216 BC Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.
686 Pope John V (died) (born 635)
1100 William II of England (died) (born 1056)
1343 Olivier de Clisson is found guilty of treason and beheaded at Les Halles in Paris. As a result, his wife, Jeanne de Clisson, sold their holding, bought a fleet of ships, and took to the sea as a pirate to seek revenge against the French King and nobility.
1445 Oswald von Wolkenstein (died), Austrian poet and composer (born 1376)
1533 Theodor Zwinger (born), Swiss physician and scholar (died 1588)
1546 Peter Faber (died), French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (born 1506)
1589 Henry III of France (died) (born 1551)
1610 Henry Hudson sails into what is now known as Hudson Bay thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.
1776 The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
1788 Leopold Gmelin (born), German chemist (died 1853)
1788 Thomas Gainsborough (died), English painter (born 1727)
1790 The first United States Census is conducted.
1798 French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.
1815 Adolf Friedrich von Schack (born), German poet and historian (died 1894)
1830 Charles X of France abdicates the throne in favor of his grandson Henri.
1834 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (born), French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty (died 1904)
1835 Elisha Gray (born), American businessman, co-founded Western Electric (died 1901)
1859 Horace Mann (died), American educator and politician (born 1796)
1865 Irving Babbitt (born), American academic and critic (died 1933)
1869 Japan’s samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
1870 Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
1871 John French Sloan (born), American painter (died 1951)
1873 The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco’s famous cable car system.
1876 Wild Bill Hickok (died), American lawman (born 1837)
1892 Jack Warner (born), Canadian-American production manager and producer, co-founded Warner Bros. (died 1978)
1897 Max Weber (born), Swiss politician (died 1974)
1903 Edmond Nocard (died), French veterinarian and microbiologist (born 1850)
1903 Eduard Magnus Jakobson (died), Estonian wood engraver and missionary (born 1847)
1903 Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, takes place.
1905 Myrna Loy (born), American actress and singer (died 1993)
1918 The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.
1919 Nehemiah Persoff (born), Israeli-American actor
1921 Enrico Caruso (died), Italian tenor (born 1873)
1922 Alexander Graham Bell (died), Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (born 1847)
1922 Geoffrey Dutton (born), Australian historian and author (died 1998)
1923 As vice president, Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States after the death of Warren G. Harding
1923 Shimon Peres (born), Polish-Israeli politician, 9th President of Israel
1923 Warren G. Harding (died), American journalist and politician, 29th President of the United States (born 1865)
1924 Carroll O’Connor (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2001)
1932 Lamar Hunt (born), American businessman, co-founded the American Football League and World Championship Tennis (died 2006)
1932 Peter O’Toole (born), Irish actor, singer, and producer (died 2013)
1932 The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
1934 Paul von Hindenburg (died), German field marshal and politician, 2nd President of Germany (born 1847)
1937 Garth Hudson (born), Canadian keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (The Band and The Call)
1937 The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
1939 Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
1939 Benjamin Barber (born), American theorist, author, and academic
1939 Wes Craven (born), American director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 Doris Coley (born), American singer (The Shirelles) (died 2000)
1941 Jules A. Hoffmann (born), Luxembourgian-French biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1943 World War II: the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
1944 Jim Capaldi (born), English drummer and songwriter (Traffic) (died 2005)
1944 Naná Vasconcelos (born), Brazilian singer and berimbau player
1950 Lance Ito (born), American judge
1951 Joe Lynn Turner (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fandango, Brazen Abbot, and Hughes Turner Project)
1955 Caleb Carr (born), American historian and author
1959 Victoria Jackson (born), American actress and singer
1963 Oliver La Farge (died), American anthropologist and author (born 1901)
1964 Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox.
1972 Brian Cole (died), American bass player (The Association) (born 1942)
1990 Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
1998 Shari Lewis (died), American television host and puppeteer (born 1933)
1998 The Second Congo War begins.
2001 Ronald Townson (died), American singer and actor (The 5th Dimension) (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