- 640 Arab Muslim army sent by Caliph Omar begins siege of Heliopolis, city succumbs mid to late July, paving way for Muslim conquest of Byzantine Egypt
- 1002 German King Henry II the Saint crowned
- 1242 24 wagonloads of Talmudic books are burned in Paris
- 1328 Franciscan theologian William of Ockham [Occam] excommunicated by Pope John XXII
- 1391 Inhabitants of Seville, Spain, massacre 5,000 Jews
- 1391 Mob led by Ferrand Martinez surrounds and sets fire to the Jewish quarter of Seville, Spain, murdering an estimated 4,000; the survivors are sold into slavery
- 1513 Battle of Novara, the War of the League of Cambrai: the Swiss Confederacy defeat the French
- 1520 France and England sign treaty of Scotland
King Gustav Vasa
1523 Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, ending the Kalmar Union
- 1536 Mexico begins its inquisition
- 1639 Massachusetts grants 500 acres of land to erect a gunpowder mill
- 1654 Queen Christina of Sweden resigns and converts to Catholicism
Treaty of Vossem
1673 Treaty of Vossem: French King Louis XIV and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, sign a secret peace treaty during the Franco-Dutch War, resulting in Brandenburg's withdrawal from the war
- 1683 The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum
- 1716 French transport the first African slaves to Louisiana
- 1744 France and Prussia sign peace treaty
- 1752 Third great fire in Moscow in two weeks; one-third of the city is destroyed
- 1772 Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Dusable settles in Chicago
- 1787 Franklin College is founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; now part of Franklin & Marshall College
- 1795 Fire destroys one-third of Copenhagen, injuring 18,000 people
- 1801 Peace of Badajoz: Spain-Portugal
- 1809 Sweden declares independence, constitutional monarchy established with a new constitution empowering Riksdag after 20 years of absolute monarchy
- 1813 US invasion of Canada halted at Stoney Creek (Ontario)
1816 10" of snowfall in New England, part of a "year without a summer" which followed the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia
Beaumont Treats Stomach Wound
1822 Alexis St. Martin shot in the stomach and treated by physician William Beaumont on Mackinac Island. Leads Beaumont to conduct digestion experiments through hole in St. Martin's stomach.
- 1831 2nd US national black convention (Philadelphia)
- 1832 The barricades fall and the Paris student uprisings of 1832 end
- 1832 The Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad opens its initial line from Philadelphia to Germantown, Pennsylvania; run is 6 miles (9.7 km) long and creates first US 'railroad suburb'
- 1848 New York Yacht Club holds its first annual regatta; won by the schooner Carnelia
- 1859 Queensland, Australia, is established as a separate colony from New South Wales, celebrated as Queensland Day
- 1861 Lincoln's cabinet declares Union government will pay for expenses once states have mobilized volunteers
- 1862 Battle of Memphis fought on the Mississippi River, Union forces defeat Confederate fleet leading to the city's surrender
- 1862 Skirmish at Harrisonburg, Virginia, sees the Confederates win a minor victory in the Battle of Good's Farm
- 1863 Battle of Milliken's Bend, Louisiana and Williamsport, Maryland
- 1864 Battle of Lake Chicot, Arkansas (Dutch Bayou)
- 1875 Netherlands joins the gold standard
- 1882 Cyclone in Arabian Sea (Bombay, India) drowns 100,000 people (disputed event)
- 1882 Electric iron is patented by New York inventor Henry W. Seely; it weighs almost 15 pounds and is very slow to heat up
- 1882 Ethiopia: Shewan forces of Menelik defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
- 1889 Great Fire in Seattle destroys 25 downtown blocks
- 1890 United States Polo Association forms in NYC
- 1892 Chicago South Side Elevated Railroad opens its first 3.6 miles
- 1896 Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo leave NY harbor to row across Atlantic; their 55 day record for rowing was not broken for 114 years
