Events

• 48 BC – Battle of Dyrrhachium: Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia.

• 988 – The city of Dublin is founded on the banks of the river Liffey.

• 1212 – The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.

• 1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeats the king's Lancastrian forces and takes King Henry VI prisoner in the Battle of Northampton.

• 1499 – Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of Vasco da Gama.

• 1553 – Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.

• 1584 – William I of Orange is assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland by Balthasar Gérard.

• 1645 – English Civil War: The Battle of Langport takes place.

• 1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.

• 1789 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta.

• 1806 – The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company.

• 1821 – The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.

• 1832 – U.S.President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.

• 1850 – Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, 16 months into his term.

• 1859 – Big Ben rings for the first time.

• 1877 – The then-villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.

• 1890 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.

• 1913 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C), the highest temperature recorded in the United States.

• 1925 – Meher Baba begins his silence of 44 years. His followers observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration.

• 1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

• 1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.

• 1940 – World War II: the Vichy government is established in France.

• 1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain – The German Luftwaffe begins attacking British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).

• 1941 – Jedwabne Pogrom: the massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne in Poland.

• 1942 – Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established.

• 1943 – World War II: The launching of Operation Husky begins the Italian Campaign.

• 1947 – Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor General of Pakistan by then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Clement Attlee.

• 1951 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong.

• 1962 – Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

• 1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, lead by Martin Luther King, holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people came to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary.

• 1967 – Uruguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

• 1968 – Maurice Couve de Murville becomes Prime Minister of France.

• 1973 – The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.

• 1973 – National Assembly of Pakistan passes a resolution on the recognition of Bangladesh.

• 1976 – The Seveso disaster occurs in Italy.

• 1976 – One American and three British mercenaries are executed in Angola following the Luanda Trial.

• 1978 – World News Tonight premieres on ABC.

• 1978 – President Moktar Ould Daddah of Mauritania is ousted in a bloodless coup d'état.

• 1980 – Alexandra Palace burns down for a second time.

• 1985 – Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand harbor by French DGSE agents.

• 1991 – Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia.

• 1991 – The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid.

• 1992 – In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.

• 1997 – In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neandertal skeleton which support the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

• 1997 – Partido Popular (Spain) member Miguel Ángel Blanco is kidnapped in the Basque city of Ermua by ETA members, sparking widespread protests.

• 1998 – Roman Catholic sex abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.

• 2000 – A leaking southern Nigerian petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers scavenging gasoline.

• 2000 – EADS, the world's second-largest aerospace group is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA, and CASA.

• 2002 – At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson.

• 2003 – A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus, collides with a truck, falls off a bridge on Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong, and plunges into the underlying valley, killing 21 people. This is the deadliest traffic accident to date in Hong Kong.

• 2005 – Hurricane Dennis slams into the Florida Panhandle, causing billions of dollars in damage.

• 2006 – Pakistan International Flight PK-688 crashes in Multan, Pakistan, shortly after takeoff, killing all 45 people on board.

• 2008 – Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges by a United Nations Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.

Births

• 1419 – Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (d. 1471)

• 1452 – King James III of Scotland (d. 1488)

• 1509 – John Calvin, French religious reformer (d. 1564)

• 1517 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (d. 1571)

• 1592 – Pierre d'Hozier, French historian (d. 1660)

• 1614 – Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English royalist statesman (d. 1686)

• 1625 – Jean Herauld Gourville, French adventurer (d. 1703)

• 1638 – David Teniers III, Flemish painter (d. 1685)

• 1666 – John Ernest Grabe, German-born Anglican theologian (d. 1711)

• 1682 – Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, German Lutheran missionary to India (d. 1719)

• 1682 – Roger Cotes, English mathematician (d. 1716)

• 1711 – Princess Amelia of Great Britain (d. 1783)

• 1723 – William Blackstone, English jurist (d. 1780)

• 1736 – Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (d. 1807)

• 1792 – George Mifflin Dallas, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and the 11th Vice President of the United States (d. 1864)

• 1802 – Robert Chambers, Scottish author and naturalist (d. 1871)

