1290 King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B’Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.
1334 The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
1389 France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace, the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years’ War.
1501 Isabella of Austria (born), Queen consort of Sweden (died 1526)
1610 Caravaggio (died), Italian painter (born 1573)
1639 Bernard of Saxe-Weimar (died), German general (born 1604)
1670 Giovanni Bononcini (born), Italian cellist and composer (died 1747)
1698 Johann Heinrich Heidegger (died), Swiss theologian (born 1633)
1720 Gilbert White (born), English ornithologist (died 1793)
1724 Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria (born) (died 1780)
1792 John Paul Jones (died), American admiral (born 1747)
1797 Immanuel Hermann Fichte (born), German philosopher (died 1879)
1811 William Makepeace Thackeray (born), English author (died 1863)
1817 Jane Austen (died), English author (born 1775)
1862 First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
1863 American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner one of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
1867 Margaret Brown (born), American philanthropist and activist (died 1932)
1870 The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.
1884 Ferdinand von Hochstetter (died), Austrian geologist (born 1829)
1892 Thomas Cook (died), English travel agent, founded the Thomas Cook Group (born 1808)
1895 Machine Gun Kelly (born), American gangster (died 1954)
1898 John Stuart (born), Scottish actor (died 1979)
1899 Horatio Alger, Jr. (died), American author (born 1832)
1903 Chill Wills (born), American actor and singer (died 1978)
1906 S. I. Hayakawa (born), Canadian-American educator and politician (died 1992)
1909 Andrei Gromyko (born), Soviet economist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Soviet Union (died 1989)
1909 Harriet Nelson (born), American singer and actress (died 1994)
1913 Red Skelton (born), American actor and singer (died 1997)
1914 The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
1918 Nelson Mandela (born), South African lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
1921 Aaron T. Beck (born), American psychiatrist and educator
1922 Thomas Kuhn (born), American physicist, historian, and philosopher (died 1996)
1925 Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
1929 Dick Button (born), American figure skater
1929 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (born), American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2000)
1936 An army uprising in Spanish Morocco starts Spanish Civil War.
1937 Hunter S. Thompson (born), American journalist and author (died 2005)
1938 Ian Stewart (born), Scottish keyboard player (The Rolling Stones and Rocket 88) (died 1985)
1939 Brian Auger (born), English keyboard player (Brian Auger and the Trinity, CAB, and The Steampacket)
1939 Dion DiMucci (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dion and the Belmonts)
1940 James Brolin (born), American actor, director, and producer
1941 Lonnie Mack (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1941 Martha Reeves (born), American singer, actress, and politician (Martha and the Vandellas and The Fascinations)
1942 World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.
1944 World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.
1947 Steve Forbes (born), American publisher and politician
1950 Glenn Hughes (born), American singer, dancer, and actor (Village People) (died 2001)
1950 Mark Udall (born), American politician
1950 Richard Branson (born), English businessman, founded Virgin Group
1954 Machine Gun Kelly (died), American gangster (born 1895)
1954 Ricky Skaggs (born), American singer-songwriter, mandolin player, and producer (New South)
1962 Jack Irons (born), American drummer (Spinnerette, What Is This?, The Wallflowers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Eleven)
1966 Bobby Fuller (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Bobby Fuller Four) (born 1942)
1966 Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
1967 Vin Diesel (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1968 Intel is founded in Santa Clara, California.
1969 After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
1969 Mary Jo Kopechne (died), American educator and secretary (born 1940)
1976 Nadia Comăneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
1976 Valerie Cruz (born), American actress
1984 McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: in a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.
1995 On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.
2013 The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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