147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant’Angelo.
1527 Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 1536 King Henry VIII orders English language Bibles be placed in every church.
1536 The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.
1542 Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time.
1574 Pope Innocent X (born) (died 1655)
1631 Sir Robert Cotton (died), 1st Baronet, of Connington, English politician, founded the Cotton library (born 1570)
1659 English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
1682 Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.
1757 English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
1758 Maximilien de Robespierre (born), French lawyer and politician (died 1794)
1801 Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.
1835 James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1840 The Penny Black postage stamp becomes valid for use in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1844 The Glaciarium, the world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
1856 Robert Peary (born), American explorer (died 1920)
1856 Sigmund Freud (born) Austrian neurologist (died 1939)
1859 Alexander von Humboldt (died), German geographer and explorer (born 1769)
1861 American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
1861 American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is declared the new capital of the Confederate States of America.
1861 Motilal Nehru (born), Indian lawyer and politician (died 1931)
1862 Henry David Thoreau (died), American author and philosopher (born 1817)
1863 American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
1877 Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
1880 William Joseph Simmons (born), American Ku Klux Klan leader (died 1945)
1889 The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1895 Rudolph Valentino (born), Italian-American actor (died 1926)
1902 Bret Harte (died), American author (born 1836)
1903 Toots Shor (born), American businessman, founded Toots Shor’s Restaurant (died 1977)
1907 Weeb Ewbank (born), American football coach (died 1998)
1910 Edward VII of the United Kingdom (died) (born 1841)
1910 George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1913 Stewart Granger (born), English-American actor (died 1993)
1915 Orson Welles (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1985)
1924 Patricia Kennedy Lawford (born), American daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (died 2006)
1926 Marguerite Piazza (born), American soprano (died 2012)
1931 Willie Mays (born), American baseball player
1933 The Deutsche Studentenschaft attacked Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, later burning many of its books.
1935 New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.
1937 Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
1940 John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1941 At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
1942 World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1943 Andreas Baader (born), German terrorist, co-founded the Red Army Faction (died 1977)
1945 Bob Seger (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1945 World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
1949 EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
1950 Jeffery Deaver (born), American author
1950 Robbie McIntosh (born), Scottish drummer (Average White Band and The Senate) (died 1974)
1952 Maria Montessori (died), Italian-Dutch physician and educator (born 1870)
1953 Tony Blair (born), Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1954 Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
1960 More than 20 million viewers watch the first televised royal wedding when Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.
1961 George Clooney (born), American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1963 Ted Weems (died), American violin player, and trombonist, and bandleader (born 1901)
1981 A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
1983 Kai Winding (died), Danish-American trombonist and composer (born 1922)
1983 The Hitler diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
1989 Cedar Point opens Magnum XL-200, the first roller coaster to break the 200 ft height barrier, therefore spawning what is known as the “coaster wars”.
1992 Marlene Dietrich (died), German-American actress and singer (born 1901)
1994 Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, alleging that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1994 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
1996 The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1997 The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.
2001 During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2006 Lillian Asplund (died), American survivor of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic (born 1906)
2013 Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio, while a 52-year-old man, Ariel Castro, is taken into custody.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017