1214 Louis IX of France (born) (died 1270)
1265 Roger de Quincy (died), 2nd Earl of Winchester, English husband of Helen of Galloway (born 1195)
1284 Edward II of England (born) (died 1327)
1342 Pope Benedict XII (died) (born 1285)
1502 Georg Major (born), German theologian (died 1574)
1566 Diane de Poitiers (died), French mistress of Henry II of France (born 1499)
1599 Oliver Cromwell (born), English general and politician (died 1658)
1608 Gaston (born), Duke of Orléans (died 1660)
1621 Roger Boyle (born), 1st Earl of Orrery, English soldier and politician (died 1679)
1690 David Teniers the Younger (died), Flemish painter (born 1610)
1694 Richard Boyle (born), 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect and politician (died 1753)
1710 James Ferguson (born), Scottish astronomer (died 1776)
1723 Giovanni Marco Rutini (born), Italian composer (died 1797)
1725 Augustus Keppel (born), 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral (died 1786)
1744 Anders Celsius (died), Swedish astronomer (born 1701)
1770 Georg Sverdrup (born), Norwegian philologist (died 1850)
1776 Princess Mary (born), Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (died 1857)
1792 Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
1792 La Marseillaise (the French national anthem) is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
1800 William Cowper (died), English poet (born 1731)
1829 Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.
1840 Siméon Denis Poisson (died), French mathematician and physicist (born 1781)
1843 Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (born) (died 1878)
1846 Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.
1847 The last survivors of the Donner Party are out of the wilderness.
1849 Felix Klein (born), German mathematician (died 1925)
1849 The Governor General of Canada, Lord Elgin, signs the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal’s English population and triggering the Montreal Riots.
1859 British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.
1862 American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
1862 Edward Grey (born), 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, English politician (died 1933)
1873 Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy (died), Russian painter (born 1783)
1874 Guglielmo Marconi (born), Italian businessman and inventor, developed Marconi’s law, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1937)
1878 Anna Sewell (died), English author (born 1820)
1897 Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (born) (died 1965)
1898 Spanish–American War: The United States declares war on Spain.
1900 Wolfgang Pauli (born), Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1958)
1901 New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
1902 Werner Heyde (born), German psychiatrist (died 1964)
1903 Andrey Kolmogorov (born), Russian mathematician (died 1987)
1908 Edward R. Murrow (born), American journalist (died 1965)
1909 William Pereira (born), American architect, designed the Transamerica Pyramid (died 1985)
1912 Earl Bostic (born), American saxophonist (died 1965)
1915 Frederick W. Seward (died), American lawyer, journalist, and politician, 6th United States Assistant Secretary of State (born 1830)
1916 Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declares martial law in Ireland.
1917 Ella Fitzgerald (born), American singer (died 1996)
1918 Gérard de Vaucouleurs (born), French astronomer (died 1995)
1920 Robert Q. Lewis (born), American game show host and actor (died 1991)
1923 Albert King (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 1992)
1930 Paul Mazursky (born), American actor, director, and screenwriter
1931 Felix Berezin (born), Russian mathematician and physicist (died 1980)
1932 Meadowlark Lemon (born), American basketball player and actor
1938 U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
1940 Al Pacino (born), American actor and director
1943 Alan Feduccia (born), American paleo-ornithologist
1944 The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
1945 Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.
1945 Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.
1945 Stu Cook (born), American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Southern Pacific, Don Harrison Band, and Creedence Clearwater Revisited)
1945 The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini tries to escape. This day is taken as symbolic of the Liberation of Italy.
1950 Steve Ferrone (born), English drummer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Average White Band)
1951 Korean War: Assaulting Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong.
1953 Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish “Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA.
1955 Zev Siegl (born), American businessman, co-founded Starbucks
1957 Eric Bristow (born), English darts player
1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
1960 The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1961 Dinesh D’Souza (born), Indian-American educator and author
1961 Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
1966 Tashkent is destroyed by a huge earthquake.
1969 Renée Zellwege (born), American actress and producer
1975 As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.
1981 Felipe Massa (born), Brazilian race car driver
1981 More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1982 Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords.
1983 Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto’s orbit.
1990 Jean-Éric Vergne (born), French race car driver
1990 Violeta Chamorro takes office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position.
1993 Rosita Moreno (died), Spanish-American actress (born 1907)
1995 Art Fleming (died), American game show host and actor (born 1925)
1995 Ginger Rogers (died), American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1911)
2001 Michele Alboreto (died), Italian race car driver (born 1956)
2003 The Human Genome Project is completed two and a half years earlier than expected.
2005 Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.
2005 The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.
2007 Bobby Pickett (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1938)
2007 Boris Yeltsin’s funeral – the first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.
2009 Bea Arthur (died), American actress and singer (born 1922)
2010 Alan Sillitoe (died), English author and screenwriter (born 1928)
2010 Dorothy Provine (died), American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1935)
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