421 Venice is founded at twelve o’clock noon, according to legend.
717 Theodosios III resigns the throne to the Byzantine Empire to enter the clergy.
1199 Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leading to his death on April 6.
1306 Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
1539 Christopher Clavius (born), German mathematician and astronomer (died 1612)
1541 Francesco I de’ Medici (born), Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1587)
1555 The city of Valencia is founded in present-day Venezuela.
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
1634 The first settlers arrive in Maryland.
1655 Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
1712 Nehemiah Grew (died), English anatomist and physiologist (born 1641)
1736 Nicholas Hawksmoor (died), English architect, designed Easton Neston and Christ Church (born 1661)
1802 The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a “Definitive Treaty of Peace” between France and the United Kingdom.
1807 The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.
1807 The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.
1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
1818 Caspar Wessel (died), Norwegian-Danish mathematician and cartographer (born 1745)
1821 (Julian Calendar) Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821. The date was chosen in the early years of the Greek state so that it falls on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, strengthening the ties between the Greek Orthodox Church and the newly found state.
1867 Arturo Toscanini (born), Italian conductor (died 1957)
1867 Gutzon Borglum (born), American sculptor, designed Mount Rushmore (died 1941)
1881 Béla Bartók (born), Hungarian pianist and composer (died 1945)
1894 Coxey’s Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio, the Brightwood Camp, for Washington D.C. to protest the unemployment due to the Panic of 1893.
1907 Ernst von Bergmann (died), German surgeon (born 1836)
1911 Jack Ruby (born), American murderer (died 1967)
1917 Elizabeth Storrs Mead (died), American academic (born 1832)
1918 Claude Debussy (died), French composer (born 1862)
1918 Howard Cosell (born) American journalist (died 1995)
1921 Simone Signoret (born), German-French actress (died 1985)
1925 Flannery O’Connor (born), American author (died 1964)
1931 The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
1932 Gene Shalit (born), American critic
1934 Gloria Steinem (born), American journalist and activist, co-founded the Women’s Media Center
1937 Tom Monaghan (born), American businessman, founded Domino’s Pizza
1938 Hoyt Axton (born), American singer-songwriter and actor (died 1999)
1940 Anita Bryant (born), American model and singer
1942 Aretha Franklin (born), American singer-songwriter and pianist
1943 Paul Michael Glaser (born), American actor and director
1943 William H. Ginsburg (born), American lawyer (died 2013)
1947 Elton John (born), English singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor
1948 The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
1957 The European Economic Community is established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).
1957 United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” on the grounds of obscenity.
1958 Canada’s Avro Arrow makes its first flight.
1965 Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
1965 Sarah Jessica Parker (born), American actress, singer, and producer
1966 Jeff Healey (born), Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Jeff Healey Band) (died 2008)
1966 Tom Glavine (born), American baseball player
1969 During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
1971 The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.
1975 Faisal of Saudi Arabia (born 1906) is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.
1976 Wladimir Klitschko (born), Ukrainian boxer
1979 The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
1982 Danica Patrick (born), American race car driver
1984 Katharine McPhee (born), American singer-songwriter and actress
1988 Robert Joffrey (died), American dancer, choreographer, and director, co-founded the Joffrey Ballet (born 1930)
1995 James Samuel Coleman (died), American sociologist (born 1926)
1995 WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.
1996 An 81-day-long standoff between the anti-government group Montana Freemen and law enforcement near Jordan, Montana, begins.
1996 The European Union’s Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
2006 Buck Owens (died), American singer and guitarist (The Buckaroos) (born 1929)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017