Events

Up to 1900 
 48 BC – Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia.
 988 – Founding date of the city of Dublin.
 1212 – London is almost completely destroyed by fire.
 1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeats the king's Lancastrian forces and takes Henry VI of England prisoner in the Battle of Northampton.
 1499 – Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion to Vasco da Gama, who died on December 24 the previous year.
 1519 – Zhu Chenhao declares the Ming Dynasty Zhengde Emperor as a usurper, beginning the Prince of Ning rebellion, and leads his army north in an attempt to capture Nanjing.
 1553 – Lady Jane Grey takes the English throne following the death of 15-year-old Edward VI of England on July 6. She becomes known as the "Nine-day queen".
 1584 – William I of Orange is assassinated in Delft by Balthasar Gérard.
 1645 – English Civil War: The Battle of Langport takes place.
 1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
 1789 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River Delta.
 1821 – The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
 1832 – US president Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.
 1850 – Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th president of the United States.
 1882 – War of the Pacific: Chile suffers its last military defeat in the Battle of La Concepcion when a garrison of 77 men is virtually wiped out by a 1,300-strong Peruvian force, many of them armed with spears.
 1890 – Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.

1901  1950 
 1908 – Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes manages to turn helium into liquid.
 1913 – Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States. In 2012 it is also recognized as the hottest-recorded temperature in the world after a record set in Libya in 1922 is discredited.
 1921 – Belfast's Bloody Sunday: 16 people are killed and 161 houses are destroyed during rioting and gun battles.
 1925 – Meher Baba begins his 44-year silence.
 1925 – The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS), the official news agency of the Soviet Union, is established.
 1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
 1931 – Norway annexes Erik Raudes Land (Eric the Red Land) in eastern Greenland.
 1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
 1940 – World War II: Vichy France government established.
 1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain – The German Luftwaffe begin to hit British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).
 1942 – The Netherlands and Soviet Union start diplomatic relations.
 1943 – World War II: Operation Husky – British, American and Canadian troops land on Sicily.
 1945 – Saarland changes its occupying force from American to French.
 1946 – A hyperinflation (a big and quick increase in prices) record is set in Hungary.
 1947 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor-General of Pakistan by British prime minister Clement Attlee.

1951  2000 
 1951 – Korean War: At Kaesong, armistice negotiations begin.
 1951 – Randy Turpin becomes the middleweight boxing champion after defeating Sugar Ray Robinson.
 1962 – Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
 1967 – Uruguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
 1968 – Maurice Couve de Murville becomes prime minister of France
 1973 – The Bahamas gain full independence within the British Commonwealth.
 1973 – The National Assembly of Pakistan passes a resolution on the recognition of Bangladesh as an independent state.
 1976 – An environmental disaster occurs at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy.
 1978 – Moktar Ould Daddah is ousted in a coup as president of Mauritania.
 1980 – London's Alexandra Palace burns down for a second time.
 1985 – Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand Harbor by French DGSE agents.
 1985 – In response to market demand, Coca-Cola re-introduces its old formula cola as "Coca-Cola Classic" (see New Coke).
 1991 – Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected president of Russia.
 1991 – The South African cricket team is re-admitted to the International Cricket Council after being banned for its Apartheid policy.
 1992 – In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.
 1997 – London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neandertal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
 1998 – The remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie are returned to his family in St. Louis, Missouri from the Tomb of the Unknowns upon identification through DNA analysis. The remains had been in the first tomb since 1984.
 1998 – Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
 2000 – A leaking southern Nigerian petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers scavenging gasoline.
 2000 – EADS, the world's second largest aerospace group, is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA, and CASA.

