas Cichon, Polish-German footballer and manager
1976 – Fred Savage, American actor, director, and producer
1976 – Radike Samo, Fijian-Australian rugby player
1978 – Kara Goucher, American runner
1978 – Nuno Santos, Portuguese footballer
1979 – Gary Chaw, Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter
1981 – Lee Chun-soo, South Korean footballer
1981 – Junauda Petrus, American author and performance artist
1982 – Alecko Eskandarian, American soccer player and manager
1982 – Sakon Yamamoto, Japanese race car driver
1984 – Chris Campoli, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Gianni Fabiano, Italian footballer
1984 – Jacob Hoggard, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1984 – Ave Pajo, Estonian footballer
1984 – Piia Suomalainen, Finnish tennis player
1984 – LA Tenorio, Filipino basketball player
1985 – Paweł Korzeniowski, Polish swimmer
1985 – Ashley Young, English footballer
1986 – Sébastien Bassong, Cameroonian footballer
1986 – Simon Dumont, American skier
1986 – Kiely Williams, American singer-songwriter and dancer
1987 – Gert Jõeäär, Estonian cyclist
1987 – Rebecca Sugar, American animator, composer, and screenwriter
1988 – Raul Rusescu, Romanian footballer
1990 – Earl Bamber, New Zealand race car driver
1990 – Fábio, Brazilian footballer
1990 – Rafael, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Mitchel Musso, American actor and singer
1993 – Mitch Larkin, Australian swimmer
1993 – DeAndre Yedlin, American footballer
1999 – Claire Corlett, American voice actress
Deaths on July 9
230 – Empress Dowager Bian, Cao Cao’s wife (b. 159)
518 – Anastasius I Dicorus, Byzantine emperor (b. 430)
715 – Naga, Japanese prince
880 – Ariwara no Narihira, Japanese poet (b. 825)
981 – Ramiro Garcés, king of Viguera
1169 – Guido of Ravenna, Italian cartographer, entomologist and historian
1228 – Stephen Langton, English cardinal and theologian (b. 1150)
1270 – Stephen Báncsa, Hungarian cardinal (b. c. 1205)
1386 – Leopold III, Duke of Austria (b. 1351)
1441 – Jan van Eyck, Dutch painter
1546 – Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell, Scottish statesman (b. c. 1493)
1553 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony (b. 1521)
1654 – Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (b. 1633)
1706 – Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, Canadian captain and explorer (b. 1661)
1737 – Gian Gastone de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1671)
1742 – John Oldmixon, English historian, poet, and playwright (b. 1673)
1746 – Philip V of Spain (b. 1683)
1747 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (b. 1670)
1766 – Jonathan Mayhew, American minister (b. 1720)
1795 – Henry Seymour Conway, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1721)
1797 – Edmund Burke, Irish-English philosopher, academic, and politician (b. 1729)
1828 – Cathinka Buchwieser, German operatic singer and actress (b. 1789)
1850 – Báb, Persian religious leader, founded Bábism (b. 1819)
1850 – Zachary Taylor, American general and politician, 12th President of the United States (b. 1784)
1852 – Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan, American lawyer and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1794)
1856 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist and academic (b. 1776)
1856 – James Strang, American religious leader and politician (b. 1813)
1880 – Paul Broca, French physician and anatomist (b. 1824)
1882 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean captain (b. 1848)
1903 – Alphonse François Renard, Belgian geologist and photographer (b. 1842)
1927 – John Drew, Jr., American actor (b. 1853)
1932 – King Camp Gillette, American businessman, founded the Gillette Company (b. 1855)
1937 – Oliver Law, American commander (b. 1899)
1938 – Benjamin N. Cardozo, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1870)
1947 – Lucjan Żeligowski, Polish-Lithuanian general and politician (b. 1865)
1949 – Fritz Hart, English-Australian composer and conductor (b. 1874)
1951 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1894)
1955 – Don Beauman, English race car driver (b. 1928)
1955 – Adolfo de la Huerta, Mexican politician and provisional president, 1920 (b. 1881)
1959 – Ferenc Talányi, Slovene journalist and painter (b. 1883)
1962 – Georges Bataille, French philosopher, novelist, and poet (b. 1897)
1961 – Whittaker Chambers, American spy and witness in Hiss case(b. 1901)
1967 – Eugen Fischer, German physician and academic (b. 1874)
1967 – Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani dentist and politician (b. 1893)
1970 – Sigrid Holmquist, Swedish actress (b. 1899)
1971 – Karl Ast, Estonian author and politician (b. 1886)
1972 – Robert Weede, American opera singer (b. 1903)
1974 – Earl Warren, American jurist and politician, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1891)
1977 – Alice Paul, American activist (b. 1885)
1979 – Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress and author (b. 1899)
1980 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1913)
1984 – Edna Ernestine Kramer, American mathematician (b. 1902)
1985 – Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
1985 – Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish-American activist, founded Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
1986 – Patriarch Nicholas VI of Alexandria (b. 1915)
1992 – Kelvin Coe, Australian ballet dancer (b. 1946)
1992 – Eric Sevareid, American journalist (b. 1912)
1993 – Metin Altıok, Turkish poet and educator (b. 1940)
1994 – Bill Mosienko, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
1996 – Melvin Belli, American lawyer (b. 1907)
1999 – Robert de Cotret, Canadian politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (b. 1944)
2000 – Doug Fisher, English actor (b. 1941)
2002 – Mayo Kaan, American bodybuilder (b. 1914)
2002 – Rod Steiger, American actor (b. 1925)
2004 – Paul Klebnikov, American journalist and historian (b. 1963)
2004 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (b. 1917)
2005 – Chuck Cadman, Canadian engineer and politician (b. 1948)
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
524 – The Franks are defeated by the Burgundians in the Battle of Vézeronce.
