1510 Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, was born (d. 1537).
1587 Colony of Roanoke: a second group of English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
1793 Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada.
1805 Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Cape Finisterre – an inconclusive naval action was fought between a combined French and Spanish fleets under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
1812 Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War – Battle of Salamanca – British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeated French troops.
1844 William Archibald Spooner, English priest and scholar, was born (d. 1930).
1849 Emma Lazarus, American poet, was born (d. 1887).
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta – Confederate General John Bell Hood led an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
1890 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, American Kennedy family matriarch, was born (d. 1995).
1894 First ever motorised racing event was held between the cities of Paris and Rouen – won by comte Jules-Albert de Dion.
1908 Amy Vanderbilt, American author, was born (d. 1974).
1916 A bomb exploded on Market Street, San Francisco during a Preparedness Day parade killing 10 and injuring 40.
1932 Oscar De la Renta, Dominican/American fashion designer, was born.
1933 Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
1934 “Public Enemy No. 1″ John Dillinger was mortally wounded by FBI agents.
1936 Tom Robbins, American author, was born.
1942 The United States government began compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
1942 Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto began.
1943 Bobby Sherman, American singer and actor, was born.
1944 Anand Satyanand, former Governor-General of New Zealand, was born.
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1944 Estelle Bennett, American singer (Ronettes), was born (d. 2009).
1944 Rick Davies, British musician (Supertramp) , was born.
1944 The Polish Committee of National Liberation published its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule.
1946 King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombed King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration, killing 90.
1947 Don Henley, American musician (Eagles), was born.
1951 Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, “Gypsy”) were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight.
1962 Mariner programme: Mariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch and had to be destroyed.
1970 Craig Baird, New Zealander racing driver, was born.
1976 Japan completed its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed in Japan’s imperial conquest of the country in the Second World War
1977 Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was restored to power.
1980 Scott Dixon, New Zealand racing driver, was born.
1983 Martial law in Poland was officially revoked.
1987 Lotto went on sale for the first time with a first division prize of $360,000.
1992 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison.
1993 Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois ruptured, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
1997 The second Blue Water Bridge opened between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
2002 Israel killed terrorist Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
2003 Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attacked a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, plus Mustapha Hussein, Qusay’s 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
2005 Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by police as the hunt started for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings.
2011 – Twin terror attacks in Norway: the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.
2012 – Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
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