1419 First Defenestration of Prague.
1470 Birth of Hongzhi, Emperor of China (d. 1505)
1502 Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1511 Birth of Giorgio Vasari painter/architect/art historian (Vasari’s Lives).
1540 Death of Thomas Abel, English priest (martyred)
1549 Birth of Ferdinando l de’ Medici (dies 1609).
1550 Death of Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (b. 1505)
1608 At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1619 House of Burgesses Virginia formed, first elective US governing body.
1619 In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
1629 An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people.
1641 Birth of Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)
1652 Death of Charles AmTdTe de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (b. 1624)
1680 Death of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Irish naval commander (b. 1634)
1683 Death of Maria Theresa of Spain, queen of Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
1691 Death of Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (b. 1639)
1715 Death of Nahum Tate, Irish poet (b. 1652)
1715 Ten Spanish treasure galleons from Cuba heading to Europe sink in a hurricane off Saint Lucie, Florida.
1718 Death of William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
1729 Baltimore, Maryland is founded.
1729 City of Baltimore founded.
1733 First Freemasons lodge opened in what will become the United States.
1733 Society of Freemasons opens first American lodge in Boston.
1756 Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
1763 Birth of Samuel Rogers, English author (d. 1855)
1771 Death of Thomas Gray, English poet and letter-writer (b. 1716)
1792 500 Marseillaisian men sing France’s national anthem for first time.
1811 Death of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, executed by Spanish firing squad during Mexican War of Independence.
1818 Birth of Emily Bront? England, novelist (Wuthering Heights).
1822 James Varick becomes first bishop of Afr Meth Episcopal Zion Church.
1825 Malden Island discovered.
1836 First English newspaper published in Hawaii.
1839 Slave rebels, take over slaver Amistad.
1844 First US yacht club organized, New York Yacht Club.
1855 Birth of James Edward Kelly US, sculptor “Sculptor of American History”.
1857 Birth of Thorstein Veblen US, economist (Theory of the Leisure Class-1899).
1859 Birth of Henry Simpson Lunn, English humanitarian and religious leader (d. 1939)
1863 Birth of Henry Ford in Dearborn Township, Michigan, USA; auto maker (Ford).
1863 Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
1863 US President Abraham Lincoln issues “eye-for-eye” order to shoot a rebel prisoner.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
1870 Staten Island ferry “Westfield” burns, killing 100.
1874 First baseball teams to play outside US, Boston-Philadelphia in British Isles.
1875 Death of George Pickett, American Confederate general (b. 1825)
1880 Birth of Robert Rutherford McCormick US, editor/publisher Chicago Tribune.
1887 Birth of Timothy Mara NFL owner (New York Giants).
1889 Birth of Vladimir Zworykin electronics engineer/inventor, father of TV.
1890 Birth of Casey Stengel New York Yankees (1949-60) and first New York Mets manager.
1895 Birth of Wanda Hawley, American actress (d. 1963)
1898 Birth of Henry Moore England, sculptor (Vertebrae).
1898 Death of Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor (b. 1815)
1899 Birth of Gerald Moore England, pianist (Am I Too Loud).
1900 Death of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)
1904 Birth of Salvador Novo, Mexican writer and poet (d. 1974)
1905 M Wolf discovers asteroid #570 Kythera.
1908 Around the World Autombile Race ends in Paris.
1909 Birth of Cyril Northcote Parkinson England, historian (Pursuit of Progress).
1909 John A Heyder becomes president of baseball’s National League.
1909 US Army accepts delivery of first military airplane.
1910 Birth of Edgar de Evia, American mountain climber (d. 2003)
1911 J Palisa discovers asteroid #716 Berkeley.
1912 Death of Emperor Meiji, Japanese emperor (b. 1852)
1913 Conclusion of the second Balkan War.
1914 Birth of Lord Killanin, Irish International Olympic Committee president (d. 1999)
1914 Jean JaurTs leading socialist, assassinated in Paris.
1916 Birth of Dick Wilson, American actor
1916 German saboteurs blow up a munitions plant on Black Tom Island, New Jersey.
1916 G Neujmin discovers asteroid #951 Gaspra.
1918 Death of Joyce Kilmer, American poet (b. 1886)
1919 Birth of Berniece Baker Miracle, half-sister of Marilyn Monroe.
1921 Birth of Grant Johannesen Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; pianist (OstTnd first prize 1947).
1922 K Reinmuth discovers asteroid #983 Gunila.
1928 George Eastman demonstrates first color movie.
1929 Birth of Christine McGuire in Middletown, Ohio, USA; singer (McGuire Sisters – “Sugartime”).
1930 Birth of Thomas Sowell, American economist
1930 In Montevideo, Uruguay win the first Football World Cup.
1930 Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 for FIFA soccer’s first World Cup in Montevideo.
