512 – A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland.
1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
1540 – English ex-chancellor Thomas Cromwell sentenced as heretic
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground.
1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey
1776 – Virginia state constitution adopted & Patrick Henry made governor
1793 – Josef Ressel, Czech-Austrian inventor, invented the propeller (d. 1857) was born.
1852 – Henry Clay, Federalist, Central Bank Supporter, American lawyer and politician, 9th United States Secretary of State (b. 1777) died.
1861 – William James Mayo, American physician, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939) was born.
1861 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, British poet and writer (“How Do I Love thee”), dies at 55
1864 – Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada’s worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.
1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled “Who’s to Blame?” in which he lays out his complaints against King George. He is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.
1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
1892 – Henry Gerber, German-American activist, founded the Society for Human Rights (d. 1972) was born.
1895 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (Eugenicist) Grandfather of Aldous and Julian (b. 1825) DIES
1900 – The Imperial Chinese Court issues what is essentially a declaration of war against the foreigners in China and blames hostilities on them, giving license to Boxers for even greater ferocity
1911 – Bernard Herrmann, American composer (The Devil and Daniel Webster, Taxi Driver), born in NYC, New York
1916 – The Irish Nationalist and British diplomat Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
1919 – Slim Pickens, Kingsburg California, actor (Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles) Born
1922 – France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge “freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes”.
1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
1931 – Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical on Nun abbiamo bisogno (We do not need fascism and Mussolini)
1933 – Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, US actor (Keystone comedies), dies at 46
1943 – Little Eva (Eva Boyd), Belhaven, North Carolina, American pop singer (Locomotion) born
1944 – Gary Busey, Goose Creek Tx, actor (Buddy Holly Story, Star in Born) born
1946 – Black Sabbath-Brits arrest 2,700 Jews in Palestine as alleged terrorist
1948 – Ian Paice, English drummer, songwriter, and producer (Deep Purple and Paice Ashton Lord) was born.
1948 – Bill Kirchen, singer/guitarist (Commander Cody & His Lost Planet) Born
1953 – Colin Hay, Scottish-Australian singer, guitarist, and actor (Men at Work) was born.
1954 – US Atomic Energy Commission voted against reinstating Dr Robert Oppenheimer
1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1961 – Greg Hetson, American singer and guitarist (Bad Religion, Circle Jerks, Black President, and Redd Kross) was born.
1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed after 83-day filibuster in Senate
1965 – Tripp Eisen, American guitarist (Static-X, Dope, and Murderdolls) was born.
1966 – In the Vietnam War, US planes bombed Hanoi & Haiphong for 1st time
1967 – Jayne Mansfield, actress (Female Jungle), dies in a car crash at 34
1971 – Matthew Good, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Matthew Good Band) was born.
1971 – Rolling Stones Mick Jagger & Keith Richards sentenced on drug offense
1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.
1976 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin
1978 – Bob Crane, actor (Donna Reed Show, Hogan-Hogan’s Heroes), murdered at 49
1979 – Lowell George, rocker (Mothers of Invention, Little Feat), dies at 34
1981 – Mohammed Hussein Beheshti, Iran ayatollah/politician, murdered
1982 – Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended
1990 – Irving Wallace, author (Book of Lists, Peoples Almanac), dies at 74
1992 – Algerian head of state, Mohamed Boudiaf, is assassinated by military officers during a public speech at the opening of a cultural center in Annaba
1994 – US reopens Guantanamo Naval Base to process refugees
1994 – Ray Crane, trumpeter, dies at 63
1995 – Lana Turner, actress (Madame X), dies of cancer at 75
1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
1995 – George Foreman loses IBF boxing title for refusing to re-fight Axel Schulz
2000 – Eminem’s mother goes to court claiming defamation of character in a $10 million civil suit, after taking exception to the line “My mother smokes more dope than I do” from her son’s single ‘My Name Is’
2002 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (b. 1928) Dies
2002 – U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, serves as Acting President for two and a half hours, while President George W. Bush undergoes a colonoscopy procedure.
2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
2008 – Thomas Beatie, the world’s first pregnant man, gives birth to a daughter.
2012 – 16 Naxalite Maoist insurgents in India are killed by police
2012 – 15,000 Japanese anti-nuclear protesters blockade the Japanese Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo
2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.