On this day in History - July 20

• 356 BC - Alexander the Great was born (d. 323 BC). Macedonian-Greek king and military leader.
• 0514 - Pope Hormisdas assumes the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church.
• 0810 - Imam Bukhari nwas born (d. 0870). Muslim scholar and compiler of Hadith.
• 0985 - Pope Boniface VII dies.
• 1031 - King Robert II of France dies (b. 972).
• 1156 - Emperor Toba of Japan dies (b. 1103).
• 1160 - Peter Lombard dies. French theologian.
• 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of the war.
• 1304 - Francesco Petrarch was born (d. 19 Jul 1374). Italian poet.
• 1320 - King Oshin of Armenia dies (b. 1282).
• 1351 - Margaretha Ebner dies (b. 1291). German visionary.
• 1387 - Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu dies poisoned (b. 1356).
• 1398 - Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March dies (b. 1374). Heir to the throne of England.
• 1402 - Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara - Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeated forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.
• 1453 - Enguerrand de Monstrelet dies. French chronicler.
• 1454 - King John II of Castile dies (b. 1405).
• 1519 - Pope Innocent IX was born.
• 1524 - Queen Claude of France dies (b. 1499).
• 1537 - Arnaud d'Ossat was born (d. 1604). French diplomat and writer.
• 1609 - Federico Zuccaro (or Zuccari) dies (b. 1542). Italian Mannerist painter , draftsman, and writer.
• 1616 - Hugh O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone dies. English soldier.
• 1620 - Nikolaes Heinsius was born (d. 1681). Dutch scholar.
• 1656 - Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeats the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
• 1659 - Hyacinthe Rigaud was born (d. 1743). French painter.
• 1661 - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was born (d. 1706). French founder of the colony of Louisiana.
• 1673 - John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair was born (d. 1747). Scottish soldier and diplomat.
• 1704 - Peregrine White dies (b. 1620). First English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1712 - The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain.
• 1738 - French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
• 1752 - Johann Christoph Pepusch dies (b. 1667). German composer.
• 1754 - Destutt de Tracy was born. French philosopher.
• 1757 - Garsevan Chavchavadze was born (d. 1811). Georgian diplomat and politician.
• 1774 - Auguste Marmont was born (d. 1852). French marshal.
• 1797 - Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki was born (d. 1873). Polish explorer and geologist.
• 1810 - Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
• 1815 - Giuseppe La Farina was born (5 Sep 1863). Italian writer and leader of the Risorgimento.
• 1816 - Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin dies (b. 1743). Russian poet.
• 1822 - Gregor Mendel was born (d. 1884). Father of modern genetics.
• 1833 - An anti-Mormon mob in Independence, Missouri, destroys the printing press for the Book of Commandments, now among the most valuable 19th century books.
• 1838 - George Otto Trevelyan was born (d. 1928). British statesman and biographer.
• 1838 - Augustin Dally was born (d. 1899). American playwright.
• 1847 - Max Liebermann was born (d. 8 Feb 1935). Germain painter and graphic artist. Self-Portrait (1934); Selbstbildnis (1910); On the Way to School in Edam (1904)
• 1849 - Robert Anderson Van Wyck was born (d. 1918). Mayor of New York City.
• 1858 - Ivan Vucetic was born (d. 1925). Croatian anthropologist.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America begins sitting in Richmond, Virginia.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek - Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
• 1864 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt was born (d. 1931). Swedish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
• 1865 - Carlos Avril was born in Paris (d. 30 Oct 1940). French actor.
• 1866 - Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa - The Austrian Navy , led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
• 1866 - Bernhard Riemann dies (b. 1826). German mathematician.
• 1868 - Miron Cristea was born (d. 1939). First patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
• 1870 - Charles McHugh was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 21 Oct 1931). American actor.
• 1870 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt dies. French writer.
• 1870 - Gerard Wolst Trenité was born in Utrech (d. 9 Oct 1946). Dutch writer.
• 1871 - British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• 1872 - The United States Patent Office awards the first patent for wireless telegraphy to Mahlon Loomis.
• 1873 - Alberto Santos-Dumont was born (d. 23 Jul 1932). Brazilian aviator.
• 1876 - Otto Blumenthal was born (d. 1944). German mathematician.
• 1877 - Rioting in Baltimore, Maryland by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers is put down by the state militia, resulting in nine deaths.
• 1877 - William Colman was born in Sligo, Ireland (d. 8 Aug 1930). American actor.
• 1881 - Indian Wars: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to US troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota
• 1881 - Clyde Benson was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. American actor (d. 15 Oct 1947).
