337 Constantine the Great (died), Roman emperor (born 272)
853 A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt
1176 The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin near Aleppo.
1666 Gaspar Schott (died), German physicist and mathematician (born 1608)
1667 Pope Alexander VII (died) (born 1599)
1724 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (born), French explorer (died 1772)
1733 Hubert Robert (born), French painter (died 1808)
1770 Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (born) (died 1840)
1783 William Sturgeon (born), English physicist and inventor, invented the Electromagnet and Electric motor (died 1850)
1802 Martha Washington (died), American wife of George Washington, 1st First Lady of the United States (born 1731)
1807 A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
1809 On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
1813 Richard Wagner (born), German composer and director (died 1883)
1816 A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs; the rioting spreads to Ely the next day.
1819 The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 20.
1823 Solomon Bundy (born), American politician (died 1889)
1826 HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1849 President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, the only patent ever issued to a U.S. President.
1851 Mordecai Manuel Noah (died), American journalist and diplomat (born 1755)
1856 Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (“Bleeding Kansas”).
1859 Arthur Conan Doyle (born), Scottish physician and author (died 1930)
1863 American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
1872 Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1885 Victor Hugo (died), French author, poet, and playwright (born 1802)
1891 Eddie Edwards (born), American baseball player and trombonist (Original Dixieland Jass Band) (died 1963)
1897 The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened
1900 Yvonne de Gaulle (born), French wife of Charles de Gaulle (died 1979)
1901 Gaetano Bresci (died), Italian-American anarchist, assassin of Umberto I of Italy (born 1869)
1906 The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.
1907 Laurence Olivier (born), English actor, director, and producer (died 1989)
1910 Johnny Olson (born), American game show host and announcer (died 1985)
1911 Anatol Rapoport (born), Russian-American psychologist (died 2007)
1914 Sun Ra (born), American pianist, composer, bandleader, and poet (died 1993)
1915 Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous US during the 20th century.
1925 Jean Tinguely (born), Swiss painter and sculptor (died 1991)
1926 Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang, China.
1928 T. Boone Pickens (born), American businessman
1930 Harvey Milk (born), American lieutenant, politician, and activist (died 1978)
1932 Augusta, Lady Gregory (died), Irish playwright, co-founded the Abbey Theatre (born 1852)
1934 Peter Nero (born), American pianist and conductor
1936 M. Scott Peck (born), American psychiatrist and author (died 2005)
1937 Guy Marchand (born), French actor and singer
1940 Bernard Shaw (born), American journalist
1942 Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
1942 World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
1945 Operation Paperclip – United States Army Major Robert B. Staver recommends that the U.S. evacuate German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
1947 Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
1950 Bernie Taupin (born), English singer-songwriter and poet
1955 Jimmy Lyon (born), American guitarist (The Greg Kihn Band)
1955 John Grimaldi (born), English musician, songwriter and artist (died 1983)
1957 Lisa Murkowski (born), American lawyer and politician
1959 Morrissey (born), English singer-songwriter and pianist (The Smiths, The Nosebleeds, and Slaughter & The Dogs)
1960 An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
1964 The U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an “end to poverty and racial injustice” in America.
1965 Jay Carney (born), American journalist, 29th White House Press Secretary
1967 Langston Hughes (died), American author, poet, and playwright (born 1902)
1968 The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1969 Apollo 10 ‘s lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon’s surface.
1970 Naomi Campbell (born), English model and actress
1972 Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1980 Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
1989 Steven De Groote (died), South African pianist (born 1953)
1990 Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
1990 North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
1990 Rocky Graziano (died), American boxer (born 1922)
1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
1997 Kelly Flinn, the US Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court-martial.
1998 Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
2002 American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
2002 In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
2003 In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
2004 The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) which kills one resident, and becomes the widest tornado on record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide; a record that wouldn’t be broken until a the El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013.
2008 The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes strike 19 states and one Canadian province.
2011 An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and wreaking $2.8 billion worth in damage—the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
2012 Muzafar Bhutto (died), Pakistani politician (born 1970)
2012 Tokyo Skytree is opened to public. It is the tallest tower in world 2,081 ft. (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth, after Burj Khalifa 2,722 ft (829.8 m).
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017