363 – Roman Emperor Julian is killed during retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by troops on the battlefield.
1794 – Battle of Fleurus: major victory by forces of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan over the Coalition Army (Great Britain, Hanover, Dutch Republic, and Habsburgs) first use of reconnaissance balloon
1857 – The first 62 recipients are awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria
1917 – 1st US troops arrive in France during World War I
1945 – United Nations Charter signed by 50 nations in San Francisco
1952 – Nelson Mandela & 51 others infringe South Africa curfew
1962 – Blacks begin passive resistance in Cairo Ill
1963 – US President John F. Kennedy gives his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (intended to mean “I am a Berliner”, but may actually mean “I am a doughnut”) speech in West Berlin
1966 – Kanton Bazel leads female suffrage in Switzerland
1970 – Two young girls die in a premature explosion in Derry after their father, a member of the Irish Republican Army, was making an incendiary device, presumably for use against the British Army
1975 – Indian PM Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency
1977 – Elvis Presley sings in Indianapolis, the last performance of his career
1985 – Portugal’s Socialist Prime Minister Mário Soares resigns amid predictions that Parliament would be dissolved and elections called
1994 – PLO leader Yasser Arafat returns to Gaza after 27 years
1997 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1st book in J. K. Rowling’s best-selling series, is published
2016 – Panama Canal’s third set of locks opens for commercial traffic, doubling the Canal’s capacity at an estimated cost of $5.25 billion
2018 – US Supreme Court upholds President Trump’s travel ban against mostly Muslim countries
2018 – Polio outbreak confirmed in New Guinea by WHO, 18 years after it was declared free of the disease
2020 – New York Times says Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked forces to kill US and coalition troops in Afghanistan
Film & TV:
1925 – “The gold rush”, directed, starring and written by Charlie Chaplin, is released
2012 – Animated film “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, directed by Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier with voices by Ray Romano and John Leguizamo premieres in Buenos Aires
Music:
1870 – Richard Wagner’s opera “Valkyrie”, second in his Ring Cycle premieres in Munich, featuring “Ride of the Valkyries”
Sport:
2017 – America’s Cup: Emirates Team New Zealand defeat Oracle Team USA 7-1 in Bermuda, Peter Burling (26) youngest ever helmsman