841 – In the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye, forces led by Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat the armies of Lothair I of Italy and Pepin II of Aquitaine.
1258 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Acre, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet sailing to relieve Acre.
1530 – At the Diet of Augsburg the Augsburg Confession is presented to the Holy Roman Emperor by the Lutheran princes and Electors of Germany.
1658 – Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Rio Nuevo during the Anglo-Spanish War.
1678 – Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua.
1741 – Maria Theresa is crowned Queen of Hungary.
1786 – Gavriil Pribylov discovers St. George Island of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.
1788 – Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1848 – A photograph of the June Days uprising becomes the first known instance of photojournalism.
1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
1900 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
1906 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White.
1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of women or girls for “immoral purposes”; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come.
1910 – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer.
1913 – American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1935 – Colombia–Soviet Union relations are established.
1938 – Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated as the first President of Ireland.
1940 – World War II: The French armistice with Germany comes into effect.
1943 – The Holocaust: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis.
1943 – The left-wing German Jewish exile Arthur Goldstein is murdered in Auschwitz.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic countries, begins.
1944 – World War II: United States Navy and British Royal Navy ships bombard Cherbourg to support United States Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg.
1944 – The final page of the comic Krazy Kat is published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died.
1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.
1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.
1960 – Cold War: Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union.
1975 – Mozambique achieves independence from Portugal.
1975 – Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of internal emergency in India.
1976 – Missouri Governor Kit Bond issues an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1978 – The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.
1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.
1991 – Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence by referendum from Yugoslavia.
1993 – Kim Campbell is sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Canada.
1996 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen.
1997 – An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.
1997 – The National Hockey League approved expansion franchises for Nashville (1998), Atlanta (1999), Columbus (2000), and Minneapolis-Saint Paul (2000).
1998 – In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
2017 – The World Health Organization estimates that Yemen has over 200,000 cases of cholera.
Births on June 25
1242 – Beatrice of England (d. 1275)
1328 – William de Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, English commander (d. 1397)
1371 – Joanna II of Naples (d. 1435)
1484 – Bartholomeus V. Welser, German banker (d. 1561)
1526 – Elisabeth Parr, Marchioness of Northampton (d. 1565)
1560 – Wilhelm Fabry, German surgeon (d. 1634)
1568 – Gunilla Bielke, Queen of Sweden (d. 1597)
1612 – John Albert Vasa, Polish cardinal (d. 1634)
1709 – Francesco Araja, Italian composer (d. 1762)
1715 – Joseph Foullon de Doué, French soldier and politician, Controller-General of Finances (d. 1789)
1755 – Natalia Alexeievna of Russia (d. 1776)
1799 – David Douglas, Scottish-English botanist and explorer (d. 1834)
1814 – Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, French geologist and engineer (d. 1896)
1825 – James Farnell, Australian politician, 8th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1888)
1852 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect, designed the Park Güell (d. 1926)
1858 – Georges Courteline, French author and playwright (d. 1929)
1860 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer and conductor (d. 1956)
1863 – Émile Francqui, Belgian soldier and diplomat (d. 1935)
1864 – Walther Nernst, German chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
1866 – Eloísa Díaz, Chilean doctor and Chile’s first female physician (d. 1950)
1874 – Rose O’Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer (d. 1944)
1884 – Géza Gyóni, Hungarian soldier and poet (d. 1917)
1884 – Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, German-French art collector and historian (d. 1979)
1886 – Henry H. Arnold, American general (d. 1950)
1887 – George Abbott, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1887 – Frigyes Karinthy, Hungarian author, poet, and journalist (d. 1938)
1892 – Shirō Ishii, Japanese microbiologist and general (d. 1959)
1894 – Hermann Oberth, Romanian-German physicist and engineer (d. 1989)
1898 – Kay Sage, American painter and poet (d. 1963)
1900 – Marta Abba, Italian actress (d. 1988)
1900 – Zinaida Aksentyeva, Ukrainian/Soviet astronomer (d. 1969)
1900 – Georgia Hale, American silent film actress and real estate investor (d. 1985)