• 1881 - Hugh Sothern was born in Anderson County, Kansas (d. 13 Apr 1947). American actor.
• 1884 - Hellwig F. Rimmen was born. Danish actor.
• 1885 - The Football Association legalises professionalism in football under pressure from the British Football Association.
• 1889 - Fidelino de Figueiredo was born. Portuguese professor and essayst
• 1889 - Erich Pommer was born (d. 1966). German actor.
• 1889 - Ruth Weijden was born (d. 27 Jun 1956). Swedish actress.
• 1889 - John C. W. Reith was born Stonehaven, Grampian, Scotland (d. 1971). BBC director-general from 1922 to 1938. He was aptly designated by the New York Times as "the single most dominating influence on British broadcasting."
• 1890 - Gonzalo Roig was born in Havana (d. 13 Jun 1970). Cuban conductor and composer (bolero Quiereme Mucho).
• 1890 - Richard Billinger was born in Sankt Marienkirche ( †07 Jun 1965 in Linz). Austrian writer
• 1890 - Freeman H. Owens was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas (d. 9 Dec 1979). American cinematographer
• 1890 - Giorgio Morandi was born. Painter.
• 1890 - King George II of Greece was born (d. 1947)
• 1891 - Ralph Faukner was born (d. 1987). American actor and fight choreographer for films
• 1893 - George Llewelyn-Davies was born (d. 1915). One of the 'Lost Boys' for the Peter Pan book.
• 1894 - The troops sent by Grover Cleveland to Chicago to end the Pullman Strike are recalled.
• 1894 - Errett Cord was born. Automobile entrepreneur
• 1895 - László Moholy-Nagy was born (d. 1946). Hungarian painter, photographer and sculptor.
• 1897 - Fundação da Academia Brasileira de Letras.
• 1897 - Clifford Braughton was born (d. 1979). American actor.
• 1897 - Tadeus Reichstein was born (d. 1996). Polish chemist and Nobel prize winner.
• 1897 - Jean Ingelow dies (b. 1820). English poet.
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: A boiler exploded on the USS Iowa (BB-4) off the coast of Santiago de Cuba.
• 1898 - Stepan Kayukov was born (d. 1960). Russian actor.
• 1899 - Melville De Lay was born (d. 1947). American actor.
• 1900 - Maurice Leyland was born (d. 1967). England cricketer.
• 1900 - Maurice Gilliams was born (d. 1979). Belgian writer.
• 1901 - Heinie Manush was born (d. 1971). American baseball player.
• 1901 - Sergei Blinnikov was born (d. 1969). Russian actor.
• 1901 - William Cosmo Monkhouse dies (b. 1840). English poet and critic.
• 1902 - Jimmy Kennedy was born (d. 1984). Irish composer.
• 1903 - Ford Motor Company shipped its first car.
• 1903 - Maria Paudle was born (d. 1990). German actress.
• 1903 - Pope Leo XIII dies (b. 1810).
• 1905 - Pascual Pelliciota was born (d. 1985). Argentine actor.
• 1907 - A train wreck on the Pere Marquette Railroad near Salem, Michigan kills thirty and injures seventy more.
• 1907 - Leon Pietraskiewicz was born (d. 1987). Polish actor.
• 1908 - Demetrius Vikelas dies (b. 1835). Greek International Olympic Committee president.
• 1909 - Clint Sharp was born (d. 1989). American stuntman in films.
• 1909 - Eric Rowan was born (d. 1993). South African cricketer.
• 1909 - Jean Focas was born (d. 1969). Greco-French astronomer.
• 1910 - Louise Rousseau was born (d. 1981). American screenwriter.
• 1910 - Henri Calef was born (d. 1994). Belgian filmmaker.
• 1910 - Vilém Tauský was born (d. 2004). Czech conductor and composer.
• 1910 - Muriel Evans was born (d. 2000). American actress.
• 1911 - Baqa Jilani was born (d. 1941). Indian cricketer.
• 1911 - Mirelle Balin was born (d. 1968). French actress.
• 1912 - Tom McDermott was born (d. 1996). American actor.
• 1913 - Elmer Lahti was born. Finnish actor.
• 1913 - Irma Cordoba was born. Argentine actress.
• 1914 - Masa Niemi was born. (d. 1960) . Finnish actor.
• 1914 - Russia: Czar Nicholas II welcomes France's President Raymond Poincaré.
• 1916 - World War I: In Armenia, Russian troops capture Gumiskhanek.
