579 Pope Benedict I (died)
762 Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.
1502 Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1511 Giorgio Vasari (born), Italian painter, historian, and architect (died 1574)
1540 Robert Barnes (died), English martyr and reformer (born 1495)
1540 Thomas Abel (died), English priest and martyr (born 1497)
1549 Ferdinando I de’ Medici (born), Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1609)
1608 At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1619 In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
1641 Regnier de Graaf (born), Dutch physician and anatomist (died 1673)
1683 Maria Theresa of Spain (died) (born 1638)
1691 Daniel Georg Morhof (died), German scholar (born 1639)
1718 William Penn (died), English businessman and philosopher, founded the Province of Pennsylvania (born 1644)
1729 Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland.
1733 The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.
1751 Maria Anna Mozart (born), Austrian pianist (died 1829)
1763 Samuel Rogers (born), English poet (died 1855)
1771 Thomas Gray (died), English poet and scholar (born 1716)
1818 Emily Brontë (born), English author and poet (died 1848)
1855 Georg Wilhelm von Siemens (born), German businessman (died 1919)
1857 Thorstein Veblen (born), American economist and sociologist (died 1929)
1859 First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
1863 American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.
1863 Henry Ford (born) American businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (died 1947)
1864 American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
1866 New Orleans, Louisiana’s Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
1890 Casey Stengel (born) American baseball player and manager (died 1975)
1898 Otto von Bismarck (died), German politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (born 1815)
1912 Emperor Meiji of Japan (died) (born 1852)
1918 Joyce Kilmer (died), American poet (born 1886)
1922 Henry W. Bloch (born), American banker and businessman, co-founded H&R Block
1927 Pete Schoening (born), American mountaineer (died 2004)
1927 Victor Wong (born), American actor (died 2001)
1928 Joe Nuxhall (born), American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2007)
1929 Sid Krofft (born), Canadian-American puppeteer and producer
1930 In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup.
1932 Premiere of Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short.
1934 Bud Selig (born), American businessman
1936 Buddy Guy (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 Peter Bogdanovich (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 Paul Anka (born), Canadian singer-songwriter and actor
1945 World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
1947 Arnold Schwarzenegger (born), Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California
1948 Jean Reno (born), Moroccan actor
1948 Otis Taylor (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1956 A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trust as the U.S. national motto.
1956 Anita Hill (born), American lawyer and academic
1956 Delta Burke (born), American actress, singer, and producer
1961 Laurence Fishburne (born), American actor and producer
1962 The Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, is officially opened.
1963 Lisa Kudrow (born), American actress, screenwriter, and producer
1965 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
1969 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.
1970 George Szell (died), Hungarian-American conductor and composer (born 1897)
1970 Walter Murdoch (died), Australian academic (born 1874)
1971 Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.
1974 Hilary Swank (born), American actress and producer
1974 Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States.
1975 Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again, and will be declared legally dead on this date in 1982.
1980 Vanuatu gains independence.
1981 Nicky Hayden (born), American motorcycle racer
1983 Lynn Fontanne (died), English-American actress (born 1887)
1990 George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to “get dirt” on Dave Winfield.
1992 Joe Shuster (died), Canadian-American illustrator, co-created Superman (born 1914)
1996 Claudette Colbert (died), French-American actress and singer (born 1903)
1998 Buffalo Bob Smith (died), American television host (born 1917)
2003 In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
2006 The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
2007 Ingmar Bergman (died), Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1918)
2007 Michelangelo Antonioni (died), Italian director and screenwriter (born 1912)
2012 A power grid failure leaves seven states in northern India without power, affecting 360 million people.
2012 Maeve Binchy (died), Irish author, playwright, and journalist (born 1940)
2013 Cecil Alexander (died), American architect, designed the State of Georgia Building (born 1918)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017