30 BC Cleopatra VII Philopator (born 69 BC), the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1480 Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.
1484 Pope Sixtus IV (died) (born 1414)
1577 Thomas Smith (died), English diplomat and scholar (born 1513)
1624 The president of Louis XIII of France’s royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King’s principal minister.
1647 Johann Heinrich Acker (born), German pastor and educator (died 1719)
1674 Philippe de Champaigne (died), French painter (born 1602)
1689 Pope Innocent XI (died) (born 1611)
1762 George IV (born), King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover (died 1830)
1773 Karl Faber (born), Prussian historian (died 1853)
1779 The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1793 The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1810 Étienne Louis Geoffroy (died), French pharmacist and entomologist (born 1725)
1827 William Blake (died), English poet and painter (born 1757)
1848 George Stephenson (died), English engineer (born 1781)
1851 Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1856 Diamond Jim Brady (born), American businessman and philanthropist (died 1917)
1861 Eliphalet Remington (died), American inventor and businessman, founded Remington Arms (born 1793)
1865 William Jackson Hooker (died), English botanist (born 1785)
1867 Edith Hamilton (born), German-American author and educator (died 1963)
1872 Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein (born) (died 1956)
1877 Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
1881 Cecil B. DeMille (born), American director and producer (died 1959)
1883 The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1886 Keith Murdoch (born), Australian journalist (died 1952)
1887 Erwin Schrödinger (born), Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961)
1891 James Russell Lowell (died), American poet and critic (born 1819)
1898 The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
1900 Wilhelm Steinitz (died), Austrian chess player (born 1836)
1901 Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (died), Finnish-Swedish botanist, geologist, mineralogist, and explorer (born 1832)
1910 Jane Wyatt (born), American actress and singer (died 2006)
1911 Cantinflas (born), Mexican actor, screenwriter, and producer (died 1993)
1914 World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
1918 William Thompson (died), American archer (born 1848)
1925 Dale Bumpers (born), American politician, 38th Governor of Arkansas
1925 George Wetherill (born), American physicist (died 2006)
1925 Norris McWhirter (born), Scottish publisher and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (died 2004)
1925 Ross McWhirter (born), Scottish publisher and activist, co-founded the Guinness World Records (died 1975)
1927 Porter Wagoner (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2007)
1929 Buck Owens (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Buckaroos) (died 2006)
1930 George Soros (born), Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Soros Fund Management
1931 William Goldman (born), American author, playwright, and screenwriter
1933 Parnelli Jones (born), American race car driver
1935 Friedrich Schottky (died), German mathematician (born 1851)
1939 George Hamilton (born), American actor and producer
1939 Skip Caray (born), American sportscaster (died 2008)
1943 Vittorio Sella (died), Italian photographer and mountaineer (born 1859)
1944 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (died), American pilot (born 1915)
1949 Mark Knopfler (born), Scottish-English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Dire Straits and The Notting Hillbillies)
1949 Rick Ridgeway (born), American mountaineer
1953 Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1954 Pat Metheny (born), American guitarist and songwriter (Pat Metheny Group)
1955 James B. Sumner (died), American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887)
1955 Thomas Mann (died), German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1875)
1958 Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait “A Great Day in Harlem” in front of a Brownstone in New York City.
1960 Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1961 Roy Hay (born), English guitarist, keyboard player, and composer (Culture Club)
1964 Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
1964 Ian Fleming (died), English spy, journalist, and author (born 1908)
1964 South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.
1967 Andrey Plotnikov (born), Russian race walker
1967 Esther Forbes (died), American historian and author (born 1891)
1971 Pete Sampras (born), American tennis player
1973 Karl Ziegler (died), German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898)
1973 Muqtada al-Sadr (born), Iraqi politician
1973 Richard Reid (born), English terrorist, attempted the 2001 shoe bomb plot
1973 Walter Rudolf Hess (died), Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1881)
1977 The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1979 Ernst Boris Chain (died), German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)
1981 The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1982 Henry Fonda (died), American actor, singer, and producer (born 1905)
1982 Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1985 Manfred Winkelhock (died), German race car driver (born 1951)
1989 William Shockley (died), American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)
1990 B. Kliban (died), American cartoonist (born 1935)
1990 Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, was discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1992 Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1992 John Cage (died), American composer (born 1912)
1993 Pope John Paul II starts his 8th annual World Youth Day in Denver’s Mile High Stadium.
1994 Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
1996 Mark Gruenwald (died), American author and illustrator (born 1953)
2000 Loretta Young (died), American actress and singer (born 1913)
2000 The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2004 Peter Woodthorpe (died), English actor (born 1931)
2007 Merv Griffin (died), American actor, singer, and producer, created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (born 1925)
2010 André Kim (died), South Korean fashion designer (born 1935)
2010 Richie Hayward (died), American drummer and songwriter (Little Feat and Fraternity of Man) (born 1946)
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