From 2001 
 2002 – At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" is sold for £49.5 million (US $76.2 million) to Lord Kenneth Thomson.
 2003 – A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus, collides with a truck, falls off a bridge on Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong, and plunges into the underlying valley, killing 21 people. This is the deadliest bus accident to date in Hong Kong.
 2003 – Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, is created.
 2006 – For the first time in history, the positions of president and prime minister in a country are held by twin brothers (In Poland, with Lech Kaczynski and Jaroslaw Kaczynski respectively).
 2010 – A week-long manhunt comes to an end in Northumberland, England, when fugitive criminal Raoul Moat commits suicide by gunshot after a stand-off with police.
 2011 – British Sunday tabloid newspaper, The News of the World, ends publication after a major phone-hacking scandal.
 2011 – Russian river cruiser Bulgaria sinks on the Volga River, killing over 100 people.
 2016 – Portugal wins UEFA Euro 2016, defeating host nation France in extra time in the final.
 2019 – Kim Darroch resigns as Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States following a leak of comments criticising the administration of Donald Trump and Trump's subsequent reaction to them.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1419 – Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (d. 1471)
 1451 – James III of Scotland (d. 1488)
 1509 – John Calvin, Swiss reformer (d. 1564)
 1515 – Francisco de Toledo, Spanish Viceroy of Peru (d. 1582)
 1517 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal (d. 1571)
 1592 – Pierre d'Hozier, French genealogist (d. 1660)
 1625 – Jean Herauld Gourville, French adventurer (d. 1703)
 1640 – Aphra Behn, English writer, spy and feminist (d. 1689)
 1682 – Roger Cotes, English mathematician (d. 1716)
 1723 – William Blackstone, English jurist, professor and politician (d. 1780)
 1724 – Eva Ekeblad, Swedish countess and scientist (d. 1786)
 1736 – Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (d. 1807)
 1792 – George M. Dallas, 11th vice president of the United States (d. 1864)
 1804 – Emma Smith, American religious leader (d. 1879)
 1830 – Camille Pissarro, French painter (d. 1903)
 1832 – Alvan Graham Clark, American telescope maker and astronomer (d. 1897)
 1834 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter (d. 1903)
 1835 – Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (d. 1880)
 1839 – Adolphus Busch, German-born brewer (d. 1913)
 1849 – John W. Griggs, American politician (d. 1927)
 1856 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian physicist and inventor (d. 1943)
 1867 – Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
 1871 – Marcel Proust, French writer (d. 1922)
 1871 – Hugh M. Dorsey, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1948)
 1872 – Ivar Wickman, Swedish physician (d. 1914)
 1874 – Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (d. 1971)
 1875 – Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator (d. 1955)
 1877 – Hélène Dutrieux, Belgian pilot (d. 1961)
 1883 – Friedrich Flick, German industrialist and Nazi war criminal (d. 1972)
 1888 – Giorgio de Chirico, Italian painter (d. 1978)
 1888 – Toyohiko Kagawa, Japanese evangelist, author and activist (d. 1960)
 1894 – Jimmy McHugh, American composer (d. 1969)
 1895 – Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
 1895 – Nahum Goldmann, founder of the World Jewish Congress (d. 1982)
 1897 – Karl Plagge, German army officer, engineer and humanitarian (d. 1957)
 1899 – John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)
 1899 – Heiri Suter, Swiss cyclist (d. 1978)

1901  1925 
 1902 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
 1903 – John Wyndham, British writer (d. 1969)
 1903 – Werner Best, German SS officer (d. 1989)
 1904 – Lili Damita, French-American actress (d. 1994)
 1905 – Wolfram Sievers, German Nazi physician (d. 1948)
 1907 – Blind Boy Fuller, American singer and guitarist (d. 1941)
 1914 – Joe Shuster, Canadian cartoonist (d. 1992)
 1917 – Don Herbert, American television host and producer (d. 2007)
 1917 – Reg Smythe, English cartoonist (d. 1998)
 1919 – Pierre Gamarra, French poet and writer (d. 2009)
 1920 – David Brinkley, American television reporter (d. 2003)
 1920 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
 1921 – Harvey Ball, American inventor (d. 2001)
 1921 – Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist (d. 2009)
 1922 – Jake LaMotta, American boxer (d. 2017)
 1922 – Herb McKenley, Jamaican sprinter (d. 2007)
 1923 – Jean Kerr, American writer (d. 2003)
 1923 – Earl Hamner Jr., American writer and television producer (d. 2016)
 1924 – Johnny Bach, American basketball player and coach (d. 2016)
 1924 – Bobo Brazil, American wrestler (d. 1998)
 1925 – Mahathir Mohamad, 4th and 7th prime minister of Malaysia

