617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui Dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang’an and the eventual establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
1264 – The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
1331 – Stephen Uroš IV Dušan declares himself king of Serbia
1380 – Battle of Kulikovo: Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
1514 – Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
1565 – St. Augustine, Florida was founded by Spanish admiral and Florida’s first governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta that began on May 18.
1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
1755 – French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
1756 – French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
1761 – Marriage of King George III of the United Kingdom to Duchess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war’s last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano: French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1831 – November Uprising: Battle of Warsaw ends, effectively ending the Insurrection.
1860 – The steamship Lady Elgin sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 300 lives.
1862 – Millennium of Russia monument unveiled in Novgorod.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass: On the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was completed in a ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana. Former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final “golden spike” in an event attended by rail and political luminaries.
1888 – In Spain, the first travel of Isaac Peral’s submarine, was the first practical submarine ever made.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war..
1923 – Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
1925 – Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima (Northern Morocco).
1926 – Germany is admitted to the League of Nations.
1933 – Ghazi bin Faisal became King of Iraq.
1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union’s second-largest city, Leningrad.
1943 – World War II: The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
1943 – World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
1944 – World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.
1945 – Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
1946 – A 95.6% vote in favor of abolishing the monarchy in Bulgaria.
1951 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
1962 – Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution.
1974 – Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “I Am A Homosexual”. He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
1989 – Partnair Flight 394 drove into the North Sea, killing 55 people. The investigation showed that the tail of the plane vibrated loose in flight due to sub-standard connecting bolts that had been fraudulently sold as aircraft-grade.
1991 – The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
1994 – USAir Flight 427, on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, suddenly crashes in clear weather killing all 132 aboard; resulting in the most extensive aviation investigation in world history and altering manufacturing practices in the industry.
2004 – NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
2005 – Two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.