1461 Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
1512 Hatuey (died), Caribbean tribal chief
1522 Lodovico Ferrari (born), Italian mathematician (died 1565)
1536 Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1542 Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Muslim-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
1648 George Abbot (died),, English author (born 1603)
1650 Pope Benedict XIII (born) (died 1730)
1653 New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
1669 Louis Marchand (born), French organist and composer (died 1732)
1677 Jean-Baptiste Morin (born), French composer (died 1745)
1695 William Borlase (born), English geologist (died 1772)
1712 Martin Lister (died),, English physician (born 1639)
1768 Robert Smith (died),, English mathematician (born 1689)
1786 Jacques Philippe Marie Binet (born), French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (died 1856)
1802 Albert Sidney Johnston (born), American general (died 1862)
1804 George Walton (died),, American politician, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1749)
1829 William Stanley (born), English inventor and engineer (died 1909)
1829 Alfred Brehm (born), German zoologist (died 1884)
1848 California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrives in San Francisco, California.
1848 Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
1861 Solomon R. Guggenheim (born), American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (died 1949)
1868 Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.
1875 Fritz Kreisler (born), Austrian-American violinist and composer (died 1962)
1876 The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
1882 James Joyce (born), Irish author (died 1941)
1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1892 Tochigiyama Moriya (born), Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (died 1959)
1895 George Halas (born), American player and coach (died 1983)
1897 Howard Deering Johnson (born), American businessman, founded Howard Johnson’s (died 1972)
1901 Funeral of Queen Victoria
1901 Jascha Heifetz (born), Lithuanian violinist (died 1987)
1902 Jane Ising (born), German-American economist and academic (died 2012)
1905 Ayn Rand (born), Russian-American author and philosopher (died 1982)
1912 Millvina Dean (born), English survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (died 2009)
1913 Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.
1915 Abba Eban (born), South African-Israeli politician and diplomat, 1st Israel Ambassador to the United Nations (died 2002)
1918 John L. Sullivan (died),, American boxer (born 1858)
1922 Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
1923 Liz Smith (born), American journalist
1923 Red Schoendienst (born), American baseball player, coach, and manager
1923 James Dickey (born), American poet and author (died 1997)
1925 Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.
1926 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (born), French politician, 20th President of France
1927 Stan Getz (born), American saxophonist (died 1991)
1928 A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (born), American judge, author, and activist (died 1998)
1933 Working as maids, the sisters Christine and Lea Papin murder their employer’s wife and daughter in Le Mans, France. The case is the subject of a number of French films and plays.
1935 Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine.
1937 Tom Smothers (born), American comedian, actor, and singer (Smothers Brothers)
1942 Graham Nash (born), English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Hollies, Crosby & Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
1943 World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
1947 Farrah Fawcett (born) American actress (died 2009)
1952 Rick Dufay (born), American guitarist who played in Aerosmith
1954 Christie Brinkley (born), American model and actress
1966 Robert DeLeo (born), American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Stone Temple Pilots, Army of Anyone, and Talk Show)
1966 Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
1969 Boris Karloff (died), English actor (born 1887)
1970 Bertrand Russell (died),, English mathematician and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1872)
1971 Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
1972 The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday.
1974 The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
1976 The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.
1979 Sid Vicious (died),, English singer and bass player (Sex Pistols, Vicious White Kids, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Flowers of Romance) (born 1957)
1980 Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.
1987 Alistair MacLean (died),, Scottish author (born 1922)
1987 After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1990 Apartheid: F.W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.
1992 Bert Parks (died),, American actor, and singer (born 1914)
1993 François Reichenbach (died),, French director and screenwriter (born 1921)
1996 Gene Kelly (died),, American actor, singer, dancer, and director (born 1912)
2000 First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
2004 Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.
2007 The worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins.
2013 Chris Kyle (died),, American Navy Seal (born 1974)
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