46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus.
1652 – Cape Colony, the 1st European settlement in South Africa, established by Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck.
1862 – Union troops clashed with Confederates in southwestern Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh, the second great engagement of the American Civil War.
1896 – Pierre, baron de Coubertin, a founder of the International Olympic Committee and its president from 1896 to 1925, realized his goal of reviving the Olympics when the first modern Games opened in Athens.
1909 – American explorer Robert Edwin Peary led the first expedition to the North Pole.
1917 – US declares war on Germany, enters World War I.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide begins with the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira with their plane being shot down by surface-to-air missiles, abruptly ending peace negotiations. Those responsible have never been identified.
2009 – An earthquake struck near L’Aquila, Italy, causing extensive damage and killing more than 300 people.
Births & Deaths: 2014 – American diminutive actor Mickey Rooney—who was noted for his high energy, charisma, and versatility, which were on display in such notable roles as the wisecracking teenager in the Andy Hardy films—died at the age of 93.
Sport: 1896 – I Summer Olympic Games open in Athens, Greece; American athlete James Connolly Olympic becomes first modern Olympic champion when he wins the triple jump (then 2 hops and a jump); later 3rd in the long jump, 2nd in the high jump.
Music: 1974 – 19th Eurovision Song Contest: ABBA for Sweden wins singing “Waterloo” in Brighton.
TV & Film: 1889 – George Eastman begins selling his Kodak flexible rolled film for the first time.
