588 BC – Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign. The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC.
69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only rules for three months before committing suicide.
708 – Sisinnius begins his reign as Pope (dies 20 days later)
1535 – Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church in England
1552 – France signs secret treaty with German Protestants
1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the “Holy Catholic faith”.
1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.
1716 – Philip Livingston, American businessman and politician (signed Declaration of Independence) Born
1754 – Richard Martin, Irish activist and politician, co-founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (d. 1834) was born.
1759 – The British Museum opens.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
1780 – American Continental Congress establishes court of appeals
1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
1865 – American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey (“A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly).
1895 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” premieres, St Petersburg (1/27 NS)
1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
1908 – Edward Teller, Budapest Hungary, fathered H-bomb (Manhattan Project), (d. 2003) Born
1909 - Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman’s drummer (Sing Sing Sing) Born
1909 – Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939) Born
1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.
1919 – 2 million gallons of molasses flood Boston MA, drowning 21
1922 – Irish Free State forms; Michael Collins becomes first Premier
1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968) was born.
1934 – While robbing the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indianapolis, Dillinger is shot several times by officer William O’Malley, but survives because he is wearing a bullet proof vest.
1939 – 1st NFL pro bowl, NY Giants beat All Stars 13-10 in Wrigley Field
1941 – Captain Beefheart, [Don Van Vliet], rocker (Bongo Fury, Shiny Beast) Born
1943 – The world’s largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
1945 – The Manhattan Project’s G-5 Group, headed by Physicist’s Donald Kerst and Seth Neddermeyer, take their first betatron pictures of a nuclear implosion at the Los Alamos Laboratory
1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (The “Black Dahlia”) is found in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park.
1948 – Ronnie Van Zant, American singer-songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 1977) was born.
1951 – Ilse Koch, “The Witch of Buchenwald”, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.
1951 – Supreme Court rule “clear & present danger” of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
1951 – Martha Davis, California, vocalist/guitar (Motels-Only the Lonely, Shame) Born
1958 – Julian Sands, actor (One Night Stand, Naked Lunch..) Born
1964 – Weldon John “Jack” Teagarden, US jazz trombonist/singer, dies at 58
1964 – Teamsters negotiate 1st national labor contract
1965 – Rock group Who releases first album “I Can’t Explain”
1965 – Adam Jones, American guitarist and songwriter (Tool and Electric Sheep) was born.
1970 – Moammar Gadhafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
1970 – Shane McMahon, American wrestler and businessman was born.
1971 – George Harrison releases “My Sweet Lord”
1973 – Pope Paul VI holds an audience with Golda Meir at Vatican
1973 – Pres Nixon suspends all US offensive action in N Vietnam
1974 – “Happy Days” begins an 11 year run on ABC
1974 – Expert panel reports 18½ minute gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures
1974 – Dennis Rader aka the BTK Killer allegedly kills his first victims by binding, torturing and murdering Joseph, Joseph II, Josephine and Julie Otero in their house.
1976 – Gerald Ford’s would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.
1979 – Drew Brees, American football player (QB Saints) Born
1982 – Mark Thatcher, son of UK prime minister Magaret Thatcher, makes his way home after 6 days missing in the Sahara
1983 – Meyer Lansky, reputed mobster, dies in Miami Beach Fla at 80
1987 – A police officer who mistakenly shot and paralyzed an innocent woman in Brixton, UK, is cleared of all criminal charges
1987 – Ray Bolger, actor/dancer (Wizard of Oz), dies at 83
1988 – Sean MacBride, Ireland, commander of Irish Republican Army, dies at 83
1988 – Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder makes racist remarks about black athletes
1990 – 42 year old George Foreman KOs Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds in Atlantic City
1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
1992 – Dee Murray, English bassist w/ Elton John (b. 1946)
1994 – Hague motorist with .51% alcohol in blood, breaks Dutch record (.47%)
1994 – Harry Nilsson, rock vocalist (Everybody’s Talkin’), dies at 52
1997 – Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir Space Station
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines, angering ministers in the UK
1998 – Amos “Junior” Wells, blues musician, dies at 63
2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
2005 – ESA’s SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
2005 – An intense solar flare blasts X-rays across the solar system.
2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.
2008 – Brad Renfro, American actor (Bully) (b. 1982) Dies of overdose
2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing into the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. All passengers and crew members survive.
2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive.