Battle of Crécy
1346 Battle of Crécy, south of Calais in northern France; Edward III's English longbows defeat Philip VI's army, cannons used for first time in battle
- 1466 A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered
Pietà Commissioned
1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà sculpture by French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères
- 1545 Pope Paul III names his son Pierluigi Farnese as Duke of Parma
- 1629 Cambridge Agreement, Massachusetts Bay Company stockholders agree to emigrate
- 1641 West India Company conquers Sao Paulo de Loanda, Angola
- 1648 People's uprising against Anna of Austria & Cardinal Mazarin
- 1652 Battle of Plymouth: General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked a convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter. Dutch victory
Halley Observes his Comet
1682 English astronomer Edmond Halley first observes the comet named after him
A Tale of Mother Goose
1691 Charles Perrault's poem "The Marquise of Salusses or the Patience of Griselidis" read aloud at the French Academy, later attached to his "Tales of Mother Goose" (1697)
- 1748 The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1778 First recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia by Balthasar Hacquet
- 1789 The National Constituent Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution
- 1791 John Fitch granted US patent for his working steamboat
- 1843 American inventor Charles Thurber patents a typewriter
Mendelssohn's Elijah
1846 Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" premieres at the Birmingham Festival in England
- 1846 W. A. Bartlett appointed 1st US mayor of Yerba Buena (San Francisco)
- 1863 Battle of Rocky Gap, West Virginia (White Sulphur Springs): Colonel George S. Patton's Confederate forces defeat Union brigade advance
First Free US Kindergarten
1873 First free kindergarten in the U.S. started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri
- 1874 16 blacks kidnapped from Gibson County Jail and lynched in Trenton, Tennessee
- 1894 Netherlands Social-Democratic Worker's party (SDAP) forms
- 1895 Electric generator at Niagara Falls produces first power
- 1896 Armenian Revolutionary Federation assaults the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople to draw attention to the mass-pogroms and massacres of Armenians instigated by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II
- 1903 Phillies walk 17 Dodgers in a game
Houdini's Underwater Escape
1907 Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater in 57 seconds, at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, California
- 1909 Australian cricket all-rounder Frank Tarrant scores 145 and takes 13-67 in a county game for Middlesex as they beat Gloucester by an innings and 31 runs in a single day
Johnson's Winning Streak Ends
1912 MLB pitcher Walter Johnson's 16-game winning streak ends
- 1914 -9/10] Russian army attacks Austrian army in Galicia
Battle of Tannenberg
1914 Battle of Tannenberg begins (WWI): 8th German army defeats Russian Second army
- 1915 German troops overrun Brest-Litovsk, Russia
- 1916 Philadelphia Athletic's Bullet Joe Bush no-hits Cleveland, 5-0
- 1918 Winchell Smith & Frank Bacon's comedic play "Lightnin'" premieres in NYC
- 1920 Surrey cricket all-rounder Percy Fender scores 100 in 35 minutes [113no] in a county match vs Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton
- 1922 Japanese cruiser Niitaka driven onto rocks in storm at Kamchatka, 284 killed
- 1924 The Catastrophe of Smyrna: known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe to Greeks. The Ottoman army expels Greeks and other non-Turks from Asia Minor. (August 13 OS)
Wilson Breaks Home Run Record
1930 Chicago Cub's Hack Wilson hits his 44th HR, breaks Chuck Klein's NL record
Nationalists Take Santander
1937 General Franco's Nationalist troops conquer Santander during the Spanish Civil War
- 1937 Pumping to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay is finished
- 1938 British leaders & Arabians fight in Palestine
- 1938 Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL
- 1939 1st major league baseball telecast on W2XBS- Cincinnati Reds defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn
- 1939 Belgium mobilizes
- 1939 Croatia gets autonomous status
- 1940 Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor
