451 The Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius‘s victory over Attila the Hun in a day of combat, is considered to be the largest battle in the ancient world.
524 Kan B’alam I, ruler of Maya state of Palenque, was born (d. 583).
1187 Saladin began the Siege of Jerusalem.
1378 Cardinal Robert of Geneva, known as the Butcher of Cesena, was elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
1633 Galileo Galilei was tried before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.
1697 The Treaty of Rijswijk was signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic ending the Nine Years’ War (1688–97)
1737 The finish of the Walking Purchase which forced the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
1835 Farroupilha’s Revolution began in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
1842 James Dewar, Scottish chemist, was born (d. 1923).
1848 The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created.
1854 Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeated Russians in the Crimea.
1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ended with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.
1860 The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) visited the United States.
1863 American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ended.
1870 Bersaglieri corps entered Rome through the Porta Pia and completed the unification of Italy.
1871 Bishop John Coleridge Patteson, the first bishop of Melanesia, was martyred on the island of Nukapu.
1881 Chester A. Arthur was inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of James Garfield.
1891 The first gasoline-powered car debuted in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1906 Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania was launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne.
1914 Kenneth More, English actor, was born (d. 1982).
1920 Foundation of the Spanish Legion.
1930 Syro-Malankara Catholic Church was formed by Archbishop Mar Ivanios.
1934 Sophia Loren, Italian actress, was born.
1942 Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days German SS murdered at least 3,000 Jews.
1946 The first Cannes Film Festival was held.
1954 The Mazengarb inquiry into ‘juvenile delinquency’ was released. It blamed the perceived promiscuity of the nation’s youth on the absence from home of working mothers, the easy availability of contraceptives, and on young women who enticed men into having sex.
1957 Alannah Currie, New Zealander musician (Thompson Twins), was born.
1957 Michael Hurst, New Zealand actor, was born.
1962 James Meredith, an African-American, was temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
1967 The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 was launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland.
1970 Syrian tanks entered Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen.
1971 – Todd Blackadder, New Zealand rugby player, was born.
1973 Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.
1979 Lee Iacocca was elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.
1979 A coup d’état in the Central African Empire overthrew EmperorBokasa I.
1984 A suicide bomber in a car attacked the U.S. embassy in Beirut killing 22 people.
1990 South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia.
2000 The British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building was attacked by a Russian-built Mark 22 anti-tank missile.
2001 In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror”.
2002 The Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.
2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseemsparked a day of rioting in Malé.
2011 – The United States ended its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.
2014 – The John Key’s National-led government was re-elected for a third term.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
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