| The Great Fire of Rome begins. Over the next nine days it would destroy two thirds of the city |
 |
64 |
| During the Second War of Scottish Independence, Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas are heavily defeated by the
English forces of King Edward III on unfavourable terrain while trying to relieve Berwick–upon–Tweed |
|
1333 |
| 700 lives are lost when HMS Mary Rose sinks in the Solent |
|
1545 |
| Queen Jane is deposed after only nine days on the throne, and replaced by Mary I |
|
1553 |
| The Spanish Armada is sighted off the Lizard, on the south coast of Cornwall. With the English fleet trapped in Plymouth
Harbour by an incoming tide, the Duke of Medina Sidonia is for riding into the harbour on the tide and incapacitate the defending ships at anchor;
but this is expressly forbidden by Philip II |
|
1588 |
| William III is defeated by the French Marshal Luxembourg at the Battle of Landen (Neerwinden) |
|
1693 |
| Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to
England |
|
1701 |
| The Rosetta Stone is found at Rosetta, near Alexandra, Egypt |
|
1799 |
| Coronation of George IV; his estranged wife Caroline is forcibly kept away |
|
1821 |
| The Provincial Medical and Surgical Association – a forerunner of the The British Medical Association – is
founded by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary |
|
1832 |
| The steamship Great Western is launched at Bristol |
|
1837 |
| SS Great Britain – the first ocean–going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, and the largest
vessel afloat anywhere in the world – is launched at Wapping by Prince Albert |
|
1843 |
| Amelia Jenks Bloomer introduces knee–length trousers for women |
|
1843 |
| Manhattan's last great fire begins early in the morning, but was subdued in the afternoon of the same day. Four
firefighters and 26 civilians lose their lives, and 345 buildings are destroyed |
|
1845 |
| The first women's rights assembly begins at Seneca Falls, New York State |
|
1848 |
| Sayid Ali Mohammed, founder of the Ba'hai Sect, is executed in Persia by order of the Shah |
|
1849 |
| At Buffington Island, Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a
large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River |
|
1863 |
| The Franco–Prussian War begins after Napoleon III declares war on Prussia |
|
1870 |
| The final of the Men's Singles competition at the first All–England Tennis Championships is played at Wimbledon |
|
1877 |
| The first line of the Paris Metro is opened |
|
1900 |
| The first Tour de France is won by Maurice Garin |
|
1903 |
| The building of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral starts |
|
1904 |
| An attack on the German front line by British and Australian forces at Fromelles, during the Battle of the Somme, ends
in disaster as over 5,500 Australian personnel and more than 1,500 British lose their lives |
|
1916 |
| A temporary cenotaph, made of wood and plaster, is erected in Whitehall for a parade of troops commemorating the end
of the First World War. It formed such an unexpected focus for the nation's grief that a permanent one, in Portland stone, was later created by Sir Edward Lutyens |
|
1919 |
| Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is consecrated |
|
1924 |
| In the USA, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold plead guilty to murdering 14–year–old Bobbie Franks –
'the perfect crime' |
|
1924 |
| A general strike is called in Spain, mobilising workers' militias against the Nationalist forces |
|
1936 |
| Two art exhibitions open in Munich: one of 'true German' art, the other of 'Degenerate, Bolshevik and
Jewish' art |
|
1937 |
| The Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni is sunk by British and Australian ships in the Battle of Cape Spada, off
Crete |
|
1940 |
| The British Army's Intelligence Corps is founded |
|
1940 |
| Winston Churchill launches his "V for Victory" campaign |
|
1941 |
| Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties |
|
1943 |
| Aung San, Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government (father of Aung San Suu Kyi, and regarded as the father of
modern Myanmar) is assassinated along with eight others by paramilitary supporters of former Prime Minister U Saw |
|
1947 |
| Lyuh Woon–hyung, Prime Minister of the short–lived People's Republic of Korea, is assassinated in Seoul
by 19–year–old Han Chigeun, a recent refugee from North Korea and an active member of a nationalist right–wing group |
|
1947 |
| Laos gains independence |
|
1949 |
| The Games of the XVth Olympiad open in Helsinki |
|
1952 |
| Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later |
|
1961 |
