1747: John Paul Jones, founder of the U.S. Navy - "I have not yet begun to fight"

19??: Scott Blackwell

1921: Former first lady Nancy Reagan

1922: Actor William Schallert

1925: Talk show host Merv Griffin

1925: Rock `n' roll pioneer Bill Haley

1927: Actress Janet Leigh

1931: Singer-actress Della Reese

1931: Actor Donal Donnelly

1937: Actor Ned Beatty

1937: Singer Gene Chandler

1940: Country singer Jeannie Seely

1946: Actor-director Sylvester Stallone

1946: Actor Fred Dryer

1946: Actor Burt Ward

1948: Actress Nathalie Baye

1951: Actor Geoffrey Rush

1952: Actress Shelley Hack

1952: Actor Grant Goodeve

1953: Country singer Nanci Griffith

1954: Actress Allyce Beasley

1956: Country musician John Jorgenson

1957: Hockey player Ron Duguay

1978: Actress Tia Mowry ("Sister, Sister")

1978: Actress Tamera Mowry ("Sister, Sister")

0699: Death of St. Sexburga

1070: Death of St. Godelive

1189: Death of Henry II Plantagenet, King of England, at Chinon

1266: Norway ceded Man and Hebridies Islands to Scotland

1376: Wenceslaus crowned King of Germany

1403: Caermarthen surrenders to Owain Glen Dwr

1415: Martyrdom of Jan Hus

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.

1483: Coronation of Richard III, and Anne, King and Queen of England

1519: Charles I, King of Spain, elected as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

1535: Sir Thomas More was executed in England for treason. He was sainted on May 19, 1935.

1536: Jacques Cartier returns to France from his second voyage

1553: Death of Edward VI, King of England, of consumption

1553: Jane Grey proclaimed Queen of England

1572: Death of Sigsimund II, King of Poland

1581: Madlen Isolin, Maria Rosch, Brigida Wunsil, Catharina Einseler and Anna Flieger, of Waldsee, Germany, burned as witches

1642: Owen Roe O'Neill lands in Donegal

1699: Pirate Capt. William Kidd was seized in Boston and deported to England.

1777: During the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

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.

1854: The Republican Party was formally established at a meeting in New York City.

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.

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.

1917: During World War One, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.

1919: A British dirigible, the R-34, landed in New York, becoming the first airship to cross the Atlantic Ocean (108 hr).

1923: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.

1928: A preview was held in New York of the first all-talking feature, "The Lights of New York."

1932: First Class postage back up to 3 cents from 2 cents.

1933: 1st All-Star baseball game. American League won 5-2.

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.

1944: 169 people died when fire broke out in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

1945: President Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.

1957: Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.

1958: Alaska became the 49th state.

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.)

1962: H. Richard Niebuhr, theologian, Yale professor, and author of Christ and Culture, dies at age 67.

1971: Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong died this day, he was 69.

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.

1987: The U.S. fines Chrysler Corporation $1.5 million for 811 violations of worker safety regulations.

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.

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.

1988: Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.

1989: The US Army destroyed its last Pershing One-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas, under terms of a 1987 treaty.

1989: A Palestinian shouting "The glory of Allah!" grabbed the steering wheel of an Israeli bus, causing a crash that claimed 15 lives.

1990: NATO leaders concluded two days of meetings in London, pledging to sharply reduce both nuclear and conventional defenses in Europe.

1991: President Bush sent a personal message to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, urging a stronger effort to conclude arms control talks.

1991: Steffi Graf won the women's singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 3-6, 8-6.

1992: The Group of Seven industrial nations opened their 18th annual economic summit in Munich, Germany.

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.

1994: 14 firefighters were killed while battling a several-day-old blaze on Storm King Mountain in Colorado.

1994: President Clinton stopped in Latvia, then traveled to Poland as part of a four-nation European tour.

1995: The prosecution rested at the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles.

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.

1996: President Clinton announced the biggest changes in the rules governing meat and poultry safety in 90 years.

1996: Steffi Graf won her seventh Wimbledon title, defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-3, 7-5.

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.

1997: Cuauhtemoc Cardenas captured Mexico City's mayoral race while Mexico's ruling party suffered devastating losses in congressional elections.

1997: Pete Sampras won his fourth Wimbledon title as he defeated Cedric Pioline of France 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

1998: Singing cowboy star Roy Rogers died in Apple Valley, California, at age 86.

1998: Protestants rioted in many parts of Northern Ireland after British authorities blocked an Orange Order march in Portadown.

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.

1999: One year ago: Ehud Barak took office as prime minister of Israel, pledging to seek peace with neighboring Arab countries.

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. 

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. 

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.