564 Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
1138 Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
1241 Pope Gregory IX (died), (born 1143)
1358 Isabella of France (died) (born 1295)
1412 Frederick II, Elector of Saxony (born) (died 1464)
1485 Richard III of England (died) (born 1452)
1559 Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
1572 Thomas Percy (died), 7th Earl of Northumberland, English leader of the Rising of the North (born 1528)
1639 Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
1642 Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins.
1647 Denis Papin (born), French physicist and mathematician, developed pressure cooking (died 1712)
1654 Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
1760 Pope Leo XII (born) (died 1829)
1764 Charles Percie (born), French architect (died 1838)
1770 James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of Australia as New South Wales in the name of King George III.
1771 Henry Maudslay (born), English inventor (died 1831)
1773 Aimé Bonpland (born), French botanist and explorer (died 1858)
1780 James Cook’s ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
1791 Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
1828 Franz Joseph Gall (died), Austrian neuroanatomist and physiologist (born 1758)
1831 Nat Turner’s slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
1834 Samuel Pierpont Langley (born), American physicist and astronomer (died 1906)
1848 Melville Elijah Stone (born), American publisher, founded the Chicago Daily News (died 1929)
1848 The United States annexes New Mexico.
1849 The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
1851 The first America’s Cup is won by the yacht America.
1860 Alfred Ploetz (born), German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (died 1940)
1862 Claude Debussy (born), French composer (died 1918)
1864 12 nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
1867 Maximilian Bircher-Benner (born), Swiss physician and nutritionist (died 1939)
1873 Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher (died 1928)
1893 Dorothy Parker, American poet and author (died 1967)
1902 Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
1902 Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
1904 Deng Xiaoping (born), Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (died 1997)
1908 Henri Cartier-Bresson (born), French photographer and painter (died 2004)
1910 Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
1914 Connie B. Gay (born), American businessman, co-founded the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (died 1989)
1915 James Hillier (born), Canadian-American scientist, co-designed the electron microscope (died 2007)
1917 John Lee Hooker (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2001)
1925 Honor Blackman (born), English actress and singer
1932 The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting.
1934 Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. (born), American general (died 2012)
1936 Werner Stengel (born), German roller coaster designer and engineer, designed the maverick roller coaster
1939 Valerie Harper (born), American actress and singer
1942 World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
1944 World War II: Romania is captured by the Soviet Union.
1947 Donna Jean Godchaux (born), American singer-songwriter (Grateful Dead, Heart of Gold Band, and Jerry Garcia Band, and Donna Jean Godchaux Band)
1948 David Marks (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Beach Boys)
1949 Diana Nyad (born), American swimmer and author
1950 Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
1950 Kirk Bryan (died), American geologist (born 1888)
1950 Scooter Libby (born), American lawyer, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
1952 The penal colony on Devil’s Island is permanently closed.
1961 Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.
1962 An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
1963 American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
1963 Lord Nuffield (died), English motor manufacturer and philanthropist (born 1877)
1966 Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
1967 Gregory Goodwin Pincus (died), American biologist, co-created the birth-control pill (born 1903)
1968 Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
1971 J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
1972 Paul Doucette (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer (Matchbox Twenty, The Break and Repair Method, and Tabitha’s Secret)
1973 Howie Dorough (born), American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor (Backstreet Boys)
1974 Jacob Bronowski (died), Polish-English mathematician, biologist, and author (born 1908)
1977 Sebastian Cabot (died), English-Canadian actor and singer (born 1918)
1978 Jomo Kenyatta (died), Kenyan politician, 1st President of Kenya (born 1894)
1978 The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
1980 James Smith McDonnell (died), American pilot, engineer, and businessman, founded McDonnell Aircraft (born 1899)
1985 Luke Russert (born), American journalist
1989 Huey P. Newton (died), American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (born 1942)
1989 Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
1992 FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
1996 Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
2004 Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2007 The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day
2012 Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya’s Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017