43 BC Ovid (born), Roman poet (died 17)
235 Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor. He is the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.
1191 Pope Clement III (died) (born 1130)
1413 Henry IV of England (died) (born 1367)
1600 The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.
1602 The Dutch East India Company is established.
1616 Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
1725 Abdul Hamid I (born), Ottoman sultan (died 1789)
1726 Isaac Newton (died), English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (born 1642)
1760 The “Great Fire” of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings.
1811 Napoleon II (born), French emperor (died 1832)
1815 After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
1821 Ned Buntline (born), American journalist, author, and publisher (died 1886)
1828 Henrik Ibsen (born), Norwegian poet, playwright, and director (died 1906)
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.
1854 The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1856 Frederick Winslow Taylor (born), American engineer (died 1915)
1874 Börries von Münchhausen (born), German poet (died 1945)
1890 Lauritz Melchior (born), Danish-American tenor (died 1973)
1904 B. F. Skinner (born), American psychologist and author (died 1990)
1906 Ozzie Nelson (born), American actor, singer, and bandleader (died 1975)
1908 Michael Redgrave (born), English actor and director (died 1985)
1916 Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1916 Pierre Messmer (born), French politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2007)
1918 Jack Barry (born), American game show host and producer, co-founded Barry & Enright Productions (died 1984)
1922 Carl Reiner (born), American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
1922 Larry Elgart (born), American saxophonist and bandleader
1922 The USS Langley (CV-1) is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
1923 The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso’s first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.
1925 George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, English politician, 35th Governor-General of India (born 1859)
1925 John Ehrlichman (born), American lawyer, 12th White House Counsel (died 1999)
1931 Hal Linden (born), American actor, singer, and director
1933 Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida’s electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1934 Willie Brown (born), American politician, 41st Mayor of San Francisco
1936 Vaughn Meader (born), American comedian and actor (died 2004)
1937 Jerry Reed (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2008)
1939 Brian Mulroney (born), Canadian politician 18th Prime Minister of Canada
1942 World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return”.
1948 Bobby Orr (born), Canadian ice hockey player
1948 With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.
1950 Carl Palmer (born), English drummer and songwriter (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Asia, and Atomic Rooster)
1950 William Hurt (born), American actor
1951 Jimmie Vaughan (born), American guitarist (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
1952 Geoff Brabham (born), Australian race car driver
1952 The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
1956 Tunisia gains independence from France.
1957 Spike Lee (born), American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
1958 Holly Hunter (born), American actress and producer
1963 Kathy Ireland (born), American model, actress, and furniture designer
1964 The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
1972 A Provisional IRA car bomb kills seven and injures 148 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the first of many car bomb attacks by the group.
1974 Chet Huntley (died), American journalist (born 1911)
1974 Ian Ball attempts, but fails, to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
1980 The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast.
1985 Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
1985 Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
1987 The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
1990 Ferdinand Marcos’s widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
1993 A Provisional IRA bomb kills two children in Warrington, England. It leads to mass protests in both Britain and Ireland.
1994 Lewis Grizzard (died), American author (born 1946)
1995 A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.
1999 Legoland California, the only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.
2000 Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff’s deputy Ricky Kinchen and critically wounding Deputy Aldranon English.
2003 In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq.
2006 Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.
2010 Stewart Udall (died), American politician (born 1920)
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