Events Pre-1600 328 – The official opening of Constantine's Bridge built over the Danube between Sucidava (Corabia, Romania) and Oescus (Gigen, Bulgaria) by the Roman architect Theophilus Patricius. 1294 – Election of pope Celestine V following the death of pope Nicholas IV two years prior. 1316 – The Burgundian and Majorcan claimants of the Principality of Achaea meet in the Battle of Manolada. 1413 – Mehmed Çelebi and his army defeat the army of his brother Musa Çelebi in the battle of Çamurlu. Musa is captured and executed. 1584 – The Maronite College is established in Rome. 1594 – Portuguese forces under the command of Pedro Lopes de Sousa begin an unsuccessful invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy during the Campaign of Danture in Sri Lanka.
1601–1900 1610 – John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland. 1643 – The battle of Landsdowne results in severe losses for both the Royalist and Parliamentarian forces. 1687 – Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. 1770 – The Battle of Chesma between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire begins, resulting in one of the worst naval defeats of the Ottomans since Lepanto. 1775 – The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition. 1803 – The Convention of Artlenburg is signed, leading to the French occupation of the Electorate of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king). 1807 – In Buenos Aires the local militias repel the British soldiers within the Second English Invasion. 1809 – The Battle of Wagram between the French and Austrian Empires begins. 1811 – The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is adopted by a congress of the provinces. 1813 – War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York commence. 1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Chippawa: American Major General Jacob Brown defeats British General Phineas Riall at Chippawa, Ontario. 1830 – After inflicting a series of defeats on Algerian forces, the French army under the Comte de Bourmont captures Algier. 1833 – Lê Văn Khôi along with 27 soldiers stage a mutiny taking over the Phiên An citadel, developing into the Lê Văn Khôi revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng. 1833 – Admiral Charles Napier vanquishes the navy of the Portuguese usurper Dom Miguel at the third Battle of Cape St. Vincent. 1841 – Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough. 1852 – Abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivers his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" speech at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. 1859 – The United States discovers and claims Midway Atoll. 1865 – The United States Secret Service begins operation. 1884 – Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
1901–present 1915 – The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit. 1934 – "Bloody Thursday": The police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco. 1935 – The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1940 – World War II: Foreign relations of Vichy France are severed with the United Kingdom. 1941 – World War II: Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper river. 1943 – World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943). 1943 – World War II: German forces begin a massive offensive against the Soviet Union at the Battle of Kursk, also known as Operation Citadel. 1945 – The United Kingdom holds its first general election in 10 years, which would be won by Clement Attlee's Labour Party. 1946 – Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris. 1948 – National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom. 1950 – Korean War: Task Force Smith: American and North Korean forces first clash, in the Battle of Osan. 1950 – The Knesset of Israel passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to the Land of Israel. 1954 – The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin. 1954 – Elvis Presley records his first single, "That's All Right", at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. 1962 – The official independence of Algeria is proclaimed after an eight-year-long war with France. 1970 – Air Canada Flight 621 crashes in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, killing all 109 people on board. 1971 – The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon. 1973 – A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills eleven firefighters. 1973 – Juvénal Habyarimana seizes power over Rwanda in a coup d'état. 1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title. 1975 – Cape Verde gains its independence from Portugal. 1977 – The Pakistan Armed Forces under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq seize power in Operation Fair Play and begin 11 years of martial law. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is overthrown. 1980 – Swedish tennis player Björn Borg wins his fifth Wimbledon final and becomes the first male tennis player to win the championships five times in a row (1976–1980). 1984 – The United States Supreme Court gives its United States v. Leon decision providing a good-faith exception from the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule against use of evidence obtained through defective warrants in criminal trials. 1987 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE uses suicide attacks on the Sri Lankan Army for the first time. The Black Tigers are born and, in the following years, will continue to kill with the tactic. 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Oliver North is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service. His convictions are later overturned. 1994 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon. 1995 – Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after its independence from the Soviet Union. 1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. 1997 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP A. Thangathurai is shot dead at Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College in Trincomalee. 1999 – U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. 2003 – The World Health Organization announces that the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak has been contained. 2004 – The first direct Indonesian presidential election is held. 2006 – North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan. 2009 – A series of violent riots break out in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. 2009 – The Staffordshire Horde, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in Britain, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire. 2012 – The Shard in London is inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 metres (1,020 ft). 2016 – The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet. 2022 – British government ministers Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak resign from the second Johnson ministry, beginning the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis. 2023 – The last Ariane 5 rocket is launched, carrying the Heinrich Hertz and Syracuse 4B satellites. 2024 – Keir Starmer is appointed Prime Minister by Charles III, becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010 and the first one to win a general election since Tony Blair at the 2005 general election.