1900 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English admiral and politician, 44th Governor-General of India (d. 1979)
1901 – Harold Roe Bartle, American businessman and politician, 47th Mayor of Kansas City (d. 1974)
1902 – Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu of Japan (d. 1953)
1903 – George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic (d. 1950)
1903 – Anne Revere, American actress (d. 1990)
1905 – Rupert Wildt, German-American astronomer and academic (d. 1976)
1907 – J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
1908 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher and academic (d. 2000)
1911 – William Howard Stein, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
1912 – William T. Cahill, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (d. 1996)
1913 – Cyril Fletcher, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2005)
1915 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (d. 1990)
1917 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (d. 2012)
1917 – Claude Seignolle, French author (d. 2018)
1918 – P. H. Newby, English soldier and author (d. 1997)
1920 – Lassie Lou Ahern, American actress (d. 2018)
1921 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian ballerina and choreographer, founded the National Ballet of Canada (d. 2007)
1922 – Johnny Smith, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2013)
1923 – Sam Francis, American soldier and painter (d. 1994)
1923 – Dorothy Gilman, American author (d. 2012)
1923 – Jamshid Amouzegar, 43rd Prime Minister of Iran (d. 2016)
1924 – Sidney Lumet, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
1924 – Dimitar Isakov, Bulgarian football player
1924 – Madan Mohan, Iraqi-Indian composer and director (d. 1975)
1924 – William J. Castagna, American lawyer and judge
1925 – Clifton Chenier, American singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 1987)
1925 – June Lockhart, American actress
1925 – Clay Evans, American Baptist pastor (d. 2019)
1925 – Robert Venturi, American architect and academic (d. 2018)
1925 – Virginia Patton, American actress and businesswoman
1926 – Margaret Anstee, English diplomat (d. 2016)
1926 – Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian author and poet (d. 1973)
1926 – Kep Enderby, Australian lawyer, judge, and politician, 23rd Attorney-General for Australia (d. 2015)
1926 – Stig Sollander, Swedish Alpine skier (d. 2019)
1927 – Antal Róka, Hungarian runner (d. 1970)
1927 – Chuck Smith, American pastor, founded the Calvary Chapel (d. 2013)
1927 – Arnold Wolfendale, English astronomer and academic
1928 – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)
1928 – John A. Wickham Jr., United States Army general
1928 – Michel Brault, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1928 – Peyo, Belgian author and illustrator, created The Smurfs (d. 1992)
1928 – Bill Russo, American pianist and composer (d. 2003)
1928 – Alex Toth, American animator and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1929 – Eric Carle, American author and illustrator
1929 – Francesco Marchisano, Italian cardinal (d. 2014)
1931 – V. P. Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of India (d. 2008)
1932 – Peter Blake, English painter and illustrator
1932 – Tim Parnell, English race car driver (d. 2017)
1932 – George Sluizer, French-Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1933 – Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portuguese architect, designed the Porto School of Architecture
1934 – Jean Geissinger, American baseball player (d. 2014)
1934 – Jack W. Hayford, American minister and author
1934 – Beatriz Sheridan, Mexican actress and director (d. 2006)
1935 – Ray Butt, English television producer and director (d. 2013)
1935 – Salihu Ibrahim, Nigerian Army Officer (d. 2018)
1935 – Taufiq Ismail, Indonesian poet and activist
1935 – Larry Kramer, American author, playwright, and activist, co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis (d. 2020)
1935 – Don Demeter, American professional baseball player
1935 – Tony Lanfranchi, English race car driver (d. 2004)
1935 – Judy Howe, American artistic gymnast
1935 – Charles Sheffield, English-American mathematician, physicist, and author (d. 2002)
1936 – B. J. Habibie, Indonesian engineer and politician, 3rd President of Indonesia (d. 2019)
1936 – Bert Hölldobler, German biologist and entomologist
1937 – Eddie Floyd, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter
1937 – Derek Foster, Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland, English politician (d. 2019)
1937 – Doreen Wells, English ballerina and actress
1939 – Allen Fox, American tennis player and coach
1940 – Judy Amoore, Australian runner
1940 – Mary Beth Peil, American actress and singer
1940 – A. J. Quinnell, English-Maltese author (d. 2005)
1940 – Clint Warwick, English bass player (d. 2004)
1941 – Denys Arcand, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 – John Albert Raven, Scottish academic and ecologist
1942 – Nikiforos Diamandouros, Greek academic and politician
1942 – Willis Reed, American basketball player, coach, and manager
1942 – Michel Tremblay, Canadian author and playwright
1944 – Robert Charlebois, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1944 – Gary David Goldberg, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1945 – Carly Simon, American singer-songwriter
1945 – Baba Gana Kingibe, Nigerian politician
1945 – Harry Womack, American singer (d. 1974)
