1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant’Angelo.
1536 – King Henry VIII of England orders English-language Bibles be placed in every church.
1626 – Dutch colonist Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from local Indians for 60 guilders worth of trinkets
1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.
1757 – English poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
1758 – Maximilien Robespierre, Arras Fr, French revolutionary/avocat (1781) Born
1794 – Haiti, under Toussaint L’Ouverture, revolts against France
1833 – John Deere makes 1st steel plough
1856 – Sigmund Freud, Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia, Austrian neurologist and father of psychology, (d. 1939) – Birthed
1857 – The British East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British and is considered to be the First Martyr in the War of Indian Independence.
1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
1861 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is declared the new capital of the Confederate States of America.
1861 – Jefferson Davis approves a bill declaring War between US & Confederacy
1862 – Henry David Thoreau, US writer/pacifist (Walden Pond), dies at 44
1877 – Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
1882 – Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin.
1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
1895 – Rudolph Valentino, Castellaneta Italy, sheik/actor (Eagle) Born
1902 – British SS Camorta sinks off Rangoon; 739 die
1910 – George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII.
1915 – Orson Welles [George], Kenosha Wisc, actor (Citizen Kane, War of the Worlds), (d. 1985) Born
1915 – Red Sox Babe Ruth pitching debut & 1st HR, loses to Yanks 4-3 in 15
1919 – L. Frank Baum, American author (Wizard of Oz) (b. 1856) died.
1935 – The Works Progress Administration (WPA), opens allowing thousands of unemployed Americans decent-paying jobs on a wide range of public works projects including parks, playgrounds, major infrastructure projects, schools and post-offices. During it’s existence the WPA was responsible for employing 8.5 million Americans during its eight-years
1937 – Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
1937 – Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Clifton, New Jersey, American boxer whose murder convictions were overturned after 19 years in prison – Born
1940 – John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.
1941 – Joseph Stalin became premier of Russia
1945 – Bob Seger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist was born.
1945 – World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1945 – World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
1948 – 43 communist rebels, executed in Athens
1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
1952 – Maria Montessori, Italian physician/educationist, dies at 81
1953 – Tony Blair, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was born.
1960 – US President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960
1960 – Trotsky’s murderer Jacques Mornard (Ramon Mercader) freed in Mexico
1961 – George Clooney, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter was born.
1968 – Street battle between students & troops in Paris, 1000 injured
1974 – Bundy victim Roberta Parks disappears from OSU, Corvallis, Ore
1974 – Stolen “Guitar Player” painting by Jan Vermeer found in London
1975 – Bundy victim Lynette Culver disappears from Pocatello, Idaho
1981 – A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
1987 – William J Casey, director of CIA (1981-87), dies at 73
1987 – Gary Hart denies affair with model Donna Rice
1992 – Marlene Dietrich, [Maria Losch], actress (Angel), dies in Paris at 90
1994 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel. (Chunnel)
1994 – Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files a lawsuit against United States President Bill Clinton, alleging that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1994 – Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait sets fire to the couch on Tonight Show
1994 – House passes the assault weapons ban
1996 – Guatemala’s leftist guerrillas sign key accord with government of President Alvaro Arzu aimed at ending 35 years of civil war
1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
1997 – The Bank of England is given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.
1997 – Bayer and the other three manufacturers of blood products agree to pay $660 million to settle cases on behalf of more than 6,000 hemophiliacs infected in United States in the early 1980s, paying an estimated $100,000 to each infected hemophiliac.
1997 – Michael Jackson & Bee Gees inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2008 – Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.
2013 – The US Senate passes a bill enabling taxing of online sales
2013 – Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio, while a 52-year-old man, Ariel Castro, is taken into custody.