1497 – John Cabot claims Eastern Canada for England (believes he has found Asia in Nova Scotia)
1509 – Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
1793 – 1st republican constitution in France adopted
1795 – William Smellie, the Scottish compiler of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, died in Edinburgh.
1812 – French Emperor Napoleon—who had massed his troops in Poland in the spring to intimidate Russian Tsar Alexander I—and 600,000 troops of his Grand Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Russia.
1853 – US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)
1901 – 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso, 19, opens in Paris
1930 – 1st radar detection of planes, Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
1948 – The Berlin blockade intensified when the Soviet Union announced that the Western Allied powers no longer had any rights in Berlin.
2016 – British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns after the UK votes to leave the EU
Births & Deaths:
1987 – Football (soccer) player Lionel Messi, one of the game’s premier players, was born in Argentina.
Film & TV:
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract
2006 – “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres at Disneyland – becomes fastest film to gross over 1 billion
Music:
1958 – Nina Simone releases her debut jazz album “Little Girl Blue” 1961 – Beatles record “If You Love Me Baby”
Sport:
1995 – 3rd Rugby World Cup, Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Springboks fly-half Joel Stransky lands the winning drop goal in extra time as South Africa beats New Zealand, 15-12
