This Day in History

[lordroel]

June 23rd

229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu.

1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships.

1280 – The Battle of Moclín takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadian victory.

1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins.

1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

1565 – Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Great Siege of Malta.

1594 – The Action of Faial, Azores. The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board.

1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.

1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1713 – The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada.

1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.

1758 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld: Allied (British, Hanoverian, and Prussian) forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.

1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeats Prussia.

1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township).

1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.

1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.

1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.

1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate, Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army.

1868 – Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer."

1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation's first national park, Banff National Park.

1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran.

1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.

1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.

1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam.

1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.

1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city.

1940 – Henry Larsen begins the first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.

1942 – World War II: Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.

1951 – The ocean liner, SS United States, is christened and launched.

1956 – The French National Assembly takes the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa.

1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.

1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.

1961 – Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force 18 months after the opening date for signature was set for December 1, 1959.

1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.

1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.

1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry.

1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds.

1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

1985 – A terrorist bomb explodes at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. An hour later, the same group detonates a second bomb aboard Air India Flight 182, bringing the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.

1991 – Sonic the Hedgehog is released to American audiences, then to PAL and Japanese audiences a month later, kickstarting the successful Sonic franchise.

1996 – The Nintendo 64 home video game console is first released in Japan, with Nintendo ultimately selling 32.93 million units worldwide.

2001 – The 8.4 Mw  southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, and 2,687 injured.

2003 – Kane unmasks on Monday Night Raw, revealing himself as Glen Jacobs, the future mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.

2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

2013 – Militants stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and killed ten climbers, as well as a local guide.

2014 – The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction.

2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.

2017 – A series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 deaths and wounded 200 others.

[lordroel]

June 24th

1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa.

217 BC – The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.

109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-west of Rome.

474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.

972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.

1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães: Forces led by Afonso I defeat forces led by his mother Teresa of León and her lover Fernando Pérez de Traba.

1230 – The Siege of Jaén begins, in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.

1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce.

1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.

1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.

1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.

1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.

1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.

1571 – Miguel López de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.

1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.

1762 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The British-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats French forces in Westphalia.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.

1793 – The first Republican constitution in France is adopted.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.

1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.

1821 – The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.

1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.

1866 – Battle of Custoza: An Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.

1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.

1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.

1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.

1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.

1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.

1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.

1922 – The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.

1932 – A bloodless revolution instigated by the People's Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand).

1938 – Pieces of a meteorite, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country's third prime minister.

1940 – World War II: Operation Collar, the first British Commando raid on occupied France, by No 11 Independent Company.

1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.

1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.

1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.

1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act formally segregating races is passed.

1954 – First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass: Viet Minh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.

1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.

1973 – The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.

1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It would be the world's longest bridge span for 17 years.

1982 – "The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

1995 – "Rugby World Cup final": South Africa defeats New Zealand, Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb-Ellis trophy in an iconic post-apartheid moment.

2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.

2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.

2010 – John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.

2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies.

2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and having sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.

[stevep]

Jun 24, 2019 2:49:37 GMT lordroel said:

June 24th

1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.

  Interesting.  I knew there was a lot of problems with racism in the war, especially in the US forces stationed in Britain and it caused some diffiuclties.  Love the mention in Wiki "The people of Bamber Bridge supported the black troops, and when American commanders demanded a colour bar in the town, all three pubs in the town reportedly posted "Black Troops Only" signs"

[lordroel]

June 25th

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.

1530 – At the Diet of Augsburg the Augsburg Confession is presented to the Holy Roman Emperor by the Lutheran princes and Electors of Germany.

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 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

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.

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 females 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.

1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH.4B biplane.

1935 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Colombia are established.

1938 – Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated as the first President of Ireland.

1940 – World War II: The French armistice with Germany comes into effect.

1943 – The Holocaust: 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 – Cold War: The Berlin airlift begins.

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.

1981 – Microsoft is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.

1984 – American singer Prince releases his most successful studio album, Purple Rain.

1991 – Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence by referendum from Yugoslavia.

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.

1997 – An unmanned 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.

2017 – The World Health Organization estimates that Yemen has over 200,000 cases of cholera.

[lordroel]

June 26th

4 AD – Augustus adopts Tiberius.

221 – Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.

363 – Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire.

684 – Pope Benedict II is chosen.

699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.

1243 – Mongols defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Dağ.

1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland, following Ducal period. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.