• 1916 - American cricketer, John Barton King plays his last match for the Philadelphian cricket team
• 1916 - Claude Vernier was born (d. 1996). French actor.
• 1917 - World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
• 1917 - Paul Hubschmid was born (d. 2001). German actor.
• 1917 - Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the provisional government and survives an assassination attempt.
• 1917 - In the United States, the first military draft numbers are drawn for World War I.
• 1918 - World War I: German troops cross the Marne.
• 1918 - Cindy Walker was born. American country music singer.
• 1919 - Sir Edmund Hillary was born. New Zealand mountain climber.
• 1919 - Ernie Wilkins was born (d. 1999). American jazz musician.
• 1919 - Benson Ford was born (d. 1978). Son of industrialist Henry Ford.
• 1919 - Paolo Levi was born (df. 1989). Italian writer.
• 1919 - K. T. Stevens was born (d. 1994). American actress.
• 1920 - The funeral of Empress Eugenie of France is held in St. Michael's Abbey near Farnborough, England.
• 1920 - Tommy Prothro was born. American football coach.
• 1920 - Elliot Richardson was born (d. 31 Dec 1999). American politician best known for his refusal to obey President Richard M. Nixon's order to fire a special prosecutor
• 1920 - Dick Lucas (d. 1997). American animator.
• 1921 - Air mail service begins between New York City and San Francisco.
• 1921 - Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
• 1921 - Hall Daniels was born (d. 1984). American composer.
• 1921 - Takanobu Hozumi was born. Japanese actor.
• 1922 - The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
• 1922 - Alan Stephenson Boyd was born. American politician.
• 1922 - Andrey Markov dies (b. 1856). Russian mathematician.
• 1923 - Stanisław Albinowski was born (d. 2005). Polish economist and journalist.
• 1923 - Pancho Villa dies assasssinated. Revolutionary.
• 1924 - Teheran, Persia comes under martial law after the American vice consul, Robert Imbrie, is killed by a religious mob enraged by rumors he had poisoned a fountain and killed several people.
• 1924 - Tor Isedal was born (d. 1990). Swedish actor.
• 1924 - Mort Garson was born. Canadian composer.
• 1924 - Tatyana Lioznova was born. Soviet director.
• 1924 - Thomas Berger was born. American novelist.
• 1924 - Bob Nichols was born. American actor.
• 1924 - Elias Sarkis was born. President of Libano (1976-1982).
• 1925 - In Cleveland, Tennessee, Clarence Darrow questions William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial during a session held out of doors about the literal truth of the Bible.
• 1925 - Jacques Delors was born. French President of the European Commission.
• 1925 - Frantz Fanon was born (d. 1961). West Indian psychiatrist and writer.
• 1926 - A convention of the Methodist Church votes to allow women to become priests.
• 1926 - Lola Albright was born. American actress.
• 1926 - Ilija Ivezic was born. Yugoslav actor.
• 1926 - Patricia Cutts was born (d. 1974). British actress.
• 1926 - Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy dies. Head of the Soviet secret police
• 1927 - King Ferdinand of Romania dies (b. 1865).
• 1927 - Leon Sinden was born. British actor.
• 1927 - Heather Chasen was born. British actress.
• 1927 - Paul Marin was born. American actor.
• 1927 - Michael I becomes King of Romania at age five upon the death of his father Ferdinand I.
• 1928 - The government of Hungary issues a decree ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place, and subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians.
• 1928 - Terence Feely was born. British screenwriter.
• 1928 - Pavel Kohout was born. Czech writer.
• 1928 - Kostas Karyotakis dies (b. 1896). Greek poet.
• 1929 - Soviet troops attempt to cross the Amur River into Manchuria near Blagoveschensk as tensions mount between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.
• 1929 - Mike Ilitch was born. American businessman (Little Caesar's Pizza), sports executive, and philanthropist.
• 1929 - Rajendra Kumar was born (d. 1999). Indian actor.
• 1929 - Zlatko Sudovic was born. Yugoslav director.
• 1930 - Chuck Daly was born. American basketball coach
• 1930 - Oleg Anofriyev was born. Russian actor.
• 1930 - James Kenney was born (d. 1982). British actor.
• 1930 - Sally Ann Howes was born. British singer and actress.
• 1931 - Tony Marsh was born. English racing driver.
• 1932 - Ove Verner Hansen was born. Danish actor.
• 1932 - German President Paul von Hindenburg signs a decree ordering Franz von Papen to take control of the Prussian state government and declares martial law.
