Events Pre-1600 1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa. 109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, northwest 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. 843 – The Vikings sack the French city of Nantes. 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 personally 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. 1520 – The Field of the Cloth of Gold, a summit meeting between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France, ends. 1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded. 1540 – English King Henry VIII commands his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, to leave the court. 1571 – Miguel López de Legazpi conquers Manila for Spain, modern day capital of the Philippines. 1593 – The Dutch city of Geertruidenberg held by the Spanish, capitulates to a besieging Dutch and English army led by Maurice of Nassau.
1601–1900 1604 – Samuel de Champlain encounters 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 make a failed attempt to capture Macau. 1663 – The Spanish garrison of Évora capitulates, following the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial. 1713 – The treaty of Adrianople ends the Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1713, which restores territory to the Ottomans while allowing the Russians to focus on their war against the Swedes. 1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England is founded in London, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England). 1724 – On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach leads the first performance of his , BWV7, the third cantata of his chorale cantata cycle. 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 – Battle of Carabobo: Decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain. 1839 – An Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pascha routs an Ottoman army under Hafiz Pasha in the battle of Nezib. 1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy. 1866 – Austro-Prussian War: In the Battle of Custoza an Austrian army defeats the Italian army. 1880 – First performance of O Canada at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada. 1894 – Assassination of the French President, Sadi Carnot by Sante Caserio during the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).
1901–present 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). 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. 1945 – The first Victory Day Parade takes place on Red Square in Moscow, Soviet Union, symbolizing the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany. 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, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC. 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races. 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. 1960 – Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt is injured in an assassination attempt. 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, US. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation. 1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 encounters severe wind shear and crashes on final approach to New York's JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time. This accident led to decades of research into downburst and microburst phenomena and their effects on aircraft. 1978 – Ahmad al-Ghashmi, the president of the Yemen Arab Republic, is killed when a bomb exploded in a suitcase carried by a South Yemeni envoy. 1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world's longest bridge span for 17 years. 1982 – "The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 009 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 Chinese Communist Party after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. 1994 – A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crashes at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington, killing four. 1995 – Rugby World Cup: South Africa defeats New Zealand and Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup 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 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history. 2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia. 2012 – Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise. 2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison. 2021 – The Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida suffers a sudden partial collapse, killing 98 people inside. 2022 – In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Constitution does not assign the authority to regulate abortions to the federal government, thereby returning such authority to the individual states. This overturns the prior decisions in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). 2023 – The Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin launches an insurrection against the Russian government. 2026 – Two earthquakes strike Venezuela, leaving more than 2,200 people dead and dozens of others missing.
Births Pre-1600 1210 – Count Floris IV of Holland (died 1234) 1244 – Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (died 1308) 1254 – Floris V, Count of Holland (died 1296) 1257 – Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford, English nobleman (probable; (died 1331) 1314 – Philippa of Hainault Queen of England (died 1369) 1322 – Joanna, Duchess of Brabant (died 1406) 1343 – Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (died 1373) 1360 – Nuno Álvares Pereira, Portuguese general 1386 – John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (died 1456) 1465 – Isabella del Balzo, Queen Consort of Naples (died 1533) 1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, Polish-German priest and reformer (died 1558) 1485 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg (died 1555) 1499 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and the Protestant Reformer (died 1570) 1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian and scholar (died 1605) 1532 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (died 1588) 1532 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (died 1573) 1535 – Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal (died 1573) 1546 – Robert Persons, English Jesuit priest, insurrectionist, and author (died 1610) 1587 – William Arnold, English-American settler (died 1675)
1601–1900 1614 – John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse 1616 – Ferdinand Bol, Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman, student of Rembrandt (died 1680) 1661 – Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyō (died 1730) 1663 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (died 1742) 1687 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German-Lutheran clergyman and scholar (died 1757) 1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss author and theorist (died 1748) 1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French philosopher and author (died 1771) 1753 – William Hull, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan Territory (died 1825) 1755 – Anacharsis Cloots, Prussian-French activist (died 1794) 1767 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer and author (died 1846) 1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont (died 1834) 1774 – Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentine commander and politician, 5th Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (died 1819) 1774 – François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo, French general and engineer (died 1838) 1777 – John Ross, Scottish commander and explorer (died 1856) 1782 – Juan Larrea, Argentine captain and politician (died 1847) 1783 – Johann Heinrich von Thünen, German economist and geographer (died 1850) 1784 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan general and politician, President of Uruguay (died 1853) 1788 – Thomas Blanchard, American inventor (died 1864) 1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, German physician and psychologist (died 1878) 1797 – John Hughes, Irish-American archbishop (died 1864) 1797 – Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish geologist and explorer (died 1873) 1804 – Stephan Endlicher, Austrian botanist, numismatist, and sinologist (died 1849) 1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (died 1854) 1811 – John Archibald Campbell, American lawyer and jurist (died 1889) 1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American minister and reformer (died 1887) 1813 – Francis Boott, American composer (died 1904)