69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.
1569 – Union of Lublin: the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
1766 – Jean-François Lefebvre de la Barre was a young French nobleman, famous for having been tortured and beheaded before his body was burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire’s “Philosophical Dictionary” nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
1837 – A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.
1863 – American Civil War: the Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1867 – The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada.
1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
1873 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.
1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
1881 – The world’s first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
Born:
1892 – James M Cain, Minneapolis Mn, novelist (Postman Always Rings Twice)
1893 – Walter Francis White, (NAACP) Atlanta Georgia
1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, US author (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), dies at 85
Born:
1899 – Charles Laughton, England, actor (Mutiny on Bounty, Spartacus)
1899 – Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr, fictional character “Indiana Jones”
1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
1916 – Olivia de Havilland, actress (Adventures of Robin Hood, Gone with the Wind, Snake Pit…) Born
1921 – The Communist Party of China is founded.
1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.
1923 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration.
1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
1931 – Tab Hunter, actor (Tab Hunter Show, Lust in the Dust) Born
1932 – Bobby Day, [Robert Byrd], Fort Worth Tx, rock vocalist (Rockin’ Robin) Born
1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor (MASH) and screenwriter was born.
1934 – Second day of Night of Long Knifes
1935 – James Cotton, blues vocalist Born
1939 – Karen Black, American actress (5 Easy Pieces, Pyx), (d. 2013) Born
1942 – Andraé Crouch, American Gospel singer – Born
1943 – Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name “Tokyo” (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).
1945 – Deborah Harry, Miami Fla, singer (Blondie-Heart of Glass)Born
1950 – David Duke, American politician, K.K.K. member – Born
1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Ottawa Canada, comedian/actor (SNL, Dragnet) Born
1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the U.S.A., the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
1961 – Diana Spencer, Sandringham England, Princess of Wales, (d. 1997)Born
1961 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (b. 1894)Dies
Death on the Installment Plan
1963 – Roddy Bottum, Los Angeles California, rock keyboardist (Faith No More-Real Thing) Born
1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.
1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American model, actress, and producer was born.
1967 – The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1967 – Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867, which officially made Canada its own federal dominion.
1968 – The CIA’s Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 – The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
1972 – The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1977 – Liv Tyler, New York City, American actress and daughter of Aerosmith’s frontman, Steven Tyler (Stealing Beauty) Born
1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.
1980 – “O Canada” officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1983 – R Buckminster Fuller, inventor/philosopher, dies in LA at 87
1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
1991 – Michael Landon, actor (Bonanza, Hwy to Heaven), dies of cancer at 54
1995 – Wolfman Jack, disc jockey (Midnight Special), dies at 57
1997 – Robert Mitchum, actor (Winds of War), dies at 79
1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920) Dies
2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2003 – Over 500,000 people protested against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
2004 – Marlon Brando, actor (“The Godfather”, “A Street Cart Named Desire” and “On the Water Front”) dies at 80
2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.
2009 – Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912)Dies on the same day as Marlon