- 1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch.
- 1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese fleet, defeats an Angevin fleet sent to put down a rebellion on Malta.
- 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
- 1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
- 1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island.
- 1709 – Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, thus effectively ending Sweden’s status as a major power in Europe.
- 1716 – The Battle of Dynekilen forces Sweden to abandon its invasion of Norway.
- 1730 – An estimated magnitude 8.7 earthquake causes a tsunami that damages more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of Chile’s coastline.
- 1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.
- 1760 – British forces defeat French forces in the last naval battle in New France.
- 1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies of North America.
- 1776 – Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
- 1808 – Joseph Bonaparte approves the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as king of Spain.
- 1822 – Chippewas turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
- 1853 – The Perry Expedition arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade.
- 1859 – King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.
- 1864 – Ikedaya Incident: The Choshu Han shishi‘s planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya.
- 1874 – The Mounties begin their March West.
- 1876 – The Hamburg massacre prior to the 1876 United States presidential election results in the deaths of six African-Americans of the Republican Party, along with one white assailant.
- 1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole.
- 1889 – The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
- 1892 – St. John’s, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
- 1898 – The death of crime boss Soapy Smith, killed in the Shootout on Juneau Wharf, releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
- 1912 – Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves.
- 1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
- 1933 – The first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa is played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.
- 1937 – Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Saadabad.
- 1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.
- 1948 – The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).
- 1960 – Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
- 1962 – Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement.
- 1966 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.
- 1968 – The Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1970 – Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.
- 1972 – Israeli Mossad assassinate Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani.
- 1980 – The inaugural 1980 State of Origin game is won by Queensland who defeat New South Wales 20–10 at Lang Park.
- 1982 – A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.
- 1988 – The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.
- 1994 – Kim Jong-il begins to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.
- 2003 – Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashes near Port Sudan Airport during an emergency landing attempt, killing 116 of the 117 people on board.[1]
- 2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.
- 2014 – Israel launches an offensive on Gaza amid rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.
-Source: wikipedia