• 1804 – Emma Smith Inaugural President of the Women's Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1879)

• 1809 – Friedrich August von Quenstedt, German geologist (d. 1889)

• 1830 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (d. 1903)

• 1832 – Alvan Graham Clark, American telescope maker and astronomer (d. 1897)

• 1835 – Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (d. 1880)

• 1839 – Adolphus Busch, German-born brewer (d. 1913)

• 1856 – Nikola Tesla, Serb-American inventor (d. 1943)

• 1864 – Austin Chapman, Australian policitian (d. 1926)

• 1867 – Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)

• 1871 – Marcel Proust, French writer (d. 1922)

• 1874 – Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (d. 1971)

• 1875 – Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator (d. 1955)

• 1883 – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (d. 1948)

• 1888 – Giorgio de Chirico, Italian painter (d. 1978)

• 1895 – Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)

• 1896 – Thérèse Casgrain, French Canadian politician and senator (d. 1981)

• 1897 – Karl Plagge, German officer (d. 1957)

• 1897 – Jack "Legs" Diamond", American bootlegger (d. 1931)

• 1899 – John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)

• 1899 – Heiri Suter, Swiss cyclist (d. 1978)

• 1900 – Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk, priest and wonder-worker (d. 1979)

• 1900 – Mitchell Parish, American lyricist (d. 1993)

• 1902 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

• 1903 – John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)

• 1903 – Werner Best, German jurist and nazi leader (d. 1989)

• 1905 – Thomas Gomez, American actor (d. 1971)

• 1905 – Wolfram Sievers, Nazi physician (d. 1948)

• 1909 – Donald Sinclair, British hotel manager, inspiration for Fawlty Towers (d. 1981)

• 1913 – Salvador Espriu, Spanish poet (d. 1985)

• 1914 – Joe Shuster, Canadian-born cartoonist (d. 1992)

• 1917 – Don Herbert, American television host (d. 2007)

• 1917 – Hugh Alexander, American baseball player (d. 2000)

• 1920 – David Brinkley, American television reporter (d. 2003)

• 1920 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)

• 1921 – Harvey Ball, American inventor (d. 2001)

• 1921 – Jake LaMotta, American boxer

• 1921 – Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist (d. 2009)

• 1923 – Earl Hamner Jr., American author and television producer

• 1923 – Jean Kerr, American author (d. 2003)

• 1923 – G. A. Kulkarni, Indian (Marathi) writer (d. 1987)

• 1923 – John Bradley, United States Navy corpsman, one of six who raised flag on top of Mt. Suribachi(see Iwo Jima) (d. 1994)

• 1924 – Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (d. 1998)

• 1924 – Johnny Bach, American basketball coach

• 1926 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (d. 1993)

• 1927 – Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician

• 1927 – Suzanne Cloutier, Canadian film actor (d. 2003)

• 1928 – Moshe Greenberg, American-Israeli Bible scholar

• 1928 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (d. 2003)

• 1928 – Bernard Buffet, French painter (d. 1999)

• 1929 – Winnie Ewing, Scottish politician

• 1930 – Bruce Boa, Canadian actor (d. 2004)

• 1931 – Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)

• 1931 – Alice Munro, Canadian writer

• 1932 – Carlo Mario Abate, Italian racing driver

• 1934 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer

• 1935 – Tura Satana, American actress

• 1938 – Paul Andreu, French architect

• 1938 – Lee Morgan, American hard-bop trumpeter

• 1939 – Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Turkish politician, journalist, and educator (d. 1999)

• 1940 – Meghnad Desai, Baron Desai, British economist

• 1940 – Helen Donath, American soprano

• 1940 – Tom Farmer, Scottish entrepreneur

• 1941 – David G. Hartwell, American editor and anthologist

• 1941 – Ian Whitcomb, English songwriter, entertainer and producer

• 1942 – Ronnie James Dio, American musician

• 1942 – Pyotr Klimuk, Soviet cosmonaut

• 1943 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)

• 1945 – John Motson, British sports (football) commentator

• 1945 – Jean-Marie Poiré, French film director

• 1945 – Virginia Wade, British tennis player

• 1945 – Ron Glass, American actor

• 1945 – Peter Michalica, Slovak violinist

• 1946 – Sue Lyon, American actress

• 1947 – Arlo Guthrie, American musician

• 1949 – Sunil Gavaskar, Indian cricketer

• 1949 – Greg Kihn U.S. pop musician & radio personality.

