Events Pre-1600 259 – Election of Pope Dionysius after the death of Pope Sixtus II in the persecutions of Emperor Valerian in the previous year. 838 – Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids. 1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1209 – Massacre at Béziers: The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade. 1227 – A coalition of north-east German towns, counts and princes defeats King Valdemar II of Denmark in the Battle of Bornhöved. 1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk: King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk. 1342 – St. Mary Magdalene's flood is the worst such event on record for central Europe. 1443 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl in the Old Zürich War. 1456 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade: John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire. 1484 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair: A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured. 1499 – Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeat the army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. 1587 – Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony. 1594 – The Dutch city of Groningen defended by the Spanish and besieged by a Dutch and English army under Maurice of Orange, capitulates. 1598 – William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, is entered on the Stationers' Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers' Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.
1601–1900 1686 – Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan. 1706 – The Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each country's Parliament, leads to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. 1793 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America. 1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party. 1797 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated. 1802 – Emperor Gia Long conquers Hanoi and unified Viet Nam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare. 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Cape Finisterre: An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of France and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder. 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War: Battle of Salamanca: British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain. 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act passes in the British House of Commons, initiating the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. 1864 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill outside Atlanta. 1880 – Abdur Rahman is proclaimed emir of Afghanistan after having been accepted as ruler by the British. 1893 – Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful" after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado. 1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the "official" victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître driving his three-horsepower petrol engined Peugeot.
1901–present 1916 – Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a parade, killing ten and injuring 40. 1921 – Rif War: The Spanish Army suffers its worst military defeat in modern times to the Berbers of the Rif region of Spanish Morocco. 1933 – Aviator Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes. 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Popular Executive Committee of Valencia takes power in the Valencian Community. 1937 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. 1942 – The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands. 1942 – Grossaktion Warsaw: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins. 1943 – World War II: Allied forces capture Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily. 1943 – World War II: Axis occupation forces violently disperse a massive protest in Athens, killing 22. 1944 – The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland. 1946 – King David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths. 1951 – Soviet space dogs: Dezik and Tsygan were launched into a sub-orbital spaceflight from Kapustin Yar and became the first dogs to fly in space and the first to safely return. 1962 – Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed. 1963 – Crown Colony of Sarawak gains self-governance. 1973 – Pan Am Flight 816 crashes after takeoff from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete, French Polynesia, killing 78. 1976 – Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during imperial Japan's conquest of the country in the Second World War. 1977 – Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power. 1981 – The first game of the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States is held in Gisborne, New Zealand. 1983 – Martial law in Poland is officially revoked. 1990 – Greg LeMond, an American road racing cyclist, wins his third Tour de France after leading the majority of the race. It was LeMond's second consecutive Tour de France victory. 1992 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States. 1993 – Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. 1997 – The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario. 2003 – Iraq War: Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard. 2005 – Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings. 2011 – Norway attacks: A bomb explodes, targeted at government buildings in central Oslo, followed by a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya. 2012 – Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of Serê Kaniyê and Dirbêsiyê, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah. 2013 – Dingxi earthquakes: A series of earthquakes in Dingxi, China, kills at least 89 people and injures more than 500 others. 2019 – Chandrayaan-2, the second lunar exploration mission developed by Indian Space Research Organisation after Chandrayaan-1 is launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in a GSLV Mark III M1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, and also included the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan lunar rover.
Births Pre-1600 1210 – Joan of England, Queen of Scotland (died 1238) 1437 – John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton, English Baron (died 1498) 1476 – Zhu Youyuan, Ming Dynasty politician (died 1519) 1478 – Philip I of Castile (died 1506) 1531 – Leonhard Thurneysser, scholar at the court of the Elector of Brandenburg (died 1595) 1535 – Katarina Stenbock, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (died 1621) 1552 – Anthony Browne, Sheriff of Surrey and Kent (died 1592) 1552 – Mary Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton, Lady of English peer and others (died 1607) 1559 – Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian priest and saint (died 1619)
1601–1900 1615 – Marguerite of Lorraine, princess of Lorraine, duchess of Orléans (died 1672) 1618 – Johan Nieuhof, Dutch traveler (died 1672) 1621 – Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (died 1683) 1630 – Madame de Brinvilliers, French aristocrat (died 1676) 1647 – Margaret Mary Alacoque, French nun, mystic and saint (died 1690) 1651 – Ferdinand Tobias Richter, Austrian organist and composer (died 1711) 1711 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, German-Russian physicist and academic (died 1753) 1713 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect, designed the Panthéon (died 1780) 1733 – Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and historian (died 1790) 1755 – Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician and engineer (died 1839) 1784 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1846) 1820 – Oliver Mowat, Canadian politician, 3rd Premier of Ontario, 8th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1903) 1839 – Jakob Hurt, Estonian theologist and linguist (died 1907) 1844 – William Archibald Spooner, English priest and scholar (died 1930) 1848 – Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (died 1914) 1849 – Emma Lazarus, American poet and educator (died 1887) 1856 – Octave Hamelin, French philosopher (died 1907) 1857 – Jack Glasscock, American baseball player (died 1947) 1862 – Cosmo Duff-Gordon, Scottish fencer (died 1931) 1863 – Alec Hearne, English cricketer (died 1952) 1878 – Janusz Korczak, Polish pediatrician and author (died 1942) 1881 – Augusta Fox Bronner, American psychologist, specialist in juvenile psychology (died 1966) 1882 – Edward Hopper, American painter and etcher (died 1967) 1884 – Odell Shepard, American poet and politician, 66th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut (died 1967) 1886 – Hella Wuolijoki, Estonian-Finnish author (died 1954) 1887 – Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) 1888 – Kirk Bryan, American geologist and academic (died 1950) 1888 – Selman Waksman, Jewish-American biochemist and microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) 1889 – James Whale, English director (died 1957) 1890 – Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist and Kennedy family matriarch (died 1995) 1892 – Jack MacBryan, English cricketer and field hockey player (died 1983) 1893 – Jesse Haines, American baseball player and coach (died 1978) 1893 – Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist and author (died 1990) 1895 – León de Greiff, Colombian poet, journalist, and diplomat (died 1976) 1898 – Stephen Vincent Benét, American poet, short story writer, and novelist (died 1943) 1898 – Alexander Calder, American sculptor, known for his kinetic sculptures (died 1976) 1899 – Sobhuza II of Swaziland (died 1982)
1901–present 1905 – Doc Cramer, American baseball player (died 1990) 1908 – Amy Vanderbilt, American author (died 1974) 1908 – Terris McDuffie, American baseball player (died 1968) 1909 – Licia Albanese, Italian-American soprano and actress (died 2014) 1909 – Dorino Serafini, Italian racing driver (died 2000) 1910 – Ruthie Tompson, American animator and artist (died 2021)