1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
1250 – Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engage Ayyubid forces in the Battle of Al Mansurah.
1250 – William II Longespée (died), English martyr (born 1212)
1265 – Hulagu Khan (died), Mongol ruler (born 1217)
1575 – Universiteit Leiden is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis.
1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. (born 1542)
1599 – Robert Rollock (died), Scottish educator (born 1555)
1612 – Samuel Butler (born), English poet (died 1680)
1693 – The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.
1696 – Ivan V of Russia (died) (born 1666)
1700 – Daniel Bernoulli (born), Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 1782)
1708 – Václav Jan Kopřiva (born), Bohemian composer and organist (died 1789)
1725 – Peter the Great (died), Russian emperor (born 1672)
1749 – Jan van Huysum (died), Dutch painter (born 1682)
1768 – George Dance the Elder (died), English architect, designed St Leonard’s and St Botolph’s Aldgate (born 1695)
1798 – Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia (born) (died 1849)
1804 – Richard Lemon Lander (born), English explorer (died 1834)
1807 – Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeats Russians under General Bennigsen.
1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (born), English sculptor (died 1889)
1817 – Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
1819 – John Ruskin (born), English author (died 1900)
1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman (born), American general (died 1891)
1822 – Maxime Du Camp (born), French photographer and journalist (died 1894)
1825 – Henry Walter Bates (born), English explorer (died 1892)
1828 – Jules Verne (born), French author (died 1905)
1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev (born), Russian chemist (died 1907)
1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
1855 – The Devil’s Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
1885 – The first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1906 – Chester Carlson (born), American physicist, invented Xerography (died 1968)
1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
1915 – D.W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
1921 – Lana Turner (born), American actress (died 1995)
1921 – Peter Kropotkin (died), Russian zoologist, geographer, and philologist (born 1842)
1922 – Audrey Meadows (born), American actress (died 1996)
1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
1925 – Jack Lemmon (born), American actor, singer, and director (died 2001)
1931 – James Dean (born), American actor (died 1955)
1936 – Charles Curtis (died), American politician, 31st Vice President of the United States (born 1860)
1940 – Ted Koppel (born), American journalist
1941 – Nick Nolte (born), American actor
1941 – Tom Rush (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1942 – Robert Klein (born), American comedian, actor, and singer
1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore.
1945 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.
1946 – The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, is published.
1948 – Dan Seals (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (England Dan and John Ford Coley) (died 2009)
1948 – Ron Tyson (born), American singer-songwriter (The Temptations)
1948 – The formal creation of the Korean People’s Army of North Korea is announced.
1949 – Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced for treason.
1950 – Cristina Ferrare (born), American model and actress
1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.
1952 – Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
1955 – John Grisham (born), American lawyer and author
1955 – The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
1956 – Connie Mack (died), American baseball player and manager (born 1862)
1957 – John von Neumann (died), Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist (born 1903)
1957 – Walther Bothe (died), German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1891)
1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott (died), English architect and designer, designed the Red telephone box and Liverpool Cathedral (born 1880)
1960 – J. L. Austin (died), English philosopher (born 1911)
1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”.
1960 – The first eight brass star plaques are installed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
1963 – The first full color television program in the World, publicly advertised, is broadcast in Mexico City by XHGC-TV, Channel 5, due to technical breakthrough advances made by Mexican Engineer Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena.
1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
1964 – Ernst Kretschmer (died), German psychiatrist (born 1888)
1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
1968 – Gary Coleman (born), American actor (died 2010)
1969 – Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.
1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1979 – Aaron Cook (born), American baseball player
1981 – Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens FC.
1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia’s second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 m (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
1985 – William Lyons (died), English businessman, co-founded Swallow Sidecar Company (born 1901)
1988 – Daisy Turner (died), American historian and author (born 1883)
1990 – Del Shannon (died) American singer-songwriter (born 1934)
1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
1996 – The massive Internet collaboration “24 Hours in Cyberspace” takes place.
1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
1999 – Iris Murdoch (died), Irish author (born 1919)
2007 – Anna Nicole Smith (died), American model and actress (born 1967)
2010 – A freak storm in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.
2010 – John Murtha (died), American politician (born 1932)
2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017