Births Pre-1600 465 – Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I, Mayan ruler (died 524) 980 – Mokjong of Goryeo, Korean king (died 1009) 1029 – Al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph (died 1094)Holt, P. M., and M. W. Daly. "A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day." Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Page 16 1321 – Joan of the Tower, English consort of David II of Scotland (died 1362)Panton, James. Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011. Page 281. 1466 – Giovanni Sforza, Italian nobleman (died 1510) 1547 – Garzia de' Medici, Tuscan son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died 1562) 1549 – Francesco Maria del Monte, Italian cardinal and art collector (died 1627) 1554 – Elisabeth of Austria, French queen (died 1592) 1580 – Carlo Contarini, doge of Venice (died 1656) 1586 – Thomas Hooker, English-born founder of the Colony of Connecticut (died 1647) 1593 – Achille d'Étampes de Valençay, French military leader (died 1646)"Achilles to Étampes-Valencay" in Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis CHASSANG (dir.), Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie, 1878
1601–1900 1653 – Thomas Pitt, English businessman and politician (died 1726) 1670 – Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, countess palatine (died 1748) 1675 – Mary Walcott, American accuser and witness at the Salem witch trials (died 1719) 1709 – Étienne de Silhouette, French translator and politician, Controller-General of Finances (died 1767) 1717 – Peter III, Portuguese king (died 1786) 1718 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1794) 1745 – Carl Arnold Kortum, German physician and poet (died 1824) 1755 – Sarah Siddons, English actress (died 1831) 1780 – François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician (died 1838) 1781 – Stamford Raffles, English politician, founded Singapore (died 1826) 1793 – Pavel Pestel, Russian officer (died 1826) 1794 – Sylvester Graham, American minister and activist (died 1851) 1801 – David Farragut, American admiral (died 1870) 1802 – Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (died 1855) 1803 – George Borrow, British writer (died 1881) 1805 – Robert FitzRoy, English captain, meteorologist, and politician, 2nd Governor of New Zealand (died 1865) 1810 – P. T. Barnum, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (died 1891) 1820 – William John Macquorn Rankine, Scottish physicist, mathematician, and engineer (died 1872) 1829 – Ignacio Mariscal, Mexican politician and diplomat, Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico (died 1910) 1832 – Pavel Chistyakov, Russian painter and educator (died 1919) 1841 – William Collins Whitney, American financier and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Navy (died 1904) 1849 – William Thomas Stead, English journalist (died 1912) 1853 – Cecil Rhodes, English-South African businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (died 1902) 1857 – Clara Zetkin, German theorist and activist (died 1933) 1857 – Julien Tiersot, French musicologist and composer (died 1936) 1860 – Robert Bacon, American colonel and politician, 39th United States Secretary of State (died 1919) 1860 – Mathieu Jaboulay, French surgeon (died 1913) 1862 – George Nuttall, American-British bacteriologist (died 1937) 1862 – Horatio Caro, English chess master (died 1920) 1864 – Stephan Krehl, German composer (died 1924) 1867 – A. E. Douglass, American astronomer (died 1962) 1872 – Édouard Herriot, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1957) 1874 – Eugen Fischer, German physician and academic (died 1967) 1879 – Dwight F. Davis, American tennis player and politician, 49th United States Secretary of War (died 1945) 1879 – Wanda Landowska, Polish-French harpsichord player and educator (died 1959) 1880 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist and composer (died 1940) 1880 – Constantin Tănase, Romanian actor and playwright (died 1945)