1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

1409 – Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with a rebel army and march on London.

1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.

1522 – Ottomans begin the second Siege of Rhodes.

1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.

1579 – Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory begins.

1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.

1723 – After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.

1740 – A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.

1830 – William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.

1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British "in perpetuity".

1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.

1857 – The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.

1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.

1889 – Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.

1906 – The first Grand Prix motor racing event held.

1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.

1917 – World War I: The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.

1918 – World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.

1924 – The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.

1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.

1934 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.

1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

1940 – World War II: Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.

1941 – World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.

1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.

1944 – World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.

1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.

1948 – Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

1948 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.

1948 – Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.

1952 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.

1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.

1955 – The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.

1959 – Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.

1960 – The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.

1960 – Madagascar gains its independence from France.

1963 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.

1967 – Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.

1977 – Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena

1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.

1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People's Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.

1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d'état.

1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

2000 – The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a "rough draft" sequence.

2000 – Pope John Paul II reveals the third secret of Fátima.

2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

2006 – Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.

2007 – Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.

2008 – A suicide bomber dressed as an Iraqi policeman detonates an explosive vest, killing 25 people.

2012 – The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.

2013 – Riots in China's Xinjiang region kill at least 36 people and injure 21 others.

2013 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

2015 – Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.

2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

[lordroel]

June 27th

1358 – The Republic of Ragusa is founded.

1497 – Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London, England.

1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.

1743 – In the Battle of Dettingen, George II becomes the last reigning British monarch to participate in a battle.

1759 – General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec.

1760 – Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, North Carolina during the Anglo-Cherokee War.

1806 – British forces take Buenos Aires during the first of the British invasions of the River Plate.

1844 – Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are killed by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.

1864 – Confederate forces defeat Union forces during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War.

1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.

1905 – During the Russo-Japanese War, sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin.

1927 – Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi convenes an eleven-day conference to discuss Japan's strategy in China. The Tanaka Memorial, a forged plan for world domination, is later claimed to be a secret report leaked from this conference.

1941 – Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iași, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.

1941 – German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.

1946 – In the Canadian Citizenship Act, the Parliament of Canada establishes the definition of Canadian citizenship.

1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.

1952 – Guatemala passes Decree 900, ordering the redistribution of uncultivated land.

1954 – The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the Soviet Union's first nuclear power station, opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.

1954 – The FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.

1957 – Hurricane Audrey makes landfall near the Texas–Louisiana border, killing over 400 people, mainly in and around Cameron, Louisiana.

1971 – After only three years in business, rock promoter Bill Graham closes Fillmore East in New York, the "Church of Rock and Roll".

1973 – The President of Uruguay Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship.

1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union.

1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.

1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti.

1980 – The 'Ustica massacre': Itavia Flight 870 crashes in the sea while en route from Bologna to Palermo, Italy, killing all 81 on board.

1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.

1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.

1988 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident in Paris, France, kills 56 people.

1991 – Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft starting the Ten-Day War.

1994 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan. Seven people are killed, 660 injured.

2007 – Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, a position he had held since 1997.

2007 – The Brazilian Military Police invades the favelas of Complexo do Alemão in an episode which is remembered as the Complexo do Alemão massacre.

2008 – In a highly scrutizined election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party's supporters.

2013 – NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun.

2014 – At least fourteen people are killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India.

2015 – A midair explosion from flammable powder at a recreational water park in Taiwan injures at least 510 people with about 183 in serious condition in intensive care.

2017 – A series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware begins that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations and counterparts with Ukrainian connections around the globe.

[lordroel]

June 28th

572 – Assassination of Alboin, King of the Lombards.

1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul.

1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II.

1461 – Edward IV is crowned King of England.

1519 – Charles V is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1575 – Sengoku period of Japan: The combined forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu are victorious in the Battle of Nagashino.

1635 – Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.

1651 – The Battle of Berestechko between Poland and Ukraine starts.

1709 – Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.

1745 – A New England colonial army captures the French fortifications at Louisbourg (New Style).

1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Sullivan's Island ends with the American victory, leading to the commemoration of Carolina Day.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: The American Continentals engage the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness.

1797 – French troops disembark in Corfu, beginning the French rule in the Ionian Islands.

1807 – Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelocke lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals.

1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier.

1846 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.

1855 – Sigma Chi fraternity is founded in North America.

1859 – The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

1865 – The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.

1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.

1881 – The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed.

1882 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.

1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.

1895 – The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis' claim to Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent."

