| According to the 3rd–century Greek scholar Eratosthenes, this is the date when Troy was sacked and burned during
the Trojan Wars (others came up with completely different dates) |
 |
1184 BC |
| In a violent thunderstorm, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues the Quadi (a Germanic tribe in modern
Moravia, in the Czech Republic) in the so–called 'miracle of the rain' |
|
173 |
| Henry, eldest surviving son of Henry II (crowned 13 years earlier and known as Henry the Young King), dies of dysentery,
during a campaign in Limousin, central France, against his father and his brother Richard the Lionheart – leaving Richard to succeed
their father as Richard I |
|
1183 |
| James III of Scotland is assassinated, and succeeded by James IV |
|
1488 |
| Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon |
|
1509 |
| The House of Commons suppresses a Puritan pamphlet calling for the abolition of episcopacy |
|
1573 |
| Dutch naval commander Michel de Ruyter sails up the Thames and destroys the English fleet under Admiral George Monck
(1667 – Times) |
|
1666 |
| The Covenanters defeat the Royal troops under Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumclog |
|
1679 |
| James, Duke of Monmouth, lands at Lyme Regis, intending to seize the throne from James II |
|
1685 |
| The Act of Settlement is passed – settling the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only
(12th – Indy, 1999) |
|
1701 |
| George II is proclaimed king following the death of his father George I |
|
1727 |
| Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag, later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries |
|
1748 |
| Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef; repairs would take seven weeks |
|
1770 |
| The Continental Congress appoints a Committee of Five – Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger
Sherman and Robert R. Livingston – to draft a declaration of independence |
|
1776 |
| Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska |
|
1788 |
| Large portions of Detroit, in the Michigan Territory, are destroyed by fire |
|
1805 |
| All members of Sir John Franklin's North West Passage expedition perish on King William Island |
|
1847 |
| London Evening Standard first published |
|
1860 |
| The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is established by the Salvation Army in Melbourne,
Australia (it was shut down in 1910 by a new Commissioner who felt that cinema was not something that the church should be involved in) |
|
1892 |
| The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris Trail – sometimes called the "first motor race" – takes
place |
|
1895 |
| The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended to include the Cook Islands |
|
1901 |
| King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia are assassinated in Belgrade by a group of army officers |
|
1903 |
| Britain's Harry Vardon wins his fourth Open golf championship at Prestwick |
|
1905 |
| The Norwegian parliament grants universal suffrage for women |
|
1913 |
| Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the US Triple Crown |
|
1919 |
| The phrase "smoke–filled room" is coined by the press to describe a meeting of Republican Party leaders
in Chicago to select the party's presidential candidate |
|
1920 |
| The liner Empress of Britain is launched at Clydebank |
|
1930 |
| The Disarmament Conference at Geneva ends in failure |
|
1934 |
| Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the USA, at Alpine, New Jersey |
|
1935 |
| The International Surrealist Exhibition opens at the New Burlington Galleries, near Savile Row in London's Mayfair
(see 1 July) |
|
1936 |
| Following one of the key secret trials of Stalin's Great Purge, eight Soviet army leaders are executed after being
convicted of anti–Soviet conspiracy |
|
1937 |
| Italy declares war on the Allies |
|
1940 |
| The United States agrees to send Lend–Lease aid to the Soviet Union |
|
1942 |
| Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim, having
successfully delayed the advance of Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika |
|
1942 |
| USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the US Navy and the future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of
Surrender, is commissioned |
|
1944 |
| In motor sport's deadliest ever accident, 83 spectators lose their lives and at least 100 are injured, during the
Le Mans 24–hour race, when an Austin–Healey and a Mercedes–Benz collide, plunging into a grandstand, and the Mercedes explodes |
|
1955 |
| Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, John and Clarence, escape from the maximum–security prison on Alcatraz
Island – allegedly the only prisoners to do so. But it is not known what happened to them after entering San Francisco Bay, and they are officially
listed as missing, presumed drowned (or eaten by sharks). Their story would be told in the 1963 book and 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz; Morris
was played by Clint Eastwood |
|
1962 |
| Governor George Wallace allows two black students to enrol at the University of Alabama after first blocking their
entry by standing in front of the door |
|
1963 |
| Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with petrol in a busy Saigon intersection, to protest
the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam – specifically, the oppression of the Buddhist religion |
|
|
1963 |
| Daniel Cohn–Bendit, a German student protester expelled from France, arrives in Britain |
|
1968 |
| The first British North Sea oil comes ashore |
|
1975 |
| Dutch marines storm the train where South Moluccan terrorists are holding hostages |
|
1977 |
| Margaret Thatcher becomes the first prime minister for over 160 years to win a third successive general election; Diane
Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as Westminster's first black MPs |
|
1987 |
| Nelson Mandela's '70th birthday party' (Wembley) |
|
1988 |
| Michael Chang, 17, wins the French Open – the youngest–ever winner of a Grand Slam tournament |
|
1989 |
| Mario Vargas Llosa – right–wing politician and novelist – is defeated in the second round of
Peru's elections |
|
1990 |
| Two lives are lost when the tanker Mega Borg catches fire in the Gulf of Mexico |
|
1990 |
| British scientists announce the discovery of an 'intuition gene', present only in women, making them more
responsive to the behaviour and needs of others |
|
1997 |
| Robert 'Basher' Bates, reformed IRA terrorist, is gunned down in Belfast |
|
1997 |
| Camilla Parker–Bowles's car is involved in a collision, four miles from Highgrove |
|
1997 |
| Compaq pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) – the largest high–tech acquisition up to
this date |
|
1998 |
| Timothy McVeigh is executed by lethal injection in Terre Haut, Indiana, for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing |
|
2001 |
| The US Congress acknowledges Italian inventor Antonio Meucci as the first inventor of the telephone |
|
2002 |
| The joint NASA–ESA probe Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe |
|
2004 |
| 130 lives are lost in mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh |
|
2007 |
| Greece's public broadcaster ERT is reopened by prime minister Alexis Tsipras, on the second anniversary of its
closure by Antonis Samparas |
|
2015 |
| US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong–un of North Korea meet in Singapore – the first leaders of these
two countries ever to meet |
|
2018 |
| 3 World Trade Centre, in New York, officially opens |
|
2018 |