1946 – Roméo Dallaire, Dutch-Canadian general and politician
1946 – Allen Lanier, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2013)
1946 – Ian McDonald, English guitarist and saxophonist
1947 – John Hilton, English table tennis player
1947 – John Powell, American discus thrower
1947 – Jimmie Walker, American actor and comedian
1949 – Richard Clarke, Irish archbishop
1949 – Patrick Tambay, French race car driver
1949 – Yoon Joo-sang, South Korean actor
1950 – Marcello Toninelli, Italian author and screenwriter
1951 – Eva Bayer-Fluckiger, Swiss mathematician and academic
1952 – Péter Erdő, Hungarian cardinal
1952 – Tim Finn, New Zealand singer-songwriter
1952 – Martin Gerschwitz, German singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1952 – Alan Green, Northern Irish sportscaster
1952 – Kristina Abelli Elander, Swedish artist
1953 – Olivier Ameisen, French-American cardiologist and educator (d. 2013)
1953 – Ian Davis, Australian cricketer
1954 – Mario Lessard, Canadian ice hockey player
1954 – David Paich, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1954 – Lina Romay, Spanish actress (d. 2012)
1954 – Daryush Shokof, Iranian director, producer, and screenwriter
1954 – Sonia Sotomayor, American lawyer and judge
1955 – Vic Marks, English cricketer and sportscaster
1956 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef and author (d. 2018)
1956 – Frank Paschek, German long jumper
1956 – Boris Trajkovski, Macedonian politician, 2nd President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)
1956 – Craig Young, Australian rugby player and coach
1957 – Greg Millen, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1958 – George Becali, Romanian businessman, politician
1959 – Lutz Dombrowski, German long jumper and educator
1959 – Jari Puikkonen, Finnish ski jumper
1959 – Bobbie Vaile, Australian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1996)
1960 – Alastair Bruce of Crionaich, English-Scottish journalist and author
1960 – Brian Hayward, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1960 – Craig Johnston, South African-Australian footballer and photographer
1960 – Laurent Rodriguez, French rugby player
1961 – Timur Bekmambetov, Kazakh director, producer, and screenwriter
1961 – Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, director, producer and singer
1963 – John Benjamin Hickey, American actor
1963 – Yann Martel, Spanish-Canadian author
1963 – Doug Gilmour, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1963 – George Michael, English singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2016)
1963 – Mike Stanley, American baseball player
1964 – Dell Curry, American basketball player and coach
1964 – Phil Emery, Australian cricketer
1964 – Johnny Herbert, English race car driver and sportscaster
1964 – John McCrea, American singer-songwriter and musician
1964 – Greg Raymer, American poker player and lawyer
1965 – Napole Polutele, French politician
1965 – Kerri Pottharst, Australian beach volleyball player
1965 – Joseph Hii Teck Kwong, Malaysian bishop
1966 – Dikembe Mutombo, Congolese-American basketball player
1967 – Tracey Spicer, Australian journalist
1968 – Adrian Garvey, Zimbabwean-South African rugby player
1968 – Vaios Karagiannis, Greek footballer and manager
1969 – Hunter Foster, American actor and singer
1969 – Zim Zum, American guitarist and songwriter
1970 – Ariel Gore, American journalist and author
1970 – Roope Latvala, Finnish guitarist
1970 – Erki Nool, Estonian decathlete and politician
1970 – Aaron Sele, American baseball player and scout
1971 – Karen Darke, English cyclist and author
1971 – Jason Gallian, Australian-English cricketer and educator
1971 – Rod Kafer, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
1971 – Neil Lennon, Northern Irish-Scottish footballer and manager
1971 – Michael Tucker, American baseball player
1972 – Carlos Delgado, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
1972 – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan engineer and politician
1973 – René Corbet, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Milan Hnilička, Czech ice hockey player
1973 – Jamie Redknapp, English footballer and coach
1974 – Nisha Ganatra, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter
1974 – Glen Metropolit, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Kiur Aarma, Estonian journalist and producer
1975 – Linda Cardellini, American actress
1975 – Albert Costa, Spanish tennis player and coach
1975 – Vladimir Kramnik, Russian chess player
1975 – Michele Merkin, American model and television host
1976 – José Cancela, Uruguayan footballer
1976 – Iestyn Harris, Welsh rugby player and coach
1976 – Carlos Nieto, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
1976 – Neil Walker, American swimmer
1978 – Aramis Ramírez, Dominican-American baseball player
1978 – Luke Scott, American baseball player
1978 – Marcus Stroud, American football player
1979 – Marko Albert, Estonian swimmer and triathlete
1979 – Richard Hughes, Scottish footballer
1979 – Busy Philipps, American actress
1981 – Simon Ammann, Swiss ski jumper
1982 – Rain, South Korean singer and actor
1982 – Mikhail Youzhny, Russian tennis player
1983 – Todd Cooper, English swimmer
1983 – Marc Janko, Austrian footballer
1984 – Lauren Bush, American model and fashion designer
1985 – Karim Matmour, Algerian footballer
1986 – Aya Matsuura, Japanese singer and actress
1986 – Seda Tokatlıoğlu, Turkish volleyball player
1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa.
