79 Pliny the Elder (died), Roman commander and philosopher (born 23)
1270 Louis IX of France (died) (born 1214)
1530 Ivan the Terrible (born), Russian ruler (died 1584)
1537 The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1561 Philippe van Lansberge (born), Dutch astronomer and mathematician (died 1632)
1609 Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1688 Henry Morgan (died), Welsh admiral (born 1635)
1724 George Stubbs (born), English painter (died 1806)
1768 James Cook begins his first voyage.
1776 David Hume (died), Scottish historian and philosopher (born 1711)
1796 James Lick (born), American carpenter and piano builder (died 1876)
1819 James Watt (died), Scottish engineer (born 1736)
1822 William Herschel (died), German-English astronomer and composer (born 1738)
1825 Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.
1836 Bret Harte (born), American author and poet (died 1902)
1850 Charles Richet (born), French physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1935)
1867 Michael Faraday (died), English physicist and chemist (born 1791)
1875 Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
1882 Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (died), Estonian physician and author (born 1803)
1894 Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1898 Helmut Hasse (born), German mathematician (died 1975)
1900 Friedrich Nietzsche (died), German philologist, philosopher, and critic (born 1844)
1900 Hans Adolf Krebs (born), German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981)
1904 Henri Fantin-Latour (died), French painter (born 1836)
1908 Henri Becquerel (died), French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)
1912 The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
1913 Don DeFore (born), American actor and singer (died 1993)
1913 Walt Kelly (born), American illustrator and animator (died 1973)
1914 World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.
1915 Walter Trampler (born), American viola player and educator (died 1997)
1916 Frederick Chapman Robbins (born), American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2003)
1916 The United States National Park Service is created.
1916 Van Johnson (born), American actor and singer (died 2008)
1917 Mel Ferrer (born), American actor, director, and producer (died 2008)
1918 Leonard Bernstein (born), American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1990)
1919 George Wallace (born), American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 45th Governor of Alabama (died 1998)
1921 Monty Hall (born), Canadian-American actor, singer, and game show host
1930 Sean Connery (born), Scottish actor and producer
1931 Hal Fishman (born), American journalist (died 2007)
1931 Peter Gilmore (born), German-English actor (died 2013)
1931 Regis Philbin (born), American actor, singer, and television host
1933 Tom Skerritt (born), American actor and director
1933 Wayne Shorter (born), American saxophonist and composer (Miles Davis Quintet and Weather Report)
1937 Virginia Euwer Wolff (born), American author
1938 Frederick Forsyth (born), English author
1942 World War II: second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
1944 World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945 John Birch (died), Indian-American military officer and missionary (born 1918)
1945 Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948 The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: “Confrontation Day” between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1949 Gene Simmons (born), Israeli-American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor, (Kiss and Wicked Lester)
1950 President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.
1951 Rob Halford (born), English singer-songwriter (Judas Priest, 2wo, Halford, and Fight)
1952 Geoff Downes (born), English keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (The Buggles, Yes, and Asia)
1954 Elvis Costello (born), English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1956 Alfred Kinsey, American biologist (born 1894)
1959 Ian Falconer (born), American author and illustrator
1961 Billy Ray Cyrus (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1962 Vivian Campbell (born), Irish guitarist and songwriter (Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Dio, Thin Lizzy, and Sweet Savage)
1967 George Lincoln Rockwell (died), American commander, politician, and activist, founded the American Nazi Party (born 1918)
1968 Rachael Ray (born), American chef, author, and television host
1968 Takeshi Ueda (born), Japanese singer-songwriter and bass player (The Mad Capsule Markets)
1970 Claudia Schiffer (born), German model and fashion designer
1979 Stan Kenton (died), American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1911)
1980 Gower Champion (died), American actor, director, and choreographer (born 1919)
1980 Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1981 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn
1984 Truman Capote (died), American author (born 1924)
1988 Art Rooney (died), American businessman, founded the Pittsburgh Steelers (born 1901)
1989 Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.
1991 Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union
1991 Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
1997 Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.
1999 Rob Fisher (died), English keyboard player and songwriter (Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher) (born 1956)
2000 Allen Woody (died), American bass player and songwriter (The Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule) (born 1955)
2000 Jack Nitzsche (died), American pianist, composer, and producer (The Wrecking Crew and Crazy Horse) (born 1937)
2001 Ken Tyrrell (died), English race car driver (born 1924)
2003 Tom Feelings (died), American author and illustrator (born 1933)
2009 Ted Kennedy (died), American soldier, lawyer, and politician (born 1932)
2012 Neil Armstrong (died), American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (born 1930)
2012 Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017