- 1940 RKC soccer team forms in Waalwijk
- 1942 7,000 Jews are rounded up in Vichy-France
- 1942 Japanese troops land on Milne Bay, New Guinea
- 1942 Soviet counter offensive begins in Moscow
- 1942 Transport #24 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1944 Bulgaria announces withdrawal & German troops are to be disarmed
Liberation of Paris
1944 French General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division and Charles de Gaulle parade down the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation
- 1944 US 12nd Army Corps crosses river Seine East of Paris
- 1945 Japanese diplomats board USS Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at the end of WWII
- 1947 Dodgers' Dan Bankhead, MLB's 1st African-American pitcher, homers in his 1st MLB at bat in 16-3 loss to Pittsburgh, at Ebbetts Field, Brooklyn, NYC
- 1951 Dutch professor Jacob Jongbloed demonstrates an artificial heart in Paris
An American In Paris
1951 Film "An American In Paris" with music by George Gershwin, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron premieres in London (Academy Awards Best Picture, 1952)
Sports History
1956 Yankees announce purchase of outfielder Enos Slaughter from KC
- 1957 USSR announces successful test of intercontinental ballistic missile
Morris Mini-Minor
1959 British Motor Corporation introduces the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis, it was only 10 ft long but seated 4 passengers
Music History
1967 The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and Donovan meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a retreat in Bangor, Wales
Event of Interest
1971 Dutch Queen Juliana & Prince Bernhard visit Indonesia
- 1971 MLB Baltimore Orioles' Don Buford struck out 5 times in a game
- 1971 NY Giant football team announces they're leaving Bronx for New Jersey in 1975
Sports History
1972 Leo Durocher replaces Harry Walker as manager of Houston Astros
- 1972 NY Cosmos beat St Louis Stars, 2-1 to win NASL championship
- 1972 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1972 XX Summer Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany
- 1973 10-year-old Mary Boitano is 1st woman to win 6.8-mile Dipsea Race in Marin County, CA, beating a field of 1,500 runners
- 1973 David Eisenhower writes his last sports column
- 1973 University of Texas (Arlington) is first accredited school to offer belly dancing
- 1974 Soyuz 15 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 3
- 1977 Frank Martinus Arion forms Surinamese Writers group 77
- 1977 Ian Dury releases the single "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll"
- 1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice becomes Pope John Paul I
- 1978 Soyuz 31 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 East German) to Salyut 6
- 1980 John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada
- 1980 Pete Comita replaces Tom Peterson as bassist of American rock band Cheap Trick
- 1981 Space Shuttle vehicle moves to Launch Complex 39A for STS-2 mission
Voyager 2 Spacecraft
1981 Voyager 2 takes photos of Saturn's moon Titan
Sports History
1985 Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray knocks in 9 RBIs in a game vs California Angels
The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
1985 French government denies knowledge of bombing of the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland New Zealand
- 1986 Robert Chambers, the "Preppie Killer" murders Jennifer Levin in New York City's Central Park, afterwards claimed "rough sex" as motive
Baseball Record
1987 Paul Molitor goes 0-for-4 ends hitting streak at 39 consecutive games
Baseball Record
1990 Bo Jackson hits 4th of 4 consecutive HRs
Appointment of Interest
1993 Ernest Shonekan is appointed interim president of Nigeria by General Ibrahim Babangida
Event of Interest
1995 Andrew Symonds hits 20 sixes in match for Gloucestershire v Glamorgan
Cricket History
1995 Brian Lara completes his 7th Test Cricket century, scoring 179 at The Oval in London
7th Heaven
1996 "7th Heaven", starring Jessica Biel, debuts on The WB
Event of Interest
1996 US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in welfare policy
- 1997 Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed
- 1999 Michael Johnson breaks the 400 metres world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.