- 1900 Boxers cut off all railroad links between Peking and Tientsin, main port city of Peking
- 1900 US Congress pass an act authorizing a civil code and government for the territory of Alaska after gold discoveries bring lawlessness and disorder to the area
1901 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Scotsman James Braid wins the first of five Open titles by three strokes over Harry Vardon of Jersey
- 1903 President Emile Loubet of France and Minister of Foreign Affairs Theophile Declasse visit London, furthering the cause of Entente Cordiale between Britain and France
- 1904 National Tuberculosis Association organized, Atlantic City, New Jersey
- 1905 French Foreign minister Delcasse resigns on German request
- 1906 Paris Métro Line 5 is inaugurated with a first section from Place d'Italie to the Gare d'Orléans (today known as Gare d'Austerlitz)
- 1911 Nicaragua signs treaty turning over customs to US (not ratified)
1912 The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins, the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century
- 1913 Rabbit Maranville, is thrown out trying to steal home 3 times
- 1914 First flight out of sight of land, from Scotland to Norway
Yuan Shikai Dies
1916 The death of Yuan Shikai, ruler of much of China since 1912, causes central government to virtually collapse in the face of pressure from warlords, and from political reformers including Sun Yat-Sen
- 1916 Voters in East Cleveland, Ohio approve women suffrage
- 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood, 1st US victory of WW I
- 1919 Assent is given to an Act to amend the Canadian Currency Act, 1910
- 1919 Finland declares war on bolsheviks
- 1919 The Republic of Prekmurje ends
- 1920 Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel opens White Russian offensive against red Army
- 1921 Detroit Stars' Bill Gatewood pitches the 1st no-hitter in Negro League history, defeating the Cuban Stars 4-0
Southwark Bridge Opens
1921 Southwark Bridge in London is opened to traffic by King George V and Queen Mary
BBC Radio Sports
1923 Edgar Wallace becomes the first British radio sports journalist reporting on The Derby for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC)
Albert Anastasia Convicted
1923 Italian-American gangster Albert Anastasia is convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison
Chrysler Founded
1925 Walter Chrysler reorganizes the failing Maxwell Motor Company and founds automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan
- 1926 Egyptian government of Adly Pasha forms
- 1931 "There Ought To Be A Moonlight Saving Time" by Guy Lombardo hits #1
- 1931 Belgian government of Henri Jaspar falls
- 1931 NY Yankees turn triple-play but lose 7-5 to Cleveland Indians
- 1932 Ijsselmeervogels soccer team forms in Spakenburg
- 1932 The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per US gallon (1/4 ¢/L) sold
- 1933 Richard Hollingshead opens the world's 1st Drive-In movie theater on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken, New Jersey
- 1933 US Employment Service created
- 1934 Securities & Exchange Commission established
- 1934 Yankee Myrl Hoag hits 6 singles in one game
- 1936 Aviation gasoline 1st produced commercially Paulsboro, New Jersey
- 1937 Philadelphia Phillies trailing 8-2 to St Louis, forfeit game
- 1937 Volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan destroy the town of Rabaul on New Britain island, Papua, New Guinea, killing over 500 people
Freud Flees to London
1938 Sigmund Freud arrives in London, fleeing the Nazi annexation of Austria
- 1939 NY Giants beat Reds 17-3, with 5 HRs in 4th inning
- 1939 NY supreme court justice J F Crater legally declared dead
- 1939 The ship MS St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Europe, begins sailing back to the continent after it was refused entry into America. Approximately a quarter of those on board would perish in the Holocaust.
