451 Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius battled Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreated, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
1005 Ali az-Zahir, caliph, was born (d. 1036).
1214 The University of Oxford received its charter.
1631 The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore was attacked by Algerian pirates.
1652 Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire, served until 21 March 1653.
1685 Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater.
1723 Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian, was born (d. 1816).
1756 A British garrison was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
1782 The U.S. Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States.
1787 Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.
1789 Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath.
1791 King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family began the Flight to Varennes during The French Revolution.
1819 Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer, was born (d. 1880).
1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool, United Kingdom – the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.
1837 Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne.
1840 Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph.
1862 Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, was assassinated.
1863 American Civil War: West Virginia was admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
1877 Alexander Graham Bell installed the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.
1893 Lizzie Borden was acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother.
1909 Errol Flynn, Australian actor, was born (d. 1959).
1919 – 150 died at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
1924 Chet Atkins, American guitar player and producer, was born (d. 2001).
1934 Wendy Craig, English actress, was born.
1942 Brian Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys), was born.
1943 – Ten United States Navy personnel were drowned off the Paekākāriki coast near Wellington during a beach landing exercise.
1944 World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concluded with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
1944 Continuation war: Soviet Union demanded an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.
1945 Anne Murray, Canadian singer, was born.
1946 Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor, was born.
1948 Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru, was born.
1948 Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut.
1949 Lionel Richie, American musician (The Commodores) , was born.
1949 Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass guitarist (Bay City Rollers), was born.
1950 Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, was born.
1954 Michael Anthony, American musician (Van Halen), was born.
1956 A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
1959 A rare June hurricane struck Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
1960 John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran), was born.
1960 Independence of Mali and Senegal.
1963 The so-called “red telephone“ was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile crisis.
1967 Nicole Kidman, American-born Australian actress, was born.
1970 – Josh Kronfeld, New Zealander rugby union footballer, was born.
1973 Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires Snipers fired on left-wing Peronists. At least 13 were killed and more than 300 injured.
1979 ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder was caught on tape and sparked international outcry of the regime.
1987 The All Blacks won the inaugural rugby World Cup.
1990 Asteroid Eureka was discovered.
1991 The German parliament decided to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
2003 The WikiMedia Foundation was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
2009 – During the Iranian election protests, the death of Neda Agha-Soltan was captured on video and spreads virally on the Internet, making it “probably the most widely witnessed death in human history”.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
