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0699: Death of St. Sexburga
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1070: Death of St. Godelive
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1189: Death of Henry II Plantagenet, King of
England, at Chinon
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1266: Norway ceded Man and Hebridies Islands to
Scotland
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1376: Wenceslaus crowned King of Germany
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1403: Caermarthen surrenders to Owain Glen Dwr
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1415: Martyrdom of Jan Hus
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1439: Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics sign the
Decree of Union at the Council of Florence, creating an official
union between the two churches. Popular sentiment in Constantinople
was against the decree, and when the city was captured by the Turks
the union ceased some 7 years later.
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1483: Coronation of Richard III, and Anne, King and
Queen of England
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1519: Charles I, King of Spain, elected as Charles
V, Holy Roman Emperor
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1535: Sir Thomas More was executed in England for
treason. He was sainted on May 19, 1935.
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1536: Jacques Cartier returns to France from his
second voyage
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1553: Death of Edward VI, King of England, of
consumption
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1553: Jane Grey proclaimed Queen of England
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1572: Death of Sigsimund II, King of Poland
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1581: Madlen Isolin, Maria Rosch, Brigida Wunsil,
Catharina Einseler and Anna Flieger, of Waldsee, Germany, burned as
witches
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1642: Owen Roe O'Neill lands in Donegal
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1699: Pirate Capt. William Kidd was seized in
Boston and deported to England.
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1777: During the American Revolution, British
forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.
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1812: Beethoven wrote three letters to a woman he
called his "Immortal Beloved." There has been a lot of
debate about which woman this was, but biographers now seem to have
settled on Antonie Brentano, who was above Beethoven's station and
married besides.
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1854: The Republican Party was formally established
at a meeting in New York City.
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1865: William Booth founds The Christian Mission to
work among London's poor and unchurched. Later, he changed the
mission's name to the Salvation Army.
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1885: French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur
inoculated the first human being, a boy who had been bitten by a
rabid dog. The youngster did not develop rabies.
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1917: During World War One, Arab forces led by T.E.
Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.
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1919: A British dirigible, the R-34, landed in New
York, becoming the first airship to cross the Atlantic Ocean (108
hr).
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1923: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was
formed.
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1928: A preview was held in New York of the first
all-talking feature, "The Lights of New York."
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1932: First Class postage back up to 3 cents from 2
cents.
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1933: 1st All-Star baseball game. American League
won 5-2.
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1942: Anne Frank, age 13, and her family go into
hiding with four others from the Nazis in the "Secret
Annex" at 263 Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal), Amsterdam.
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1944: 169 people died when fire broke out in the
main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in
Hartford, Connecticut.
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1945: President Truman signed an executive order
establishing the Medal of Freedom.
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1957: Althea Gibson became the first black tennis
player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American
Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.
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1958: Alaska became the 49th state.
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1962: Jamaica gains independence from
Great-Britain.1967: The Biafran War erupted. (The war, which lasted
two and a-half years, claimed some 600,000 lives.)
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1962: H. Richard Niebuhr, theologian, Yale
professor, and author of Christ and Culture, dies at age 67.
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1971: Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong died this
day, he was 69.
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1973: "I am the last of the classical school.
When Bruno Walter died I raised my fees." So said Otto
Klemperer, the last great German conductor of his generation, who
died in Zurich at the age of 88. A younger generation of German
conductors succeeds him notably Kurt Masur.
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1987: The U.S. fines Chrysler Corporation $1.5
million for 811 violations of worker safety regulations.
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1987: The first of three massacres by Sikh
extremists over two days took place in India as gunmen attacked a
bus with Hindu passengers. Seven-two people were killed in the
attacks in Punjab and Haryana.
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1988: 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when a
series of explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.
Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York
City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.
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1988: Medical waste and other debris began washing
up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several
popular beaches.
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1989: The US Army destroyed its last Pershing One-A
missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas, under terms of a
1987 treaty.
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1989: A Palestinian shouting "The glory of
Allah!" grabbed the steering wheel of an Israeli bus, causing a
crash that claimed 15 lives.
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1990: NATO leaders concluded two days of meetings
in London, pledging to sharply reduce both nuclear and conventional
defenses in Europe.
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1991: President Bush sent a personal message to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, urging a stronger effort to conclude arms control talks.
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1991: Steffi Graf won the women's singles title at
Wimbledon, defeating Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 3-6, 8-6.
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1992: The Group of Seven industrial nations opened
their 18th annual economic summit in Munich, Germany.
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1993: On the eve of the Group of Seven summit in
Tokyo, President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
expressed optimism about resolving a contentious trade dispute
between their countries.
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1994: 14 firefighters were killed while battling a
several-day-old blaze on Storm King Mountain in Colorado.
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1994: President Clinton stopped in Latvia, then
traveled to Poland as part of a four-nation European tour.
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1995: The prosecution rested at the O.J. Simpson
murder trial in Los Angeles.
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1996: A Delta MD-88 jetliner's left engine blew
apart during an aborted takeoff from Pensacola, Florida, sending
metal pieces ripping into the carbin, killing a mother and her son.
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1996: President Clinton announced the biggest
changes in the rules governing meat and poultry safety in 90 years.
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1996: Steffi Graf won her seventh Wimbledon title,
defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-3, 7-5.
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1997: The rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from
the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin
inspecting the soil and rocks of the Red Planet.
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1997: Cuauhtemoc Cardenas captured Mexico City's
mayoral race while Mexico's ruling party suffered devastating losses
in congressional elections.
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1997: Pete Sampras won his fourth Wimbledon title
as he defeated Cedric Pioline of France 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
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1998: Singing cowboy star Roy Rogers died in Apple
Valley, California, at age 86.
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1998: Protestants rioted in many parts of Northern
Ireland after British authorities blocked an Orange Order march in
Portadown.
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1998: Se Ri Pak, a 20-year-old rookie from South
Korea, became the youngest winner of the U-S Women's Open, defeating
American amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn in sudden death.
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1999: One year ago: Ehud Barak took office as prime
minister of Israel, pledging to seek peace with neighboring Arab
countries.
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2000: The German parliament offered a formal apology to Nazi-era slave and forced laborers as it passed a bill setting up a five billion-dollar compensation fund.
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2000: The body of 19-year-old Cory Erving, son of basketball star Julius "Dr. J" Erving, was found in his car at the bottom of a Florida pond; he'd been missing since May 28th.
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2000: Venus Williams beat her younger sister Serena 6-2, 7-6 (3) to reach the Wimbledon final; their singles match was the first between sisters in a Grand Slam semifinal.