Events

• 362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
• 836 – Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.
• 1187 – The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
• 1253 – Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.
• 1359 – Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
• 1456 – Ottoman-Hungarian wars: The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins.
• 1584 – Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island.
• 1610 – The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish-Muscovite War.
• 1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada).
• 1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
• 1774 – Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament’s Coercive Acts.
• 1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
  • Independence Day, celebrates the Declaration of Independence of the United States from Great Britain in 1776 (United States and its dependencies).
• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: US forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
• 1802 – At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
• 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
• 1826 – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, respectively the second and third presidents of the United States, die on the same day, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
  • Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives,” not knowing that Jefferson had died hours earlier.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to US forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces repulse a Confederate army at the Battle of Helena in Arkansas. The Confederate loss fails to relieve pressure on the besieged city of Vicksburg, and paves the way for the Union to capture Little Rock.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Confederate invasion of US territory.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
• 1887 – The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
• 1894 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
• 1903 – The Philippine-American War is officially concluded.
• 1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
• 1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo (refer to World War I).
• 1918 – World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.
• 1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date) (refer to Russian Revolution).
• 1941 – World War II: Nazi crimes against the Polish nation: Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
• 1941 – World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues: The Great Choral Synagogue in German-occupied Riga is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement.
• 1942 – World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka.
• 1943 – World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives.
• 1946 – The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.
• 1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
• 1947 – The “Indian Independence Bill” is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
• 1954 – Rationing ends in the United Kingdom (refer to World War II).
• 1961 – On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor.
  • The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years.
• 1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
• 1977 – The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit.
• 1982 – Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.
• 1987 – In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the “Butcher of Lyon”) is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 1994 – Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.
• 2009 – The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.
• Liberation Day (Northern Mariana Islands).
• Liberation Day (Rwanda).

People (Births)

• 1095 – Usama ibn Munqidh, Muslim poet, author and faris (Knight) (d. 11880.
• 1330 – Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Japanese shōgun (d. 1367).
• 1656 – John Leake, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1720).
• 1753 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight (d. 1809).
• 1807 – Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician (d. 1882).
• 1886 – Tom Longboat, Canadian runner and soldier (d. 1949).
• 1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (d. 1968).
• 1928 – Jassem Alwan, Syrian Army Officer (d. 2018).
• 1932 – Aurèle Vandendriessche, Belgian runner.
• 1941 – Brian Willson, American soldier, lawyer, and activist.
• 1954 – Devendra Kumar Joshi, 21st Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy.
• 1955 – Kevin Nichols, Australian cyclist.
• 1967 – Sébastien Deleigne, French athlete.
• 1982 – Vladimir Gusev, Russian cyclist.
• 1983 – Amantle Montsho, Botswanan sprinter.
• 1987 – Wude Ayalew, Ethiopian runner.

People (Deaths)

• 910 – Luo Shaowei, Chinese warlord (b. 877).
• 940 – Wang Jianli, Chinese general (b. 871).
• 1187 – Raynald of Châtillon, French knight (b. 1125).
• 1541 – Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish general and explorer (b. 1495).
• 1546 – Hayreddin Barbarossa, Ottoman admiral (b. 1478).
• 1787 – Charles, Prince of Soubise, Marshal of France (b. 1715).
• 1831 – James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758).
• 1916 – Alan Seeger, American soldier and poet (b. 1888).
• 1922 – Lothar von Richthofen, German lieutenant and pilot (b. 1894).
• 1943 – Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician, 9th Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland (b. 1881).
• 1949 – François Brandt, Dutch rower and engineer (b. 1874).
• 1963 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, New Zealand general and politician, 7th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1889).
• 1963 – Pingali Venkayya, Indian activist, designed the Flag of India (b. 1876).
• 1971 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (b. 1877).
• 1976 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli colonel (b. 1946).
• 2002 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American general (b. 1912).
• 2008 – Charles Wheeler, German-English soldier and journalist (b. 1923).
• 2013 – Charles A. Hines, American general (b. 1935).