1540 – The marriage of King Henry VIII of England and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, was annulled.
1565 – Reinforcements sent by Viceroy Don García de Toledo fail to make harbour, as a result of the fall of Fort St. Elmo, and return to Sicily.
1762 – Catherine the Great overthrew Peter III on this day in 1762 and began her reign as empress of Russia, leading her country into full participation in the political and cultural life of Europe and extending Russian territory.
1790 – Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund – in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet
1868 – Louisiana and South Carolina are the last states to ratify the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing civil rights
1893 – Daniel Hale Williams III repairs the torn pericardium of a knife wound patient, James Cornish, without penicillin or blood transfusion
1917 – British battleship HMS Vanguard explodes at Scapa Flow (the result of an internal explosion of faulty cordite), killing 804
1960 – The Thresher, the first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, was launched; it sank in 1963 in the worst submarine accident in history.
1971 – Henry Kissinger visits the People’s Republic of China to negotiate a detente between the US and China
2002 – The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
2017 – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi proclaims victory over Islamic State forces in Mosul
Births & Deaths: 1947 – O.J. Simpson who is best known for being tried for the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, was born on this day.
Sport: 1877 – First ever Wimbledon tennis championship begins – first official lawn tennis tournament – men’s singles only
Music: 1955 – Bill Haley & Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” tops the billboards chart, one of the best-selling singles ever
TV & Film: 2001 – “The Office” mockumentary created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, starring Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman premieres on BBC Two in the UK
