30 BC Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1099 First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon – Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeated Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah.
1121 Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1281 The fleet of Qubilai Khan was destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
1323 Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulated the border for the first time.
1332 Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor – Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar were routed by Edward Balliol.
1480 Battle of Otranto – Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
1499 First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
1676 Praying Indian John Alderman shot and killed Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip’s War.
1687 Charles of Lorraine defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Mohács.
1806 Santiago de Liniers re-took the city of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion.
1816 – New Zealand’s first school opened beside missionary Thomas Kendall’s house in the Church Missionary Society (Anglican) settlement at Hohi (Oihi) in the Bay of Islands.
1851 Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1859 Katharine Lee Bates, American poet, was born (d. 1929).
1877 Asaph Hall discovered Deimos.
1881 Cecil B. DeMille, American film director, was born (d. 1959).
1883 The last quagga died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1886 Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner, was born (d. 1952).
1889 Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane), was born (d. 1981).
1895 Minnie Dean became the first (and only) woman to be hanged by law in New Zealand.
1898 Armistice ended the Spanish-American War.
1898 The Hawaiian flag was lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.
1911 Cantinflas, Mexican actor, was born (d. 1993).
1914 World War I– Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary.
1918 Guy Gibson, British aviator, awarded Victoria Cross, was born (d. 1944).
1925 Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, was born (d. 2004).
1925 Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, was born (d. 1975).
1932 Queen Sirikit, Queen of Thailand, was born.
1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.
1944 Waffen SS troops massacred 560 people in Sant’Anna di Stazzema.
1944 Alençon was liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
1948 – Sue Monk Kidd, American nurse, author, and educator, was born.
1949 – Mark Knopfler, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dire Straits), was born.
1952 The Night of the Murdered Poets – thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in Moscow.
1953 The Soviet atomic bomb project continued with the detonation ofJoe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece were severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the richter scale.
1954 – François Hollande, French lawyer and politician, 24th President of France, was born.
1960 Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched.
1961 Roy Hay, British guitarist and keyboardist (Culture Club), was born.
1961 Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer, was born.
1964 South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.
1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers escaped from Winson Green Prison.
1969 Violence erupted after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march resulting in a three-day communal riot – the Battle of the Bogside.
1973 Richard Reid, British Islamist terrorist (the “Shoe Bomber”), was born.
1975 John Walker broke the world mile record, becoming became history’s first sub-3:50 miler.
1976 Between 1,000-3,500 Palestinians killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War.
1977 The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1977 Start of Sri Lankan riots of 1977, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people – over 300 Tamils were killed.
1978 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People’s Republic of China was signed.
1980 Signature of the Montevideo Treaty establishing the Latin American Integration Association.
1982 Mexico announced it was unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spread to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1985 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into Osutaka ridge in Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1992 Canada, Mexico, and the United States announced completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
2000 The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navyexploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2005 Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, was fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2007 Bulk carrier M/V New Flame collided with oil tanker Torm Gertrudat the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
2015 – At least two massive explosions killed 145 people and injured nearly 800 in Tianjin, China.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia
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