1932 G Van Biesbroeck discovers asteroid #2253 Espinette.
1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles, California.
1932 (to August 14) The Games of the X Olympiad are held in Los Angeles, California, USA.
1934 Birth of Bud Selig, baseball team owner and commissioner
1936 Birth of Buddy Guy, American guitarist and singer
1937 Philadelphia Phillies’ Dolph Camilli plays first base and registers no put outs.
1938 Birth of Vayachselav Ivanenko in USSR; 50km walker (Olympic-gold-1988).
1938 C Jackson discovers asteroid #1467 Mashona.
1939 Birth of Eleanor Smeal; heads National Organization for Women.
1940 Birth of Patricia Schroeder; American politician (Representative-Democrat-Colorado).
1941 Birth of Count Desmond (Edward Benjamin) in Binghamton, New York, USA; sword swallower.
1942 German SS kills 25,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
1942 US President Franklin Roosevelt signs bill creating women’s Navy auxiliary agency (WAVES).
1945 Birth of David Sanborn, American musician
1945 World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst single loss in the history of the United States Navy.
1946 Birth of Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (d. 1994)
1946 First rocket attains 100 miles (167 km) altitude, White Sands, New Mexico, USA.
1947 Birth of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born actor and Governor of California
1947 Death of Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1860)
1948 Birth of Jean Reno, Moroccan-born French actor
1948 Professional wrestling premieres on prime-time network TV (DuMont).
1950 Birth of Frank Stallone, American singer and actor
1951 E L Johnson discovers asteroid #2718.
1953 Rikid?zan holds a ceremony announcing the establishment of the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance.
1954 Elvis Presley makes his debut as a public performer.
1956 A Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing “In God We Trust” as the U.S. national motto.
1956 Birth of Phil Fearon; rocker (Galaxy, Kandidate – “I Don’t Want to Lose You”).
1956 “In God We Trust” is established as the U.S. national motto.
1957 Birth of Bill Cartwright; basketball player (New York Knicks).
1958 Birth of Daley Thomas in London, England; decathalete (Olympic-gold-1980, 1984).
1960 Birth of Richard Linklater, American director
1960 First AFL preseason game: Boston Patriots defeat Buffalo Bills in Buffalo, New York (28-7).
1961 Birth of Laurence Fishburne, American actor
1962 American League beats National League 9-4 in 33rd All Star Game (Wrigley Field, Chicago).
1962 Birth of Alton Brown, American television host
1963 Birth of Lisa Kudrow, American actress
1964 Birth of Vivica A. Fox, American actress
1964 Execution of Joseph Johnson
1965 Birth of Tex Axile; rocker (Transvision Vamp-Velveteen).
1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
1965 US President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicare bill, which goes into effect following year.
1966 At Wembley Stadium, host England wins the Football World Cup, After drawing 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, England beat Germany 4 to 2.
1966 England beats West Germany 4-2 for soccer’s 8th World Cup in London, England.
1966 The Beatles’ “Yesterday… and Today” album goes #1 and stays #1 for five weeks.
1967 Race riot in Milwaukee (four killed).
1968 Birth of Robert Korzeniowski, Polish athlete
1968 Washington Senators’ Ron Hansen makes first unassisted triple-play in 41 years.
1969 Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with US military commanders.
1970 30,000 attend Powder Ridge Rock Festival, Middlefield, Connecticut, USA.
1970 Birth of Christopher Nolan, British film director
1970 Black Tot Day: last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy
1970 In northeast Iran, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurs, killing 176, injuring 483, and leaving an estimated 10,000 homeless. Extensively damaged villages included Qapan, Shahabad, Maraveh Tappeh, Gonbad-e Kavus, Bojnurd, and Sabzevar.
1970 Powder Ridge Rock Festival
1970 Smirnova discover asteroid 1835 Gajdariya, 2032 Ethel and 2349 Kurchenko.
1971 An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Japan killing 162
1971 Apollo program: Apollo 15 lands on the Moon.
1971 Birth of Tom Green, Canadian comedian and actor
1971 Death of Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (b. 1901)
1971 Japanese Boeing 727 collides with an F-86 fighter killing 162.
1972 In Sitka, Alaska, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurs. The Fairweather fault ruptures over a length of 75 kilometers.