• 1932 - In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
• 1932 - Crowds in the capitals of Bolivia and Paraguay demand their governments declare war on the other after fighting on their border.
• 1932 - Otto Schily was born. German politician.
• 1932 - Nam June Paik was born (d. 2006). Korean-born artist.
• 1932 - René Bazin dies (b. 1853). French novelist.
• 1933 - Vice-Chancellor of Germany Franz von Papen and Vatican Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli sign a concordat on behalf of their respective nations.
• 1933 - In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism.
• 1933 - Germany: Two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.
• 1933 - United States: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders new regulations on the trading of grain in order to curb speculators.
• 1933 - Nelson Doubleday was born. American book publisher and baseball executive.
• 1933 - Cormac McCarthy was born. American author.
• 1933 - Rex Williams was born. English snooker player.
• 1933 - Buddy Knox was born (d. 1999). American singer and songwriter.
• 1934 - Labor unrest in the US, as police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, wounding fifty; Seattle police led by the mayor police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen, and the governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
• 1934 - Uwe Johnson was born. German writer.
• 1934 - Aliki Vougiouklaki was born (b. 1996). Greek actress.
• 1934 - Doug Padget was born. England cricketer.
• 1935 - Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.
• 1935 - Riots between Muslims and Sikhs over a mosque in Lahore, India leave eleven dead.
• 1935 - Ted Rogers was born (d. 2001). English comedian.
• 1936 - The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
• 1936 - Barbara Mikulski was born. U.S. Senator from Maryland
• 1937 - Two black men accused of stabbing a policeman are taken by a mob from the county jail in Tallahassee, Florida and lynched.
• 1937 - José Augusto de Carvalho was born in Viana do Alentejo. Portuguese poet.
  
• 1937 - Ken Ogata was born. Japanese actor.
• 1937 - Guglielmo Marconi dies (b. 1874). Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1938 - The Justice Department files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of anti-trust law. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.
• 1938 - Anna Zelma was born in Paulo de Frontin, Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
• 1938 - Natalie Wood was born (d. 1981). American actress.
• 1938 - Dame Diana Rigg was born. British actress.
• 1938 - Roger Hunt was born. English footballer
• 1939 - Judy Chicago was born. American feminist artist.
• 1940 - O personagem de desenho animado Pernalonga faz sua estréia na Warner Bros.
• 1940 - Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
• 1940 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Hatch Act, limiting political activity by Federal government employees.
• 1940 - Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
• 1940 - Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart"; the first number one song is Frank Sinatra's "I'll Never Smile Again".
• 1940 - Tony Oliva was born. Cuban-born Major League Baseball player
• 1941 - Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief.
• 1941 - Kurt Raab was born (d. 1988). German actor
• 1941 - Gastão Cruz was born in Faro. Portuguese writer.
• 1941 - Lew Fields dies (b. 1867). American vaudeville performer.
• 1941 - Maria Lucia Dahl was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
• 1942 - World War II: Red Army troops take bridgeheads over the Don River near Voronezh.
• 1942 - World War II: The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
• 1942 - Pete Hamilton was born. American race car driver.
• 1942 - Ron Bowden was born. Australian politician.
• 1942 - T. G. Sheppard was born. American country music singer.
• 1943 - World War II: American and Canadian troops conquer Enna on Sicily.
• 1943 - World War II: Axis leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini confer in northern Italy
• 1943 - Chris Amon was born. New Zealand racing driver.
• 1943 - Wendy Richard was born. British television actress.
• 1944 - Adolf Hitler survives the July 20 Plot an assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg.
• 1944 - Fifty are hurt in rioting in front of the presidential palace in Mexico City.
• 1944 - World War II: American troops land on Guam near Port Apra.
• 1944 - In Bombay, India, health authorities announce a cholera epidemic has killed 34,000 in three months.
• 1944 - The United States Democratic Party nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for a fourth term as president.
• 1944 - Mildred Harris dies (b. 1901). American actress.
• 1945 - The U.S. Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement.
• 1945 - Kim Carnes was born in Los Angeles, California. American rock, folk and country singer and songwriter.
• 1945 - Larry Craig was born. American politician, Senator from Idaho.
• 1945 - Bo Rein was born (d. 1980). American football coach.
• 1945 - John Lodge was born. English musician (The Moody Blues).
• 1945 - Johnny Loughrey was born (d. 2005). Irish singer.
• 1945 - Paul Valéry dies (b. 1871). French author and poet.
• 1946 - The U.S. Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt was completely blaeless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed forces.
