Events Pre-1600 524 – The Franks are defeated by the Burgundians in the Battle of Vézeronce. 841 – In the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye, forces led by Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat the armies of Lothair I of Italy and Pepin II of Aquitaine. 1258 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Acre, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet sailing to relieve Acre. 1357 – The English defeat a French fleet which aimed to bring relief to the besieged Calais in the battle of Crotoy. 1401 – Schaffhausen massacre: 30 Jews are executed, following torture, after being accused of a blood libel in Schaffhausen (in present-day Switzerland). 1530 – At the Diet of Augsburg the Augsburg Confession is presented to the Holy Roman Emperor by the Lutheran princes and Electors of Germany.
1601–1900 1658 – Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Rio Nuevo during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1678 – Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua. 1741 – Maria Theresa is crowned Queen of Hungary. 1786 – Gavriil Pribylov discovers St. George Island of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. 1788 – Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1848 – A photograph of the June Days uprising becomes the first known instance of photojournalism. 1876 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Little Bighorn: 300 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer are wiped out by 5,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. 1900 – The Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovers the Dunhuang manuscripts, a cache of ancient texts that are of great historical and religious significance, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China.
1901–present 1906 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Thaw shoots and kills prominent architect Stanford White. 1910 – The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of women or girls for "immoral purposes"; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come. 1910 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer. 1913 – American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913. 1935 – Colombia–Soviet Union relations are established. 1938 – Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. 1940 – World War II: The French armistice with Nazi Germany comes into effect. 1941 – World War II: The Continuation War between the Soviet Union and Finland, supported by Nazi Germany, began. 1943 – The Holocaust and World War II: Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis. 1943 – The left-wing German Jewish exile Arthur Goldstein is murdered in Auschwitz. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic countries, begins. 1944 – World War II: United States Navy and British Royal Navy ships bombard Cherbourg to support United States Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg. 1944 – The final page of the comic Krazy Kat is published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died. 1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published. 1948 – The United States Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act to allow World War II refugees to immigrate to the United States above quota restrictions. 1950 – The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea. 1960 – Cold War: Two cryptographers working for the United States National Security Agency left for vacation to Mexico, and from there defected to the Soviet Union. 1975 – Mozambique achieves independence from Portugal. 1975 – Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of internal emergency in India. 1976 – Missouri Governor Kit Bond issues an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1978 – The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. 1978 – Hosts Argentina defeat the Netherlands by a score of 3–1 in the final to win their first ever FIFA World Cup. 1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington. 1991 – The breakup of Yugoslavia begins when Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from Yugoslavia. 1992 – Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-50, the first shuttle mission to carry Extended Duration Orbiter hardware. 1993 – Kim Campbell is sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Canada. 1996 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen. 1996 – American rapper Jay-Z releases his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. 1997 – An uncrewed Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir. 1997 – The National Hockey League approved expansion franchises for Nashville (1998), Atlanta (1999), Columbus (2000), and Minneapolis-Saint Paul (2000). 1998 – In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional. 2007 – PMTair Flight 241 crashes in the Dâmrei Mountains in Kampot Province, Cambodia, killing all 22 people on board. 2009 – The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief as reactions online cause the flow of internet traffic to surge to unprecedented and historic levels. 2022 – The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina inaugurates the longest bridge of Bangladesh, Padma Bridge. 2022 – Russo-Ukrainian War: The Battle of Sievierodonetsk ends after weeks of heavy fighting with the Russian capture of the city, leading to the Battle of Lysychansk. 2022 – Two people are killed and 21 more injured after a gunman opens fire at three sites in Oslo in a suspected Islamist anti-LGBTQ+ attack. 2024 – Thousands of people storm Kenya's Parliament Buildings protesting the passing of the government's 2024/25 Finance Bill.
