46 BC Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.
715 Ragenfrid defeated Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.
1212 Golden Bull of Sicily was certified as an hereditary royal title in Bohemia for the Přemyslid dynasty.
1580 Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world.
1687 The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini.
168 – The city council of Amsterdam voted to support William of Orange‘s invasion of England.
1783 The first battle of Shays’ Rebellion began.
1810 A new Act of Succession was adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.
1820 Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren’t poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.
1865 The Natives Rights Act declared Maori British citizens.
1872 The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City.
1888 US poet & playwright T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot was born (d. 1965).
1898 Composer George Gershwin was born (d. 1937).
1907 Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward proclaimed New Zealand a dominion. Parliament Buildings were lit up in celebration.
1907 Newfoundland became a dominion within the British Empire.
1907 English art historian & Soviet spy Anthony Blunt was born (d. 1983).
1918 World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, began.
1932 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was born.
1934 Steamship RMS Queen Mary was launched.
1936 South African activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was born.
1943 – Ian Chappell, Australian cricketer and broadcaster, was born.
1945 English singer Bryan Ferry was born.
1947 US country singer Lynn Anderson was born.
1948 English-born Australian singer Olivia Newton John was born.
1949 US novelist Jane Smiley was born.
1949 English crime writer Minette Walters was born.
1950 United Nations troops recaptured Seoul from the North Koreans.
1954 Japanese rail ferry Toya Maru sank during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, killing 1,172.
1960 The first televised debate took place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
1962 The Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed.
1970 The Laguna Fire started in San Diego County, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).
1973 Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.
1983 Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averted a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
1997 A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 crashed near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234.
1997 An earthquake struck Umbria and the Marche, causing part of theBasilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.
2000 Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.
2000 The MS Express Samina sank off Paros in the Agean sea killing 80 passengers.
2002 The overcrowded Senegalese ferry MV Joola capsised off the coast of Gambia killing more than 1,000.
2008 Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy became the first person to fly ajet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.
2009 Typhoon Ketsana (2009) hit the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.
2009 – Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in the Kunar Province of eastern Afghanistan.
2014 – Ayotzinapa mass kidnapping in Mexico.
Sourced from NZ History Online and Wikipedia
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