Events

Up to 1950 
 838  Battle of Anzen: Byzantine Emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
 1099  First Crusade: Godfrey de Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.
 1209  Massacre of Béziers: The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
 1298  William Wallace fights the English at the Battle of Falkirk.
 1456  Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade - John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire.
 1499  Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeats the army of Emperor Maximilian I.
 1587  Colony of Roanoke: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off present-day North Carolina to re-establish a deserted colony.
 1706  The Acts of Union of 1707 are agreed upon by Commissioners from the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
 1786  Albany, New York is officially chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan.
 1793  Alexander McKenzie reaches the Pacific coast of North America, becoming the first Euro-American to cross Canada.
 1796  Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland", after General Moses Cleveland.
 1797  Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars.
 1802  Gia Long conquers Hanoi and unifies modern-day Vietnam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
 1805  Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition - Battle of Cape Finisterre.
 1812  Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War - Battle of Salamanca.
 1864  American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta.
 1894  The first-ever motor race is held in France between Paris and Rouen.
 1916  A bomb explodes during a 'Preparedness Day' parade in Market Street in San Francisco, California, killing 10 people and injuring 40.
 1927  Sheep herder Killar Kashirov of the Kabardin people becomes the first person to reach the top of the Eastern summit of Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, considered the highest mountain in Europe.
 1933  Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world, travelling 25,099 kilometres (15,596 miles) in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
 1934  A man identified as American bank robber John Dillinger is shot dead.
 1942  World War II: Start of the fighting on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea between Australia and Japan.
 1943  World War II: Allied forces capture Palermo.
 1944  The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting Communist rule in Poland.
 1946  A terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem kills at least 91 people.

From 1951 
 1951  Dezik and Tsygan are the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight.
 1954  Laos becomes independent from France.
 1962  The Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after take-off and has to be destroyed.
 1969  Francisco Franco declares that the Juan Carlos will be his successor.
 1976  Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes in World War II.
 1977  Deng Xiaoping returns to power in China.
 1983  Martial Law in Poland is officially revoked.
 1986  The United Kingdom bans corporal punishment in schools.
 1991  Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested in Milwaukee after police discover human remains in his apartment.
 1992  In Medellin, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from the luxury prison.
 1993  Kaskasia, Illinois, is evacuated in the Great Flood of 1993.
 1994  Gambia's President Dawda Jawara is removed from office in a coup, to be replaced by Yahya Jammeh.
 2003  A US airstrike on a compound in Mosul, Iraq, kills Saddam Hussein's sons Uday Hussein, Qusay Hussein (and his son Mustapha) and a security guard.
 2005  In London, officers of the Metropolitan Police shoot and kill Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes when he boards a tube train.
 2005  Yelena Isinbayeva becomes the first woman to clear 5 metres in the High Jump.
 2009  A Solar eclipse is seen over East Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and is the longest such event of the 21st century. It is also believed to have been witnessed by more people than any solar eclipse in history.
 2010  The International Court of Justice rules that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia was not illegal.
 2011  2011 Norway attacks: An explosion in Oslo city centre kills 8 people. Two hours later, 69 people are killed in a shooting at a political youth event on the island of Utoya, carried out by Anders Behring Breivik.
 2012  Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France.
 2013  Two earthquakes in Gansu province, People's Republic of China, kill at least 90 people.
 2013  A baby boy, Prince George of Cambridge, third in line to the British throne, is born to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. It comes just a day after nearby Belgium got its new King, Philippe.
 2016  Nine people are killed in a shooting in and around a shopping mall in Munich, Germany. The attacker then kills himself.
 2019  Jo Swinson becomes the first woman to be chosen to lead the British Liberal Democrats.

