121 Marcus Aurelius (born), Roman emperor (died 180)
645 Richarius (died), Frankish hermit and monk
1478 The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano (born 1453) during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
1564 Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
1575 Marie de’ Medici (born), Italian wife of Henry IV of France (died 1642)
1607 English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1648 Peter II of Portugal (born) (died 1706)
1697 Adam Falckenhagen (born), German lute player and composer (died 1754)
1710 Thomas Reid (born), English philosopher (died 1796)
1717 Samuel Bellamy (died), English pirate (born 1689)
1721 A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
1774 Christian Leopold von Buch (born), German geologist and paleontologist (died 1853)
1785 John James Audubon (born), French-American ornithologist and painter (died 1851)
1787 Ludwig Uhland (born), German poet, philologist, and historian (died 1862)
1798 Eugène Delacroix (born), French painter (died 1863)
1803 Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L’Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
1822 Frederick Law Olmsted (born), American journalist and landscape designer, co-designed Central Park (died 1903)
1862 Edmund C. Tarbell (born), American painter (died 1938)
1865 American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
1865 Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth (born 1838), assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
1889 Ludwig Wittgenstein (born), Austrian-English philosopher (died 1951)
1894 Rudolf Hess (born), Egyptian-German politician (died 1987)
1897 Eddie Eagan (born), American boxer and bobsledder (died 1967)
1900 Charles Francis Richter (born), American seismologist and physicist (died 1985)
1914 Bernard Malamud (born), American author (died 1986)
1917 I. M. Pei (born), Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower
1923 The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
1933 Carol Burnett (born), American actress and singer
1933 The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
1938 Duane Eddy (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1940 Carl Bosch (died), German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)
1942 Bobby Rydell (born), American singer and actor
1943 Gary Wright (born), American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (Spooky Tooth)
1946 James Larkin White (died), American miner, explorer, and park ranger (born 1882)
1954 The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
1958 Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, DC, to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
1959 John Corabi (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mötley Crüe, Angora, The Scream, Union, and Brides of Destruction)
1959 Thanassis Papakonstantinou (born), Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player
1960 Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
1960 Roger Taylor (born), English drummer (Duran Duran and Arcadia)
1962 NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
1965 A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting. One person is killed by the Hells Angels security guards.
1966 A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
1966 An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1970 Gypsy Rose Lee (died), American actress, dancer, and playwright (born 1911)
1970 The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
1984 Count Basie (died), American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1904)
1986 A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
1986 Broderick Crawford (died), American actor (born 1911)
1989 Lucille Ball (died), American actress and producer (born 1911)
1991 Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado.
1996 Stirling Silliphant (died), American screenwriter and producer (born 1918)
1999 Adrian Borland (died), English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (The Sound and The Outsiders) (born 1957)
2003 Edward Max Nicholson (died), Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (born 1904)
2005 Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
2007 Jack Valenti (died), American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (born 1921)
2011 Phoebe Snow (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sisters of Glory) (born 1950)
2013 George Jones (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1931)
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