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0455: Avitus proclaimed Western Roman Emperor
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0518: Death of Anastasius, Emperor of the East
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1228: Stephen Langton, greatest of the medieval
archbishops of Canterbury, dies. He had formulated the original
division of the Bible into chapters in the late 1100's. His name also
appears on the Magna Carta as counselor to the king.
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1386: John of Gaunt sails for Spain
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1440: Death of Jan van Eyck, Flemish painter
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1497: Vasco Da Gama sets sail to find a sea route to
India
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1504: Death of Pietro da Vinci, father of Leonardo
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1540: England's King Henry the Eighth had his
six-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
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1553: Maurice of Saxony defeats Albert of
Brandenburg; Maurice of Saxony fatally wounded
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1561: The failed Pensacola Bay, Florida colony
returns to Santo Domingo
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1569: Rudolf II, Emperor of Bohemia, grants freedom
of worship in his domain
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1575: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, arrives at
Kenilworth Castle
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1584: Assassination of William of Orange, "the
Silent"
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1631: The pastoral play "Rhodon and Iris"
opens in Norwich, England
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1747: Giovanni Bononcini died in London. He was 77.
Bononcini was the second-most-acclaimed composer in London during
Handel's day.
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1776: The Declaration of Independence was read aloud
to General George Washington's troops in New York.
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1795: James Swan paid off the U. S. National debt of
two million dollars.
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1816: Argentina declared independence from Spain.
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1846: Capt Montgomery claims Yerba Buena (San
Francisco) for the U.S.
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1850: The 12th president of the United States,
Zachary Taylor, died after serving only 16 months.
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1850: Mirza Ali Muhammad, the prophet of the Baha'i
faith, was executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Iran.
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1868: The 14th amendment to the constitution was
ratified. This amendment defines U. S. citizenship and was declared in
effect on July 28, 1868.
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1872: The doughnut cutter was patented by John F.
Blondel of Thomaston, Maine.
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1876: A British tourist recorded in his diary that he
had gone for a swim with Brahms, and described the composer as
"the very image of strength and vigor" but "too much
inclined to stoutness.."
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1878: The corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe of
Washington, MO. (One of my sourses lists the invention date as 1869)
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1893: Black physician Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
performed the world's first successful open heart surgery, and did so
without using anesthesia.
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1896: William Jennings Bryan caused a sensation at
the Democratic national convention in Chicago with his "cross of
gold" speech denouncing supporters of the gold standard. (Bryan
went on to win the party's nomination.)
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1918: 101 people were killed as an inbound local
train collided with an outbound express in Nashville, Tennessee.This
was the worst railroad disaster in U. S. history.
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1922: The future Tarzan - Johnny Weissmuller became
the first to swim the 100 meters, freestyle, in less than a minute.
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1947: The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth
to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was announced.
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1951: President Truman asked Congress to formally end
the state of war between the United States and Germany.
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1955: Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around
the Clock" hit number one on Billboard magazine's best-seller
records chart, marking what some consider the beginning of the rock
`n' roll era.
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1956: Dick Clark first hosted "Bandstand"
on WFIL TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thus began American
Bandstand.
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1957: The discovery of element 102, Nobelium, was
announced.
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1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the
United States with rockets if American forces attempted to oust the
communist government of Cuba.
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1979: Voyager II flies past Jupiter.
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1980: Seven people die in a stampede to see the pope
in Brazil.
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1982: A Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner,
Louisiana, killing all 146 people aboard and eight people on the
ground.
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1983: Kathy Wilson, the Republican head of the
National Women's Political Caucus, called on President Reagan not to
seek a second term, saying he was a "dangerous man" for
American women.
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1984: Canadian Prime Minister John Turner announced
national elections in September, saying Canadians needed a
"renewal of confidence and certainty in this country."
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1984: The largest crowd to watch a basketball game in
the United States took place at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis,
Indiana. They watched the U.S. Men's Olympic Team defeat a team from
the NBA, by a score of 97-82.