217 BC – The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Rome.
474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães: Forces led by Afonso I defeat forces led by his mother Teresa of León and her lover Fernando Pérez de Traba.
1230 – The Siege of Jaén begins, in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce.
1340 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.
1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
1535 – The Dominion of Münster, a radical communal Anabaptist state in the independent German city of Münster, is conquered by Franz von Waldeck, the Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Münster in a night attack.
1571 – Miguel López de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present-day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch make a failed attempt to capture Macau.
1663 – The Spanish garrison of Évora capitulates, following the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial.
1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England is founded in London, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England).
1762 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The British-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats French forces in Westphalia.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
1793 – The French Constitution of 1793 is formally adopted, although it is effectively suspended by the Committee of Public Safety.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.
1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
1821 – The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.
1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
1866 – Battle of Custoza: An Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
1880 – First performance of O Canada at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada.
1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.
1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1922 – The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
1932 – A bloodless revolution instigated by the People’s Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand).
1938 – Pieces of a meteorite land near Chicora, Pennsylvania. The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded.
1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country’s third prime minister.
1940 – World War II: Operation Collar, the first British Commando raid on occupied France, by No 11 Independent Company.
1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.
1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington, leading to the coining of the phrase “flying saucer”.
1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.
1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.
1954 – First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass: Viet Minh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.
1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.
1973 – The UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, is attacked by an arsonist during a church service, and 32 people die from smoke inhalation or fire.
1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 encounters severe wind shear and crashes on final approach to New York’s JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time. This accident led to decades of research into downburst and microburst phenomena and their effects on aircraft.
1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world’s longest bridge span for 17 years.
1982 – British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
1995 – Rugby World Cup: South Africa defeats New Zealand and Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup in an iconic post-apartheid moment.
2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
2010 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.
2012 – Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.
Births on June 24
1210 – Count Floris IV of Holland (d. 1234)
1244 – Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1308)
1254 – Floris V, Count of Holland (d. 1296)
1257 – Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford, English nobleman (probable; d. 1331)
1314 – Philippa of Hainault Queen of England (d. 1369)
1322 – Joanna, Duchess of Brabant (d. 1406)
1343 – Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (d. 1373)
1360 – Nuno Álvares Pereira, Portuguese general
1386 – John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (d. 1456)
1465 – Isabella del Balzo, Queen Consort of Naples (d. 1533)
1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, Polish-German priest and reformer (d. 1558)
1485 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg (d. 1555)
1499 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and the Protestant Reformer (d. 1570)
1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian and scholar (d. 1605)
1532 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (d. 1588)
1532 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1573)
1535 – Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal (d. 1573)
1546 – Robert Persons, English Jesuit priest, insurrectionist, and author (d. 1610)
1587 – William Arnold, English-American settler (d. 1675)
1591 – Mustafa I, Ottoman sultan (d. 1639)
1614 – John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse
1616 – Ferdinand Bol, Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman, student of Rembrandt (d. 1680)
1661 – Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyō (d. 1730)
1663 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (d. 1742)
1687 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German-Lutheran clergyman and scholar (d. 1757)
1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss author and theorist (d. 1748)
1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, French philosopher and author (d. 1771)
1753 – William Hull, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan Territory (d. 1825)
1755 – Anacharsis Cloots, Prussian-French activist (d. 1794)
1767 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer and author (d. 1846)
1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont (d. 1834)
1774 – Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentinian commander and politician, 5th Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (d. 1819)
1774 – François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo, French general and engineer (d. 1838)