Births

Up to 1900 
1210  Joan of England, Queen of Scots (d. 1238)
1361  Carlos III of Navarre (d. 1425)
1478  King Philip I of Castile (d. 1506)
1510  Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (d. 1537)
1519  Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
1535  Katarina Stenbock, Queen of Sweden (d. 1621)
1559  Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (d. 1619)
1596  Tsar Michael I of Russia (d. 1645)
1702  Alessandro Besozzi, Italian composer and oboist (d. 1775)
1711  Georg Wilhelm Richmann, German Baltic physicist (d. 1753)
1733  Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and historian (d. 1790)
1751  Caroline Matilda of Wales (d. 1775)
1755  Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1839)
1784  Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician (d. 1846)
1822  Gregor Mendel, Austrian pioneering geneticist (d. 1884)
1831  Emperor Komei of Japan (d. 1867)
1844  William Archibald Spooner, known for verbal inversions called spoonerisms (d. 1930)
1848  Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1914)
1856  Kamran Mirza, Prime Minister of Persia (d. 1927)
1859  Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887)
1877  Giovanni Giorgio Tressino, Italian horse rider (d. 1963)
1882  Edward Hopper, American painter (d. 1967)
1886  Hella Wuolijoki, Finnish author (d. 1954)
1887  Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German quantum physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1975)
1888  Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-American biochemist (d. 1973)
1889  James Whale, English movie director, actor and screenwriter (d. 1957)
1890  Rose Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy (d. 1995)
1893  Jesse Haines, American baseball player (d. 1978)
1893  Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist (d. 1990)
1894  Oskar Maria Graf, writer (d. 1967)
1895  Pavel Sukhoi, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1975)
1898  Stephen Vincent Benét, American writer (d. 1943)
1898  Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)
1899  Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland (d. 1982)

1901  1950 
1905  Doc Cramer, American Major League Baseball player (d. 1990)
1908  Amy Vanderbilt, writer on etiquette (d. 1974)
1909  Dorino Serafini, Italian racing driver (d. 2000)
1913  Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (d. 1995)
1916  Marcel Cerdan, world champion boxer  (d. 1949)
1923  Bob Dole, United States Senator from Kansas, Presidential candidate (d. 2021)
1923  Mukesh, singer (d. 1976)
1923  Netti Witziers-Timmer, Dutch sprinter (d. 2005)
1923  The Fabulous Moolah, American wrestler (d. 2007)
1924  Margaret Whiting, American singer (d. 2011)
1925  Joseph Sargent, American movie director (d. 2014)
1926  Bryan Forbes, English actor (d. 2013)
1926  Wolfgang Iser, German literary scholar (d. 2007)
1927  Johan Ferner, Norwegian sailor (d. 2015)
1928  Nedelcho Beronov, Bulgarian politician (d. 2015)
1928  Jimmy Hill, English football manager and pundit (d. 2015)
1928  Orson Bean, American actor
1931  Guido de Marco, 6th President of Malta (d. 2010)
1932  Oscar de la Renta, Dominican fashion designer (d. 2014)
1934  Louise Fletcher, American Academy Award-winning actress (in 1976)
1936  Tom Robbins, American writer
1939  Terence Stamp, actor
1939  Erhard Walther, artist
1940  Alex Trebek, American game show host (d. 2020)
1941  Estelle Bennett, American singer (The Ronettes) (d. 2009)
1941  George Clinton, musician
1942  Peter Habeler, Austrian mountaineer
1943  Kay Bailey Hutchison, American politician
1943  Bobby Sherman, American singer and actor
1944  Anand Satyanand, former Governor-General of New Zealand
1944  Rick Davies, English musician
1946  Danny Glover, American actor and activist
1946  Mireille Mathieu, French singer
1946  Johnson Toribiong, former President of Palau
1946  Paul Schrader, American movie director
1947  Albert Brooks, American comedian
1947  Gilles Duceppe, Canadian politician
1947  Don Henley, drummer, singer, and songwriter
1948  Otto Waalkes, German comedian, actor and entertainer
1948  Ana de Palacio, Spanish politician
1948  Alfonso Cano, Colombian guerrilla (FARC) (d. 2011)
1949  Alan Menken, American composer
1949  Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai
1949  Lasse Virén, Finnish athlete
1950  S. E. Hinton, American writer

