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.
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.
1587 – Colony of Roanoke: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
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 countries’ Parliaments, led 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 Canada.
1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
1862 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet, Scottish fencer, Titanic Survivoer (d. 1931) was born. Duff Gordon is best known, however, for the circumstances under which he survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, along with his wife and her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli. The three of them were among only 12 people in Lifeboat #1, whose capacity was 40. Criticism after the disaster suggested that he had boarded the emergency boat in violation of the “women and children first” policy, that the boat had failed to return to rescue those struggling in the water, and that his offer of five pounds to each of the lifeboat’s crew might be viewed as a bribe to keep their distance from those still in the water.
1890 – Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Boston Massachusetts, mom of JFK, RFK & Ted, (d. 1995) Born
1903 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, American emancipationist (b. 1810)Dies
1916 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade killing ten and injuring 40.
1920 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, American businessman and horse breeder (b. 1849) died.
1923 – Robert J Dole, (Sen-R Kansas, 1969-95)/presidential candidate (R-1996) Birthed
1923 – The Fabulous Moolah, American wrestler (d. 2007) was born.
1928 – Orson Bean, Burlington VT, actor/comedian (To Tell the Truth) Born
1932 – Oscar de la Renta, Dom Rep, designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973) Born
1934 – Louise Fletcher, Birmingham AL, actress ( Nurse Ratchett! One Flew over Cuckoo’s Nest) Born
1934 – Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater, “Public Enemy No. 1″ John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
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.
1940 – Alex Trebek, Canadian-American game show host (Jeopardy!) and producer was born.
1941 – George Clinton, Kannapolis NC, rocker (Parliament-Funkadelic)Born
1941 – Ron Turcotte, Canadian jockey, best known as the rider of Secretariat, winner of the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973, was born.
1942 – The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
1942 – Himmler ordered Rudolph Hoess an SS major to clean up the Warsaw ghetto, the Jewish quarter enclosed by barbed wire and brick walls which was to be depopulated and the inhabitants transported to Treblinka. Rudolph Hoess started the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto on July 22nd with thousands rounded up daily and transported to the newly constructed concentration camp at Treblinka, in Poland. In just seven weeks of Himmler’s order, more than 250,000 Jews were taken to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death.
1946 – Danny Glover, American actor, director, and producer was born.
1946 – Paul Schrader, director (American Gigolo, Cat People, Hardcore)Born
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 Mandate Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths. (Rham, Ari, Ezekiel father, Dr. Benjamin M. Emanuel. a pediatrician who was active in the Irgun, a hardline group that fought for Israeli independence until 1948 and was branded as a terrorist organization by the British colonial authorities)
1947 – Don Henley, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Eagles) was born. (inside job)
Inside Job – Don Henley from jholidis on Vimeo.
1954 – Al Dimeola, (Jazz / Rock Guitarist) Born
1962 – Steve Albini, American writer, recording engineer (In Utero) and musician (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac)Born
1964 – David Spade, American actor was born.
1965 – Shawn Michaels, American wrestler was born.
1973 – Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer… Born
1976 – Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during the imperial Japan’s conquest of the country in the Second World War.
1981 – Fandango, American wrestler was born.
1983 – Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
1991 – Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested in Milwaukee after police discover human remains in his apartment.
1992 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
1999 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (Megadeth) (b. 1958) died.
2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, (Allegedly) 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 is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.
2013 – Prince George of Cambridge was birthed