451 – 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
843 – Vikings destroy Nantes
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce, though England did not recognize Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.
1322 – Jews are expelled from France for 3rd time
1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
Also known as St. Vitus’s dance, between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries, manias swept across Europe as tens of thousands of people participated in frenzied public orgies and wild dances lasting for days and sometimes weeks.
During outbreaks many immodestly tore off their clothing and pranced naked through the streets. Some screamed and beckoned to be tossed into the air; others danced furiously in what observers described as strange, colorful attire. A few reportedly laughed or weeped to the point of death. Women howled and made obscene gestures while others squealed like animals. Some rolled themselves in the dirt or relished being struck on the soles of their feet. An Italian variant was known as tarantism, as victims were believed to have been bitten by the tarantula spider, for which the only cure was thought to be frenetic dancing to certain music which supposedly dissipated the “poison” from their blood (Hecker 1844; Rosen 1968; Sirois 1982).
The term “dancing mania” is derived from the Greek word choros, a dance, and mania, madness. The literal translation of choros mania is dancing madness. The name was adopted after a group of about 200 people danced so spiritedly on a bridge above the Maas River in Germany during 1278 that it collapsed, killing many participants. Survivors were treated in a nearby chapel dedicated to St. Vitus, and many were reportedly restored to full health. Prior to the twentieth century it was commonly referred to as epidemic chorea or choreomania. The word chorea was erroneously evoked to describe these behaviors, as participants were often thought to be exhibiting symptoms of chorea, a central nervous system disorder characterized by brief irregular jerking movements which can resemble dancing.
1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings. * claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he found Asia in Nova Scotia)
1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
1542 – St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite mystic, saint, priest and poet (d. 1591) Born
1597 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1648 – Cossacks slaughter 2,000 Jews & 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine
1692 – Kingston, Jamaica, founded
1717 – 1st Free Masons’ grand lodge founded in London
1731 – Freemason and Mayor of Philadelphia William Allen is appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, the first and youngest Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning the invasion of Russia.
1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
1842 – Ambrose Bierce, Meigs County, Ohio, American writer and satirist (Devil’s Dictionary, Nuggets & Dust) Born
1853 – Gadsden Purchase 29,670-square-mile (76,800 square km) from Mexico (now southern Arizona and New Mexico) for $10 million signed by President Franklin Pierce
1861 – Tennessee becomes 11th (& last) state to secede from Union
1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1884 – John Lynch is 1st black elected chairman of Republican convention
1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971) was birthed.
1895 – Jack Dempsey, “Manassa Mauler”, heavyweight boxing champion (1919-26)Born
1899 – Chief Dan George, actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man. Smith!) Born
1901 – 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso, 19, opens in Paris
1901 – Jewish National Fund starts
1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1903 – Russia prohibits meetings dealing with Zionist
1908 – Grover Cleveland, 22nd & 24th US President (1885-89, 93-97), dies at 71
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million dollar contract.
1933 – Sissieretta Joyner Jones, “Black Patti”, US singer, dies at about 64
1935 – Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer and the most prominent figure in the history of tango, dies in a plane crash at 44
1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
1944 – Chris Wood, rocker (Traffic) Born
1944 – Jeff Beck, Surrey England, singer/guitarist (Jeff Beck Group) Born
1945 – George Pataki, American lawyer and politician, 53rd Governor of New York was birthed.
1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. Flying saucers sighted over Mount Rainier by pilot Ken Arnold
1947 – Mick Fleetwood, English-American drummer and actor (Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) was born.
1947 – Peter Weller, Stevens Point WI, actor, director (Robocop, Of Unknown Origin, Naked Lunch, Breaking Bad) Born
1948 – Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
1948 – Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player and songwriter (Yes, The Moody Blues, and Refugee) was born.
1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.
1950 – Derrick “Duckie” Simpson, Kingston Jamaica, rocker (Black Uhuru) Born
1950 – Nancy Allen, actress (Carrie, 1941, Robocop, Dress to Kill), born in NYC, New York
1957 – “I Love Lucy” last airs on CBS-TV
1957 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment in Roth v. United States.
1957 – Astro, [Terrence Wilson], England, rock vocalist (UB40-Red Red Wine) born
1961 – Curt Smith, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Tears for Fears and Graduate) was born.
1963 – 1st demonstration of home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London
1964 – FTC rules health warnings must appear on all cigarette packages
1967 – Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German musician (Rammstein) Born
1970 – “Catch 22″ opens in movie theaters
1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.
1977 – IRS reveals Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976
1982 – “Equal Rights” Amendment goes down to defeat
1982 – US Supreme Court rules president can’t be sued for actions in office
1986 – Guy Hunt elected 1st Republican governor of Alabama in 112 years
1986 – US Senate approves “tax reform”
1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor and singer (b. 1916) died.
1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests.
1992 – Commissioner Fay Vincent permanently bans Steve Howe from baseball
1992 – Eddie Antar, CEO (Crazy Eddies), $74 m stock fraud caught in Israel
1992 – John Gotti begins life sentence in jail
1993 – “Arab terrorist group” planning bombing of Holland and Lincoln Tunnels caught
1993 – Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.
1997 – Brian Keith, actor (Family Affair), commits suicide at 75
2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
2006 – Patsy Ramsey, mother of JonBenét Ramsey (b. 1956) DIES
2007 – Chris Benoit, Canadian-American wrestler (b. 1967) committed suicide days after murdering his wife and son.
2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies.
2012 – Female athletes will be allowed to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics for the first time
2014 – Rebels in Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire
2014 – Eli Wallach, American actor (Misfits, Baby Doll, Wall St 2), dies at 98