- 1941 1st US Navy vessel constructed as mine layer, USS Terror (CM-5) launched from the Philadelphia Navy Yard
- 1941 MLB New York Giants use plastic batting helmets for 1st time
- 1942 First nylon parachute jump is made by American parachute tester Adeline Gray at Brainard Field, an airport near Hartford, Connecticut; DuPont teams with the Pioneer Parachute Company to develop an alternative to silk
- 1942 Japanese forces retreat, ending Battle of Midway
- 1942 Japanese troop land on Kiska, Aleutians
- 1944 Alaska Airlines commences operations
- 1944 German submarines U-955, U-970, U-629 and U-373 sink in Bay of Biscay
1944 Operation Overlord: As part of the D-Day landings, the 82nd Airborne Division arrives at the French town of Sainte-Mère-Église
- 1944 Operation Overlord: D-Day begins as the 156,000-strong Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France, during World War II
- 1944 World War II: All Major League Baseball games are cancelled in honor of the D-Day landings in northern France
- 1945 "Free People" premieres in Amsterdam
- 1946 Henry Morgan is the first person to take off shirt on TV
- 1946 The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City
- 1947 Treaty drawn up for establishment of International Patent Institute
- 1949 "It Pays To Be Ignorant" game show debut on CBS-TV
- 1949 Orapin Chaiyakan becomes the first Thai woman to be elected to the Parliament of Thailand
- 1949 WKY (now KTVY) TV channel 4 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1950 German DR & Poland sign treaty about Oder-Neisse border
- 1950 Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is legalized
- 1954 MLB Baltimore Orioles manager Jimmy Dykes is ejected from both games of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, NYC
- 1956 David Marshall, Singapore's first Chief Minister, resigns
- 1958 Ozzie Virgil is 1st Black player for MLB Detroit Tigers
- 1960 South African police kill 11 Pondo's at Nqusa Hill
The Beatles Meet George Martin
1962 The Beatles meet their producer George Martin for the first time, and record "Besame Mucho" with Pete Best on drums
- 1963 Gasunie, Dutch gas and transportation company established
- 1964 The Beatles, with Jimmy Nichol substituting for Ringo, arrive in Netherlands, take a whirlwind boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam, and perform two shows at Veilinghal Op Hoop Van Zegen, an auction hall in the village of Blokker
- 1964 Under a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven, Germany, are terminated, though they never resume
- 1965 Yankees Tom Tresh bangs 3 consecutive HRs beating White Sox 12-0
James Meredith Wounded
1966 Civil rights activist James Meredith wounded by white sniper in Mississippi
- 1966 Gemini 9 completes 45 orbits after rendezvous with "angry alligator"
- 1966 Stokely Carmichael launches "Black Power" movement
1967 Israeli troops occupy Gaza during second day of the Six-Day War
Robert F. Kennedy Dies
1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night
- 1968 WKHA TV channel 35 in Hazard, KY (PBS) begins broadcasting
Joe Namath Resigns
1969 Joe Namath resigns from NFL after Pete Rozelle, football commissioner, said he must sell his stake in a bar
- 1971 Air West flight 706 collides with a US Marine Corps F-4B Phantom jet over Los Angeles killing all 49 aboard the DC-6 and the pilot of the F-4B
Finale of The Ed Sullivan Show
1971 Final broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show" (a repeat from 7 February) on CBS-TV
- 1971 Soyuz 11 takes 3 cosmonauts to Salyut 1 space station
- 1971 WHAE (now WGNX) TV channel 46 in Atlanta, Georgia (CBN) begins broadcasting
Willie Mays HR Record
1971 Willie Mays hits record 22nd (& last) extra inning HR
- 1972 Explosion at world's largest coal mine kills 427 (Wankie, Rhodesia)
- 1972 Price of gold hits record $60 an ounce in London
- 1972 US bombs Haiphong, North-Vietnam; 1000s killed
- 1974 47th National Spelling Bee: Julie Ann Junkin wins spelling hydrophyte
- 1974 A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy
- 1975 British voters decide to remain in Common Market
Baseball History
1975 Nolan Ryan's bid for 2nd no-hitter broken in 6th inning
- 1975 Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam established
- 1976 "The Omen" premieres in the UK
- 1977 Doobie Brothers sponsor a Golf Classic & Concert at Calabasas Park Country Club & Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles to benefit the United Way
- 1977 Joseph L Howze installed as bishop of Roman Catholic diocese (Miss)
- 1977 Supreme Court tosses out automatic death penalty laws
Event of Interest
1977 The "Washington Post" reports the US has developed a neutron bomb
- 1978 Proposition 13 cuts California property taxes 57%
20/20 Premieres
1978 US TV news program "20/20", created by Roone Arledge premieres on ABC
- 1979 200th running of horse's Derby in England
- 1979 Royal Air Force receives 1st F-16
- 1979 Seattle Mariners slugger Willie Horton becomes 43rd player to hit 300 HRs in Major League Baseball
- 1980 South African anti-nuclear activist Renfrew Christie is sentenced to 10 years in prison under the country's Terrorism Act [1]
- 1981 A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river, killing 268 officially with another 300 or more missing
- 1981 Maya Yang Lin wins competition to design the Vietnam War Memorial
- 1982 30,000 Israeli troops invade Lebanon to drive out the PLO
- 1982 36th Tony Awards: "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" (play) & "Nine" (musical) win
- 1982 Bernard Glassman installed as abbot of Zen Center of NY
Octopussy Premieres
1983 "Octopussy," 13th James Bond film, starring Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Louis Jourdan premieres in London
- 1983 Bottle with note thrown overboard from June 9, 1910 is found in Queensland
Chinese History
1983 Li Xiannian becomes President of the People's Republic of China and Deng Xiaoping the supreme commander
- 1983 Minnesota Twins select pitcher Tim Belcher #1 in the 1983 MLB Draft
- 1983 Nicaragua expels 3 US diplomats
- 1984 1,200 Sikh militants killed by Indian Armed Forces in Sikh "Golden Temple" uprising during 'Operation Blue Star' in Amritsar, Punjab, India
- 1984 Video game Tetris is first released in the Soviet Union by Alexey Pajitnov
- 1985 58th National Spelling Bee: Balu Natarajan wins spelling milieu
- 1985 Body of Nazi concentration camp doctor Dr Josef Mengele located and exhumed
- 1985 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts "status" of Aruba
- 1985 Soyuz T-13 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 7 space station
Storms of Life
1986 "Storms of Life" debut album by Randy Travis is released (Billboard Album of the Year, 1987)
- 1986 Jurgen Schull sets world discus record (74.07 m)
- 1986 Kathy Ormsby, a 21-year-old member of NC State track team jumps off a bridge permanently paralyzing herself
- 1987 NY Yankees play their 13,000th game
- 1988 3 giant turtles found in Bronx sewage plant
Event of Interest
1988 George H. W. Bush makes a campaign promise to support reparations for World War II Japanese-American internees (promise broken, May 1989)
- 1989 Mets turn their 1st triple play in 7 years but lose to Cubs 8-4
- 1990 2nd International Rock Awards
Baseball Record
1990 For 2nd time this season, Cecil Fielder belts 3 home runs in a game
- 1990 Stump Merrill replaces Bucky Dent as NY Yankee manager
- 1991 Albert Belle is shipped to minors for not running out a ground ball
- 1991 Dana Plato receives 6 yr suspended sentence for robbing a video store
- 1991 Test Cricket debut of Graeme Hick, v West Indies at Headingley
- 1992 America West Arena opens in Phoenix, Arizona; home court of NBA Phoenix Suns
- 1992 Ben Vereen suffers head and leg injuries when hit by a vehicle while walking along a dark stretch of highway in Malibu, California; Vereen had earlier fallen asleep while driving and hit a tree, record producer David Foster was behind the wheel of vehicle that hit Vereen [1]
Eddie Murray Sets Record
1992 NY Mets first baseman Eddie Murray records his 1,510th run batted in during 15-1 thrashing of Pittsburgh Pirates to pass Mickey Mantle as all-time RBI leader among MLB switch-hitters
- 1993 "What's Love Got to Do with It", directed by Brian Gibson and starring Angela Bassett, premieres in Hollywood, California
- 1993 47th Tony Awards: "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" (play) and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (musical) win
- 1993 6th Children's Miracle Network Telethon
- 1993 Punsalmaagiyn Otsjirbat recognized as President of Mongolia
- 1993 Ramiro de Leon Carpio elected President of Guatemala
- 1994 6.0 earthquake followed by avalanche destroys Toez, Colombia (about 1000 killed)
- 1994 Tupolev-154M crashes at Xian China, 160 killed
- 1994 Warwickshire score 4 for 810 declared against Durham
Brian Lara Sets Record
1994 West Indian cricket batsman Brian Lara hits world 1st-class record 501 not out and 390 runs in 1 day for Warwickshire vs Durham at Edgbaston; only quintuple-hundred in first-class history
- 1995 Moses Kiptanui of Kenya runs world 5,000m record 12:55.30 in Rome, Italy
- 1999 53rd Tony Awards: "Fosse" (musical) and "Side Man" (play) win
- 1999 Largest jailbreak in Brazilian history at the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
- 1999 Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football forward Tony Lockett breaks Gordon Coventry's VFL/AFL career goals record with 1,300th major early in 145-94 win v Collingwood at the SCG
The Bourne Identity
2002 "The Bourne Identity," directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon, premieres in Los Angeles, California
- 2002 A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya, with the resulting explosion estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb
