180 -6 inhabitants of Carthage, North Africa executed for being Christians. Earliest record of Christianity in this part of the world.
1203 – Siege of Constantinople begins during the fourth Crusade, Crusaders aboad a Venetian fleet attack the city
1762 – Catherine II becomes tsarina of Russia following the murder of Peter III
1936– Spanish generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola lead a right-wing uprising, starting the Spanish Civil War
1945– Potsdam Conference: Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill hold 1st post-World War II meeting
1955 – Disneyland, an amusement park featuring attractions based on the creations of Walt Disney and the Disney Company, opened in Anaheim, California.
1998 – The United Nations completed the statute establishing the International Criminal Court, which began sittings four years later.
2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Eastern Ukraine by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board
Births & Deaths:
1918 - The Romanov royal family and several of their retainers are executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in the basement of Ipatiev House, in Yekaterinburg, Siberia
2009 – American journalist Walter Cronkite—who, as the longtime anchor of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (1962–81), became known as “the most trusted man in America”—died in New York
Film & TV: 1959 - “North by Northwest” directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint premieres in Los Angeles
Music: 1717– George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” premieres on the river Thames in London
Sport: 1976– 21st modern Olympic games opens in Montreal: 25 African teams (later rising to 33 nations) boycott the games due to New Zealand playing rugby in apartheid South Africa
