752 Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico assumes the throne.
1469 Niccolò Machiavelli (born), Italian historian and philosopher (died 1527)
1481 Mehmed the Conqueror (died), Ottoman sultan (born 1432)
1481 The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1632 Catherine of St. Augustine (born), French-Canadian saint, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (died 1668)
1768 Charles Tennant (born), Scottish chemist and businessman (died 1838)
1802 Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
1830 The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It’s the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.
1855 American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
1860 Vito Volterra (born), Italian mathematician and physicist (died 1940)
1867 The Hudson’s Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
1874 François Coty (born), French businessman and publisher, founded Coty, Inc. (died 1934)
1877 Karl Abraham (born), German psychoanalyst (died 1925)
1877 Labatt Park, the oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world has its first game.
1879 Fergus McMaster (born), Australian businessman and soldier, co-founded Qantas (died 1950)
1886 Marcel Dupré (born), French organist and composer (died 1971)
1898 Golda Meir (born), Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (died 1978)
1903 Bing Crosby (born), American singer and actor (The Rhythm Boys) (died 1977)
1906 Mary Astor (born), American actress (died 1987)
1912 Virgil Fox (born), American organist (died 1980)
1913 Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
1915 The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
1916 The leaders of the Easter Rising are executed in Dublin.
1919 Pete Seeger (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Weavers and Almanac Singers)
1920 A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
1920 John Lewis (born), American pianist and composer (Modern Jazz Quartet) (died 2001)
1921 Sugar Ray Robinson (born), American boxer (died 1989)
1921 Théodore Pilette (died), Belgian race car driver (born 1883)
1921 West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.
1924 Ken Tyrrell (born), English race car driver, founded Tyrrell Racing (died 2001)
1933 James Brown (born), American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (The Famous Flames and The J.BORN’s) (died 2006)
1934 Frankie Valli (born), American singer (The Four Seasons and The Wonder Who?)
1935 Ron Popeil (born), American businessman, founded the Ronco Company
1936 Joe DiMaggio, familiarly referred to as Joltin’ Joe and The Yankee Clipper makes his major league debut for the New York Yankees.
1937 Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1940 David H. Koch (born), American businessman
1942 World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
1943 Harry Miller (died), American engineer (born 1875)
1944 Pete Staples (born), English bass player (The Troggs)
1947 Doug Henning (born), Canadian magician (died 2000)
1948 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
1950 Mary Hopkin (born), Welsh Singer-songwriter
1951 Christopher Cross (born), American singer-songwriter and producer
1951 London’s Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain
1951 The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
1952 Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
1952 The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
1953 Bruce Hall (born), American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (REO Speedwagon)
1957 Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.
1960 The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1960 The Off-Broadway musical comedy, The Fantasticks, opens in New York City’s Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
1963 The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the “Birmingham campaign” protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
1972 Leslie Harvey (died), Scottish guitarist (Stone the Crows) (born 1944)
1973 Rea Garvey (born), Irish-German singer-songwriter and guitarist (Reamonn)
1973 The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.
1975 Willie Geist (born), American journalist and author
1978 The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
1979 After the general election, Margaret Thatcher forms her first government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1987 A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega to reduce speed.
1989 Christine Jorgensen (died), American transgender (born 1926)
1999 The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).
2001 The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
2003 New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
2007 Wally Schirra (died), American captain, pilot, and astronaut (born 1923)
2011 Jackie Cooper (died), American actor, director, and producer (born 1922)
2013 Herbert Blau (died), American director and scholar (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