• 1946 - Randal Kleiser was born. American film director
• 1947 - Pope Pius XII canonizes a French saint, Blessed Louis-Marie Gregnon de Montort.
• 1947 - Police in Burma arrest former Prime Minister U Saw and 19 others on charges of assassinating Prime Minister U Aung San and seven members of his cabinet.
• 1947 - The Viceroy of India says the people of the Northwest Frontier Province overwhelmingly voted the previous day to join Pakistan rather than India.
• 1947 - Gerd Binnig was born. German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1947 - Carlos Santana was born in Autlan, Jalisco. Mexican guitarist. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 (as a member of Santana). Became the first Hispanic to win a Grammy for "Record of the Year" in 2000 when he shared the honor with Matchbox 20 lead singer 'Rob Thomas' for the song "Smooth." His 1999 album, "Supernatural," won 9 Grammies that year.
• 1948 - President Harry S. Truman issues the first peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
• 1948 - In New York City, twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith Act including William Z. Foster and Gus Hall.
• 1948 - Niki Haris was born. American dancer.
• 1948 - Muse Watson was born. American actor.
• 1949 - Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen month war.
• 1950 - In Belgium, Parliament authorizes king Leopold III to return from exile in Austria.
• 1950 - Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
• 1950 - Naseeruddin Shah was born. Indian actor.
• 1950 - Tantoo Cardinal was born. Canadian actress.
• 1951 - King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
• 1951 - Jeff Rawle was born. English actor.
• 1951 - Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern dies (b. 1882). Crown Prince of Germany
• 1951 - King Abdullah dies (b. 1882). King of Jordan
• 1952 - The Egyptian prime minister, Hussein Sirry Pasha resigns.
• 1952 - The 15th Olympic Games begin in Helsinki, Finland.
• 1952 - Keiko Matsuzaka was born. Japanese actress.
• 1953 - The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency.
• 1953 - Dan Shaughnessy was born. American sports writer.
• 1953 - Marcia Hines was born. American-born Australian singer.
• 1953 - Thomas Friedman was born. American journalist.
• 1953 - Dumarsaid Estime dies (b. 1900). President of Haiti.
• 1953 - Jan Struther dies (b. 1901). British author.
• 1954 - At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel. / Assinatura de um acordo de cessar-fogo entre as forças armadas francesas e o Exército Popular do Vietname. O Vietname é dividido em dois estados independentes. O Norte é dominado pelos comunistas, o Sul é apoiado pelos americanos. A França abandona a Indochina.
• 1954 - Independência do Camboja.
• 1954 - Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany.
• 1954 - United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn.
• 1954 - Fátima Freire (Maria de Fátima Naves Freire Maia) was born in Curitiba. Brazilian actress.
• 1954 - Moira Harris was born. American actress.
• 1955 - Jem Finer was born. English musician and composer (The Pogues).
• 1955 - Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian dies (b. 23 Mar 1869 in Istambul, Turkey). Oil pioneer. Philantropist.
• 1956 - Jim Prentice was born. Canadian politician.
• 1956 - Paul Cook was born. English musician (The Sex Pistols).
• 1956 - James Alexander Calder dies (b. 1868). Canadian politician.
• 1957 - The Soviet Union closes Peter the Great Bay, which provides access to Vladivostok, to foreign ships.
• 1957 - Donna Dixon was born. American actress
• 1957 - Nancy Cruzan was born (d. 1990). American figure in right-to-die case.
• 1957 - Dr. Alfred Einstein Cohen dies. American cardiologist,
• 1958 - Twenty-six are dead in an explosion at a military base near Kokin Breg, Yugoslavia.
• 1958 - Mick MacNeil was born. Scottish musician (Simple Minds).
• 1959 - The Organization for European Economic Cooperation admits Spain.
• 1959 - Admiral William Leahy dies. American naval officer.
• 1959 - Radney Foster was born. American singer.
• 1959 - William D. Leahy dies (b. 1875). American admiral.
• 1960 - Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.
• 1960 - Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the US and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
• 1960 - The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.
• 1960 - The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), for the first time.
• 1960 - In Lebanon, Saeb Salem is named Prime Minister.
• 1960 - Claudio Langes was born. Italian racing driver.
• 1961 - The Arab League admits Kuwait to membership.
• 1961 - French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
• 1962 - Earthquakes in Colombia kill 40.
• 1962 - Carlos Alazraqui was born. Argentine-American actor and comedian.
• 1962 - Giovanna Amati was born. Italian racing driver.
• 1962 - Lee Harris was born. English drummer (Talk Talk, .O.rang).
