362 The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
1511 Erasmus Reinhold (born), German astronomer and mathematician (died 1553)
1565 Jean Grolier de Servières (died), French book collector (born 1479)
1659 Georg Ernst Stahl (born), German chemist and physician (died 1734)
1707 – Scilly naval disaster: four British Royal Navy ships run aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors drown.
1729 Johann Reinhold Forster (born), German pastor and botanist (died 1798)
1730 – Construction of the Ladoga Canal is completed.
1734 Daniel Boone (born), American hunter and explorer (died 1820)
1746 The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter.
1751 William IV, Prince of Orange (died) (born 1711)
1755 Elisha Williams (died), American minister, academic, and jurist (born 1694)
1784 Russia founds a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska.
1790 Warriors of the Miami tribe under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.
1797 André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump from one thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.
1811 Franz Liszt (born), Hungarian pianist and composer (died 1886)
1836 Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.
1844 Sarah Bernhardt (born), French actress (died 1923)
1844 The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipate the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day became known as the Great Disappointment.
1870 Alfred Douglas (born), English author and poet (died 1945)
1873 Gustaf John Ramstedt (born), Finnish linguist and diplomat (died 1950)
1873 Rama Tirtha (born), Indian philosopher and educator (died 1906)
1877 The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.
1878 The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.
1879 Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
1881 Clinton Davisson (born), American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1958)
1883 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod’s Faust.
1887 John Reed (born), American journalist and poet (died 1920)
1896 Charles Glen King (born), American biochemist (died 1988)
1900 Ashfaqulla Khan (born), Indian activist (died 1927)
1903 George Wells Beadle (born) American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
1904 Constance Bennett (born), American actress, singer, and producer (died 1965)
1906 Paul Cézanne (died), French painter (born 1839)
1907 Jimmie Foxx (born), American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1967)
1907 Panic of 1907: A run on the stock of the Knickerbocker Trust Company sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.
1908 John Gould (born), American journalist (died 2003)
1913 Robert Capa (born), Hungarian-American photographer and journalist (died 1954)
1917 Joan Fontaine (born), Japanese-American actress and singer (died 2013)
1918 Lou Klein (born), American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1976)
1920 Timothy Leary (born), American psychologist and author (died 1996)
1921 Georges Brassens (born), French singer-songwriter and poet (died 1981)
1924 Toastmasters International is founded.
1926 J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal, precipitating his death.
1927 Nikola Tesla introduces six new inventions including a motor with onephase electricity
1929 Dory Previn (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2012)
1934 In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.
1934 Pretty Boy Floyd (died), American gangster (born 1904)
1936 Bobby Seale (born), American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party
1941 Charles Keating (born), English-American actor (died 2014)
1942 Annette Funicello (born), American actress and singer (died 2013)
1942 Bobby Fuller (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Bobby Fuller Four) (died 1966)
1943 Catherine Deneuve (born), French actress and singer
1943 World War II: in the Second firestorm raid on Germany, the Royal Air Force conducts an air raid on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless.
1945 Leslie West (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mountain, The Vagrants, and West, Bruce and Laing)
1946 Claude Charron (born), Canadian educator and politician
1946 Deepak Chopra (born), Indian-American physician and author
1946 Eddie Brigati (born), American singer-songwriter (The Rascals)
1948 Lynette Fromme (born), American attempted assassin of Gerald Ford
1951 William David Sanders (born), American educator, victim of the Columbine High School massacre (died 1999)
1952 Ernst Rüdin (died), Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (born 1874)
1952 Greg Hawkes (born), American keyboard player (The Cars)
1952 Jeff Goldblum (born), American actor
1957 Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval “quarantine” of the Communist nation.
1964 Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor.
1965 John Wesley Harding (born), English singer-songwriter
1966 The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
1966 The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A’ Go-Go).
1968 Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
1969 Spike Jonze (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1969 Tommy Edwards (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1922)
1970 Amy Redford (born), American actress, director, and producer
1972 Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.
1973 Pablo Casals (died), Catalan cellist and conductor (born 1876)
1976 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
1978 Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II.
1981 The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.
1983 Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.
1992 Cleavon Little (died), American actor and singer (born 1939)
1992 Red Barber (died), American sportscaster (born 1908)
1993 Innes Ireland (died), Scottish race car driver (born 1930)
1999 Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
2005 Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.
2008 India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
2009 Soupy Sales (died), American comedian and actor (born 1926)
2013 The Australian Capital Territory becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality Legislation Australian Capital Territory, 2013
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017