• 1949 – John Whitehead, American singer and record producer

• 1950 – Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Greek politician

• 1951 – Phyllis Smith, American actress

• 1951 – Cheryl Wheeler, American singer and songwriter

• 1952 – Ludmilla Tourischeva, Russian gymnast

• 1952 – Kim Mitchell, Canadian guitarist/singer

• 1952 – Peter van Heemst, Dutch politician

• 1953 – Zoogz Rift, singer/songwriter and wrestling booker

• 1953 – Rik Emmett, Canadian musician (Triumph)

• 1954 – Neil Tennant, British musician (Pet Shop Boys)

• 1954 – Andre Dawson, American baseball player

• 1956 – Tom McClintock, American politician

• 1957 – Cindy Sheehan, American anti-war/political activist

• 1958 – Béla Fleck, American musician

• 1958 – Fiona Shaw, Irish actress

• 1959 – Ellen Kuras, American cinematographer

• 1961 – Jacky Cheung, Hong Kong singer and actor

• 1964 – Urban Meyer, American football coach

• 1964 – Wilfried Peeters, Belgian cyclist

• 1965 – Alec Mapa, Filipino-American actor and comedian

• 1965 – Ken Mellons, American singer

• 1965 – Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark

• 1966 – Johnny Grunge, wrestler (d. 2006)

• 1967 – Tom Meents, American monster truck driver

• 1967 – Silvetty Montilla, Brazilian drag queen

• 1968 – Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete

• 1968 – Jonathan Gilbert, American actor

• 1969 – Jamie Glover, British actor

• 1969 – Gale Harold, American actor

• 1969 – Alexandra Hedison, American actress

• 1970 – Helen Sjöholm, Swedish singer and actress

• 1970 – Adam Hills, Australian comedian

• 1970 – Gary LeVox, American singer (Rascal Flatts)

• 1970 – Jason Orange, UK pop singer and dancer (Take That)

• 1970 – John Simm, British actor

• 1971 – Adam Foote, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1971 – Gregory Goodridge, Barbadian footballer

• 1972 – Peter Serafinowicz, British comedian and actor

• 1972 – Sofia Vergara, Colombian actress

• 1972 – Tilo Wolff, German musician (Lacrimosa)

• 1973 – Annie Mumolo, American actress

• 1974 – Chiwetel Ejiofor, English actor

• 1975 – Alain Nasreddine, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1975 – Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor

• 1976 – Elijah Blue Allman, American musician (Deadsy)

• 1976 – Adrian Grenier, American actor

• 1976 – Ludovic Giuly, French footballer

• 1976 – Brendon Lade, Australian rules footballer

• 1976 – Edmílson Gomes, Brazilian footballer

• 1977 – Schapelle Corby, Australian convicted drug smuggler

• 1977 – Gwendoline Yeo, American actress

• 1978 – Jesse Lacey, American musician (Brand New)

• 1979 – Mvondo Atangana, Cameroon footballer

• 1980 – Thomas Ian Nicholas, American actor

• 1980 – Alejandro Millán, Mexican singer and songwriter

• 1980 – Adam Petty, American race car driver (d. 2000)

• 1980 – Jessica Simpson, American singer

• 1980 – Orlando Jordan, American wrestler

• 1980 – Han Eun-jeong, South Korean actress

• 1981 – Aleksandar Tunchev, Bulgarian footballer

• 1982 – Alex Arrowsmith, American musician

• 1982 – Sebastian Mila, Polish footballer

• 1983 – Kim Heechul, Korean Singer

• 1983 – Matthew Egan, Australian rules footballer

• 1984 – Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, Miss World 2004

• 1985 – B.J. Crombeen, American ice hockey player

• 1985 – Mario Gómez, German footballer

Deaths

• 138 – Hadrian, Roman Emperor (b. 76)

