533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum.
687 – Pope Sergius I is elected.
1025 – Constantine VIII becomes sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor.
1161 – Jin–Song wars: Military officers conspire against the emperor Wanyan Liang of the Jin dynasty after a military defeat at the Battle of Caishi, and assassinate the emperor at his camp.
1167 – SicilianChancellorStephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 – Mongol forces under Hulagu enter and dismantle the Nizari Ismaili (Assassin) stronghold at Alamut Castle (in present-day Iran) as part of their offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1270 – The Nizari Ismaili garrison of Gerdkuh, Persia surrender after 17 years to the Mongols.[1]
1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
1651 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: The Union'sArmy of the Cumberland routs and destroys the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee, ending its effectiveness as a combat unit.
1890 – HunkpapaLakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
1905 – The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.
1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
1914 – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.
1917 – World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.
1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
1941 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign.
1944 – World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel.
1945 – Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
1960 – Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-ElectJohn F. Kennedy.
1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
1961 – Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
1965 – Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.
1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
1981 – A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing.
1989 – Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights relating the abolition of capital punishment is adopted.
1993 – The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime MinisterJohn Major and Irish TaoiseachAlbert Reynolds.
1997 – Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85.
2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.
2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekerscrashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.
2013 – The South Sudanese Civil War begins when opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng vote to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council at Nyakuron.
2014 – A gunman takes 18 hostages inside a café in Martin Place for 16 hours in Sydney. Monis and two hostages are killed when police raid the café the following morning.
2017 – A 6.5Template:Mearthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Java in the city of Tasikmalaya, resulting in four deaths.
Births[]
AD 37 – Nero, Roman emperor (d. 68)
130 – Lucius Verus, Roman emperor (d. 169)
1242 – Prince Munetaka, Japanese shōgun (d. 1274)
1447 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1508)
1567 – Christoph Demantius, German composer, poet, and theorist (d. 1643)
1610 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter (d. 1690)
1657 – Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (d. 1726)
1686 – Jean-Joseph Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1746)
1710 – Francesco Zahra, Maltese painter (d. 1773)
1789 – Carlos Soublette, Venezuelan general and politician, 11th President of Venezuela (d. 1870)
1832 – Gustave Eiffel, French architect and engineer, co-designed the Eiffel Tower (d. 1923)
1837 – E. W. Bullinger, English minister, scholar, and theologian (d. 1913)
1852 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
1859 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish linguist and ophthalmologist, created Esperanto (d. 1917)
1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Faroese-Danish physician and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1904)
1860 – Abner Powell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
1861 – Charles Duryea, American engineer and businessman, co-founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company (d. 1938)
1861 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd President of Finland (d. 1944)
1863 – Arthur Dehon Little, American chemist and engineer (d. 1935)
1869 – Leon Marchlewski, Polish chemist and academic (d. 1946)
1875 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino journalist and activist (d. 1899)
1878 – Hans Carossa, German author and poet (d. 1956)
1885 – Leonid Pitamic, Slovenian lawyer, philosopher, and academic (d. 1971)
1886 – Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, Polish politician and resistance fighter (d. 1968)[2]
1888 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist and playwright (d. 1959)
1890 – Harry Babcock, American pole vaulter (d. 1965)
1891 – A.P. Carter, American country singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1960)
1892 – J. Paul Getty, American-English businessman and art collector, founded Getty Oil (d. 1976)
1894 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
1894 – Josef Imbach, Swiss sprinter (d. 1964)
1896 – Betty Smith, American author and playwright (d. 1972)
1899 – Harold Abrahams, English sprinter, lawyer, and journalist (d. 1978)
1902 – Robert F. Bradford, American lawyer and politician, 57th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1983)
1903 – Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 32nd Yokozuna (d. 1938)
1907 – Gordon Douglas, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
1907 – Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect, designed the United Nations Headquarters and the Cathedral of Brasília (d. 2012)
1908 – Swami Ranganathananda, Indian monk, scholar, and author (d. 2005)
1909 – Sattar Bahlulzade, Azerbaijani-Russian painter (d. 1974)
1909 – Eliza Atkins Gleason, African American librarian (d. 2009)[3]
1910 – John Hammond, American record producer and critic (d. 1987)
1911 – Nicholas P. Dallis, American psychiatrist and illustrator (d. 1991)
1911 – Stan Kenton, American pianist and composer (d. 1979)
1913 – Roger Gaudry, Canadian chemist and businessman (d. 2001)
1913 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet, academic, and activist (d. 1980)
1915 – Eila Campbell, English geographer and cartographer (d. 1994)[4]
1916 – Miguel Arraes, Brazilian lawyer and politician, Governor of Pernambuco (d. 2005)
1916 – Buddy Cole, American pianist and conductor (d. 1964)
1916 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-English physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1917 – Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Indian-Pakistani linguist and lexicographer (d. 2005)