1896 – An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.

1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.

1904 – The SS Norge runs aground on Hasselwood Rock in the North Atlantic 430 kilometres (270 mi) northwest of Ireland. More than 635 people die during the sinking.

1911 – The Nakhla meteorite, the first one to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars, falls to Earth, landing in Egypt.

1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo; this is the casus belli of World War I.

1917 – World War I: Greece joins the Allied powers.

1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I.

1921 – Serbian King Alexander I proclaims the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution.

1922 – The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.

1926 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.

1936 – The Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China.

1940 – Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum.

1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany starts its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.

1945 – Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day.

1948 – Cold War: The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform.

1948 – Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.

1950 – Korean War: Suspected communist sympathizers (between as many as 100,000 to 200,000) are executed in the Bodo League massacre.

1950 – Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea's offensive. The city falls later that day.

1950 – Korean War: North Korean Army conducts the Seoul National University Hospital massacre.

1956 – in Poznań, workers from HCP factory go to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.

1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.

1973 – Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.

1976 – The Angolan court sentences US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial.

1978 – The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions.

1981 – A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party.

1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht.

1989 – On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.

1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear.

2001 – Slobodan Milošević is extradited to the ICTY in The Hague to stand trial.

2004 – Iraq War: Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.

2009 – Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.

2016 – A terrorist attack in Turkey's Istanbul Atatürk Airport kills 42 people and injures more than 230 others.

[lordroel]

June 29th

226 – Cao Pi dies after an illness; his son Cao Rui succeeds him as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei.

1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi.

1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway.

1444 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll.

1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.

1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground.

1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge.

1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians led by Prince Trubetskoy.

1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.

1807 – Russo-Turkish War: Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.

1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.

1864 – Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.

1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame?" leveling complaints against King George. Trikoupis is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.

1880 – France annexes Tahiti.

1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.

1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.

1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.

1915 – The North Saskatchewan River flood of 1915 is the worst flood in Edmonton history.

1916 – British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.

1922 – France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.

1945 – Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.

1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.

1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.

1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

1974 – Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina.

1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.

1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.

1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.

1976 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin.

1987 – Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, was bought for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England.

1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho District of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.

2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.

2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.

2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.

2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.

2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.

[stevep]

Jun 29, 2019 6:38:46 GMT lordroel said:

June 29th

1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.



2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.

  Lordroel

  Some interesting stuff again.  I had to look up derecho as never heard the term before and can't remember hearing about this event but have probably just forgotten.

  On a point of grammar wouldn't a transpacific flight be one which crosses the Pacific rather than one which only goes part [albeit a long part] of the way across?

  Steve

[lordroel]

Jun 29, 2019 9:52:41 GMT stevep said:

  On a point of grammar wouldn't a transpacific flight be one which crosses the Pacific rather than one which only goes part [albeit a long part] of the way across?

Do not know, Google says: any flight from the Americas to Asia, Australia, or Micronesia (or the reverse route) is considered to be “Transpacific”.

[stevep]

Jun 29, 2019 9:56:55 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 29, 2019 9:52:41 GMT stevep said:

  On a point of grammar wouldn't a transpacific flight be one which crosses the Pacific rather than one which only goes part [albeit a long part] of the way across?

Do not know, Google says: any flight from the Americas to Asia, Australia, or Micronesia (or the reverse route) is considered to be “Transpacific”.

  Personally I would be dubious about that, at least concerning areas a long way from the edges of the ocean such as Hawaii.  To me trans means across, basically from one side to another.  If it was say to New Guinea or the Solomons say from the Americas that would be a different matter.  However English was never a strong point and its ~40 years since I last studied the subject so could be wrong.

[lordroel]

Jun 29, 2019 10:18:25 GMT stevep said:

Jun 29, 2019 9:56:55 GMT lordroel said:

Do not know, Google says: any flight from the Americas to Asia, Australia, or Micronesia (or the reverse route) is considered to be “Transpacific”.

  Personally I would be dubious about that, at least concerning areas a long way from the edges of the ocean such as Hawaii.  To me trans means across, basically from one side to another.  If it was say to New Guinea or the Solomons say from the Americas that would be a different matter.  However English was never a strong point and its ~40 years since I last studied the subject so could be wrong.

Found something related to this Transpacific flight.

[lordroel]

June 30th

296 – Pope Marcellinus begins his papacy.

350 – Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed in Rome by troops of the usurper Magnentius.