Births Pre-1600
1242 – Beatrice of England (died 1275) 1328 – William de Montagu, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, English commander (died 1397) 1371 – Joanna II of Naples (died 1435) 1484 – Bartholomeus V. Welser, German banker (died 1561) 1526 – Elisabeth Parr, Marchioness of Northampton (died 1565) 1560 – Wilhelm Fabry, German surgeon (died 1634) 1568 – Gunilla Bielke, Queen of Sweden (died 1597)
1601–1900 1612 – John Albert Vasa, Polish cardinal (died 1634) 1632 – Girolamo Corner, Venetian statesman and military commander (died 1690) 1709 – Francesco Araja, Italian composer (died 1762) 1715 – Joseph Foullon de Doué, French soldier and politician, Controller-General of Finances (died 1789) 1755 – Natalia Alexeievna of Russia (died 1776) 1799 – David Douglas, Scottish-English botanist and explorer (died 1834) 1814 – Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, French geologist and engineer (died 1896) 1825 – James Farnell, Australian politician, 8th Premier of New South Wales (died 1888) 1848 – Thomas Henry Tracy, Canadian architect and alderman (died 1925) 1852 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect, designed the Park Güell and the Sagrada Família (died 1926) 1858 – Georges Courteline, French author and playwright (died 1929) 1860 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer and conductor (died 1956) 1863 – Émile Francqui, Belgian soldier and diplomat (died 1935) 1864 – Walther Nernst, German chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1941) 1866 – Eloísa Díaz, Chilean doctor and Chile's first female physician (died 1950) 1874 – Rose O'Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer (died 1944) 1884 – Géza Gyóni, Hungarian soldier and poet (died 1917) 1884 – Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, German-French art collector and historian (died 1979) 1886 – Henry H. Arnold, American general (died 1950) 1887 – George Abbott, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1995) 1887 – Frigyes Karinthy, Hungarian author, poet, and journalist (died 1938) 1892 – Shirō Ishii, Japanese microbiologist and general (died 1959) 1894 – Hermann Oberth, Romanian-German physicist and engineer (died 1989) 1898 – Kay Sage, American painter and poet (died 1963) 1900 – Marta Abba, Italian actress (died 1988) 1900 – Zinaida Aksentyeva, Ukrainian/Soviet astronomer (died 1969) 1900 – Georgia Hale, American silent film actress and real estate investor (died 1985) 1900 – Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, English admiral and politician, 44th Governor-General of India (died 1979)
1901–present 1901 – Harold Roe Bartle, American businessman and politician, 47th Mayor of Kansas City (died 1974) 1902 – Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu of Japan (died 1953) 1903 – George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic (died 1950) 1903 – Anne Revere, American actress (died 1990) 1905 – Rupert Wildt, German-American astronomer and academic (died 1976) 1907 – J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) 1908 – Willard Van Orman Quine, American philosopher and academic (died 2000) 1911 – William Howard Stein, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980) 1912 – William T. Cahill, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (died 1996) 1913 – Cyril Fletcher, English actor and screenwriter (died 2005) 1917 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (died 2012) 1917 – Claude Seignolle, French author (died 2018) 1918 – P. H. Newby, English soldier and author (died 1997) 1920 – Lassie Lou Ahern, American actress (died 2018) 1921 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian ballerina and choreographer, founded the National Ballet of Canada (died 2007) 1922 – Johnny Smith, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2013) 1923 – Sam Francis, American soldier and painter (died 1994) 1923 – Dorothy Gilman, American author (died 2012) 1923 – Jamshid Amouzegar, 43rd Prime Minister of Iran (died 2016) 1924 – Sidney Lumet, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2011) 1924 – Dimitar Isakov, Bulgarian footballer 1924 – Madan Mohan, Iraqi-Indian composer and director (died 1975) 1924 – Rosalind P. Walter, American philanthropist, WNET benefactor and an inspiration behind "Rosie the Riveter" (died 2020) 1925 – Clifton Chenier, American blues singer, the 'King of Zydeco' (died 1978) 1925 – June Lockhart, American actress (died 2025) 1925 – Virginia Patton, American actress and businesswoman (died 2022) 1925 – Robert Venturi, American architect and academic (died 2018) 1926 – Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian author and poet (died 1973) 1926 – Kep Enderby, Australian lawyer, judge, and politician, 23rd Attorney-General for Australia (died 2015) 1926 – Stig Sollander, Swedish Alpine skier (died 2019) 1927 – Antal Róka, Hungarian runner (died 1970) 1927 – Arnold Wolfendale, English astronomer and academic (died 2020) 1928 – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017) 1928 – Michel Brault, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2013) 1928 – Peyo, Belgian author and illustrator, created The Smurfs (died 1992) 1928 – William Russo, American trombonist, jazz, classical and theater composer (died 2003) 1929 – Eric Carle, American author and illustrator (died 2021) 1929 – Francesco Marchisano, Italian cardinal (died 2014) 1931 – V. P. Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of India (died 2008) 1932 – Peter Blake, English painter and illustrator 1932 – George Sluizer, French-Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2014) 1933 – Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portuguese architect, designed the Porto School of Architecture 1933 – James Meredith, civil rights activist, first black man to graduate from the University of Mississippi 1934 – Jean Geissinger, American baseball player (died 2014)