1951  1975 
1951  Patriarch Daniel of Romania
1951  J. V. Cain, American football player (d. 1979)
1953  René Vandereycken, Belgian footballer
1953  Jimmy Bruno, American guitarist
1954  Al Di Meola, American guitarist
1955  Willem Dafoe, American actor
1957  Alvaro Corcuera, Mexican priest (d. 2014)
1958  Tatsunori Hara, Japanese baseball player
1959  Lon Bender, American sound editor
1960  Barbara Cassani, American businesswoman
1961  Keith Sweat, singer
1962  Alvin Robertson, American basketball player
1964  John Leguizamo, Colombian-American actor
1964  Bonnie Langford, English actress and dancer
1964  David Spade, American comedian
1965  Shawn Michaels, retired American professional wrestler
1965  Robert Aderholt, American politician
1967  Irene Bedard, American actress
1967  Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor
1969  Jason Becker, American actor
1969  Despina Vandi, Greek singer
1970  Sergei Zubov, Russian ice hockey player
1970  Devendra Fadnavis, Indian politician
1971  Kristine Lilly, American soccer player
1972  Andrew Holness, Prime minister of Jamaica
1972  Paulinho, footballer
1972  Colin Ferguson, Canadian actor
1972  Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
1973  Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer and songwriter
1973  Daniel Jones, English-Australian musician
1974  Franka Potente, German actress
1975  Markus Metzenthin, economist

From 1976 
1976  Kokia, Japanese singer
1978  Dennis Rommedahl, Danish footballer
1979  Anna Belen-Zarska, Polish tennis player
1980  Dirk Kuyt, Dutch footballer
1980  Kate Ryan, Belgian singer
1982  Anna Chicherova, Russian high jumper
1983  Sharni Vinson, Australian actress
1983  Shelby Belle, actress
1984  Stewart Downing, English footballer
1987  Charlotte Kalla, Swedish skier
1987  Joshua Small, singer, songwriter
1987  Andrey Golubev, Kazakhstani tennis player
1989  Keegan Allen, American actor
1989  Baltasar Breki Samper, Icelandic actor
1992  Selena Gomez, American singer and actress
1993  Amber Beattie, English actress
1993  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Chechen-American suspected terrorist
1994  Emina Jonasson, Swedish handball player
1996  Skyler Gisondo, American actor
1998  Madison Pettis, American actress
2002  Prince Felix of Denmark
2013  Prince George of Cambridge, son of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

Deaths

Up to 1900 
1387  Frank Ackerman, Flemish statesman (b. 1330)
1461  Charles VII of France (b. 1403)
1525  Richard Wingfield, English diplomat (b. 1426)
1540  John Zapolya, Hungarian King
1619  Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (b. 1559)
1645  Gaspar de Guzman, Count of Olivares, Duke of San Lucar (b. 1587)
1676  Pope Clement X (b. 1590)
1734  Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1669)
1802  Marie François Xavier Bichet, French anatomist and physiologist (b. 1771)
1813  George Shaw, English naturalist (b. 1751)
1826  Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer, mathematician and theologian (b. 1746)
1832  Napoleon II of France (b. 1811)
1845  Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (b. 1757)
1869  John August Roebling, German-American engineer and bridge builder (b. 1806)
1893  John Rae, Orcadian explorer (b. 1813)