763 – The Byzantine army of emperor Constantine V defeats the Bulgarian forces in the Battle of Anchialus.

1422 – Battle of Arbedo between the duke of Milan and the Swiss cantons.

1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.

1521 – Spanish forces defeat a combined French and Navarrese army at the Battle of Noáin during the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre.

1559 – King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.

1651 – The Deluge: Khmelnytsky Uprising: The Battle of Berestechko ends with a Polish victory.

1688 – The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William, which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.

1758 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Domstadtl takes place.

1794 – Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery.

1805 – The U.S. Congress organizes the Michigan Territory.

1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.

1864 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".

1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield.

1886 – The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal, Quebec. It arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4.

1892 – The Homestead Strike begins near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1905 – Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.

1906 – The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.

1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulting in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia.

1912 – The Regina Cyclone, Canada's deadliest tornado event, kills 28 people in Regina, Saskatchewan.

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft Chief Justice of the United States.

1922 – In Washington D.C., U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and Dominican Ambassador Francisco J. Peynado sign the Hughes–Peynado agreement, which ends the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic.

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.

1936 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia appeals for aid to the League of Nations against Italy's invasion of his country.

1936 – Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is published.

1937 – The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.

1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.

1956 – A TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collide above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash, killing all 128 on board both airliners.

1959 – A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood.

1960 – Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).

1963 – Ciaculli bombing: a car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, kills seven police officers and military personnel near Palermo.

1966 – The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded.

1968 – Pope Paul VI issues the Credo of the People of God.

1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.

1972 – The first leap second is added to the UTC time system.

1974 – The Baltimore municipal strike of 1974 begins.

1977 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.

1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1990 – East Germany and West Germany merge their economies.

1994 – During a test flight of an Airbus A330-300 at Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, the aircraft crashes killing all seven people on board.

1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.

2005 – Due to MTV launching a new channel in Canada, Razer took over MTV Canada.

2007 – A Jeep Cherokee filled with propane canisters drives into the entrance at Glasgow Airport, Scotland in a failed terrorist attack. This was linked to the 2007 London car bombs that had taken place the day before.

2009 – Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into the Indian Ocean near Comoros, killing 152 of the 153 people on board. A 14-year-old girl named Bahia Bakari survives the crash.

2013 – Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.

2013 – Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.

2015 – A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in Medan, Indonesia, resulting in at least 116 deaths.

[lordroel]

July 1st

AD 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.

552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy. During the fighting king Totila is mortally wounded.

1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.

1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.

1523 – Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.

1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.

1643 – First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians ("divines") and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London.

1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).

1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.

1770 – Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u.

1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.

1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.

1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.

1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.

1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.

1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.

1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

1863 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.

1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.

1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation.

1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.

1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.

1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.

1881 – The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.

1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.

1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.

1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.

1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.

1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.

1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.

1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.

1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.

1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.

1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.

1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.

1923 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration.

1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).

1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.

1932 – Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.

1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.

1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.

1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.

1943 – Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since this date, no city in Japan has the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).

1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established.

1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.

1949 – The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family.

1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins.

1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.

1958 – Flooding of Canada's Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.

1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.

1960 – Independence of Somalia.

1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.

1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.

1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.

1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.

1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.

1967 – Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.

1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.

1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.

1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.

1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place.

1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.

1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.

1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.

1980 – "O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.

1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.

1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.

1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.

1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.

1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.

1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.

2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes.

2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.

2004 – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.

2006 – The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway in China.

2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.

2008 – Rioting erupts in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.

2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

[lordroel]

July 2nd

437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.

626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an.

866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.

936 – King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia.

963 – The imperial army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.

1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.

1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.

1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia.

1555 – Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.

1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.

1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.

1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.

1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.

1645 – Battle of Alford: Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.

1776 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not published until July 4.

1816 – The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.

1822 – Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.

1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.

1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad.

1853 – The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War.

1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.

1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield (who would die of complications from his wounds on September 19).

1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.

1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1900 – Jean Sibelius' Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.

1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.

1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.

1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.

1940 – The SS Arandora Star is sunk by U-47 in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 800 lives, mostly civilians.

1962 – The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.

1964 – Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.

1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named Aldébaran in Moruroa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.

1976 – End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

1997 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis

2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.

2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.

2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

2008 – Colombian conflict: Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC.

2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.

2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.

2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.

2016 – Suicide bombing of Karrada in Baghdad kills at least 341 people.