538 Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.
1622 Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, are canonized as saints by the Catholic Church.
1864 American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as a US Navy fleet of 13 Ironclads and 7 Gunboats and other support ships enter the Red River in Louisiana with the objective of capturing Shreveport.
1894 Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph Biedenharn.
1912 The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
1913 Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remains temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital is still under construction.)
1918 Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1928 In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill over 600 people.
1930 Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile (24-day)march, known as the Salt March, from Ahmendabad to the coastal village of Dandi to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt and the imposition of a salt tax.
1933 Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his “fireside chats”.
1947 The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
1961 First Winter Ascent of the Eiger north face.
1968 Mauritius achieves independence.
1992 Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1993 Several bombs explode in Bombay (Mumbai), India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
1993 –North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
1993 The Blizzard of 1993 Snow begins to fall across the eastern portion of the US with tornadoes, thunder snow storms, high winds and record low temperatures. The storm lasts for 30 hours.
1993 Janet Reno was sworn in as the United States’ first female attorney general.
1994 The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
2004 The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly: the first such impeachment in the nation’s history.
2009 Financier Bernard Madoff pleads guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history.
2011 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan’s earthquake.
Births[edit]
1479 Giuliano de’ Medici (born), Duke of Nemours (died 1516)
1607 Paul Gerhardt (born), German composer (died 1676)
1613 André Le Nôtre (born), French gardener and architect (died 1700)
1620 Johann Heinrich Hottinger (born), Swiss philologist and theologian (died 1667)
1626 John Aubrey (born), English historian and philosopher (died 1697)
1637 Anne Hyde (born), English wife of James II of England (died 1671)
1713 Johann Adolph Hass (born), German instrument maker (died 1771)
1824 Gustav Kirchhoff (born), German physicist (died 1887)
1831 Clement Studebaker (born), American businessman (died 1901)
1835 Simon Newcomb (born), Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician (died 1909)
1837 Alexandre Guilmant (born), French organist and composer (died 1911)
1858 Adolph Ochs (born), American publisher (died 1935)
1863 Vladimir Vernadsky (born), Russian mineralogist (died 1945)
1864 W. H. R. Rivers (born), English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist, and psychiatrist (died 1922)
1878 Gemma Galgani (born), Italian mystic and saint (died 1903)
1880 Henry Drysdale Dakin (born), English-American chemist (died 1952)
1890 Vaslav Nijinsky (born), Russian dancer and choreographer (died 1950)
1912 Paul Weston (born), American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1996)
1913 Agathe von Trapp (born), Hungarian-American singer and author (died 2010)
1914 Julia Lennon (born), English mother of John Lennon (died 1958)
1921 Gordon MacRae (born), American actor and singer (died 1986)
1922 Jack Kerouac (born), American author and poet (died 1969)
1923 Norbert Brainin (born), Austrian violinist (Amadeus Quartet) (died 2005)
1923 Clara Fraser (born), American activist, co-founded Radical Women (died 1998)
1923 Wally Schirra (born), American captain, pilot, and astronaut (died 2007)
1926 Freddie Williams (born) Welsh motorcycle racer (died 2013)
1928 Edward Albee (born), American playwright
1932 Andrew Young (born), American politician and activist, 14th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
1933 Barbara Feldon (born), American actress
1938 Johnny Rutherford (born), American race car driver
11940 Al Jarreau (born), American singer
1946 Liza Minnelli (born), American actress, singer, and dancer
1947 Mitt Romney (born), American businessman and politician, 70th Governor of Massachusetts
1948 James Taylor (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 Bill Payne (born), American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (Little Feat and Phil Lesh and Friends)
1956 Steve Harris (born), English bass player and songwriter (Iron Maiden)
1969 Jake Tapper (born), American journalist
Deaths[edit]
417 Pope Innocent I (died)
604 Pope Gregory I (died) (born 540)
1507 Cesare Borgia (died), Italian cardinal and politician (born 1475)
1628 John Bull (died), English organist and composer (born 1562)
1820 Alexander Mackenzie (died), Scottish explorer (born 1764)
1914 George Westinghouse (died), American engineer (born 1846)
1929 Asa Griggs Candler (died), American businessman and politician, 44th Mayor of Atlanta (born 1851)
1942 Robert Bosch, (died) German engineer and businessman, founded Robert Bosch GmbH (born 1861)
1955 Charlie Parker (died), American saxophonist and composer (born 1920)
1985 Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American violinist and conductor (born 1899)
1987 Woody Hayes (died), American football player and coach (born 1913)
1989 Maurice Evans (died), English actor and producer (born 1901)
1998 Beatrice Wood (died), American painter and potter (born 1893)
1999 Yehudi Menuhin (died), American-Swiss violinist and conductor (born 1916)
2001 Morton Downey, Jr. (died), American singer-songwriter and talk show host (born 1933)
2001 Robert Ludlum (died), American author (born 1927)
2001 Victor Westhoff (died), Dutch botanist (born 1916)
2003 Lynne Thigpen (died), American actress (born 1948)
2005 Bill Cameron (died) Canadian journalist (born 1943)
2006 Victor Sokolov (died) Russian-American priest and journalist (born 1947)
2011 Joe Morello (died), American drummer (Dave Brubeck Quartet) (born 1923)
2013 Clive Burr (died), English drummer and songwriter (Iron Maiden, Samson, and Trust) (born 1957)
2013 Robert Castel (died), French sociologist (born 1933)
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