1777 – John Ross, Scottish commander and explorer (d. 1856)
1782 – Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (d. 1847)
1783 – Johann Heinrich von Thünen, German economist and geographer (d. 1850)
1784 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan general and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1853)
1788 – Thomas Blanchard, American inventor (d. 1864)
1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, German physician and psychologist (d. 1878)
1797 – John Hughes, Irish-American archbishop (d. 1864)
1797 – Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish geologist and explorer (d. 1873)
1804 – Stephan Endlicher, Austrian botanist, numismatist, and sinologist (d. 1849)
1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
1811 – John Archibald Campbell, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1889)
1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American minister and reformer (d. 1887)
1813 – Francis Boott, American composer (d. 1904)
1821 – Guillermo Rawson, Argentinian physician and politician (d. 1890)
1826 – George Goyder, English-Australian surveyor (d. 1898)
1835 – Johannes Wislicenus, German chemist and academic (d. 1902)
1838 – Jan Matejko, Polish painter (d. 1893)
1839 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, American businessman (d. 1903)
1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, essayist, and journalist (d. 1914)
1846 – Samuel Johnson, Nigerian priest and historian (d. 1901)
1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Irish field marshal and politician, Governor-General of Sudan (d. 1916)
1852 – Friedrich Loeffler, German bacteriologist and academic (d. 1915)
1854 – Eleanor Norcross, American painter (d. 1923)
1856 – Henry Chapman Mercer, American archaeologist and author (d. 1930)
1858 – Hastings Rashdall, English historian, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1924)
1865 – Robert Henri, American painter and educator (d. 1929)
1867 – Ruth Randall Edström, American educator and activist (d. 1944)
1869 – Prince George of Greece and Denmark (d. 1957)
1872 – Frank Crowninshield, American journalist and art and theatre critic (d. 1947)
1875 – Forrest Reid, Irish novelist, literary critic and translator (d. 1947)
1880 – Oswald Veblen, American mathematician and academic (g. 1960)
1880 – João Cândido Felisberto, Brazilian revolutionary and sailor (d. 1969)
1881 – George Shiels, Irish-Canadian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1949)
1882 – Athanase David, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1953)
1882 – Carl Diem, German businessman (d. 1962)
1883 – Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
1883 – Fritz Löhner-Beda, Jewish Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer (d.1942)
1883 – Jean Metzinger, French artist (d. 1956)
1883 – Arthur L. Newton, American runner (d. 1956)
1883 – Frank Verner, American runner (d. 1966)
1884 – Frank Waller, American runner (d. 1941)
1885 – Olaf Holtedahl, Norwegian geologist (d. 1975)
1888 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect, designed the Rietveld Schröder House (d. 1964)
1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)
1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer and soldier (d. 1983)
1898 – Armin Öpik, Estonian-Australian paleontologist and geologist (d. 1983)
1898 – Karl Selter, Estonian politician, 14th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (d. 1958)
1900 – Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician and engineer (d. 1945)
1901 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (d. 2001)
1901 – Harry Partch, American composer and theorist (d. 1974)
1901 – Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and salesman (d. 1969)
1904 – Phil Harris, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1995)
1905 – Fred Alderman, American sprinter (d. 1998)
1906 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist and educator (d. 1986)
1906 – Willard Maas, American poet and educator (d. 1971)
1907 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet and translator (d. 1989)
1908 – Hugo Distler, German organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1942)
1908 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (d. 1976)
1909 – Jean Deslauriers, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1978)
1909 – William Penney, Baron Penney, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1991)
1909 – Betty Cavanna, American author (d. 2001)
1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1995)
1911 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentinian physicist and academic (d. 2011)
1911 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (d. 1968)
1912 – Brian Johnston, English sportscaster and author (d. 1994)
1912 – Mary Wesley, English author (d. 2002)
1913 – Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist and soldier (d. 2002)
1914 – Jan Karski, Polish-American activist and academic (d. 2000)
1914 – Pearl Witherington, French secret agent (d. 2008)
1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (d. 2001)
1916 – William B. Saxbe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 70th United States Attorney General (d. 2010)
1916 – Saloua Raouda Choucair, Lebanese painter and sculptor (d. 2017)
1917 – David Easton, Canadian-American political scientist and academic (d. 2014)
1917 – Lucy Jarvis, American television producer (d. 2020)
1917 – Ramblin’ Tommy Scott, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
1917 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (d. 1996)
1918 – Mildred Ladner Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1918 – Yong Nyuk Lin, Singaporean businessman and politician, Singaporean Minister for Education (d. 2012)
1919 – Al Molinaro, American actor (d. 2015)
1921 – Gerhard Sommer, German soldier
1922 – Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (d. 2015)
1922 – John Postgate, English microbiologist, author, and academic (d. 2014)
1922 – Richard Timberlake, American economist
1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist (d. 2011)
1924 – Kurt Furgler, Swiss politician, 70th President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 2008)
1924 – Archie Roy, Scottish astronomer and academic (d. 2012)
1924 – Yoshito Takamine, American politician (d. 2015)
1925 – Ogden Reid, American politician (d. 2019)
1927 – Fernand Dumont, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and poet (d. 1997)