1926  1950 
 1926 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (d. 1993)
 1927 – Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician (d. 2018)
 1927 – David Dinkins, 106th Mayor of New York City
 1929 – Winnie Ewing, Scottish lawyer and politician
 1929 – George Clayton Johnson, American writer (d. 2015)
 1929 – Moe Norman, Canadian golfer (d. 2004)
 1930 – Susan Cummings, German-American actress (d. 2016)
 1931 – Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
 1931 – Alice Munro, Canadian writer
 1932 – Carlo Maria Abate, Italian racing driver (d. 2019)
 1933 – C.K. Yang, Taiwanese decathlete and pole vaulter (d. 2007)
 1934 – Alfred Biolek, German entertainer
 1934 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer and voice actor (d. 2012)
 1936 – Lois Lilienstein, Canadian singer and musician (Sharon, Lois & Bram) (d. 2015)
 1937 – Edwards Barham, American businessman and politician (d. 2014)
 1938 – Paul Andreu, French architect
 1939 – Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Turkish politician, journalist, and educator (d. 1999)
 1940 – Meghnad Desai, Baron Desai, Indian-English economist and politician
 1940 – Tom Farmer, Scottish businessman
 1940 – Helen Donath, American soprano
 1940 – Erich Iltgen, German politician (d. 2019)
 1941 – David G. Hartwell, American critic, publisher and editor (d. 2016)
 1942 – Pyotr Klimuk, Soviet cosmonaut
 1942 – Sixto Rodriguez, Mexican-American folk musician and singer-songwriter
 1942 – Ronnie James Dio, American musician (d. 2010)
 1943 – Nasr Abu Zayd, Egyptian-Dutch academic (d. 2010)
 1943 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)
 1945 – Virginia Wade, English tennis player
 1945 – Ron Glass, American actor
 1945 – John Motson, English sports broadcaster
 1946 – Stuart Christie, Scottish anarchist and writer
 1946 – Sue Lyon, American actress
 1946 – Henryk Kasperczak, Polish footballer and coach
 1947 – Arlo Guthrie, American musician
 1950 – Prokopis Pavlopoulos, president of Greece

1951  1975 
 1951 – Cheryl Wheeler, American singer and songwriter
 1952 – Lee Hae-chan, former prime minister of South Korea
 1954 – Neil Tennant, British musician (Pet Shop Boys)
 1957 – Cindy Sheehan, American activist
 1958 – Fiona Shaw, Irish actress
 1958 – Bela Fleck, American musician
 1959 – Anjani, American singer-songwriter and pianist
 1965 – Princess Alexa of Greece and Denmark
 1968 – Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete
 1970 – John Simm, English actor
 1970 – Jason Orange, English singer (Take That)
 1970 – Lisa Coleman, English actress
 1970 – Adam Hills, Australian comedian, actor and presenter
 1971 – Adam Foote, Canadian ice hockey player
 1972 – Peter Serafinowicz, English comedian
 1972 – Sofía Vergara, Colombian actress
 1972 – Tilo Wolff, German singer, pianist and composer
 1973 – Annie Mumolo, American actress, screenwriter and producer
 1974 – Daniele Adani, Italian footballer
 1974 – Imelda May, Irish singer-songwriter
 1975 – Andrew Firestone, American businessman
 1975 – Alain Nasreddine, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 1975 – Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor (d. 2018)

From 1976 
 1976 – Ludovic Giuly, French footballer
 1976 – Adrian Grenier, American actor
 1976 – Lars Ricken, German footballer
 1977 – Schapelle Corby, Australian criminal
 1977 – Chiwetel Ejiofor, British actor
 1977 – Levan Kobiashvili, Georgian footballer
 1977 – Moktar Ali Zubeyr, Somali militant (d. 2014)
 1979 – Tobias Unger, German athlete
 1980 – Katrina Bryan, Scottish actress
 1980 – Alejandro Millan, Mexican singer-songwriter and keyboardist
 1980 – Thomas Ian Nicholas, British actor
 1980 – Adam Petty, American race car driver (d. 2000)
 1980 – James Rolfe, American actor, director and producer
 1980 – Jessica Simpson, American singer
 1981 – Aleksandar Tunchev, Bulgarian footballer
 1982 – Sebastian Mila, Polish footballer
 1983 – Kim Heechul, South Korean singer and actor
 1983 – Golshifteh Farahani, Iranian actress, musician and singer
 1984 – María Julia Mantilla, Peruvian model
 1985 – Park Chu-young, South Korean footballer
 1985 – Mario Gómez, German footballer
 1989 – Carlos Zambrano, Peruvian footballer
 1990 – Sung Joon, South Korean model and actress
 1991 – Matsuko Maeda, Japanese singer and actress (AKB48)
 1993 – Perrie Edwards, English singer (Little Mix)
 1995 – Ada Hegerberg, Norwegian footballer
 1997 – Rena Kato, Japanese singer, dancer, model and actress
 1998 – Haley Pullos, American actress
 2001 – Isabela Moner, American actress and singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 138 – Hadrian, Roman Emperor (b. 76)
 649 – Emperor Taizong of Tang of China (b. 598)
 983 – Pope Benedict VII
 1103 – Eric I of Denmark
 1290 – Ladislaus II of Hungary (b. 1262)
 1461 – Stephen Thomas of Bosnia (b. 1412)
 1510 – Caterina Comaro, Queen of Cyprus
 1559 – Henry II of France (b. 1519)
 1584 – William the Silent (William of Orange), Dutch leader (b. 1533)
 1590 – Archduke Charles II of Austria, regent of Inner Austria (b. 1540)
 1805 – Thomas Wedgwood, English photography pioneer (b. 1771)
 1806 – George Stubbs, British painter (b. 1724)
 1820 – William Wyatt Bibb, American politician, 1st Governor of Alabama (b. 1781)
 1851 – Louis Daguerre, French photographer and physicist (b. 1787)
 1881 – Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect and educator (b. 1812)
 1884 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)

