Events

• 467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
• 1012 – Duke Oldřich of Bohemia deposes and blinds his brother Jaromír who flees to Poland.
• 1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.
• 1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.
• 1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain.
• 1807 – The Froberg mutiny ends when the remaining mutineers blow up the magazine of Fort Ricasoli.
• 1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organisation to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.
• 1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw).
• 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
• 1877 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
• 1910 – SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, is launched.
• 1917 – World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
• 1927 – Shanghai massacre of 1927: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Chinese Communist Party members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.
• 1934 – The US Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
• 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
• 1945 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President upon Roosevelt’s death.
• 1945 – World War II: The US Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reached Tangermünde – only 50 miles from Berlin.
• 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
• 1963 – The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits.
• 1970 – Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board.
• 1980 – The Americo-Liberian government of Liberia is violently deposed.
• 2013 – Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali.

People (Births)

• 1792 – John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, English soldier and politician, Lord Privy Seal (d. 1840).
• 1851 – José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican soldier and poet (d. 1880).
• 1868 – Akiyama Saneyuki, Japanese admiral (d. 1918).
• 1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1941).
• 1884 – Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (d. 1932).
• 1894 – Francisco Craveiro Lopes, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 13th President of Portugal (d. 1964).
• 1907 – Felix de Weldon, Austrian-American sculptor, designed the Marine Corps War Memorial (d. 2003).
• 1908 – Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American pilot and general (d. 2006).
• 1937 – Igor Volk, Ukrainian-Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017).
• 1958 – Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian hurdler.
• 1976 – Olga Kotlyarova, Russian runner.
• 1981 – Yuriy Borzakovskiy, Russian runner.
• 1983 – Luke Kibet, Kenyan runner.
• 1990 – Francesca Halsall, English swimmer.
• 1992 – Chad le Clos, South African swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 45 BC – Gnaeus Pompeius, Roman general and politician (b. 75 BC).
• 1687 – Ambrose Dixon, English-American soldier (b. 1619).
• 1795 – Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710).
• 1879 – Richard Taylor, American general (b. 1826).
• 1912 – Clara Barton, American nurse and humanitarian, founded the American Red Cross (b. 1821).
• 1933 – Adelbert Ames, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Mississippi (b. 1835).
• 1943 – Viktor Puskar, Estonian colonel (b. 1889).
• 1984 – Edwin T. Layton, American admiral and cryptanalyst (b. 1903).
• 2014 – Pierre-Henri Menthéour, French cyclist (b. 1960).
• 2015 – Alfred Eick, German commander (b. 1916).