53 – The Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.
68 – The Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer’s Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil year known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the Saint Lawrence River.
1672 – Peter the Great, Russian emperor (d. 1725) was born.
1732 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia.
1856 – 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa, and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.
1862 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic; his tactics during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world.
1870 – Charles Dickens, English author and critic (b. 1812) died.
1873 – Alexandra Palace in London burns down after being open for only 16 days.
1915 – Les Paul, American guitarist and songwriter, co-designed the Gibson Les Paul Guitar (d. 2009) was born.
1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
1930 – A Chicago Tribune reporter, Jake Lingle, is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.
1934 – Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.
1943 – New laws are passed which require employers to withhold federal taxes from weekly paychecks. This changed the earlier format where taxes were paid in one lump sum at the end of each year, and has been called “Pay As You Go tax” .
1944 – World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
1944 – World War II: the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
1954 – McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
1958 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London’s Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom.
1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
1963 – Johnny Depp, American actor, singer, producer, and director was born.
1964 – A CIA report challenges “domino theory” that had been used to support the Vietnam War , the domino effect contended that if South Vietnam fell the rest of Southeast Asia would quickly fall to communist control . The report believed the only country that may fall to communism would be Cambodia .
1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria
1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1973 – In horseracing, Secretariat wins the Triple Crown.
1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens its priesthood to “all worthy men”, ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men.
1978 – Matthew Bellamy, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Muse) was born.
1983 – Margaret Thatcher wins in a landslide victory in General Elections in the UK as the British voters went to the polls, she wants to banish extreme left wing socialism forever and the British people seem to want that as well.
1999 – Kosovo War: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.
2002 – As pressure mounts on the Catholic church over alligations that Church Leaders have been covering up abuse by it’s priests including many who have been found guilty of sexually abusing children remain in jobs within the US Roman Catholic Church. To help with the poor publicity this has generated for the Church leaders have suggested that Pope John Paul II be asked to defrock any priest who commits any future sexual abuse of a minor, as well as any priest who has abused more than one child in the past. Latest reports indicate that as many as 300 civil lawsuits alleging clerical sex abuse have been filed this year since the case of the paedophile priest in Boston.
2008 – In the town of Lake Delton, Wisconsin, Lake Delton drains as a result of heavy flooding, breaking the dam holding the lake back.
2010 – At least 40 people are killed and more than 70 others are wounded as an explosion rips through an evening wedding party in Arghandab, Kandahar.