356 BC Alexander the Great (born), Macedonian king (died 323 BC)
682 Taichō (born), Japanese Buddhist monk (died 767)
1156 Emperor Toba of Japan (died) (born 1103)
1304 Petrarch (born), Italian poet and scholar (died 1374)
1304 Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle – King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War Wolf.
1620 Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder (born), Dutch poet and scholar (died 1681)
1797 Paweł Edmund Strzelecki (born), Polish geologist and explorer (died 1873)
1804 Richard Owen (born), English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (died 1892)
1807 Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world’s first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.
1822 Gregor Mendel (born), Czech geneticist (died 1884)
1847 Max Liebermann (born), German painter (died 1935)
1858 Juan Vucetich (born), Croatian- Argentinian anthropologist (died 1925)
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
1866 Bernhard Riemann (died), German mathematician (born 1826)
1871 British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1876 Otto Blumenthal (born), German mathematician (died 1944)
1885 The Football Association legalizes professionalism in association football under pressure from the British Football Association.
1889 John Reith (born), 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (died 1971)
1903 The Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
1908 Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz (died), German geophysicist (born 1881)
1919 Edmund Hillary (born), New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (died 2008)
1922 Andrey Markov (died), Russian mathematician (born 1856)
1922 The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
1924 Thomas Berger (born), American author
1929 Mike Ilitch (born), American businessman, co-founded Little Caesars
1930 William H. Goetzmann (born), American historian and author (died 2010)
1932 In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans, part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, who attempt to march to the White House.
1933 Buddy Knox (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1999)
1933 Rex Williams (born), English snooker player
1934 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, Washington, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
1934 Labor unrest in the U.S.: as police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.
1934 Uwe Johnson (born), German scholar (died 1984)
1936 Alistair MacLeod (born), Canadian author and academic (died 2014)
1936 Barbara Mikulski (born), American politician
1936 The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
1937 Guglielmo Marconi (died), Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)
1938 Diana Rigg (born), English actress and singer
1938 Natalie Wood (born), American actress and singer (died 1981)
1938 The United States Department of Justice files suit in New York, New York against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.
1940 California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1941 Lew Fields (died), American actor and producer (born 1867)
1943 Chris Amon (born), New Zealand race car driver
1944 World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1945 John Lodge (born), English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (The Moody Blues)
1945 Kim Carnes (born), American singer-songwriter
1945 Paul Valéry (died), French author and poet (born 1871)
1947 Carlos Santana (born), Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Santana)
1950 Cold War: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
1951 Abdullah I of Jordan (died) (born 1882)
1953 Dave Evans (born), Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter (AC/DC and Rabbit)
1953 Thomas Friedman (born), American journalist
1954 Jay Jay French (born), American guitarist and producer (Twisted Sister)
1955 René-Daniel Dubois (born), Canadian actor and playwright
1956 Paul Cook (born), English drummer (Sex Pistols, The Professionals, Chiefs of Relief, and Man Raze)
1958 Mick MacNeil (born), Scottish keyboard player and songwriter (Simple Minds)
1960 Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
1960 The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
1962 Giovanna Amati (born), Italian race car driver
1964 Bernd Schneider (born), German race car driver
1964 Terri Irwin (born), American-Australian zoologist and author
1966 Stone Gossard (born), American singer-songwriter and musician (Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Brad, Temple of the Dog, and Green River)
1968 The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
1969 Apollo program: Apollo 11 successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon almost 7 hours later. (US Time)
1973 Bruce Lee (died), American actor and martial artist (born 1940)
1973 Robert Smithson (died), American photographer and sculptor (born 1938)
1976 The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1977 The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
1982 Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
1983 Frank Reynold (died)s, American journalist (born 1923)
1987 Richard Egan (died), American actor (born 1921)
1997 The fully restored USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
1999 Falun Gong is banned in China, and a large scale crackdown of the practice is launched.
2009 Mark Rosenzweig (died), American psychologist (born 1922)
2012 James Eagan Holmes, opens fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.
2012 Alastair Burnet (died), English journalist (born 1928)
2013 17 government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.
2013 Helen Thomas (died), American journalist and author (born 1920)
2013 Pierre Fabre (died), French pharmacist, founded Laboratoires Pierre Fabre (born 1926)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017