306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome to commemorate Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.
1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado founds the city of Santiago de Cali.
1593 – Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
1603 – James VI of Scotland is crowned king of England (James I of England), bringing the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.
1722 – The Three Years War begins along the Maine and Massachusetts border.
1750 – Henry Knox, American general and politician, 1st United States Secretary of War (d. 1806) was born.
1755 – British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians. Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick.
1775 – Maryland issues currency depicting George III trampling Magna Carta
1783 – American Revolutionary War: The war’s last action, the Siege of Cuddalore, is ended by a preliminary peace agreement.
1788 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K550).
1792 – The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Lundy’s Lane – reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall’s British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown’s Americans commences at 18.00; the Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
1837 – The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on July 25, 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London.
1853 – Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, is killed.
1861 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
1866 – The United States Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
1868 – Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
1870 – Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966) Born
1897 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
1909 – Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine from (Calais to Dover, England, United Kingdom) in 37 minutes.
1915 – Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., American lieutenant and pilot (d. 1944) was born.
1917 – Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a “temporary” measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
1917 – The exotic dancer Mata Hari is sentenced to execution by firing squad by a French court for spying on Germany’s behalf during World War I.
1920 – Telecommunications: The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place.
1921 – Rum runners are now taunting US authorities by sitting outside of the three mile limit with flags and signs saying come and get it. At night they disappear under cover of darkness to areas not patrolled and small fishing boats unload the cargo and deliver the booze back to shore.
1924 – Frank Church, (Sen-D-Id, 1957-81 — Church Committee) Born
1925 – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
1925 – Benny Benjamin, American drummer (The Funk Brothers) (d. 1969) was born.
1934 – The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
1940 – General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.
1941 – Emmett Till, American murder victim (d. 1955) was born.
1941 – FDR bans selling benzine/gasoline to Japan
1942 – Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the Nazis.
1942 – Bruce Woodley, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Seekers) was born.
1943 – Jim McCarty, English singer and drummer (The Yardbirds, Renaissance, and Illusion) was born.
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini Captured and is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1944 – World War II: Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war: One thousand five hundred casualties, including 500 killed.
1946 – Operation Crossroads: An atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll.
1946 – At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
1950 – Mark Clarke, rocker (Uriah Heep) Born
1951 – Verdine White, American bass player and producer (Earth, Wind & Fire) was born.
1952 – Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing US commonwealth (Constitution Day)
1956 – Italian liner Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Stockholm
1956 – Jordan attacks UN Palestine force
1957 – Roger Clinton, singer, President Clinton’s half-brother – born
1958 – Thurston Moore, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Sonic Youth, Ciccone Youth, The Coachmen, and Dim Stars) was born.
1959 – SR.N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England in just over two hours.
1961 – In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.
1966 – Brian Jones final performance as a Rolling Stone
1966 – Montgomery Clift, movie actor (From Here to Eternity), dies
1969 – 1st performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Fillmore East, NY)
1969 – 70,000 attend Seattle Pop Festival
1969 – Senator Edward Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene of a crime ( Car accident on the island of Chappaquiddick where Mary Jo Kopechne drowned )and has been sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence.
1969 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the “Vietnamization” of the war.
1973 – Dani Filth, British singer (Cradle of Filth) Born
1973 – George Harrison pays £1,000,000 tax on his Bangladesh concert & album
1974 – Walter Brennan, actor (Real McCoys), dies at 79
1976 – Viking program: Viking 1 takes the famous Face on Mars photo.
1978 – Puerto Rico police assassinate two nationalists in the Cerro Maravilla murders.
1978 – Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby” is born.
1984 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (b. 1926)Dies
1984 – Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
1985 – Spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed he had AIDS
1989 – Steve Rubell, American night club owner – Studio 54 (b. 1943) dies
1993 – Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.
1993 – The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, that formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.
1995 – Charlie Rich, country singer (Lonely Weekends), dies at 62
1997 – Ben Hogan, golfer (Masters, Brit Open, US Open-1953), dies at 84
1997 – Vincent “The Chin” Gigante found guilty of racketeering in NYC
2000 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and four on the ground. (Ends Supersonic flight)
2003 – Erik Brann, American singer and guitarist (Iron Butterfly) (b. 1950) died.
2009 – Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier to have served in the Trenches in World War I, dies aged 111. (b. 1898)
2010 – WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.