350 Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaimed himself Roman Emperor.
1140 French scholar Peter Abelard was found guilty of heresy.
1326 Treaty of Novgorod delineated borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.
1539 Hernado de Soto claimed Florida for Spain.
1608 Samuel de Champlain completed his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.
1620 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, began in Quebec City.
1621 The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands.
1658 Pope Alexander VII appointed François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France.
1659 David Gregory, Scottish astronomer and mathematician, was born (d. 1708).
1665 James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeated the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
1770 Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
1726 James Hutton, Scottish geologist, was born (d. 1797).
1800 U.S. President John Adams took up residence in Washington, D.C. (in a tavern because the White House was not yet completed).
1808 Jefferson Davis, American politician and President of the Confederate States of America was born (d. 1889).
1839 Lin Tse-hsü destroyed 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.
1861 Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces routed Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia in first land battle of the War.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attacked Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.
1865 George V was born (d. 1936).
1866 The Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States.
1885 In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil Cree leader Big Bear escaped the North West Mounted Police.
1888 The poem “Casey at the Bat“, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner.
1889 The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.
1889 The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States was completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.
1916 The Reserve Officer Training Corp, ROTC , was established by the U.S. Congress.
1916 – The National Defense Act was signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.
1921 Forbes Carlile, Australian Olympic swimmer and coach, was born.
1924 Jimmy Rogers, American blues guitarist, was born (d. 1997).
1935 One thousand unemployed Canadian workers boarded freight cars in Vancouver, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario.
1936 Sir Colin “Pine Tree” Meads, farmer and former All Black, was born.
1937 The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson.
1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a German victory and Allied forces in full retreat.
1947 Mickey Finn, British guitarist and percussionist (T.Rex), was born (d. 2003).
1950 Suzi Quatro, American musician and actress, was born.
1956 British Railways renamed ‘Third Class’ passenger facilities as ‘Second Class’ (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
1962 Susannah Constantine, British fashion guru, was born.
1962 An Air France Boeing 707 charter, Chateau de Sully crashed after an aborted takeoff from Paris, killing 130.
1963 The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attacked protesting Buddhists in Huế, with liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.
1963 A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, killing 101.
1965 Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performed the first American spacewalk.
1968 Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.
1969 Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cut the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
1973 A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashed near Goussainville killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
1979 A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico caused at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters.
1982 The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, was shot on a London street. He survived but was permanently paralysed.
1989 The government of China sent troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.
1989 SkyDome was officially opened in Toronto.
1991 Mount Unzen erupted in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
1992 Aboriginal Land Rights were granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought about by Eddie Mabo.
1998 Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derailed in Lower Saxony causing 101 deaths.
2006 The union of Serbia and Montenegro ended with Montenegro’s formal declaration of independence.
2007 USS Carter Hall engaged pirates after they boarded the Danish ship Danica White off the coast of Somalia.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
Homepaddock 