- 2000 Australia clinches first Tri Nations Rugby Series with a 19-18 win over South Africa in Durban; Wallabies centre Stirling Mortlock lands 4 penalties and a conversion
- 2002 Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2003 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Olympic Gold
2004 An American 1-2-3 in the 200m medals at the Athens Olympics; Shawn Crawford gold in 19.79 ahead of Bernard Williams & Justin Gatlin
- 2004 Félix Sánchez wins the men's 400m hurdles 47.63 in Athens; the Dominican Republic's first ever Olympic gold medal
- 2004 Germany wins its first ever Olympic women's field hockey gold medal with a 2-1 win against the Netherlands in Athens
- 2004 Hamish Carter of New Zealand wins the men's gold medal ahead of teammate Bevan Docherty, whilst Kate Allen of Austria takes out the women's Triathlon at the Athens Olympics
Olympic Gold
2004 Lindsay Tarpley and Abby Wambach score as the US beats Brazil 2-1, maintaining an undefeated record to win the women's football gold medal at the Athens Olympics
Music History
2005 US Postal Service christens a Los Angeles facility as "The Ray Charles Station"
Music History
2006 David Gilmour performs with his band and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra before a crowd of 50,000 at Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland
Sports History
2006 New Zealand retain Tri Nations Rugby Series with 45-26 win over South Africa in Pretoria; All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter lands 4 penalties and 4 conversions
Music Concert
2007 The Rolling Stones close their two-year, 147 concert "A Bigger Bang" tour at O2 Arena in London, England; box office gross of tour exceeds $558M, a record at the time
- 2008 Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, prompting the Georgian government to sever diplomatic relations with Russia
- 2011 The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA
- 2012 17 villagers in Afghanistan's Kajaki district are beheaded by an unknown organization
- 2012 36 people are killed in a bus crash in Yan'an, China
- 2012 Legionella outbreak in Quebec City, Canada, kills 8 and infects 104
- 2013 All 25,000 applicants to the University of Liberia fail their university entrance examination
Agreement of Interest
2014 Burger King agrees to purchase Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons for $11.4 billion
- 2014 Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry informs the WHO of an outbreak of Ebola; later confirmed as a different strain to that affecting west Africa
- 2014 Israel and Hamas accept another ceasefire
- 2015 WDBJ TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward are fatally shot live on TV by an ex-colleague in Moneta, Virginia
- 2017 Half a million people take part in a peace march in Barcelona, following terrorist attacks
- 2017 Hurricane Harvey downgraded to a tropical storm, National Hurricane Center warns of “multiday rainfall disaster”
Sports History
2017 Manchester City scores a 2-1 win at Bournemouth to start EPL record 18 game winning streak; Raheem Sterling scores for City but is sent off with 2 yellow cards in injury time
- 2017 Violent clashes after conviction of spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh kill 31 in Panchkula, 120 admitted to hospital
- 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup: New Zealand Black Ferns defeat England 41-32 in the final in Belfast
Event of Interest
2018 Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former US Vatican Ambassador, claims Pope Francis knew of and ignored sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
- 2018 Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop resigns after losing Liberal Party leadership contest
Sports History
2018 Boxing match between YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul ends in a draw in Manchester, England
Film & TV History
2018 Danny Boyle pulls out of directing the next James Bond film due to 'creative differences'
Event of Interest
2018 Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as President of Zimbabwe
- 2018 Gamer at a Madden NFL 19 gaming tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, loses then returns to shoot two dead and wound nine
- 2018 Moroccan pop singer Saad Lamjarred arrested in Saint-Tropez, France on a rape allegation
- 2018 Pope Francis asks for forgiveness in speech on child abuse in Dublin, during first official visit to Ireland since 1979
Event of Interest
2019 Indonesian President Joko Widodo proposes moving the country's sinking and over-crowded capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo (Kalimantan)
- 2019 Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay state of Oklahoma $572 million in 1st trial against opioid manufacturer
- 2019 Leo DiCaprio's environmental organization Earth Alliance donates $5m to fighting fires in the Amazon
- 2019 Meeting of the G7 agrees on $20 million aid package to fight fires in the Amazon in Biarritz
- 2020 At least 100 people killed in flash floods in the city of Charikar, Afghanistan, with 500 houses destroyed
- 2020 Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (29) is the youngest to win the International Booker prize for their debut novel "The Discomfort of Evening"
Sports History
2020 Milwaukee Bucks forfeit their NBA playoff game after the shooting of Jacob Blake, leading to the NBA postponing more games
- 2021 Two bomb blasts from suicide bombers at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, kill at least 60 civilians and 13 US soldiers, amid international efforts to evacuate citizens out of the country
- 2023 Longest alligator ever recorded in Mississippi at 14ft, 3in (4.3m), captured in Sunflower River, weighing 802.5 pounds (364 kilograms) [1]
- 2023 Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa "The Crocodile" elected to a second term amid claims of vote-rigging [1]