1901  2000 
1903  Cassius Marcellus Clay, American lawyer, publisher and politician (b. 1810)
1904  Wilson Barrett, actor (b. 1846)
1908  Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist (b. 1828)
1909  Detlev von Liliencron, German poet and writer (b. 1844)
1915  Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian inventor of Standard time (b. 1827)
1916  James Whitcomb Riley, American writer and poet (b. 1849)
1918  Indra Lal Roy, Indian flying ace (b. 1898)
1920  William Kissam Vanderbilt, American businessman and horsebreeder (b. 1849)
1922  Jokichi Takamine, chemist (b. 1854)
1932  Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., American theatrical producer (b. 1867)
1932  Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (b. 1853)
1932  Reginald Fessenden, Canadian inventor (b. 1866)
1934  John Dillinger, American bank robber, shot at the Biograph Theater in Chicago (b. 1903)
1936  Andreas Hinterstoisser, German mountaineer (b. 1914)
1936  Toni Kurz, German mountaineer (b. 1913)
1950  William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1874)
1967  Carl Sandburg, American poet (b. 1878)
1968  Giovannino Guareschi, Italian journalist (b. 1908)
1974  Wayne Morse, former Senator from Oregon
1979  Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
1979  J. V. Cain, American football player (b. 1951)
1988  Duane Jones, American actor (b. 1936)
1989  Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (b. 1935)
1990  Manuel Puig, Argentine writer (b. 1932)
1996  Rob Collins, English keyboardist (The Charlatans) (b. 1956)
1998  Hermann Prey, German bass-baritone (b. 1929)
1998  Alan Shepard, American astronaut (b. 1923)
1999  Gar Samuelson, American drummer (Megadeth) (b. 1958)
2000  Eric Christmas, British actor (born 1916)
2000  Claude Sautet, French movie director (b. 1924)

From 2001 
2001  Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1909)
2003  Wahome Muthahi, Kenyan humourist (b. 1954)
2003  Qusay Hussein of Iraq, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1966)
2003  Uday Hussein of Iraq, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1964)
2004  Sacha Distel, French singer (b. 1933)
2004  George Kidd, Canadian diplomat (b. 1917)
2005  Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian shooting victim (b. 1978)
2007  Ulrich Mühe, German actor (b. 1953)
2007  Laszlo Kovacs, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1933)
2008  Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
2010  Kenny Guinn, American politician, 27th Governor of Nevada (b. 1936)
2011  Linda Christian, American actress (b. 1924)
2011  Tore Eikeland, Norwegian youth politician (b. 1989) (2011 Norway attacks)
2012  Bohdan Stupka, Ukrainian actor and former culture minister (b. 1941)
2012  George Armitage Miller, American psychologist (b. 1920)
2012  Oswaldo Payá, Cuban activist (b. 1952)
2013  Dennis Farina, American actor (b. 1944)
2013  Lawrie Reilly, Scottish footballer (b. 1928)
2014  John Blundell, English economist (b. 1952)
2015  Christopher M. Fairman, American legal scholar (b. 1960)
2015  Eddie Hardin, British rock musician (b. 1949)
2015  Jeannette Cathy, American philanthropist (b. 1923)
2016  Viktor Kryzhanivskyi, Ukrainian artist (b. 1950)
2016  Ursula Franklin, German-American scientist, author and educator (b. 1921)
2017  Kostiantyn Sytnyk, Ukrainian botanist and politician (b. 1926)
2017  Artyom Tarasov, Russian businessman and political activist (b. 1950)
2017  Jim Vance, American news anchor (b. 1942)
2017  Fritz Hellwig, German politician (b. 1912)
2018  Rene Portland, American basketball player (b. 1953)
2018  Chiyo Miyako, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1901)
2018  Tony Sparano, American football coach (b. 1961)
2018  Tor Erling Staff, Norwegian lawyer (b. 1932)
2018  Manos Eleutheriou, Greek poet (b. 1938)
2019  Peter Hamm, German poet and journalist (b. 1937)
2019  Christopher C. Kraft Jr., American aerospace engineer (b. 1924)
2019  Brigitte Kronauer, German writer (b. 1940)
2019  Hans Lagerqvist, Swedish pole vaulter (b. 1940)
2019  Art Neville, American musician (b. 1937)
2019  Li Peng, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1928)

Observances 
 Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
 Pi Approximation Day

Days of the year