Events

• 923 – Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France is killed and King Charles the Simple is arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy.
• 1184 – The naval Battle of Fimreite is won by the Birkebeiner pretender Sverre Sigurdsson. Sigurdsson takes the Norwegian throne and King Magnus V of Norway is killed.
• 1215 – King John of England puts his seal to Magna Carta.
• 1219 – Northern Crusades: Danish victory at the Battle of Lindanise (modern-day Tallinn) establishes the Danish Duchy of Estonia.
• 1300 – The city of Bilbao is founded.
• 1312 – At the Battle of Rozgony, King Charles I of Hungary wins a decisive victory over the family of Palatine Amade Aba.
• 1389 – Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians.
• 1410 – In a decisive battle at Onon River, the Mongol forces of Oljei Temur were decimated by the Chinese armies of the Yongle Emperor.
• 1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
• 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.
• 1667 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.
• 1670 – The first stone of Fort Ricasoli is laid down in Malta.
• 1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).
• 1776 – Delaware Separation Day: Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.
• 1800 – The Provisional Army of the United States is dissolved.
• 1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
• 1846 – The Oregon Treaty extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean.
• 1859 – Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between American and British/Canadian settlers.
• 1864 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Petersburg begins.
• 1864 – Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.81 km²) of the Arlington estate (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by US Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
• 1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
• 1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
• 1888 – Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II; he will be the last Emperor of the German Empire.
  • Due to the death of his predecessors Wilhelm I and Frederick III, 1888 is the Year of the Three Emperors.
• 1920 – Following the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, Northern Schleswig is transferred from Germany to Denmark.
• 1936 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
• 1940 – World War II: Operation Ariel begins: Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany’s takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
• 1944 – World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan’s South Seas Mandate.
• 1977 – After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections took place in Spain.
• 1996 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.

People (Births)

• 1542 – Richard Grenville, English captain and explorer (d. 1591).
• 1792 – Thomas Mitchell, Scottish-Australian colonel and explorer (d. 1855).
• 1872 – Thomas William Burgess, English swimmer and water polo player (d. 1950).
• 1881 – Kesago Nakajima, Japanese lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army (d. 1945).
• 1906 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian SS officer (d. 1994).
• 1923 – Ninian Stephen, English-Australian lieutenant, judge, and politician, 20th Governor-General of Australia (d. 2017).
• 1924 – Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (d. 2005).
• 1931 – Joseph Gilbert, English air marshal.
• 1942 – Peter Norman, Australian sprinter (d. 2006).
• 1945 – Lawrence Wilkerson, American colonel.
• 1954 – Beverley Whitfield, Australian swimmer (d. 1996).
• 1963 – Marina Azyabina, Russian hurdler.
• 1965 – Annelies Bredael, Belgian rower.
• 1968 – Károly Güttler, Hungarian swimmer.
• 1970 – Christian Bauman, American soldier and author.
• 1976 – Jiří Ryba, Czech decathlete.
• 1979 – Yulia Nestsiarenka, Belarusian sprinter.
• 1989 – Víctor Cabedo, Spanish cyclist (d. 2012).
• 1992 – Dafne Schippers, Dutch heptathlete and sprinter.
• 1996 – Tia-Adana Belle, Barbadian athlete.
• 1997 – Madison Kocian, American gymnast.

People (Deaths)

• 952 – Murong Yanchao, Chinese general.
• 1189 – Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japanese general (b. 1159).
• 1381 – Wat Tyler, English rebel leader (b. 1341).
• 1389 – Miloš Obilić, Serbian knight.
• 1967 – Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1885).
• 1985 – Andy Stanfield, American sprinter (b. 1927).
• 1993 – John Connally, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1917).
• 1996 – Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet, Scottish general and politician (b. 1911).
• 2002 – Choi Hong Hi, South Korean general and martial artist, founded Taekwondo (b. 1918).