| Captain Joe Walker, USAF, flies a North American X–15 hypersonic rocket–powered aircraft to a record
altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) – qualifying as a space flight under international convention |
|
1963 |
| 28–year–old secretary Mary Jo Kopechne drowns when a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy, in which she was
a passenger, plunges off a bridge and into Poucha Pond (a tidal inlet of the Atlantic Ocean). This happens between 15 and 105 minutes after they
left a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, late in the evening of the previous day (at 23:15, according to Kennedy); he would report
the incident to police at around 10:00 on this day |
|
1969 |
| SS Great Britain returns to England from the Falklands |
|
1970 |
| Clarence White, guitarist of The Byrds, dies several days after being left in a coma by a car crash |
|
1973 |
| Film star Bruce Lee is found dead in the Hong Kong flat of actress Betty Ting Pei |
|
1973 |
| Viking 1 lands on Mars and begins sending back TV pictures |
|
1976 |
| Sagarmatha National Park is created in Nepal |
|
1976 |
| The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal is transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2
(NTS–2) and received by Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa |
|
1977 |
| Sandinista forces enter Managua and overthrow the government of the Somoza family |
|
1979 |
| The Greek oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, the
Aegean Captain,
in the Caribbean, and sinks, having spilled 287,000 metric tonnes of crude oil – the largest ship–based spill on record and the
fifth–largest oil spill of any kind |
|
1979 |
| The Games of the XXII Olympiad opens in Moscow – without USA, Canada, China, Japan, Kenya, West Germany et al |
|
1980 |
| In a private meeting with US President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence
of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development |
|
1981 |
| In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge – president of the American University of Beirut
– is kidnapped |
|
1982 |
| The skeleton of a new species of meat–eating dinosaur is unveiled to the media at the Natural History Museum in
London, having been discovered six months earlier by plumber and amateur fossil hunter Bill Walker, 55, at a clay pit near Gatwick Airport in
Surrey |
|
1983 |
| Britain's most severe earthquake for over 100 years hits Wales and the West |
|
1984 |
| 268 lives are lost, 63 buildings destroyed and eight bridges demolished, when two dams above the village of Stava, near
Tesero in Northern Italy, fail – one of Italy's worst ever disasters |
|
1985 |
| The Polish parliament elects General Wojciech Jaruzelski as the country's first president – by one vote |
|
1989 |
| One hundred and eleven lives are lost when a United Airlines DC–10 crash–lands at Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic
failure of its tail–mounted engine |
|
1989 |
| Anti–mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino, and five members of his police escort, are killed in a terror attack by
the Sicilian Mafia, in Palermo |
|
1992 |
| Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic – currently a fugitive after an arrest warrant was issued for him last week
by the International War Crimes Tribunal – agrees to resign and withdraw from political and public life, having been ordered to do so by
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, after marathon talks with US special envoy Richard Holbrooke |
|
1996 |
| The Games of the XXVIth (Centenary) Olympiad open in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; the flame is lit by Muhammad Ali |
|
1996 |
| The Provisional IRA announces its second ceasefire in three years – after the previous set of peace talks ended
in stalemate – because of a "commitment by the two governments [UK and the Republic of Ireland] to inclusive peace talks" |
|
1997 |
| Justin Rose, aged 17, finishes 4th in the Open at Royal Birkdale – the first amateur since 1953 to
finish in the top five |
|
1998 |
| Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood is injured in a drive–by shooting while waiting at traffic lights in his car |
|
1999 |
| Lord (Jeffrey) Archer is sentenced to four years' imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice
during his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, which reported that he made payments to the prostitute Monica Coghlan |
|
2001 |
| At least 21 soldiers are killed when a military checkpoint in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate
is attacked by gunmen. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan |
|
2014 |
