Events

• 218 – Battle of Antioch: With the support of the Syrian legions, Elagabalus defeats the forces of emperor Macrinus.
• 452 – Attila leads a Hun army in the invasion of Italy, devastating the northern provinces as he heads for Rome.
• 793 – Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles.
• 1042 – Edward the Confessor becomes King of England – the country’s penultimate Anglo-Saxon king.
• 1191 – Richard I arrives in Acre, beginning the Third Crusade.
• 1663 – Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial ensures Portugal’s independence from Spain.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Continental Army attackers are driven back at the Battle of Trois-Rivières.
• 1856 – A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys: Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.
• 1867 – Coronation of Franz Joseph as King of Hungary following the Austro-Hungarian compromise (Ausgleich).
• 1928 – Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Peking, whose name is changed to Beijing (“Northern Capital”).
• 1940 – World War II: The completion of Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied forces from Narvik at the end of the Norwegian Campaign.
• 1941 – World War II: The Allies commence the Syria-Lebanon Campaign against the possessions of Vichy France in the Levant.
• 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
• 1959 – USS Barbero and the United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
• 1966 – An F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base.
  • Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed.
• 1967 – Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 and wounding 171.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc is burned by napalm, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut moments later while the young girl is seen running down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.
• 1982 – Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: Fifty-six British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships, RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.
• 1987 – New Zealand’s Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.
• 1995 – Downed US Air Force pilot Captain Scott O’Grady is rescued by US Marines in Bosnia.
• Bounty Day (Norfolk Island).

People (Births)

• 1831 – Thomas J. Higgins, Canadian-American sergeant, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 1917).
• 1919 – John R. Deane, Jr., American general (d. 2013).
• 1921 – Suharto, Indonesian soldier and politician, 2nd President of Indonesia (d. 2008).
• 1943 – William Calley, American military officer.
• 1943 – Willie Davenport, American hurdler (d. 2002).
• 1949 – Hildegard Falck, German runner.
• 1955 – Tim Berners-Lee, English computer scientist, invented the World Wide Web.
• 1959 – C.T. Fletcher, American powerlifter and bodybuilder; three-time World Bench Press Champion and three-time World Strict Curl Champion.
• 1964 – Butch Reynolds, American runner and coach.

People (Deaths)

• 1651 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shōgun (b. 1604).
• 1845 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (b. 1767).
• 1924 – George Mallory, English lieutenant and mountaineer (b. 1886).
• 1945 – Karl Hanke, Polish-German soldier and politician (b. 1903).
• 1951 – Eugène Fiset, Canadian physician, general, and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1874).
• 1951 – Oswald Pohl, German SS officer (b. 1892).
• 1998 – Sani Abacha, Nigerian general and politician, 10th President of Nigeria (b. 1943).
• 2009 – Omar Bongo, Gabonese captain and politician, President of Gabon (b. 1935).
• 2013 – Paul Cellucci, American soldier and politician, 69th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1948).
• 2015 – Chea Sim, Cambodian commander and politician (b. 1932).