- 913 – The 8-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, Constantine VII, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire, under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine’s uncle Alexander III on his deathbed.[1]
- 1513 – Italian Wars: Battle of Novara. Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan.[2] Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
- 1523 – Gustav Vasa, the Swedish regent, is elected King of Sweden, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union. This is the Swedish national day.[3]
- 1586 – Francis Drake‘s forces raid St. Augustine in Spanish Florida.[4]
- 1674 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire, is crowned.[5]
- 1749 – The Conspiracy of the Slaves in Malta is discovered.
- 1762 – Seven Years’ War: British forces begin a siege of Havana, Cuba, and temporarily capture the city in the Battle of Havana.
- 1808 – Napoleon‘s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, is crowned King of Spain.
- 1809 – Sweden promulgates a new Constitution, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of enlightened absolutism. At the same time, Charles XIII is elected to succeed Gustav IV Adolf as King of Sweden.
- 1813 – War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek: A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
- 1822 – Alexis St. Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont‘s studies on digestion.
- 1832 – The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
- 1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
- 1844 – The Glaciarium, the world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
- 1857 – Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden–Norway.
- 1859 – Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Memphis: Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederates.
- 1882 – The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
- 1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
- 1892 – The Chicago “L” elevated rail system begins operation.
- 1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners’ strike.
- 1909 – French troops capture Abéché (in modern-day Chad) and install a puppet sultan in the Ouaddai Empire.
- 1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
- 1916 – The death of Yuan Shikai marks the beginning of China’s Warlord Era.
- 1918 – World War I: Battle of Belleau Wood: The U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day’s casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry.
- 1919 – After eight days of existence, the Republic of Prekmurje is conquered by the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
- 1921 – Southwark Bridge in London is opened to traffic by King George V and Queen Mary.
- 1932 – The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per US gallon (1⁄4¢/L) sold.
- 1933 – The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey, United States.
- 1934 – New Deal: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- 1939 – Judge Joseph Force Crater, known as the “Missingest Man in New York”, is declared legally dead.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
- 1944 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Normandy—codenamed Operation Overlord—begins with the execution of Operation Neptune (commonly referred to as D-Day), the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
- 1946 – The Basketball Association of America is founded in New York City; the BAA was the precursor to the modern National Basketball Association.
- 1954 – The grand opening of the sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy took place in Moscow. This statue is one of the main monuments of Moscow.
- 1964 – Under a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven, Germany are terminated. They never resume.
- 1971 – Soyuz program: Soyuz 11 is launched.
- 1971 – A midair collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter near Duarte, California, claims 50 lives.
- 1971 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese communist forces begins.
- 1974 – A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
- 1981 – Bihar train disaster: A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati River. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the death toll is closer to 1,000.
- 1982 – The Lebanon War begins. Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
- 1985 – The grave of “Wolfgang Gerhard” is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz‘s “Angel of Death”; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
- 1993 – Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
- 1994 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi’an, China, killing all 160 people on board.[6]
- 2002 – Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
- 2004 – Tamil is established as a “classical language” by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
- 2005 – In Gonzales v. Raich, the United States Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning cannabis, including medical marijuana.
-Source: wikipedia