1367 Henry IV of England (born) (died 1413)
1415 Manuel Chrysoloras (died), Greek educator (born 1355)
1446 Filippo Brunelleschi (died), Italian sculptor and architect (born 1377)
1450 Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.
1452 Leonardo da Vinci (born), Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (died 1519)
1552 Pietro Cataldi (born), Italian mathematician (died 1626)
1558 Roxelana (died), Polish wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (born 1500)
1588 Claudius Salmasius (born), French scholar (died 1653)
1632 George Calvert (died), 1st Baron Baltimore, English politician (born 1580)
1641 Domenico Zampieri (died), Italian painter (born 1581)
1641 Robert Sibbald (born), Scottish physician (died 1722)
1642 Suleiman II (born), Ottoman sultan (died 1691)
1646 Christian V of Denmark (born) (died 1699)
1646 Pierre Poiret (born), French mystic and philosopher (died 1719)
1684 Catherine I of Russia (born) (died 1727)
1688 Johann Friedrich Fasch (born), German violinist and composer (died 1758)
1704 Johannes Hudde (died), Dutch mathematician (born 1628)
1710 William Cullen (born), Scottish physician and chemist (died 1790)
1715 The Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1719 Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (died), French wife of Louis XIV of France (born 1635)
1721 Prince William (born), Duke of Cumberland (died 1765)
1738 Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.
1741 Charles Willson Peale (born), American painter and soldier (died 1827)
1754 Jacopo Riccati (died), Italian mathematician (born 1676)
1755 Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
1761 Archibald Campbell (died), 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish lawyer and politician (born 1682)
1761 William Oldys (died), English historian and author (born 1696)
1772 Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (born), French biologist (died 1844)
1783 Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified.
1788 Giuseppe Bonno (died), Austrian composer (born 1711)
1793 Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (born), German astronomer (died 1864)
1802 William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a “long belt” of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
1809 Hermann Grassmann (born), German linguist and mathematician (died 1877)
1817 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut, now Gallaudet University.
1832 Wilhelm Busch (born), German poet, painter, and illustrator (died 1908)
1841 Joseph E. Seagram (born), Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company Ltd (died 1919)
1843 Henry James (born), American-English author (died 1916)
1858 Émile Durkheim (born), French sociologist (died 1917)
1861 President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War
1865 Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.
1865 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (born 1809)
1874 George Harrison Shull (born), American geneticist (died 1954)
1888 Matthew Arnold (died), English poet and critic (born 1822)
1892 The General Electric Company is formed.
1894 Bessie Smith (born), American singer and actress (died 1937)
1894 Nikita Khrushchev (born), Soviet politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union (died 1971)
1895 Clark McConachy (born), New Zealand snooker player (died 1980)
1901 Joe Davis (born), English snooker player (died 1978)
1907 Nikolaas Tinbergen (born), Dutch ethologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988)
1912 Kim Il-sung (born), North Korean politician, Eternal President of North Korea (died 1994)
1912 The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.
1912 Victims of the RMS Titanic disaster died, including
Benjamin Guggenheim American businessman (born 1865)
Edward Smith, English captain (born 1850)
Ida Straus, German-American businesswoman (born 1849)
Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (born 1845)
Jack Phillips, English telegraphist (born 1887)
Jacques Futrelle, American journalist and author (born 1875)
James Paul Moody, English sixth officer (born 1887)
John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel, businessman, and author (born 1864)
John Thayer, American cricketer (born 1862)
Thomas Andrews, Irish businessman and shipbuilder (born 1873)
Wallace Hartley, English violinist and bandleader (born 1878)
William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor and first officer (born 1873)
William Thomas Stead English journalist (born 1849)
and 1,517 others
1916 Alfred S. Bloomingdale (born), American businessman (died 1982)
1917 Hans Conried (born), American actor (died 1982)
1920 Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.
1921 Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.
1922 U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
1923 Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.
1924 Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1927 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, begins.
1933 Roy Clark (born), American singer and actor
1936 Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.
1938 Hso Khan Pha (born), Burmese-Canadian geologist and politician
1939 Marty Wilde (born), English singer-songwriter and actor
1940 Jeffrey Archer (born), English author and politician
1942 The George Cross is awarded to “to the island fortress of Malta its people and defenders” by King George VI.
1946 Michael Tucci (born), American actor
1947 Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.
1947 Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (born), American screenwriter and producer
1949 Wallace Beery (died), American actor (born 1885)
1950 Amy Wright (born), American actress
1951 Heloise, American journalist and author
1952 The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress.
1955 Dodi Fayed (born), Egyptian film producer (died 1997)
1955 McDonald’s restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois
1958 After Walter O’Malley orchestrated that both teams’ move from New York City, Los Angeles Dodgers played the San Francisco Giants in the first Major League Baseball game on the US West Coast.
1960 At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
1965 First Ford Mustang rolls off the show room floor, two days before it was set to go on sale nationwide.
1970 During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.
1980 Jean-Paul Sartre (died), French philosopher and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905)
1986 The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.
1989 Upon Hu Yaobang’s death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People’s Republic of China.
1990 Greta Garbo (died), Swedish-American actress (born 1905)
1998 Pol Pot (died), Cambodian politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1925)
1999 Harvey Postlethwaite (died), English engineer (born 1944)
2000 Edward Gorey (died), American poet and illustrator (born 1925)
2001 Joey Ramone (died), American singer-songwriter (Ramones and Sniper) (born 1951)
2009 László Tisza (died), Hungarian-American physicist and educator (born 1907)
2010 Michael Pataki (died), American actor (born 1938)
2013 Two bombs explode near the finish line at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
- The Super Sucker Bowl - 10 February, 2017
- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017