306 Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
315 The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.
864 The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
1261 The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
1456 The Battle of Molinella: the first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.
1492 Pope Innocent VIII (died) (born 1432)
1536 Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the city of Santiago de Cali.
1538 The city of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.
1547 Henry II of France is crowned.
1554 Mary I marries Philip II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral.
1567 Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
1572 Isaac Luria (died), Ottoman rabbi and mystic (born 1534)
1593 Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
1603 James VI of Scotland is crowned king of England (James I of England), bringing the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.
1609 The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there.
1654 Agostino Steffani (born), Italian diplomat and composer (died 1728)
1681 Urian Oakes (died), English-American minister and educator (born 1631)
1755 British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians. Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick.
1759 French and Indian War: in Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
1788 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).
1792 The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
1794 André Chénier (died), French poet (born 1762)
1797 Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).
1834 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (died), English philosopher, poet, and critic (born 1772)
1837 The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on July 25, 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London.
1839 Francis Garnier (born), French navy officer and explorer (died 1873)
1853 Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, is killed.
1861 American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
1866 The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
1867 Alexander Rummler (born), American painter (died 1959)
1868 Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
1875 Jim Corbett (born), Indian hunter, environmentalist, and author (died 1955)
1886 Bror von Blixen-Finecke (born), Swedish hunter and author (died 1946)
1894 The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
1894 Walter Brennan (born), American actor and singer (died 1974)
1898 After over two months of sea-based bombardment, the United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops led by General Nelson Miles landing at harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico.
1902 Eric Hoffer (born), American philosopher and author (died 1983)
1908 Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
1909 Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from (Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom) in 37 minutes.
1915 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (born), American lieutenant and pilot (died 1944)
1917 Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a “temporary” measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
1920 Telecommunications: the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place.
1921 Adolph Herseth (born), American trumpet player (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) (died 2013)
1923 Estelle Getty (born), American actress (died 2008)
1924 Frank Church (born), American lawyer and politician (died 1984)
1925 Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
1934 François Coty (died), French businessman, founded Coty, Inc. (born 1874)
1935 Adnan Khashoggi (born), Saudi Arabian businessman
1937 Colin Renfrew (born), Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, English archeologist and academic
1941 Emmett Till (born), American murder victim (died 1955)
1942 Bruce Woodley (born), Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Seekers)
1943 Jim McCarty (born), English singer and drummer (The Yardbirds, Renaissance, and Illusion)
1943 World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1946 At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
1946 José Areas (born), Nicaraguan drummer (Santana)
1946 Operation Crossroads: an atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll.
1950 Mark Clarke (born), English singer-songwriter and bass player (Colosseum, Mountain, Natural Gas, and Uriah Heep)
1951 Verdine White (born), American bass player and producer (Earth, Wind & Fire)
1952 The U.S. non-incorporated territory of Puerto Rico adopts a constitution.
1956 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
1959 SR.N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England in just over 2 hours.
1961 In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
1965 Bob Dylan goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.
1967 Matt LeBlanc (born), American actor and producer
1969 Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the “Vietnamization” of the war.
1973 Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
1976 Viking program: Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo.
1978 Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby” is born.
1979 Another section of the Sinai Peninsula is peacefully returned by Israel to Egypt.
1984 Big Mama Thornton (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1926)
1984 Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
1985 Nelson Piquet, Jr. (born), Brazilian race car driver
1993 Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.
1994 Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, that formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.
1995 Charlie Rich (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1932)
1997 Ben Hogan (died), American golfer (born 1912)
1998 Evangelos Papastratos (died), Greek businessman, co-founded Papastratos (born 1910)
2003 Erik Brann (died), American singer and guitarist (Iron Butterfly) (born 1950)
2007 Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India’s first female president.
2008 Randy Pausch (died), American computer scientist and educator (born 1960)
2010 WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.
EO Smith
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