1487 – Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against a ban on foreign beer.
1534 – French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.
1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit, Michigan.
1796 – John Middleton Clayton, Delaware, (Sen-Del)/US Sec of State (1849-50) Born
1802 – Alexandre Dumas, Aisne France, author (3 Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo), (d. 1870) Born
1814 – War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown’s American invaders.
1826 – Ivan Bloch, Polish military theorist and peace activist (d. 1902)Born
1821 – William Poole, American boxer and gangster (d. 1855 – New York City’s Bowery Boys) (d. 1855)) was born.
1862 – Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782) died.
1866 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
1877 – 1st time federal troops are used to combat strikers
1895 – Robert Graves, London England, writer/poet (I Claudius) [or 6/26] Born
1897 – Amelia Earhart, Atchison Kansas, American aviator (1st woman to solo Atlantic)Born
1899 – Chief Dan George, actor (Little Big Man) Born
1900 – Zelda Fitzgerald, 1st wife of F Scott – Born
1901 – O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas”.
1915 – The passenger ship S.S. Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
1922 – The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.
1925 – John Thomas Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in a Tennessee HS, fined $100 & costs
1929 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers).
1936 – Ruth Buzzi, Westerly RI, comedienne (Laugh-In, Margie-That Girl) Born
1937 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called “Scottsboro Boys”.
1938 – Instant coffee invented
1941 – FDR demands Japanese troops out of Indo-China (provokes Pearl Harbor Attack)
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1949 – Michael Richards, Los Angeles California, comedian (Fridays, Kramer-Seinfeld)Born
1951 – Lynda Carter, Phoenix Az, Miss USA (1973)/actress (Wonder Woman)Born
1952 – Gus Van Sant, American film director (My own Private Idaho / Drugstore Cowboy etc…) Born
1953 – Steve Grogan, NFL QB (New England Patriots) Born
1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a “Kitchen Debate”.
1963 – The iconic Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol.
1965 – Bob Dylan release “Like a Rolling Stone”
1967 – Beatles sign a petition in Times to legalize marijuana
1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (“Long live free Quebec!”). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
1969 – Muhammad Ali is convicted for refusing induction in US Army on appeal
1969 – Jennifer Lopez, Bronx New York, actress and pop singer (Selena) Born
1972 – Bobby Ramirez, drummer (White Trash), killed at 23 in bar brawl
1974 – Christine Chubbock, newscaster, shoots self on air
1974 – Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
1979 – Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski hits his 400th HR
1980 – Peter Sellers, actor (Dr Strangelove! Pink Panther, Mouse that Roared), dies at 54
1982 – Anna Paquin, oscar winning actress (Piano / True Blood) Born
1983 – The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
1985 – Patrice Bergeron, Canadian hockey player (Boston Bruins!) Born
1990 – US warships in Persian Gulf placed on alert after Iraq masses nearly 30,000 troops near its border with Kuwait
1998 – Russell Eugene Weston, Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.
1998 – Bindi Irwin, Australian television host, actress, and singer was born
2001 – Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, all died in this attack. They destroyed 11 Aircraft (mostly military) and damaged 15, there are no civilian casualties. This incident slowed down Sri Lankan economy.
2002 – James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1. (The sole vote against expulsion was Rep. Gary Condit… NOT Ron Paul)
2012 – Chad Everett, American actor, dies from lung cancer at 75
2012 – Sherman Hemsley, American Actor, dies from natural causes at 74
2012 – Four barrels containing 248 human fetuses are found in Sverdlovsk, Russia
2013 – 22 are left dead after a conflict between the Knights Templar Cartel and Mexican police in Michoacan
2013 – 80 people are killed and 140 are injured after a high-speed train derails in Santiago de Compostela, Spain