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1985: President Reagan's budget director, Davis A.
Stockman, announced his resignation to pursue a career in private
business.
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1986: The Attorney General's Commission on
Pornography released the final draft of its two-thousand-page report,
which linked hard-core porn to sex crimes.
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1986: The first new theater on Broadway in 13 years
opened at 46th Street and Broadway. The Marquis Theater seated 1,600
people.
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1987: His third day of testimony on Capitol Hill,
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North said he had shredded evidence as part
of a long-planned cover-up of his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
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1988: Teamsters President Jackie Presser died in
Lakewood, Ohio, at age 61.
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1988: Dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse died in
Buckinghamshire, England, at age 78.
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1989: President Bush arrived in Warsaw, Poland, for a
visit that included an address to the National Assembly and a meeting
with Solidarity founder Lech Walesa.
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1989: West German tennis players Steffi Graf and
Boris Becker won the women's and men's singles titles at Wimbledon.
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1990: Leaders of the world's seven richest nations
opened a three-day economic summit in Houston, the first such
gathering in the post-Cold War era.
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1991: Former CIA officer Alan D. Fiers pleaded guilty
to two misdemeanor charges in the Iran-Contra affair.
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1991: The American League defeated the National
League, 4-to-2, in the All-Star Game in Toronto.
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1991: The International Olympic Committee readmitted
South Africa.
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1992: Democrat Bill Clinton tapped Tennessee Senator
Al Gore to be his running mate.
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1992: The space shuttle "Columbia" landed
at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending a two-week mission.
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1992: CBS news commentator Eric Sevareid died in
Washington at age 79.
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1993: Leaders of Bosnia's Muslim-led government
rejected a plan to divide the country into three ethnically separate
republics.
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1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Group
of Seven leaders as they concluded their three-day summit in Tokyo.
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1994: Planned talks between North Korea and South
Korea were put on hold following the death of North Korean dictator
Kim Il Sung.
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1994: Members of the Group of Seven nations concluded
their economic summit in Naples, Italy, pledging joint efforts for
economic growth and stability.
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1995: French commandos boarded the Greenpeace ship
Rainbow Warrior II in the South Pacific.
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1995: Pete Sampras won the men's singles title at
Wimbledon by defeating Boris Becker 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
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1996: Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm began a
drive for the presidential nomination of Ross Perot's fledgling Reform
Party.
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1996: Attorney Melvin Belli died in San Francisco at
age 88.
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1996: The National League won the All-Star game,
defeating the American League 6-to-0 in Philadelphia.
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1997: Leaders of 16 NATO nations met with 25 other
countries in an unprecedented security summit in Madrid, Spain.
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1997: Boxer Mike Tyson was banned from the ring and
fined $3 million for biting opponent Evander Holyfield's ears.
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1998: Former high school sweethearts Amy Grossberg
and Brian Peterson were sentenced in Wilmington, Delaware, to prison
for killing their newborn son at a motel. (Grossberg received two and
a-half years; Peterson, who'd cooperated with prosecutors, received
two years.)
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1998: Congress sent President Clinton an
election-year bill overhauling the Internal Revenue Service; Clinton
said he would sign it.
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1999: A jury in Los Angeles ordered General Motors
Corp. to pay $4.9 billion to six people severely burned when their
Chevrolet Malibu exploded in flames in a rear-end collision. (A judge
later reduced the punitive damages to $1.9 billion, while letting
stand $107 million dollars in compensatory damages; GM is continuing
to appeal.)
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2000: The 13th International AIDS Conference opened in Durban, South Africa.
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2000: Twelve people died in a soccer stampede set off when police fired tear gas at bottle-throwing fans during a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and South Africa in Harare, Zimbabwe. (South Africa's 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe was ruled official.)
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2000: Top-seeded Pete Sampras won his seventh Wimbledon title as he defeated Patrick Rafter, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-2.
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