312 Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.
1275 Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
1327 Elizabeth de Burgh (died), Scottish wife of Robert I of Scotland (born 1289)
1449 Ulugh Beg (died), Persian astronomer, mathematician, and sultan (born 1394)
1485 Rodolphus Agricola (died), Dutch philosopher, poet, and educator (born 1443)
1505 Ivan III of Russia (died) (born 1440)
1553 Michael Servetus (died), Spanish physician and theologian (born 1511)
1561 Lope de Aguirre (died), Spanish explorer (born 1510)
1666 Robert Hubert (died), French watchmaker (born 1640)
1682 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.
1703 Johann Gottlieb Graun (born), German violinist and composer (died 1771)
1744 Mary Moser (born), English painter (died 1819)
1782 Niccolò Paganini (born), Italian violinist and composer (died 1840)
1795 The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.
1806 Juan Seguín (born), American colonel and politician (died 1890)
1806 The French Army enters Berlin, following the Battle of Jena.
1810 United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida.
1811 Isaac Singer (born), American businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (died 1875)
1827 Bellini’s third opera Il Pirata is premiered at Teatro alla Scala di Milano
1838 Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.
1854 William Alexander Smith (born), Scottish religious leader, founded the Boys’ Brigade (died 1914)
1858 Theodore Roosevelt (born), American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
1872 Emily Post (born), American author, founded The Emily Post Institute (died 1960)
1896 Edith Haisman (born), South African-English survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (died 1997)
1904 The first underground New York City Subway line opens; the system becomes the biggest in United States, and one of the biggest in world.
1908 Lee Krasner (born), American painter (died 1984)
1910 Jack Carson (born), Canadian-American actor and singer (died 1963)
1911 Leif Erickson (born), American actor and singer (died 1986)
1913 Joe Medicine Crow (born), American anthropologist, historian, and author
1914 Dylan Thomas (born), Welsh poet and playwright (died 1953)
1914 World War I: The British super-dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious (23,400 tons), is sunk off Tory Island, north-west of Ireland, by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.
1918 Teresa Wright (born), American actress and singer (died 2005)
1920 K. R. Narayanan (born), Indian politician, 10th President of India (died 2005)
1920 Nanette Fabray (born), American actress, singer, and dancer
1921 Warren Allen Smith (born), American journalist, author, and activist
1922 A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country’s annexation to the South African Union.
1922 Michel Galabru (born), Moroccian-French actor
1923 Roy Lichtenstein (born), American painter and sculptor (died 1997)
1924 Ruby Dee (born), American actress, singer, playwright, and poet
1924 The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.
1925 Jane Connell (born), American actress and singer (died 2013)
1925 Warren Christopher (born), American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 63rd United States Secretary of State (died 2011)
1926 H. R. Haldeman (born), American diplomat, 4th White House Chief of Staff (died 1993)
1927 Squizzy Taylor (died), Australian gangster (born 1888)
1933 Floyd Cramer (born), American pianist (died 1997)
1936 Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.
1936 Neil Sheehan (born), American journalist and author
1937 Lara Parker (born), American actress
1939 John Cleese (born), English actor, producer, and screenwriter
1940 John Gotti (born), American mobster (died 2002)
1942 Lee Greenwood (born), American singer-songwriter
1945 Dick Dodd (born), American drummer and actor (The Bel-Airs, The Standells, and Eddie & the Showmen) (died 2013)
1949 Garry Tallent (born), American bass player and producer (E Street Band)
1950 Fran Lebowitz (born), American author
1951 K. K. Downing (born), English guitarist and songwriter (Judas Priest)
1953 British nuclear test Totem 2 is carried out at Emu Field, South Australia.
1954 Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
1957 Jeff East (born), American actor
1958 Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed in a bloodless coup d’état by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.
1958 Simon Le Bon (born), English singer-songwriter (Duran Duran and Arcadia)
1961 NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
1962 Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down in Cuba by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.
1963 Marla Maples (born), American model and actress
1964 Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launched his political career and came to be known as “A Time for Choosing”.
1966 Matt Drudge (born), American blogger, founded the Drudge Report
1967 Catholic priest Philip Berrigan and others of the Baltimore Four protest the Vietnam War by pouring blood on Selective Service records.
1967 Scott Weiland (born), American singer-songwriter (Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver, The Wondergirls, and Camp Freddy)
1971 The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
1973 The Cañon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite, strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.
1975 Rex Stout (died), American author (born 1886)
1976 Deryck Cooke (died), English historian and author (born 1919)
1979 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1981 The Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.
1986 The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.
1988 Ronald Reagan decides to tear down the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow because of Soviet listening devices in the building structure.
1990 Xavier Cugat (died), Spanish-American violinist, bandleader, and actor (born 1900)
1991 Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 David Bohm (died), American-English physicist (born 1917)
1992 United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating first military, then national, debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.
1994 Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.
1995 Former Prime Minister of Italy Bettino Craxi is convicted in absentia of corruption.
1995 Latvia applies for membership in the European Union.
1997 –Stock markets around the world crash because of fears of a global economic meltdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 554.26 points to 7,161.15.
1999 Charlotte Perriand (died), French architect and designer (born 1903)
1999 Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
1999 Robert Mills (died), American physicist (born 1927)
2002 Tom Dowd (died), American record producer (born 1925)
2005 Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.
2011 Michael D. Higgins was chosen in the Irish presidential election as the ninth President of Ireland by the biggest vote in Irish history.
2013 Leonard Herzenberg (died), American immunologist, geneticist, and academic (born 1931)
2013 Lou Reed (died) American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (The Velvet Underground and Metal Machine Trio) (born 1942)
2013 Roger McGee (died), American actor (born 1926)
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