1927 – James B. Edwards, American dentist, soldier, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (d. 2014)
1927 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
1929 – Carolyn S. Shoemaker, American astronomer
1930 – Claude Chabrol, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1930 – Donald Gordon, South African businessman and philanthropist (d. 2019)
1930 – William Bernard Ziff, Jr., American publisher (d. 2006)
1931 – Billy Casper, American golfer and architect (d. 2015)
1932 – David McTaggart, Canadian-Italian environmentalist (d. 2001)
1933 – Sam Jones, American basketball player and coach
1933 – Ngina Kenyatta, 1st First Lady of Kenya
1934 – Ferdinand Biwersi, German footballer and referee (d. 2013)
1934 – Jean-Pierre Ferland, Canadian singer-songwriter
1934 – Gloria Christian, Italian singer
1935 – Terry Riley, American composer and educator
1935 – Jean Milesi, French racing cyclist
1935 – Charlie Dees, American baseball player
1937 – Anita Desai, Indian-American author and academic
1938 – Lawrence Block, American author
1938 – Abulfaz Elchibey, 1st democratically elected Azerbaijani president (d. 2000)
1938 – Ken Gray, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1992)
1939 – Brigitte Fontaine, French singer
1940 – Ian Ross, Australian newsreader (d. 2014)
1940 – Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer
1941 – Erkin Koray, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1941 – Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian-French psychoanalyst and author
1941 – Graham McKenzie, Australian cricketer
1942 – Arthur Brown, English rock singer-songwriter
1942 – Michele Lee, American actress and singer
1942 – Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Chilean engineer and politician, 32nd President of Chile
1942 – Colin Groves, Australian academician and educator
1943 – Birgit Grodal, Danish economist and academic (d. 2004)
1944 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Kathryn Lasky, American author
1944 – Chris Wood, English saxophonist (d. 1983)
1945 – Colin Blunstone, English singer-songwriter
1945 – Wayne Cashman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1945 – George Pataki, American lawyer and politician, 53rd Governor of New York
1945 – Betty Stöve, Dutch tennis player
1946 – David Collenette, Canadian civil servant and politician, 32nd Canadian Minister of National Defence
1946 – Ellison Onizuka, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1986)
1946 – Robert Reich, American economist and politician, 22nd United States Secretary of Labor
1947 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (d. 2014)
1947 – Peter Weller, American actor and director
1948 – Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player and songwriter
1949 – John Illsley, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1949 – Betty Jackson, English fashion designer
1950 – Nancy Allen, American actress
1950 – Bob Carlos Clarke, Irish-born English photographer (d. 2006)
1950 – Jan Kulczyk, Polish businessman (d. 2015)
1950 – Mercedes Lackey, American author
1951 – Raelene Boyle, Australian sprinter
1951 – Charles Sturridge, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1952 – Dianna Melrose, English diplomat, British High Commissioner to Tanzania
1952 – Bob Neill, English lawyer and politician
1953 – William E. Moerner, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1953 – Michael Tuck, Australian footballer and coach
1955 – Chris Higgins, English geneticist and academic
1955 – Edmund Malura, German footballer and manager
1955 – Loren Roberts, American golfer
1956 – Owen Paterson, English politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1957 – Mark Parkinson, American lawyer and politician, 45th Governor of Kansas
1958 – Jean Charest, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
1958 – Silvio Mondinelli, Italian mountaineer
1958 – John Tortorella, American ice hockey player and coach
1959 – Andy McCluskey, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1960 – Elish Angiolini, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland
1960 – Siedah Garrett, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1960 – Karin Pilsäter, Swedish accountant and politician
1960 – Erik Poppe, Norwegian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter
1961 – Dennis Danell, American singer and guitarist (d. 2000)
1961 – Iain Glen, Scottish actor
1961 – Bernie Nicholls, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Ralph E. Reed, Jr., American journalist and activist
1961 – Curt Smith, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1963 – Yuri Kasparyan, Russian guitarist
1963 – Preki, Serbian-American soccer player and coach
1963 – Mike Wieringo, American author and illustrator (d. 2007)
1964 – Jean-Luc Delarue, French television host and producer (d. 2012)
1964 – Kathryn Parminter, Baroness Parminter, English politician
1964 – Gary Suter, American ice hockey player and scout
1965 – Claude Bourbonnais, Canadian race car driver
1965 – Uwe Krupp, German ice hockey player and coach
1965 – Richard Lumsden, English actor, writer, composer and musician
1966 – Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and musician
1966 – Adrienne Shelly, American actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1967 – Janez Lapajne, Slovenian director and producer
1967 – John Limniatis, Greek-Canadian footballer and manager
1968 – Alaa Abdelnaby, Egyptian-American basketball player and sportscaster
1970 – Glenn Medeiros, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1970 – Bernardo Sassetti, Portuguese pianist, composer, and educator (d. 2012)
1972 – Robbie McEwen, Australian cyclist
1972 – Denis Žvegelj, Slovenian rower
1973 – Alexis Gauthier, French chef
1973 – Jere Lehtinen, Finnish ice hockey player
1974 – Dan Byles, English sailor, rower, and politician
1974 – Chris Guccione, American baseball player and umpire
1975 – Marek Malík, Czech ice hockey player
1975 – Federico Pucciariello, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
1976 – Brock Olivo, American football player and coach
1977 – Dimos Dikoudis, Greek basketball player and manager
1977 – Jeff Farmer, Australian footballer
1978 – Luis García, Spanish footballer
1978 – Pantelis Kafes, Greek footballer
1978 – Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
1978 – Ariel Pink, American singer-songwriter
1978 – Juan Román Riquelme, Argentinian footballer
