1014 Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicted a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army.
1030 Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad – King Olaf II fought and died trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
1565 The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh.
1567 James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeated theSpanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.
1693 War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen – France won a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
1793 John Graves Simcoe decided to build a fort and settlement at Toronto.
1830 Abdication of Charles X of France.
1836 Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
1847 Cumberland School of Law was founded in Lebanon, Tennessee.
1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule was put down by police.
1851 Annibale de Gasparis discovered asteroid 15 Eunomia.
1858 United States and Japan signed the Harris Treaty.
1883 Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, was born (d. 1945).
1891 Bernhard Zondek German-born Israeli gynecologist, developer of first reliable pregnancy test, was born (d. 1966).
1897 – The Huddart-Parker steamer Tasmania, sank off Māhia Peninsula.
1899 The First Hague Convention was signed.
1900 King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
1901 The Socialist Party of America founded.
1905 Stanley Kunitz, American poet, was born (d. 2006).
1907 Sir Robert Baden Powell set up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour. The camp ran from August 1-9, 1907, and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement.
1920 Construction of the Link River Dam began as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
1921 Adolf Hitler became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
1925 Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer, was born.
1926 – Robert Kilpatrick, Baron Kilpatrick of Kincraig, Scottish physician, academic, and politician, was born (d. 2015).
1936 – Elizabeth Dole, American lawyer and politician, 20th United States Secretary of Labor, was born.
1937 Tongzhou Incident – assault on Japanese troops and civilians by Japanese-trained East Hopei Army in Tōngzhōu, China.
1945 The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched.
1948 – John Clarke, New Zealand-Australian comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter, was born (d. 2017).
1948 The Games of the XIV Olympiad – after a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held opened in London.
1957 The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.
1958 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
1959 John Sykes, British guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Tygers of Pan Tang), was born.
1965 The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived in Vietnam.
1967 USS Forrestal caught on fire killing 134.
1967 During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela was shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.
1981 Up to 2000 anti-Springbok tour protestors were confronted by police who used batons to stop them marching up Molesworth Street to the home of South Africa’s Consul to New Zealand.
1981 – Kiri Te Kanawa sang at the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
1981 Marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer.
1987 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand signed the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel).
1988 The film Cry Freedom was seized by South African authorities.
1987 Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayawardene signed the Indo-Lankan Pact on ethnic issues.
1993 The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges.
2003 – Moana Mackey entered the House of Representatives as a Labour Party list MP, joining her mother, Janet Mackey, who had been a Labour MP since 1993. They became the first mother and daughter to serve together in New Zealand’s parliament.
2005 Astronomers announced their discovery of Eris.
2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsized on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths.
2013 – Two passenger trains collided in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people.
2015 – Microsoft released Windows 10.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia