217 BC The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
533 A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily.
1002 Pope Leo IX (born) (died 1054)
1305 Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (died) (born 1271)
1527 Niccolò Machiavelli (died), Italian historian and author (born 1469)
1528 Maria of Austria (born), Holy Roman Empress (died 1603)
1631 John Smith (died), English admiral and explorer (born 1580)
1676 Anthony Collins (born), English philosopher (died 1729)
1706 John Dollond (born), English optician (died 1761)
1710 James Short (born), Scottish mathematician and optician (died 1768)
1732 Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (born), German composer (died 1791)
1734 In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.
1749 Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.
1781 Siméon Denis Poisson (born), French mathematician and physicist (died 1840)
1788 New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
1850 Daniel Carter Beard (born), American author and illustrator, co-founded the Boy Scouts of America (died 1941)
1863 Max Wolf (born), German astronomer (died 1932)
1874 Anders Jonas Ångström (died), Swedish physicist (born 1814)
1877 The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants convicted of murder, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.
1880 Arnold Gesell (born), American psychologist and pediatrician (died 1961)
1890 Frank S. Land (born), American businessman, founded DeMolay International (died 1959)
1891 Pier Luigi Nervi (born), Italian architect and engineer, co-designed the Pirelli Tower and Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (died 1979)
1892 Reinhold Niebuhr (born), American theologian (died 1971)
1898 The United States captures Guam from Spain.
1900 Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departed Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.
1900 Boxer Rebellion. China formally declared war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Dowager Empress Cixi.
1903 Al Hirschfeld (born), American caricaturist (died 2003)
1905 Jean-Paul Sartre (born), French philosopher and author (died 1980)
1908 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (died), Russian composer (born 1844)
1912 Mary McCarthy (born), American author (died 1989)
1915 The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.
1919 Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.
1921 Jane Russell (born), American actress and singer (died 2011)
1925 Maureen Stapleton (born), American actress (died 2006)
1932 O. C. Smith (born), American singer (died 2001)
1935 Monte Markham (born), American actor, director, and producer
1938 Ron Ely (born), American actor
1940 Michael Ruse (born), Canadian philosopher
1940 The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
1942 Marjorie Margolies (born), American journalist and politician
1942 World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.
1942 World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces.
1945 World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
1947 Joey Molland (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Badfinger and Natural Gas)
1948 Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York.
1950 Joey Kramer (born), American drummer and songwriter (Aerosmith)
1951 Nils Lofgren (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (E Street Band and Crazy Horse)
1957 Berkeley Breathed (born), American author and illustrator
1964 Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1970 Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy, largest ever US corporate bankruptcy up to this date.
1970 Piers Courage (died), English Grand Prix driver (born 1942)
1973 In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test for obscenity in U.S. law.
1979 Angus MacLise (died), American drummer and songwriter (Velvet Underground and Theatre of Eternal Music) (born 1938)
1982 John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
2001 Carroll O’Connor (died), American actor, director, and producer (born 1924)
2001 John Lee Hooker (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1916)
2003 Leon Uris (died), American author (born 1924)
2004 SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded space plane to achieve spaceflight.
2006 Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra.
2007 Bob Evans (died), American businessman, founded Bob Evans Restaurants (born 1918)
2008 Kermit Love (died), American actor and puppeteer (born 1916)
2008 Scott Kalitta (died), American race car driver (born 1962)
2009 Greenland assumes self-rule.
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