- 2004 58th Tony Awards: "Avenue Q" (musical) & "I Am My Own Wife" (play) win
- 2004 Tamil is established as a Classical language by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament
- 2005 The United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana in Gonzales v. Raich
- 2007 Stanley Cup Final, Honda Center, Anaheim, CA: Anaheim Ducks defeat Ottawa Senators, 6-2 for a 4-1 series win; Ducks' first Championship
- 2011 MLB Draft: UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole first pick by Pittsburgh Pirates
- 2012 The Solar Impulse completes the world's first intercontinental flight powered by the sun
- 2012 Transit of Venus between Earth and Sun occurs, the last transit of the 21st century
- 2013 Kevin Barry's City of Bohane wins the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2013 MLB Draft: Stanford pitcher Mark Appel first pick by Houston Astros
- 2015 236th Epsom Derby: Golden Horn ridden by Frankie Dettori wins
Sports History
2015 Brian Ortega wins Fight of the Night against Thiago Tavares at UFC Fight Night 68
- 2015 Convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat break out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York
- 2017 Floods in Salto, Paysandú and Artigas in Uruguay displace over 3,000 people
- 2017 Indian author Arundhati Roy publishes her second novel, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," 20 years after her first novel
- 2017 Korean singer T.O.P is rushed to hospital after a suspected overdose while serving mandatory military service
- 2017 Scooter Gennet hits four home runs in Cincinnati Reds 13-1 victory at home against St. Louis Cardinals, 17th player to do so
- 2017 Syrian Democratic Forces backed by the US launch offensive to take Raqqa from Islamic State in Syria
- 2018 At least 46 Ethiopian migrants drown after their boat capcizes of fthe coast of Yemen
Trump Pardons Alice Johnson
2018 Convicted drug trafficker, Alice Johnson, granted clemency by US President Donald Trump after Kim Kardashian highlights case
- 2018 French man announced to have won France's €1 million My Lottery for the second time in 2 years, with odds of 1 in 16 trillion
Manual Recount Ordered in Iraq
2018 Iraqi parliament orders manual recount of legislative elections in May after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claims evidence of irregularities
LeBron James Sets Record
2018 LeBron James eclipses Michael Jordan's record (109) for most 30-point games in NBA playoff history in Cleveland Cavaliers' 110-102 Game 3 Finals loss to Golden State Warriors
- 2018 MLB Draft: Auburn pitcher Casey Mize first pick by Detroit Tigers
- 2018 Special pedestrian lane introduced for "phubbers," slow-walking smartphone users, in Xi'an, China
- 2019 Amir Ohana becomes the first openly gay minister in Israel as acting justice minister
- 2019 German serial killer nurse Niels Hoegel jailed for a second life sentence for the murder of 85 more people (previously convicted for six). Germany's worst post-war serial killer.
NYPD Apologizes for Stonewall Riots
2019 On 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, New York City’s police commissioner James O’Neill apologizes for his department's actions during the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn
- 2021 Four members of a London, Ontario, family killed when they are struck by a truck in an anti-Muslim attack
- 2022 Former chairman of far-right group the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio and four others, indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol [1]
Boris Johnson Survives
2022 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins Tory party no-confidence vote 211-148, with 41% of MPs voting against him [1]
Election of Interest
2023 Former US New Jersey Governor Chris Christie files papers to run for the Republican Presidential nomination [1]
- 2023 Major dam at Nova Kakhovka, in Russian-held Ukraine collapses sending flooding down the Dnipro river, prompting evacuation of thousands amid suspicions of Russian sabotage [1]
- 2023 The PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf League agree to unify to create a for-profit entity run by the PGA Tour and funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund
Harry Testifies Against the Mirror
2023 UK's Prince Harry is the first senior royal to testify in court in 130 years, accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of hacking his emails [1]
- 2024 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings commemorated in Normandy, France attended by Allied leaders and likely the last major gathering of WWII veterans [1]
- 2024 Disfrutar in Barcelona is named the world's best restaurant, owned and run by Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch, and Mateu Casañas [1]
- 2025 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps in Los Angeles spark protest demonstrations [1]
