361 – Julian the Apostate entered Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
630 – Muhammad led an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
969 – Byzatine Emperor Nikephoros II was assassinated by his wife Theofano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
1282 Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, was killed at Cilmeri.
1789 The University of North Carolina was chartered.
1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France was put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1890 Carlos Gardel, tango singer was born (d. 1935).
1904 Marge, American cartoonist, was born (d. 1993).
1907 Fire swept through Parliament Buildings destroying Bellamy’s restaurant but missing the library.
1917 Lithuania declared its independence from Russia.
1918 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Soviet dissident, Nobel laureate, was born (d 2008).
1931 The Statute of Westminster was passed granting complete autonomy to Britain’s six Dominions. It established legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.
1936 Edward VIII’s abdication as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India became effective.
1940 David Gates, American musician (Bread), was born.
1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, following the Americans’ declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbour. The United States, in turn, declared war on Germany and Italy.
1942 – Donna Mills, American actress, was born.
1943 John Kerry, American politician, was born.
1944 Brenda Lee, American singer, was born.
1946 The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.
1954 Jermaine Jackson, American singer (Jackson 5), was born.
1958 French Upper Volta gained self-government from France, and became the Republic of Upper Volta.
1972 Apollo 17 became the sixth Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
1997 The Kyoto Protocol opened for signature.
2005 Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrated against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanesen (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney.
2008 Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
2012 – At least 125 people were killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria.
Sourced from Wikipedia and NZ History Online.
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