• 649 – Li Shimin, Emperor of China (b. 599)

• 1099 – El Cid, of Castile (b. 1044)

• 1103 – King Eric I of Denmark

• 1290 – King Ladislaus IV of Hungary (b. 1262)

• 1460 – Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English military leader (b. 1402)

• 1480 – King René I of Naples (b. 1410)

• 1559 – King Henry II of France (b. 1519)

• 1584 – William I of Orange (b. 1533)

• 1590 – Archduke Charles II of Austria (b. 1540)

• 1594 – Paolo Bellasio, Italian composer (b. 1554)

• 1621 – Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy, soldier in Habsburg service (b. 1571)

• 1653 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)

• 1680 – Louis Moréri, French encyclopedist (b. 1643)

• 1683 – François-Eudes de Mézeray, French historian (b. 1610)

• 1686 – John Fell, English churchman (b. 1625)

• 1776 – Richard Peters, English-born clergyman (b. 1704)

• 1806 – George Stubbs, British painter (b. 1724)

• 1848 – Karoline Jagemann, German actor (b. 1777)

• 1851 – Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (b. 1787)

• 1881 – Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (b. 1812)

• 1884 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)

• 1908 – Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (b. 1839)

• 1920 – Jackie Fisher, British admiral (b. 1841)

• 1941 – Jelly Roll Morton, American musician (b. 1890)

• 1954 – Calogero Vizzini, Sicilian mafioso (b. 1877)

• 1956 – Joe Giard, American baseball player (b. 1898)

• 1963 – Teddy Wakelam, English sports broadcaster and rugby union player (b. 1893)

• 1970 – Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic foreign and later prime minister (b. 1908)

• 1971 – Laurent Dauthuille, French boxer (b. 1924)

• 1972 – Lovie Austin, American jazz pianist (b. 1887)

• 1978 – John D Rockefeller III, American businessman (b. 1906)

• 1978 – Joe Davis, English snooker player (b. 1901)

• 1979 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)

• 1980 – Joseph Krumgold, American writer (b. 1908)

• 1981 – Ken Rex McElroy, American hog rustler (b. 1936)

• 1987 – John H. Hammond, American record producer (b. 1910)

• 1989 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor (b. 1908)

• 1993 – Sam Rolfe, American screenwriter (b. 1924)

• 2000 – Vakkom Majeed, Indian Freedom fighter, Travancore-Cochin Legislative member (b. 1909)

• 2000 – Justin Pierce, English-American actor and skateboarder (b. 1975)

• 2002 – Jean-Pierre Côté, French Canadian politician and Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1926)

• 2003 – Winston Graham, English writer (b. 1908)

• 2003 – Hartley Shawcross, British prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials (b. 1902)

• 2003 – Bishnu Maden, Nepalese politician

• 2004 – Pati Behrs, Russian-born American actress, grandniece of Leo Tolstoy and first wife of American actor John Derek (b. 1922)

• 2005 – A.J. Quinnell, English writer (b. 1940)

• 2005 – Freda Wright-Sorce, American radio performer (b. 1955)

• 2005 – Freddy Soto, American comedian and actor (b. 1970)

• 2006 – Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel (b. 1965)

• 2007 – Abdul Rashid Ghazi, radical Pakistani cleric (b. 1951)

• 2007 – Doug Marlette, American cartoonist (b. 1949)

• 2007 – Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China (b. 1944)

• 2008 – Hiroaki Aoki, founder of Benihana (b. 1938)

• 2008 – Mike Souchak, professional golfer (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

• Followers of Meher Baba: Silence Day

• Bahamas: Independence Day

• Mauritania: Armed Forces Day

• Wyoming: Statehood Day

• Ancient Latvia – Septinu Bralu Diena observed.

• Saint Kanute IV, King of Denmark, martyr

• Translation of Saint Maclovius, bishop of Saint-Malo, confessor

• The Seven Brothers (Januarius, Felix, Philip, Silvanus, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis), martyrs

• Saint Amalberga, virgin (d. 690)

• Saint Felicitas of Rome, martyr

• Saints Rufina and Secunda, martyrs