1978 – Emppu Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist and songwriter
1979 – Mindy Kaling, American actress and producer
1979 – Petra Němcová, Czech model and philanthropist
1980 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
1980 – Nina Dübbers, German tennis player
1980 – Andrew Jones, Australian race car driver
1980 – Minka Kelly, American actress
1982 – Kevin Nolan, English footballer
1982 – Jarret Stoll, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Rebecca Cooke, English swimmer
1983 – Gianni Munari, Italian footballer
1983 – Gard Nilssen, Norwegian drummer
1983 – David Shillington, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Andrea Raggi, Italian footballer
1984 – J.J. Redick, American basketball player
1984 – Johanna Welin, Swedish-born German wheelchair basketball player
1985 – Diego Alves Carreira, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Tom Kennedy, English footballer
1985 – Ethan Klein, American YouTuber
1985 – Nate Myles, Australian rugby league player
1985 – Vernon Philander, South African cricketer
1985 – Yukina Shirakawa, Japanese model
1986 – Stuart Broad, English cricketer
1986 – Phil Hughes, American baseball player
1986 – Solange Knowles, American singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Simona Dobrá, Czech tennis player
1987 – Lionel Messi, Argentinian footballer
1987 – Pierre Vaultier, French snowboarder
1988 – Micah Richards, English footballer
1989 – Teklemariam Medhin, Eritrean runner
1990 – Michael Del Zotto, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Richard Sukuta-Pasu, German footballer
1991 – Yasmin Paige, English actress
1991 – Aidan Sezer, Australian rugby league player
1992 – David Alaba, Austrian footballer
1996 – Duki, Argentinian rapper
Deaths on June 24
994 – Abu Isa al-Warraq, Arab scholar (b. 889)
1046 – Jeongjong II, Korean ruler (b. 1018)
1088 – William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Norman nobleman
1314 – Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester, English commander (b. 1291)
1314 – Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, English soldier and politician, Lord Warden of the Marches (b. 1274)
1398 – Hongwu, Chinese emperor (b. 1328)
1439 – Frederick IV, duke of Austria (b. 1382)
1503 – Reginald Bray, English architect and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1440)
1519 – Lucrezia Borgia, Italian wife of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (b. 1480)
1520 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese commander (b. 1489)
1604 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English courtier, Lord Great Chamberlain (b. 1550)
1637 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer and historian (b. 1580)
1643 – John Hampden, English politician (b. 1595)
1766 – Adrien Maurice de Noailles, French soldier and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1678)
1778 – Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist and academic (b. 1714)
1803 – Matthew Thornton, Irish-American judge and politician (b. 1714)
1817 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1734)
1835 – Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (b. 1769)
1902 – George Leake, Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (b. 1856)
1908 – Grover Cleveland, American lawyer and politician, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (b. 1837)
1909 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1849)
1922 – Walther Rathenau, German businessman and politician, 7th German Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1867)
1931 – Otto Mears, Russian-American businessman (b. 1840)
1931 – Xiang Zhongfa, Chinese politician, 2nd General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1880)
1932 – Ernst Põdder, Estonian general (b. 1879)
1943 – Camille Roy, Canadian priest and critic (b. 1870)
1946 – Louise Whitfield Carnegie, American philanthropist (b. 1857)
1947 – Emil Seidel, American politician, Mayor of Milwaukee (b. 1864)
1962 – Volfgangs Dārziņš, Latvian composer, pianist and music critic (b. 1906)
1964 – Stuart Davis, American painter and academic (b. 1892)
1968 – Tony Hancock, English actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
1969 – Frank King, American cartoonist (b. 1883)
1969 – Willy Ley, German-American historian and author (b. 1906)
1976 – Minor White, American photographer, critic, and academic (b. 1908)
1978 – Robert Charroux, French author and critic (b. 1909)
1980 – V. V. Giri, Indian lawyer and politician, 4th President of India (b. 1894)
1984 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian businessman (b. 1905)
1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor, comedian, and producer (b. 1916)
1988 – Csaba Kesjár, Hungarian race car driver (b. 1962)
2015 – Mario Biaggi, American police officer, politician and criminal (b. 1917)
2015 – Marva Collins, American author and educator (b. 1936)
2015 – Susan Ahn Cuddy, American lieutenant (b. 1915)
2019 – Billy Drago, American actor (b. 1945)
Holidays and observances on June 24
Army Day or Battle of Carabobo Day (Venezuela)
Bannockburn Day (Scotland)
Christian feast day:
María Guadalupe García Zavala
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
June 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the Caboclo (Amazonas, Brazil)
Discovery Day, observed on the nearest Monday to June 24 (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Earliest day on which Armed Forces Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in June. (United Kingdom)
Earliest day on which Inventors’ and Rationalizers’ Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in June. (Russia)
Earliest day on which Mother’s Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in June. (Kenya)
Earliest day on which Youth Day can fall, while Jun 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in June. (Ukraine, Belarus)
Inti Raymi, a winter solstice festival and a New Year in the Andes of the Southern Hemisphere (Sacsayhuamán)
St John’s Day and the second day of the Midsummer celebrations (although this is not the astronomical summer solstice, see June 20) (Roman Catholic Church, Europe), and its related observances:
Enyovden (Bulgaria)
Jaanipäev (Estonia)
Jāņi (Latvia)
Jónsmessa (Iceland)
Midsummer Day (England)
Saint Jonas’ Festival or Joninės (Lithuania)
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (Quebec)
Sânziene (western Carpathian Mountains of Romania)