1901  2000 
 1908 – Phoebe Knapp, American organist and composer (b. 1839)
 1910 – Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (b. 1812)
 1920 – Jackie Fisher, British admiral (b. 1841)
 1927 – Louise Abbéma, French painter (b. 1853)
 1934 – Erich Mühsam, German writer, journalist and anarchist (b. 1878)
 1941 – Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz musician (b. 1890)
 1970 – Bjarni Benediktsson, prime minister of Iceland (b. 1908)
 1972 – Lovie Austin, American pianist, composer and bandleader (b. 1887)
 1978 – John D Rockefeller III, American businessman (b. 1906)
 1978 – Joe Davis, English snooker player (b. 1901)
 1979 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)
 1985 – Fernando Pereira, Portuguese-Dutch photographer (b. 1950)
 1987 – John Hammond, American record producer (b. 1910)
 1989 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor (b. 1908)

From 2001 
 2003 – Lord Shawcross, Britain's chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials (b. 1902)
 2003 – Winston Graham, English writer (b. 1908)
 2004 – Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, Portuguese politician (b. 1930)
 2004 – Inge Meysel, German actress (b. 1910)
 2008 – Hiroaki Aoki, Japanese-American wrestler and businessman (b. 1938)
 2010 – Raoul Moat, British fugitive criminal (b. 1973)
 2010 – Sugar Minott, Jamaican musician (b. 1956)
 2011 – Roland Petit, French choreographer (b. 1924)
 2012 – Lol Coxhill, English saxophonist (b. 1933)
 2013 – Concha García Campoy, Spanish journalist (b. 1958)
 2013 – Ibrahim Youssef, Egyptian footballer (b. 1959)
 2014 – Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress and choreographer (b. 1912)
 2014 – Robert C. Broomfield, American judge (b. 1933)
 2015 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor (b. 1932)
 2015 – Roger Rees, Welsh-American actor (b. 1944)
 2015 – Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor (b. 1926)
 2016 – Robert E. Cooper, Sr., American judge (b. 1920)
 2016 – Anatoli Isayev, Russian footballer (b. 1932)
 2016 – Alfred G. Knudson, American geneticist (b. 1927)
 2017 – Jim Bush, American track and field coach (b. 1926)
 2017 – Isabelle Sadoyan, French actress (b. 1928)
 2017 – Mangesh Tendulkar, Indian cartoonist (b. 1935)
 2017 – Augustin Buzura, Romanian writer and journalist (b. 1937)
 2018 – Clive King, English author (b. 1924)
 2018 – John Laird, Baron Laird, British politician (b. 1944)
 2018 – Henry Morgenthau III, American author and television producer (b. 1917)
 2018 – Jan Henry T. Olsen, Norwegian politician (b. 1956)
 2018 – Darryl Rogers, American football coach (b. 1935)
 2018 – José María Setién, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1928)
 2018 – Mien Schopman-Klaver, Dutch athlete (b. 1911)
 2018 – John A. Stormer, American political writer (b. 1928)
 2018 – Ye Lwin, Burmese guitarist and peace activist (b. 1947)
 2019 – Paulo Henrique Amorim, Brazilian journalist (b. 1942)
 2019 – Jim Bouton, American baseball player, writer and actor (b. 1939)
 2019 – Valentina Cortese, Italian actress (b. 1923)
 2019 – Motto McLean, Scottish-Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
 2019 – Walt Michaels, American football player and coach (b. 1929)
 2019 – Denise Nickerson, American actress (b. 1957)

Observances 
 Independence Day – the Bahamas
 Statehood Day – Wyoming
 Silence Day

Days of the year