48 BC – Battle of Dyrrhachium: Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia.
988 – The Norse King Glun Iarainn recognises Máel Sechnaill II, High King of Ireland, and agrees to pay taxes and accept Brehon Law; the event is considered to be the founding of the city of Dublin.
1040 – Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry, according to legend, to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes (1040 Tax form MOCKS us!!!)
1086 – Knut IV, the Saint, king of Denmark (1080-86), murdered
1212 – The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.
1584 – William I “the Silent” [William of Orange], Earl of Nassau, is assassinated at 51in his home in Delft, Holland, by Balthasar Gérard.
1692 – Bridget Bishop, 1st person to be hanged in Salem witch trials Massachusetts USA
1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1821 – The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
1830 – Camille Pissarro, Danish Antillean/French painter (Impressionism) Born
1832 – The U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.
1839 – Adolphus Busch, German brewer, co-founded Anheuser-Busch (d. 1913) was born.
1850 – U.S. President Millard Fillmore is sworn in, a day after becoming President upon Zachary Taylor’s death.
1856 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor, developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, BORN
1871 – Marcel Proust, France, novelist (Remembrance of Things Past) Born
1873 – French poet Paul Verlaine wounds Arthur Rimbaud with pistol
1890 – Wyoming becomes 44th state of US (1st with female suffrage)
1895 – Carl Orff, German composer and educator (d. 1982) was born.
1897 – Jack “Legs” Diamond”, American bootlegger (d. 1931) Born
1914 – Boston Red Sox purchase Babe Ruth from Baltimore Orioles
1914 – Joe Shuster, Canadian-American illustrator, co-created Superman (d. 1992) was born.
1917 – Emma Goldman imprisoned for obstructing draft
1921 – Belfast’s Bloody Sunday: Sixteen people are killed and 161 houses destroyed during rioting and gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1921 – Harvey Ball, American illustrator, created the Smiley (d. 2001) was born.
1921 – Jake LaMotta, Bronx New York, middleweight boxing champ (1949-51) (Raging Bull) Born
1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called “Monkey Trial” begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1926 – Fred Gwynne, actor (Car 54 Where Are You, Munsters. Pet Cemetery), born in NYC, New York
1935 – Tura Satana, American actress, Born
1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain: The German Luftwaffe begins attacking British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).
1941 – Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, pioneer jazz pianist, dies in LA at 56
1942 – Himmler orders sterilization of all Jewish woman in Ravensbruck Camp
1942 – Ronnie James Dio, American singer-songwriter and producer (Black Sabbath, Dio, Elf; d. 2010) was born.
1942 – Sixto Rodriguez, American singer-songwriter and guitarist was born.
1943 – Arthur Ashe, tennis pro (1968 US Open, 1975 Wimbledon) born
1943 – Jerry Miller, Tacoma Wa, rock guitarist (Moby Grape) born
1942 – World War II: An American pilot spots a downed, intact Mitsubishi A6M Zero on Akutan Island (the “Akutan Zero”) that the US Navy uses to learn the aircraft’s flight characteristics.
1947 – Arlo Guthrie, Brooklyn, singer (Son of Woody Gutherie) (Alice’s Restaurant, City of New Orleans) Born
1949 – Greg Kihn U.S. pop musician & radio personality. Born
1953 – Rik “The Rocket” Emmett, Toronto, rock vocalist (Triumph) Born
1954 – Neil Tennant, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (Pet Shop Boys and Electronic) was born.
1956 – 650,000 US steel workers go on strike
1957 – Cindy Sheehan, American Anti War activist was born.
1958 – Béla Fleck, American musician, Born
1959 – Sandy West, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Runaways) (d. 2006) was born.
1962 – Telstar, the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
1962 – Martin Luther King Jr. arrested during demonstration in Georgia
1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary.
1966 – US launches Orbiter 1 to the Moon
1967 – John Yoo, South Korean-American lawyer, author, Torture expert was birthed.
1970 – Gary LeVox, American singer-songwriter (Rascal Flatts) was born.
1971 – Failed attempt on King Hassan II Shirat Morocco, 101 killed
1973 – John Paul Getty III, a grandson of the oil magnate J. Paul Getty, is kidnapped in Rome, Italy.
1973 – Bahamas declares Independence from UK & adopts constitution
1974 – OPEC ends oil boycott against Netherlands
1976 – Elijah Blue Allman, American musician (Deadsy) Born
1978 – ABC World News Tonight premieres on ABC.
1978 – John D. Rockefeller III, American businessman and “philanthropist”, founded the Asia Society (b. 1906) died.
1979 – Arthur Fiedler, orchestra leader (Boston Pops), dies at 84
1979 – Chuck Berry sentenced to 4 months for $200,000 in tax evasion
1981 – Ken Rex McElroy, American resident of Skidmore, Missouri known as “the town bully”, murdered at 47 in an unsolved killing in front of a crowd of 30-46 in Skidmore’s main street
1985 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira.
1985 – Playboy (and also Penthouse) publish nude pictures of Madonna
1987 – John Hammond, American record producer, critic, and activist (b. 1910) died.
1989 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor and singer (b. 1908) died.
1991 – The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid.
1991 – Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.
1991 – Gerome Ragal, author (Hair), dies of cancer at 48
1992 – In Miami, Florida, the former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.
1997 – RJR Nabisco announces it will replace Joe Camel in new ads
1997 – In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the “out of Africa theory” of human evolution placing an “African Eve” at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
1998 – Roman Catholic sex abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Rudolph Kos, a former priest.
2000 – Justin Pierce, English-American actor and skateboarder (b. 1975) Dies
2000 – EADS, the world’s second largest aerospace group is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA, and CASA.
2000 – A leaking southern Nigerian petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers scavenging gasoline.
2001 – Amerada Hess agrees to acquire Triton Energy for $2.7 billion in cash
2002 – At a Sotheby’s auction, Peter Paul Rubens’ painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson.
2007 – Doug Marlette, American cartoonist (b. 1949) Dies
2008 – Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.
2011 – British tabloid News of the World publishes its last edition after 168 years in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.
2012 – The American Episcopal Church becomes the first to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages