70 Roman forces under Titus sack Jerusalem.
701 Pope Sergius I (died) (born 650)
1100 Antipope Clement III (died) (born 1029)
1134 Alfonso the Battler (died), Spanish king (born 1073)
1157 Richard I of England (born) (died 1199)
1504 Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Florence.
1588 Marin Mersenne (born), French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (died 1648)
1613 Carlo Gesualdo (died), Italian lute player and composer (born 1566)
1637 Robert Fludd (died), English physician, mathematician, and cosmologist (born 1574)
1672 Nicolas de Grigny (born), French organist and composer (died 1703)
1682 Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (died), Spanish mathematician and philosopher (born 1606)
1698 François Francoeur (born), French violinist and composer (died 1787)
1721 Michael Brokoff (died), Czech sculptor (born 1686)
1727 A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
1755 French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
1767 August Wilhelm Schlegel (born), German poet and critic (died 1845)
1781 American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war’s last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
1810 The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor’s newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor’s men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
1811 Peter Simon Pallas (died), German zoologist and botanist (born 1741)
1814 Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (born), French archaeologist, ethnographer, and historian (died 1874)
1822 Karl von Ditmar (born), German geologist and explorer (died 1982)
1831 John Aitken (died), Scottish-American publisher (born 1745)
1831 Wilhelm Raabe (born), German author and painter (died 1910)
1831 William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1841 Antonín Dvořák (born), Czech composer (died 1904)
1841 Charles J. Guiteau (born), American preacher and lawyer (died 1882)
1860 The Steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
1863 American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass – on the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
1883 The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final “golden spike” in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
1888 In London, the body of Jack the Ripper’s second murder victim, Annie Chapman (born 1841), is found.
1888 In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made.
1889 Robert Taft (born), American politician (died 1953)
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
1894 Hermann von Helmholtz (died), German physician and physicist (born 1821)
1897 Jimmie Rodgers (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1933)
1900 Galveston Hurricane of 1900: a powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
1914 Denys Lasdun (born), English architect, designed the Royal National Theatre (died 2001)
1914 World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
1921 16-year-old Margaret Gorman wins the Atlantic City Pageant’s Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
1922 Sid Caesar (born), American actor and singer (died 2014)
1925 Jacqueline Ceballos (born), American activist, founded the Veteran Feminists of America
1925 Peter Sellers (born), English actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1980)
1926 Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
1930 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
1930 Robert W. Firestone (born), American psychologist and author
1932 Patsy Cline (born), American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1963)
1933 Paul M. Fleiss (born), American pediatrician and author
1935 US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed “Kingfish”, is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.
1937 Barbara Frum (born), American-Canadian journalist (died 1992)
1938 Sam Nunn (born), American lawyer and politician
1941 Bernie Sanders (born), American politician
1941 World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union’s second-largest city, Leningrad.
1942 Brian Cole (born), American bass player (The Association) (died 1972)
1943 World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
1944 World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
1945 Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
1945 Kelly Groucutt (born), English singer and bass player (Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II) (died 2009)
1945 Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (born), American singer-songwriter and keyboard player (Grateful Dead) (died 1973)
1947 Benjamin Orr (born), American singer-songwriter and bass player (The Cars) (died 2000)
1949 Richard Strauss (died), German composer (born 1864)
1951 Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
1954 André Derain (died), French painter and sculptor (born 1880)
1954 Michael Shermer (born), American historian, author, and academic, founded The Skeptics Society
1954 The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
1956 Stefan Johansson (born), Swedish race car driver
1958 Michael Lardie (born), American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer (Great White and Night Ranger)
1960 Aguri Suzuki (born), Japanese race car driver
1960 In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
1962 Christopher Klim (born), American physicist and author
1962 Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
1962 Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution.
1963 Maurice Wilks (died), English automotive and aeronautical engineer, and was chairman of the Rover Company (died 1904)
1966 The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC.
1967 The formal end of steam traction in the North East of England by British Railways.
1969 Alexandra David-Néel (died), Belgian-French explorer and activist (born 1868)
1970 Percy Spencer (died), American engineer, invented the microwave oven, (born 1894)
1971 David Arquette (born), American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
1971 In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.
1973 Troy Sanders (born), American singer-songwriter and bass player (Mastodon and Killer Be Killed)
1974 Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
1975 Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “I Am A Homosexual”. He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
1977 Zero Mostel (died), American actor and singer (born 1915)
1980 Willard Libby (died), American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1908)
1984 Vitaly Petrov (born), Russian race car driver
1988 Yellowstone National Park is closed for the first time in U.S. history due to ongoing fires.
2001 Bill Ricker (died), Canadian entomologist and author (born 1908)
2002 Rulon Jeffs (died), American religious leader (born 1909)
2004 NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
2005 Two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
2006 Peter Brock (died), Australian race car driver (born 1945)
2007 Vincent Serventy (died), Australian ornithologist, conservationist, and author (born 1916)
2013 Cal Worthington (died), American car dealer (born 1920)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017