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Events

70 - Titus, General of Rome, sacks Jerusalem. See also: Destruction of Jerusalem.

1331 - Stefan Dusan declares himself king of Serbia

1380 - Battle of Kulikovo - Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.

1449 - Battle of Tumu Fortress - Mongolians capture the Chinese emperor.

1504 - Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence.

1514 - Battle of Orsha - In one of the biggest battles of the century, Belarussians and Poles defeat the Russian army.

1565 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés settles St. Augustine, Florida.

1565 - The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta (the Siege of Malta started on May 18).

1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

1664 - The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British who renamed it New York in 1669.

1727 - A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambs, UK kills 78 people, many of whom are children.

1755 - French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George

1796 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Bassano - French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano.

 
 

1810 - The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men established fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.

1831 - William IV was crowned King of Great Britain.

1863 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass - On the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.

1888 - In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.

1888 - In England the first six Football League matches ever are played.

1900 - Galveston Hurricane of 1900: a powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.

1921 - 16-year-old Margaret Gorman won the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.

1923 - Honda Point Disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost.

1926 - Germany was admitted to the League of Nations.

1930 - 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.

1934 - Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 135 people.

1935 - US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana capitol building.

1941 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Deutsche deported to Siberia.

 
 

1943 - World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati was bombing by USAAF.

1943 - World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.

1943 - World War II: Julius Fucik is executed by Nazis.

1944 - World War II: London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.

1944 - World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.

1945 - Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.

1951 - Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.

1954 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.

1960 - In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).

1962 - Newly independent, Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.

1966 - "The Man Trap", the first episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek airs.

1966 - The Severn Road Bridge was officially opened.

1971 - In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

1974 - Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

1974 - Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho, fails after a parachute prematurely deploys on his "sky cycle."

1975 - Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline (printed in all uppercase) "I Am A Homosexual." He is later given a general discharge.

1986 - The first Oprah Winfrey Show airs.

1991 - Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.

1994 - A Boeing 737 operating USAir Flight 427 carrying 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. There are no survivors.

1998 - At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, Mark McGwire breaks Roger Maris' 1961 record of 61 home runs hit in a single season.

1999 - US Attorney General Janet Reno names former US Senator John Danforth to head an independent investigation of the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian church near Waco, Texas in response to revelations in the film Waco: The Rules of Engagement contradicting the official government stories.

2000 - The Republic of Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Albania.

2001 - Durban, South Africa hosts the World Conference against Racism.

2003 - Brianna LaHara, a 12-year-old U.S. schoolgirl, is sued by the RIAA for sharing music illegally.

2004 - The NASA unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.

 

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