Events

• 762 – Baghdad is founded.
• 1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council.
• 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
• 1609 – Beaver Wars: At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs on behalf of his native allies.
• 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first Colonial European representative assembly in the Americas, the Virginia General Assembly, convenes for the first time.
• 1635 – Eighty Years’ War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.
• 1656 – The Battle of Warsaw ends with a Swedish-Brandenburger victory over a larger Polish-Lithuanian force.
• 1676 – Nathaniel Bacon issues the “Declaration of the People of Virginia”, beginning Bacon’s Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
• 1729 – Founding of Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico.
• 1863 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
• 1866 – Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans riot against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100.
• 1916 – Black Tom explosion: German agents detonate two million tons of US-made munitions off the shores of Manhattan that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I.
• 1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
  • Most die during the following four days, until an aircraft notices the survivors.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and US military commanders.
• 1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162.
• 1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
• 1990 – Ian Gow, Conservative Member of Parliament, is assassinated at his home by IRA terrorists in a car bombing after he assured the group that the British government would never surrender to them.
• 2003 – In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.

People (Births)

• 1862 – Nikolai Yudenich, Russian general (d. 1933).
• 1863 – Henry Ford, American engineer and businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (d. 1947).
• 1881 – Smedley Butler, American general, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 1940).
• 1913 – Lou Darvas, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 1987).
• 1920 – Walter Schuck, German lieutenant and pilot (d. 2015).
• 1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California.
• 1958 – Daley Thompson, English decathlete and trainer.
• 1968 – Robert Korzeniowski, Polish race walker and coach.
• 1981 – Indrek Turi, Estonian decathlete.

People (Deaths)

• 829 – Shi Xiancheng, general of the Tang Dynasty.
• 1680 – Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, Irish admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1634).
• 1832 – Lê Văn Duyệt, Vietnamese general, mandarin (b. 1763-1764).
• 1875 – George Pickett, American general (b. 1825).
• 1918 – Joyce Kilmer, American soldier, journalist, and poet (b. 1886).
• 1938 – John Derbyshire, English swimmer and water polo player (b. 1878).
• 1990 – Ian Gow, British Member of Parliament who was assassinated by the IRA (b. 1937).
• 1992 – Joe Shuster, Canadian-American illustrator, co-created Superman (b. 1914).
• 2005 – John Garang, Sudanese colonel and politician, 6th President of South Sudan (b. 1945).
• 2009 – Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian militant leader, founded Boko Haram (b. 1970).
• 2012 – Mary Louise Rasmuson, American colonel (b. 1911).
• 2018 – Michael A. Sheehan, American author, former government official and military officer (b. 1955).