1632 Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St Paul’s Cathedral (died 1723)
1720 Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.
1803 The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
1818 The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada-United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
1859 John Dewey (born), American philosopher and psychologist (died 1952)
1873 Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
1882 Bela Lugosi (born), Hungarian-American actor (died 1956)
1890 Richard Francis Burton (born), English geographer and explorer (born 1821)
1927 Joyce Brothers (born), American psychologist, columnist, and actress (died 2013)
1931 Mickey Mantle (born), American baseball player (died 1995)
1944 General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japaneseduring the Second World War.
1946 Lewis Grizzard (born), American comedian and author (died 1994)
1947 The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
1950 Tom Petty (born), American singer-songwriter and musician (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch, and Traveling Wilburys)
1952 Governor Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency in Kenya and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya.
1961 The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class submarine.
1964 Herbert Hoover (died), American politician, 31st President of the United States (born 1874)
1973 The Sydney Opera House opens.
1973 “Saturday Night Massacre”: President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
1977 Ronnie Van Zant (died), American singer-songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (born 1948)
1977 Steve Gaines (died), American guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd and Detroit (born 1949)
1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash.
1978 Gunnar Nilsson (died), Swedish race car driver (born 1948)
1987 Andrey Kolmogorov (died), Russian mathematician (born 1903)
2010 Bob Guccione (died), American publisher, founded Penthouse magazine (born 1930)
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