• 1963 - Frank Whaley was born. American actor.
• 1963 - Amir Derakh was born. American guitarist (Orgy).
• 1964 - Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
• 1964 - NASA successfully tests the first electric rocket engine in California.
• 1964 - Bernd Schneider was born. German racing driver.
• 1964 - Chris Cornell was born. American musicianmusician (Soundgarden, Audioslave).
• 1964 - Dean Winters was born. American actor.
• 1964 - Kool G. Rap was born. American musician.
• 1964 - Terri Irwin was born. American television personality.
• 1965 - In Greece, Elias Tsirimokos becomes prime minister.
• 1965 - In Hayneville, Alabama, two civil rights protesters, one a priest and the other a seminarian, are shot by a deputy sheriff. The seminarian dies of his wounds.
• 1965 - Turkish prime minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.
• 1965 - Inauguração do Planetário Calouste Gulbenkien - Portugal
• 1966 - Stone Gossard was born. American musician.
• 1967 - Reed Diamond was born. American actor.
• 1967 - Albert Lutuli dies. South African civil rights leader, winner of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize
• 1968 - Michael Park was born. American actor.
• 1968 - Jimmy Carson was born. American NHL ice hockey player.
• 1968 - Julian Rhind-Tutt was born. English actor.
• 1968 - Bray Hammond dies. American historian.
• 1969 - Cease fire announced between Honduras and El Salvador, 6 days after the beginning of the "Football War"
• 1969 - Apollo 11 lands on the Moon and Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first humans to walk on its surface. / O astronauta americano Neil Amstrong dá o primeiro passo na Lua, afirmando: «É um pequeno passo para o Homem, mas um salto gigantesco para a Humanidade.» A intenção era dizer «É um pequeno passo para UM homem ...».
• 1969 - Josh Holloway was born. American actor.
• 1969 - Giovanni Lombardi was born. Italian cyclist.
• 1969 - Tobi Vail was born. American musician (Bikini Kill, The Go Team, The Frumpies)
• 1969 - Vitamin C was born. American singer.
• 1969 - Roy Hamilton dies (b. 1929). American singer.
• 1970 - Iain Macleod dies (b. 1913). Conservative Party Politician and Chancellor of Exchequer at time of his death.
• 1971 - President Richard M. Nixon tells Taiwan the US will continue to sell it arms.
• 1971 - The Soviet Union says it will support the People's Republic of China's admission to the United Nations
• 1971 - Charles Johnson was born. Baseball player.
• 1971 - DJ Screw was born (d. 2000). American hiphop DJ.
• 1971 - Ed Giddins was born. England cricketer.
• 1971 - Sandra Oh was born. Korean Canadian actress.
• 1972 - In the Netherlands, the cabinet of Prime Minister Barend Biesheuvel resigns in a dispute over the budget.
• 1972 - Erik Ullenhag was born. Swedish jurist and politician.
• 1973 - The United States Senate passes the War Powers Act.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Defense Department admits it lied to US Congress about bombing Cambodia.
• 1973 - Seventy-three government officials and military officers are charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Greek government.
• 1973 - Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.
• 1973 - First coast-to-coast black-owned and operated radio network: The National Black Network (NBN) begins operations.
• 1973 - Indiana is found guilty of operating segregated schools by federal judge S. Hugh Dillin, who orders the state to develop a desegregation plan for Indianapolis's schools.
• 1973 - Claudio Reyna was born. American soccer player
• 1973 - Courtney Taylor-Taylor was born. American singer (The Dandy Warhols)
• 1973 - Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway was born.
• 1973 - Mads Rieper was born. Danish footballer.
• 1973 - Nixon McLean was born. West Indian cricketer.
• 1973 - Peter Forsberg was born. Swedish ice hockey player.
• 1973 - Bruce Lee dies (b. 1940) American actor and martial artist.
• 1973 - Robert Smithson dies (b. 1938). American land artist.
• 1974 - Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a "coup d' etat", organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios. NATO's Council praises the US and the United Kingdom for attempts to settle the dispute. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert.
• 1974 - Simon Rex was born. American actor.
• 1974 - Bengie Molina was born. American baseball player.
• 1975 - India expels three reporters from The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Newsweek because they refused to sign a pledge to abide by government censorship.
• 1975 - Atiq-uz-Zaman was born. Pakistani cricketer.
• 1975 - Birgitta Ohlsson was born. Swedish politician.
• 1975 - Erik Hagen was born. Norwegian footballer.
• 1975 - Judy Greer was born. American actress.
