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0069: Vespasian proclaimed Roman Emperor
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1067: Death of Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen
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1187: Saladin's army crosses the Jordan
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1251: Mangu named KaKhan
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1266: Treaty of Perth
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1270: St. Louis IX, King of France, leaves on the
8th Crusade
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1390: A French expeditionary force sails to fight
the Barbary pirates
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1523: Two of Luther's followers burned alive at
Brussels
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1535: Sir Thomas More indicted for treason after
refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the church. He had
recently resigned from his post as Lord Chancellor of England rather
than acknowledge the king's divorce. He was beheaded.
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1543: Peace of Greenwich
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1552: Death of Antonio de Mendoza, first Viceroy of
New Spain (Mexico)
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1555: Burning of John Bradford as an heretic
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1569: Union of Lublin
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1595: An English fleet sacks Cadiz, Spain
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1643: The Westminster Assembly convenes for the
first time in London. Five years later it would publish the
Westminster longer and shorter catechisms, which would be rejected
by the Anglican church but accepted by the Presbyterians. (London)
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1784: Johann Sebastian Bach's eldest son died.
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach had held great promise as a composer
himself. Some of his music has survived to this day. He died so
heavily in debt that he had been reduced to selling some of his
father's music under his own name.
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1824: Charles Grandison Finney, the father of
modern revivalism, is ordained.
1892: Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon dies.
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1867: Canada became a self-governing dominion of
Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect.
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1863: The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg began.
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1896: Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, dies.
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1898: During the Spanish-American War, Theodore
Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious
assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.
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1899: Three business travelers meeting in a YMCA
building decide to form an organization to distribute Bibles. The
Christian Commercial Men's Association of America, later renamed the
Gideons, placed their first Bibles in a hotel room nine years later.
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1916: Dwight D. Eisenhower married Mary ("Mamie")
Geneva Doud in Denver, Colorado.
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1919: First Class Postage DROPS to 2 cents from 3
cents.
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1927: Bartok's First Piano Concerto was premiered
in Frankfurt, with Furtwangler conducting and Bartok himself playing
the piano. The critics actually liked it. This work is very
percussive but still has an almost Romantic sense of drama and
climax.
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1932: The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt
for president. FDR eventually won four consecutive terms.
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1943: "Pay-as-you-go" income tax
withholding began.
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1944: Bretton Woods Conference starts, establishing
world-wide financial systems (like the IMF and the World Bank).
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1946: The United States exploded a 20-kiloton
atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
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1963: The US Post Office inaugurated its five-digit
ZIP codes.
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1966: The Medicare federal insurance program went
into effect.
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1968: The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union
and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
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1980: "O Canada" was proclaimed the
national anthem of Canada.
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1985: The Israeli Cabinet decided to release 300
Lebanese prisoners, but denied the decision had anything to do with
the release of 39 Americans held hostage in the hijacking of TWA
Flight 847.
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1985: The Supreme Court ruled that public school
teachers may not conduct classes in religiously affiliated schools.
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1987: President Reagan nominated federal appeals
court judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court, setting off a
tempestuous confirmation process that ended with Bork's rejection by
the Senate.
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1988: A four-day national conference of Soviet
Communist Party members ended in Moscow, with Mikhail S. Gorbachev
winning approval for sweeping changes.
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1989: "Playboy" magazine founder Hugh
Hefner married Kimberley Faye Conrad at his mansion in Los Angeles.
(The couple separated last year.)
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1990: The West and East German economies were
united as the Deutsche mark replaced the Ost mark as currency in
East Germany.
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1991: President Bush nominated federal appeals
court judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, beginning a
confirmation process marked by allegations of sexual harassment.
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1991: Actor Michael Landon died in Malibu,
California, at age 54.
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1991: Court TV made its debut. The cable network
broadcasts entire trials, both famous and low profile.
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1992: California issued its first state IOU's since
the Great Depression as a budget standoff left the state cashless on
the first day of its fiscal year.
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1992: The first supplies from relief flights
reached besieged neighborhoods in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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1993: The Wynton Marsalis Septet performed at
Tanglewood.
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1993: A gunman opened fire in a San Francisco law
office, killing eight people and wounding six before killing
himself.
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1993: The space shuttle "Endeavour"
returned from a ten-day mission.
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1994: PLO chairman Yasser Arafat returned to
Palestinian land after 27 years in exile as he drove from Egypt into
Gaza, where he kissed the ground and prayed.
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1995: Russian President Boris Yeltsin's government
survived a critical no-confidence vote.
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1995: Rock 'n' roll disc jockey Wolfman Jack died
in Belvidere, North Carolina, at age 57.
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1996: Twelve members of an Arizona anti-government
group, the "Viper Militia," were charged with plotting to
blow up government buildings.
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1996: President Clinton declared an emergency in
drought-stricken parts of Southwest.
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1996: Actress Margaux Hemingway was found dead in her Santa Monica, California, apartment; she was 41.
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1997: Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156
years as a British colony.
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1997: Actor Robert Mitchum died in Santa Barbara
County, California, at age 79.
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1998: Speaking in Shanghai, President Clinton urged
his Chinese hosts to open markets, battle corruption and clean up
the environment.
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1999: A gondola in the French Alps ripped away from
its cables, killing 20 people aboard.
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1999: Exactly six months before the year 2000,
Congress passed legislation to shield businesses from a potential
flood of Y2K computer-related lawsuits.
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1999: African nationalist Joshua Nkomo died in
Harare, Zimbabwe, at age 82.
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1999: Candy empire founder Forrest Mars Sr. died in
Miami at age 95.
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1999: Movie director Edward Dmytryk died in Encino,
Calif., at age 90.
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2000: Walter Matthau, the lovably grumpy comic
actor with the hangdog face and gruff voice, died at St. John's
Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 79.
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2000: In ceremonies simple and elaborate, gay
couples around Vermont stood before justices of the peace and clergy
to be legally joined as spouses. It wasn't quite marriage, but
Vermont's new civil unions law, which took effect this day, granted
them all the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage in
the state.
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2000: South Carolina lowered the Confederate flag,
widely considered a symbol of racism against blacks in the United
States, from its Capitol dome amid a chorus of protests. At a midday
ceremony, state officials lowered the flag from the Statehouse. They
then raised a Confederate battle flag on a 30-foot pole at the
Confederate Soldier Monument directly in front of the Capitol.
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2000: One person was killed and at least 75 people
were injured at the Lonz Winery when the terrace floor gave way,
dropping victims and rubble 20 feet into an old wine cellar. The
winery is located on Middle Bass Island, Ohio, in Lake Erie.
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