Events

• 394 – Battle of the Frigidus: Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills Eugenius the usurper.
  • His Frankish magister militum Arbogast escapes but commits suicide two days later.
• 1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
• 1522 – The Victoria returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition and the first known ship to circumnavigate the world.
• 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America.
• 1628 – Puritans settle Salem which became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1634 – Thirty Years’ War: In the Battle of Nördlingen, the Catholic Imperial army defeats Swedish and German Protestant forces.
• 1781 – The Battle of Groton Heights takes place, resulting in a British victory.
• 1803 – British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, giving the Union control of the Tennessee River’s mouth.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Confederate forces evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina.
• 1885 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria, thus accomplishing Bulgarian unification.
  • Unification Day (Bulgaria).
• 1930 – Democratically elected Argentine president Hipólito Yrigoyen is deposed in a military coup.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Interprovincial Council of Asturias and León is established.
• 1939 – World War II: Britain suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of the Second World War at the Battle of Barking Creek as a result of friendly fire.
• 1939 – World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.
• 1940 – King Carol II of Romania abdicates and is succeeded by his son Michael. General Ion Antonescu becomes the Conducător of Romania.
• 1944 – World War II: The city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by Allied forces.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet forces capture the city of Tartu, Estonia.
• 1946 – United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.
• 1952 – A prototype aircraft crashes at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England, killing 29 spectators and the two on board.
• 1962 – The United States government begins the Exercise Spade Fork nuclear readiness drill.
• 1965 – India retaliates following Pakistan’s Operation Grand Slam which results in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 that ends in a stalemate followed by the signing of the Tashkent Declaration.
• 1968 – Swaziland becomes independent.
  • Independence Day (Swaziland), celebrates the independence of Swaziland from the United Kingdom in 1968.
• 1970 – Two passenger jets bound from Europe to New York are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of the PFLP and taken to Dawson’s Field, Jordan.
• 1972 – Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian “Black September” terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games.
  • Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.
• 1976 – Cold War: Soviet Air Defence Forces pilot Viktor Belenko lands a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States; his request is granted.
• 1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that its operatives did not know that it was a civilian aircraft when it reportedly violated Soviet airspace.
• 1991 – The Soviet Union recognises the independence of the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
• 1991 – The Russian parliament approves the name change of Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg.
  • The change is effective 01 October 1991.
• 2007 – Israel executes the air strike Operation Orchard to destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria.
• Armed Forces Day (São Tomé and Príncipe).
• Defence Day or Army Day (Pakistan).

People (Births)

• 1757 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French general (d. 1834).
• 1815 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American general (d. 1870).
• 1819 – William Rosecrans, American general, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Mexico (d. 1898).
• 1838 – Samuel Arnold, American conspirator (d. 1906).
• 1852 – Schalk Willem Burger, South African commander, lawyer, and politician, 6th President of the South African Republic (d. 1918).
• 1893 – Claire Lee Chennault, American general and pilot (d. 1958).
• 1908 – Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor, designed the Crazy Horse Memorial (d. 1982).
• 1915 – Franz Josef Strauss, German lieutenant and politician, Minister President of Bavaria (d. 1988).
• 1917 – Philipp von Boeselager, German soldier and economist (d. 2008).
• 1921 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American inventor, co-created the bar code (d. 2012).
• 1967 – Milan Lukić, Convicted of war crimes by the ICTY.

People (Deaths)

• 1431 – Demetrios Laskaris Leontares, Byzantine admiral and diplomat.
• 1511 – Ashikaga Yoshizumi, Japanese shōgun (b. 1481).
• 1553 – Juan de Homedes y Coscon, 47th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. c.1477).
• 1885 – Narcís Monturiol, Spanish engineer, designed the Ictineo I and Ictineo II (b. 1819).
• 1919 – Lord Charles Beresford, English admiral and politician (b. 1846).
• 1945 – John S. McCain Sr., American admiral (b. 1884).
• 1990 – Len Hutton, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1916).
• 2000 – Abdul Haris Nasution, Indonesian Military (b. 1918).
• 2015 – Calvin J. Spann, American general and pilot (b. 1924).