Events

• 411 BC – The Athenian coup succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy.
• AD 68 – Nero commits suicide, after quoting Vergil’s Aeneid, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
• 721 – Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse.
• 747 – Abbasid Revolution: Abu Muslim Khorasani begins an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which is carried out under the sign of the Black Standard.
• 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to describe and map the Saint Lawrence River.
• 1667 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet begins.
  • It lasts for five days and results in the worst ever defeat of the Royal Navy.
• 1732 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future US state of Georgia.
• 1772 – The British schooner Gaspee is burned in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.
• 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battles of Arklow and Saintfield.
• 1815 – End of the Congress of Vienna: The new European political situation is set.
  • Refer to French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic; his tactics during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia.
• 1885 – Treaty of Tientsin is signed to end the Sino-French War, with China eventually giving up Tonkin and Annam – most of present-day Vietnam – to France.
• 1900 – Indian nationalist Birsa Munda dies of cholera in a British prison.
• 1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
• 1922 – Åland’s Regional Assembly convened for its first plenary session in Mariehamn, Åland; today, the day is celebrated as Self-Government Day of Åland.
• 1923 – Bulgaria’s military takes over the government in a coup.
• 1944 – World War II: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
• 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
• 1954 – Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
• 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.
• 1965 – The civilian Prime Minister of South Vietnam, Phan Huy Quát, resigns after being unable to work with a junta led by Nguyễn Cao Kỳ.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong commences combat with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in the Battle of Đồng Xoài, one of the largest battles in the war.
• 1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria.
• 1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
• 1999 – Kosovo War: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.

People (Births)

• 1754 – Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, English general and politician, Governor of Barbados (d. 1815).
• 1842 – Hazard Stevens, American military officer, mountaineer, politician and writer (d. 1918).
• 1845 – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, English soldier, academic, and politician, 36th Governor-General of India (d. 1914).
• 1879 – Harry DeBaecke, American rower (d. 1961).
• 1882 – Robert Kerr, Irish-Canadian sprinter and coach (d. 1963).
• 1885 – Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski, Polish general and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Poland (d. 1962).
• 1916 – Jurij Brězan, German soldier and author (d. 2006).
• 1916 – Siegfried Graetschus, German SS officer (d. 1943).
• 1916 – Robert McNamara, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Defence (d. 2009).
• 1922 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Anglo-American pilot and poet (d. 1941).
• 1925 – Keith Laumer, American soldier and author (d. 1993).
• 1934 – Michael Mates, English colonel and politician.
• 1967 – Rubén Maza, Venezuelan runner.
• 1988 – Sara Isaković, Slovenian swimmer.
• 1992 – Yannick Agnel, French swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1716 – Banda Singh Bahadur, Indian commander (b. 1670).
• 1892 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian-English captain and explorer (b. 1863).
• 1956 – Ferdinand Jodl, German general (b. 1896).
• 1973 – Erich von Manstein, German general (b. 1887).
• 2012 – Régis Clère, French cyclist (b. 1956).
• 2012 – John Maples, Baron Maples, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence (b. 1943).