10 BC Claudius (born), Roman emperor (died 54)
1137 Louis VI of France (died) (born 1081)
1192 Richard the Lionheart landed on Jaffa and defeated the army of Saladin
1464 Cosimo de’ Medici (died), Italian ruler (born 1386)
1498 Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
1545 Andrew Melville (born), Scottish theologian and scholar (died 1622)
1555 Edward Kelley (born), English spirit medium (died 1597)
1620 The Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way of England.
1659 Sebastiano Ricci (born), Italian painter (died 1734)
1714 Anne (died), Queen of Great Britain (born 1665)
1744 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (born), French soldier, biologist, and academic (died 1829)
1774 British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1779 Francis Scott Key (born), American lawyer, author, and songwriter (died 1843)
1779 Lorenz Oken (born), German historian (died 1851)
1800 The Acts of Union 1800 is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1807 John Walker (died), English actor, philologist, and lexicographer (born 1732)
1809 William B. Travis (born), American colonel and lawyer (died 1836)
1818 Maria Mitchell (born), American astronomer (died 1889)
1819 Herman Melville (born), American author (died 1891)
1831 A new London Bridge opens.
1834 Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force.
1838 Non-laborer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.
1840 Laborer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.
1842 The Lombard Street Riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
1843 Robert Todd Lincoln (born), American lawyer and politician, 35th United States Secretary of War (died 1926)
1855 The first ascent of Monte Rosa, the second highest summit in the Alps.
1876 Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
1881 Otto Toeplitz (born), German mathematician (died 1940)
1903 Calamity Jane (died), American frontierswoman and scout (born 1853)
1907 Eric Shipton (born), Sri Lankan-English mountaineer (died 1977)
1907 The start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.
1914 The German Empire declares war on the Russian Empire at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilizes because of World War I.
1918 John Riley Banister (died), American cowboy and police officer (born 1854)
1921 Jack Kramer (born), American tennis player (died 2009)
1927 The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
1930 Pierre Bourdieu (born), French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher (died 2002)
1933 Dom DeLuise (born), American actor, singer, director, and producer (died 2009)
1936 W. D. Hamilton (born), Egyptian-English biologist (died 2000)
1936 Yves Saint Laurent (born), French fashion designer, co-founded Yves Saint Laurent (died 2008)
1937 Al D’Amato (born), American lawyer and politician
1942 Giancarlo Giannini (born), Italian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1942 Jerry Garcia (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, Old and in the Way, and New Riders of the Purple Sage) (died 1995)
1944 Manuel L. Quezon (died), Filipino politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (born 1878)
1946 Boz Burrell (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (King Crimson and Bad Company) (died 2006)
1946 Fiona Stanley (born), Australian epidemiologist
1951 Tim Bachman (born), Canadian singer and guitarist (Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Brave Belt)
1951 Tommy Bolin (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Deep Purple, Zephyr, and James Gang) (died 1976)
1953 Howard Kurtz (born), American journalist and author
1953 Robert Cray (born), American singer and guitarist
1957 The United States and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
1960 Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
1960 Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
1961 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation’s first centralized military espionage organization.
1964 The Belgian Congo is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1966 Charles Whitman kills 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
1966 Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1970 Otto Heinrich Warburg (died), German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883)
1972 Thomas Woods (born), American historian, economist, and educator
1977 Francis Gary Powers (died), American pilot (born 1929)
1980 Patrick Depailler (died), French race car driver (born 1944)
1980 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland and becomes the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.
1981 MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
1981 Paddy Chayefsky (died), American author, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1923)
1984 Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, northwest England
1990 Graham Young (died), English serial killer (born 1947)
1990 Norbert Elias (died), German sociologist (born 1897)
1993 The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 comes to a peak.
1999 Nirad C. Chaudhuri (died), Bangladeshi−English author (born 1897)
2001 Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.
2004 Alexandra Scott (died), American cancer patient, founded Alex’s Lemonade Stand (born 1996)
2005 Constant Nieuwenhuys (died), Dutch painter and sculptor (born 1920)
2007 The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour.
2008 Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
2009 Corazon Aquino (died), Filipino politician, 11th President of the Philippines (born 1933)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017