37 The Roman Senate annulled Tiberius’s will and proclaimed Caligula emperor.
235 Alexander Severus (died), Roman emperor (born 208)
633 Ridda Wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr.
978 Edward the Martyr (died), English king (born 962)
1241 Mongols overwhelmed Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plundered the city.
1314 Jacques de Molay (born 1244), the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake.
1496 Mary Tudor (born), Queen of France (died 1533)
1644 The Third Anglo-Powhatan War began in the Colony of Virginia.
1673 John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sold his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
1685 Ralph Ersine (born), Scottish minister (died 1752)
1701 Niclas Sahlgren (born), Swedish businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Swedish East India Company (died 1776)
1733 Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (born), German author and bookseller (died 1811)
1745 Robert Walpole (died), English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1676)
1766 American Revolution: The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
1782 John C. Calhoun (born), American politician, 7th Vice President of the United States (died 1850)
1837 Grover Cleveland (born), American lawyer and politician, 22nd President of the United States (died 1908)
1844 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (born), Russian composer (died 1908)
1850 American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1858 Rudolf Diesel (born), German engineer, invented the Diesel engine (died 1913)
1865 American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourned for the last time.
1869 Neville Chamberlain (born), English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1940)
1874 Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.
1877 Edgar Cayce (born), American psychic (died 1945)
1892 Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledged to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.
1898 Jake Swirbul (born),American businessman, co-founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (died 1960)
1906 Traian Vuia flew a heavier-than-air aircraft for 20 meters at an altitude of one meter.
1907 John Zachary Young (born), English biologist (died 1997)
1907 Marcellin Berthelot (died), French chemist and politician (born 1827)
1909 Ernest Gallo (born), American businessman, co-founded the E & J Gallo Winery (died 2007)
1915 World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships were sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
1918 Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (died), American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel (born 1847)
1922 Fred Shuttlesworth (born), American activist, co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (died 2011)
1922 In India, Mohandas Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He served only 2 years.
1922 Seymour Martin Lipset, American sociologist (died 2006)
1923 Andy Granatelli (born), American businessman
1925 The Tri-State Tornado hit the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
1926 Peter Graves, American actor (died 2010)
1927 George Plimpton (born), American journalist and actor (died 2003)
1932 John Updike (born), American author, poet, and critic (died 2009)
1935 Ole Barndorff-Nielsen (born), Danish mathematician
1936 F. W. de Klerk (born), South African politician, 2nd State President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 Mark Donohue (born), American race car driver (died 1975)
1937 The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flew 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) outside Milan.
1938 Charley Pride (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1940 World War II: Axis Powers – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
1941 Wilson Pickett (born),, American singer-songwriter (The Falcons) (died 2006)
1942 The War Relocation Authority was established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.
1944 The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy killed 26 people and causes thousands to flee their homes.
1945 World War II: 1,250 American bombers attacked Berlin.
1946 Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union were established
1947 B.J. Wilson (born),, English drummer (Procol Harum) (died 1990)
1947 William C. Durant (died), American businessman, co-founded General Motors and Chevrolet (b. 1861)
1948 Soviet consultants left Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito-Stalin split.
1950 John Hartman (born),, American drummer (Doobie Brothers)
1951 Ben Cohen (born),, American businessman co-founded Ben and Jerry’s
1956 Louis Bromfield (died), American author and environmentalist (born 1896)
1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
1963 Vanessa L. Williams (born), American model, actress, and singer, Miss America 1984
1965 Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, became the first person to walk in space.
1967 The supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground off the Cornish coast.
1968 Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
1969 The United States began secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
1970 Queen Latifah (born),, American rapper and actress
1974 Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations ended a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
1977 José Carlos Pace (died), Brazilian race car driver (born 1944)
1979 Adam Levine (born),, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Maroon 5)
1980 Erich Fromm (died), German psychologist and philosopher (born. 1900)
1982 Timo Glock (born),, German race car driver
1986 Bernard Malamud (died), American author (born. 1914)
1988 Billy Butterfield (died), American trumpet player (born 1917)
1989 In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy was found near the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990 Germans in the German Democratic Republic voted in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
1990 In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
1992 In a national referendum white South Africans voted overwhelmingly in favor of ending the racist policy of Apartheid.
1997 The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane broke off while en route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.
2001 John Phillips (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Mamas & the Papas) (born 1935)
2001 Viktor Masing (died), Estonian botanist and ecologist (born 1925)
2003 Adam Osborne (died), Thai-English businessman, founded the Osborne Computer Corporation (born 1939)
2010 Fess Parker (died), American actor (born 1924)
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