1973 Texas Rangers’ Jim Bibby no-hits Oakland Athletics, 6-0.
1974 Birth of Hilary Swank, American actress
1974 US House of Representatives recommends three articles of impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
1974 Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the United States Supreme Court.
1975 Birth of Tifini Hale in Palm Springs, California; rocker (Party-Rodeo, That’s Why).
1975 Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again
1975 Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa disappears in suburban Detroit, Illinois.
1976 Death of the theologian, Rudolf Bultmann in Marburg, Germany; New Testament scholar, professor at the University of Marburg.
1976 Japanese beat Russian for Olympic gold in woman’s volleyball.
1977 Terrorists murder the head of the Dresdener Bank, Jnrgen Ponto.
1979 Birth of Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish professional golfer
1980 Birth of Diam’s; French rapper.
1980 British New Hebrides becomes independent and takes name Vanuatu.
1980 Vanuatu gains independence.
1981 Birth of Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer
1982 Birth of James Anderson; English cricket player.
1983 Birth of Sean Dillon; Irish football player.
1983 Death of Howard Dietz, American lyricist (b. 1896)
1983 Howard Deitz, MGM executive, dies at age 86 of Parkinson’s disease.
1983 Lynn Fontanne, Broadway’s premier actresses, dies at age 95.
1983 Official speed record for a piston-driven aircraft, 832 kph, California.
1983 Weight lifter Sergei Didyk of USSR jerks a record 261kg.
1984 Alvenus tanker at Cameron, Louisiana, spills 2.8 million gallons of oil.
1984 Birth of Gabrielle Christian, American actress.
1985 Birth of Daniel Fredheim Holm, Norwegian footballer
1985 Death of Julia Hall Bowman Robinson, American mathematician (b. 1919)
1988 Cincinnati Reds’ pitcher John Franco sets a record of 13 saves in one month.
1988 Ronald J Dossenbach begins world record ride, pedaling across Canada.
1989 Death of Lane Frost, American bull rider (born 1963).
1990 A Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb kills British M.P. Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.
1990 Birth of Patrick Elyas, American actor.
1990 George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign.
1990 The first Saturn automobile rolls off the assembly line.
1991 Boston Red Sox player Carlos Quintana is 11th to get six RBIs in an inning (third).
1992 Death of Joe Shuster, Canadian comic book artist, and co-creator of Superman (b. 1914)
1995 Near the coast of Northern Chile, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurs. Three people were killed, 58 injured, 630 left homeless and 115 houses destroyed. Also felt in southern Peru and at La Paz, Bolivia. Mild tsunami generated, measured at Hawaii, Alaska, Japan.
1996 Death of Claudette Colbert, American actress (born 1903).
1997 A double suicide bombing kills 14 people in Jerusalem,Israel.
1997 Death of Bao Dai, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1913)
1997 Eighteen lives are lost in the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, Australia.
2000 Venezuela’s president Hugo Ch�vez is re-elected with 59 percent of the vote.
2002 Birth of Young Crown Prince Hridayendra of Nepal, second in line to the Nepalese throne.
2002 Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie became the first woman to dunk in a basketball game.
2002 Sotheby’s in New York in conjunction with Stack’s auctions the King Farouk specimen of the US 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle for $7,590,020, a world record for a single coin at auction. The $20 represents a $20 Federal Reserve note paid by auctioneer David Redden to Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore to officially monetize the coin.
2002 The accounting law referred to as “The Sarbanes Oxley Act” was signed into law by United States President George W. Bush
2003 Death of Sam Phillips, American record producer (born 1923).
2003 In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
2004 A gas explosion kills 16 people in Belgium.
2005 A helicopter carrying John Garang, vice-president of Sudan, crashes in poor weather into a mountain, killing Garang.
2005 Death of John Garang, rebel leader and Vice President of Sudan (helicopter crash) (b. 1945)
2006 Death of Murray Bookchin, American libertarian socialist (born 1921).
2006 World’s longest running music show Top of the Pops broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show has aired for 42 years.
2007 Death of Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director (born 1912).
2007 New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visits U.S. President George W. Bush for the first time as Prime Minister.
2007 Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman dies, at age 89, at home on Fsr� island, off the Baltic coast of Sweden.
2008 Heritage Numismatic Auctions sells a 1944-S steel Lincoln cent graded MS-66 by NGC for US$373,450, a record for any small cent.