• 1975 - Ray Allen was born. American basketball player.
• 1976 - The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
• 1976 - Vietnam War: The US military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
• 1976 - Alex Yoong was born. Malaysian racing driver.
• 1976 - Andrew Stockdale was born. Australian musician (Wolfmother).
• 1976 - Alex Yoong was born. Malaysian racing driver.
• 1976 - Debashish Mohanty was born. Indian cricketer.
• 1976 - Erica Hill was born. American news anchor.
• 1977 - Johnstown is hit by a flash flood that kills eighty and causes $350 million in damage.
• 1977 - The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
• 1977 - Susana Werner was born. Brazilian model and actress.
• 1977 - Kiki Musampa was born. Congolese footballer.
• 1977 - Alessandro dos Santos was born. Brazilian-born Japanese footballer.
• 1977 - Gary Kellgren dies (b. 1939). American music producer.
• 1978 - Tamsyn Lewis was born. Australian athlete.
• 1978 - Charlie Korsmo was born. American actor.
• 1978 - Elliott Yamin was born. American Idol contestant.
• 1978 - Pavel Datsyuk was born. Russian ice hockey player.
• 1978 - Will Solomon was born. American basketball player.
• 1979 - Claudine Barretto was born. Filipino actress.
• 1979 - David Ortega was born. Spanish freestyle and backstroke swimmer
• 1979 - Diana Nyad swims the sixty miles from the Bahamas to Florida.
• 1979 - Miklos Feher was born (d. 2004). Hungarian football player.
• 1980 - Takieddih Solh is named Lebanon's new prime minister.
• 1980 - The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
• 1980 - Gisele Bundchen was born. Brazilian model
• 1980 - Dado Dolabella was born. Brazilian actor.
• 1980 - Mike Kennerty was born. American guitarist (The All-American Rejects).
• 1980 - The Air Force reveals it has a stealth plane.
• 1981 - The United States suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel.
• 1981 - Damien Delaney was born. Irish footballer.
• 1981 - Thorsten Engelmann was born. German rower.
• 1982 - Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
• 1982 - Percy Daggs III was born. American actor.
• 1982 - Okot p'Bitek dies (b. 1931). Ugandan poet.
• 1983 - The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon.
• 1983 - Frank Reynolds dies (b. 1923). American television news anchor.
• 1984 - Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her.
• 1984 - Alexi Casilla was born. Dominican baseball player.
• 1984 - Troy Smith was born. American football player.
• 1985 - The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
• 1985 - John Francis Daley was born. American actor.
• 1986 - In South Africa, police fire tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government's emergency decrees.
• 1986 - In Cambridge, Gerald Amirault of the Fells Acres Day Care Center is convicted of molesting nine children.
• 1987 - President Ronald Reagan appoints Larry Kramer, co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, to a federal panel on AIDS.
• 1987 - UN Security Council Resolution 598, condemning the Iran-Iraq War and demanding cease-fire, is unanimously adopted.
• 1987 - Richard Egan dies (b. 1921). American actor.
• 1988 - The Democrats nominate Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts for President.
• 1988 - Julianne Hough was born. American ballroom dancer; actress; singer
• 1989 - Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's show opens at Washington, D.C.'s Project for the Arts after the Smithsonian Institution's Corcoran Gallery cancels it.
• 1989 - Burma's ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
• 1990 - Haiti asks the US to send observers to monitor its upcoming elections.
• 1990 - A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the International Stock Exchange in London.
• 1990 - Iran Contra: All of Colonel Oliver North's convictions for perjury and other offenses are overturned by an appeals court.
• 1990 - Herbert T. Jenkins dies (b. 1907). American policeman.
• 1991 - William Tomlin was born. British actor.
• 1991 - Earl Robinson dies (b. 1910). American singer and composer.
• 1992 - Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
• 1992 - A TU-154 cargo plane crashes in the suburbs of Tbilisi, Georgia, killing forty.
• 1992 - John Bratby dies. British painter.
• 1992 - In Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, resigns as president.
• 1992 – The first post-Soviet monetary reform in Latvia ended, as the Soviet rouble lost its status as legal tender.
• 1992 - Nicki Prian was born. American actress.
• 1993 - White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster Jr. (b. 1945) was found shot to death in a park near Washington in an apparent suicide.
• 1993 - Vincent Foster Jr. dies (b. 1945). White House deputy counsel.
• 1994 - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter.
• 1994 - Israel's Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli official to do so
• 1994 - Paul Delvaux dies (b. 1897). Belgian painter.
