258 Pope Sixtus II (died)
1221 Saint Dominic (died), Spanish priest, founded the Dominican Order (born 1170)
1538 Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1619 Barbara Strozzi (born), Italian singer and composer (died 1677)
1623 Anne Hathaway (died), English wife of William Shakespeare (born 1555 or 1556)
1637 Ben Jonson (died), English poet and playwright (born 1572)
1638 Nicolas Malebranche (born), French philosopher (died 1715)
1644 Louise de La Vallière (born), French mistress of Louis XIV of France (died 1710)
1660 Diego Velázquez (died), Spanish painter (born 1599)
1679 John Snell (died), Scottish-English founder of the Snell Exhibition (born 1629)
1694 Antoine Arnauld (died), French mathematician and philosopher (born 1612)
1697 Charles VII (born), Holy Roman Emperor (died 1745)
1715 Luc de Clapiers (born), Marquis de Vauvenargues, French author (died 1747)
1753 Georg Wilhelm Richmann (died), Estonian-Russian physicist (born 1711)
1757 Ádám Mányoki (died), Hungarian painter (born 1673)
1766 William Hyde Wollaston (born), English chemist and physicist (died 1828)
1787 Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1794 Henry Bathurst (died), 2nd Earl Bathurst, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1714)
1806 Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire.
1809 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (born), English poet (died 1892)
1819 Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
1825 Bolivia gains independence from Spain.
1826 Thomas Alexander Browne (born), Australian author (died 1915)
1844 James Henry Greathead (born), South African-English engineer (died 1896)
1845 The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1846 Anna Haining Bates (born), Canadian giant (died 1888)
1861 Edith Roosevelt (born), American wife of Theodore Roosevelt, 27th First Lady of the United States (died 1948)
1862 American Civil War: the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1880 Hans Moser (born), Austrian actor and singer (died 1964)
1881 Alexander Fleming (born), Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)
1881 James Springer White (died), American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (born 1821)
1881 Louella Parsons (born), American actress, screenwriter, and journalist (died 1972)
1889 John Middleton Murry (born), English poet and author (died 1957)
1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1892 Hoot Gibson (born), American actor, director, and producer (died 1962)
1900 Cecil Howard Green (born), English-American geophysicist (died 2003)
1901 Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
1902 Dutch Schultz (born), American mobster (died 1935)
1904 Jean Dessès (born), Greek-Egyptian fashion designer (died 1970)
1911 Lucille Ball (born), American actress, singer, and producer (died 1989)
1912 The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.
1914 World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic – two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
1914 World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
1916 Richard Hofstadter (born), American historian (died 1970)
1917 Robert Mitchum (born), American actor and singer (died 1997)
1920 Ella Raines (born), American actress (died 1988)
1920 John Graves (born), American author (died 2013)
1922 Freddie Laker (born), English businessman, founded Laker Airways (died 2006)
1923 Jess Collins (born), American painter (died 2004)
1924 Samuel Bowers (born), American militant, co-founded White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (died 2006)
1926 Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
1926 In New York, New York, the Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
1928 Andy Warhol (born), American painter and photographer (died 1987)
1929 Mike Elliott (born), Jamaican saxophonist (The Foundations)
1930 Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears never to be seen again.
1931 Bix Beiderbecke (died), American cornet player, pianist, and composer (The Wolverines) (born 1903)
1934 Chris Bonington (born), English mountaineer
1934 Piers Anthony (born), English-American author
1937 Charlie Haden (born), American bassist and composer (Liberation Music Orchestra and Old and New Dreams)
1940 Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.
1942 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
1945 World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1946 Judy Craig (born), American singer (The Chiffons)
1952 Vinnie Vincent (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Kiss and Vinnie Vincent Invasion)
1956 After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
1958 Randy DeBarge (born), American singer-songwriter and bass player (DeBarge)
1960 Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1962 Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1963 Kevin Mitnick (born), American computer hacker and author
1964 Moosie Drier (born), American actor and director
1964 Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world’s oldest tree, is cut down.
1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
1969 Theodor W. Adorno (died), German sociologist and philosopher (born 1903)
1970 Erwin Thijs (born), Belgian cyclist
1970 M. Night Shyamalan (born) Indian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1972 Geri Halliwell (born), English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (Spice Girls)
1973 Memphis Minnie (died), American singer-songwriter (born 1897)
1973 Stuart O’Grady (born), Australian cyclist
1975 Renate Götschl (born), Austrian skier
1978 Edward Durell Stone (died), American architect, designed Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center (born 1902)
1978 Pope Paul VI (died) (born 1897)
1979 Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (died), German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
1986 A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
1988 The Tompkins Square Park Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event.
1990 Gulf War: the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
1991 Harry Reasoner (died), American journalist, founded 60 Minutes (born 1923)
1991 Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan’s first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1996 NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
1998 André Weil (died), French mathematician (born 1906)
2004 Rick James (died), American singer-songwriter and producer (The Mynah Birds) (born 1948)
2009 Riccardo Cassin (died), Italian mountaineer and author (born 1909)
2012 Marvin Hamlisch (died), American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1944)
2012 NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.
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