• 1995 - The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997.
• 1996 - In Spain, an ETA bomb at an airport kills 35.
• 1996 - Billi Bruno was born. American actress.
• 1996 - Colin Mitchell dies. British Member of Parliament.
• 1997 - Billi Bruno was born. American actress.
• 1997 - John Akii-Bua dies (b. 1949). Ugandan hurdler.
• 1998 - Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban.
• 1998 - June Byers dies (b. 1922). American professional wrestler.
• 1999 - Falun Gong is officially banned and defined as an "evil cult" (xiejiao) by the Chinese government, and a large-scale persecution of its practitioners is launched.
• 1999 - Princess Alexandra of Hanover was born. Daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco.
• 1999 - Sandra Gould dies (b. 1916). American actress.
• 2000 - The leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering.
• 2000 - In Zimbabwe, Parliament opens its new session and seats opposition members for the first time in a decade.
• 2000 - Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.
• 2000 - Gregory Hill (also known as Malaclypse the Younger) dies (b. 1941). American writer.
• 2001 - The London Stock Exchange goes public.
• 2001 - The 27th G8 summit summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
• 2001 - Carlo Giuliani dies (b. 1978). Italian activist.
• 2002 - The United States Senate confirms Roger L. Gregory as the first black to sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
• 2002 - South America: A fire in a discotheque in Lima, Peru kills over twenty-five.
• 2003 - Richard Sambrook, the Director of BBC News, reveals that David Kelly was the source of claims that Downing Street had "sexed up" the "Dodgy Dossier".
• 2003 - France: Sixteen people are injured after two bombs explode outside a tax office in Nice.
• 2003 - Golf: Rookie Ben Curtis, ranked 396th in the world, wins the British Open, the first golfer to win a major golf tournament on his first try in more than ninety years.
• 2003 - Nicolas Freeling dies (b. 1927). English writer.
• 2004 - Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger resigns as an advisor to Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign after it was revealed he stole classified documents from the National Archives.
• 2004 - PETA releases a video of gross cruelty to chickens taken at Pilgrim's Pride, one of KFC's suppliers in West Virginia, and the company pledged to investigate the claims.
• 2004 - Ahmed Qurei, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, agrees to withdraw his resignation, three days after tendering it.
• 2004 - Human Rights Watch releases a report stating that Sudanese government documents confirm support for the Arab Janjaweed militia in their campaign of ethnic cleansing against African Muslims in Darfur.
• 2004 - Adi Lady Lala Mara dies. Fijian chieftainess, wife of Kamisese Mara
• 2004 -The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel tear down the barrier it was building to seal off the West Bank.
• 2004 - Antonio Gades dies (b. 1931). Spanish ballet dancer and coreographer
• 2005 - Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent.
• 2005 - In China's Shaanxi province, a coal mine explosion kills two dozen.
• 2005 - James Doohan dies (b. 1920). Canadian-born actor.
• 2005 - Charles Chibitty dies (b. 1921). World War II Comanche code talker.
• 2005 - Finn Gustavsen dies (b. 1926). Norwegian politician.
• 2005 - Kayo Hatta dies (b. 1958). American film director.
• 2005 - Alfred Hayes dies (b. 1928). British-born wrestling announcer.
• 2005 - In Yemen, several people die during demonstrations against oil price increases.
• 2006 - Ethiopian invasion of Somalia Ethiopian troops enter Somalian territory.
• 2006 - Gérard Oury dies (b. 1919). French filmmaker.
• 2006 - Ted Grant dies (b. 1913). British Trotskyist.
• 2007 - Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker) dies (b. 1942). American televangelist.
• 2007 - Antônio Carlos Magalhães dies (b. 1927). Brazilian politician.
• 2007 - Nélio Dias dies (b. 1945). Brazilian politician, President of Partido Progressista.
• 2008 - Artie Traum dies (b. 1943). American guitarist.
• 2008 - Dercy Gonçalves dies (b. 23 Jun 1905). Brazilian actress and humourist.
• Colombia - Independence Day.
• Argentina /Brazil - Friendship Day (Dia da Amizade ou Dia do Amigo)
• International chess day.
• Northern Cyprus - Peace and Freedom Day.
• Feast day for at least thirteen saints in the Roman Catholic Church: Ss. Aurelius, Margaret of Antioch, Wilgefortis, St. Elias, Barhadbesciabas, Wulmar, Sabinus, Severa (two of this name), Flavian, John of Pulsano, Joseph of Barsabas, Margaret, and Paul of St. Zoilus.