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996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.

1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the szlachta to be the King of Poland.

1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.

1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.

1851 - Abolition of slavery in Colombia, South America.

1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.

1871 - French Government troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.

1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru), battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.

1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.

1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.

1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.

1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.

1917 - Great Atlanta fire of 1917.

1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."

1927 - Charles Lindbergh touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.

1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.

1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS ''Robin Moor'' becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.

1945 - United States screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.

1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.

1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.

1972 - Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is damaged by a vandal.

1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.

1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.

1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

1996 - The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000.

1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.

1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.

1998 - Soeharto, Indonesian dictator who had been ruling for 32 years, resigned.

2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.

2001 - French Taubira law which officially recognize the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.

2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.

2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.

2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.

2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

2006 - The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship and becomes the first nation to take gold in both the World Championship and Olympic games in ice hockey.

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1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)

1527 - King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)

1664 - Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal (d. 1754)

1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)

1755 - Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810)

1763 - Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)

1780 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer (d. 1845)

1792 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)

1835 - František Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884)

1843 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, Nobel laureate (d. 1914)

1844 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)

1850 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)

1851 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel laureate (d. 1925)

1853 - Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)

1860 - Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, Nobel laureate (d. 1927)

1863 - Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)

1873 - Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)

1880 - Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)

1898 - Armand Hammer, American physician (d. 1990)

1901 - Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)

1901 - Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)

1902 - Earl Averill, baseball player (d. 1983)

1902 - Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)

1903 - Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)

1904 - Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)

1904 - Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943)

1912 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)

1916 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)

1916 - Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)

1917 - Raymond Burr, American actor (d. 1993)

1920 - Anthony Steel, British actor (d. 2001)

1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989)

1923 - Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)

1923 - Ara Parseghian, American football coach

1924 - Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999)

1926 - Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)

1928 - Tom Donahue, American FM disc jockey

1930 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia

1933 - Maurice André, French trumpeter

1934 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel laureate

1936 - Günter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel laureate

1939 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss musician

1941 - Martin Carthy, English musician

1941 - Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers)

1943 - Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals)

1944 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland

1944 - Marcie Blane, American singer

1945 - Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut

1947 - Jonathan Hyde, Australian-born actor

1948 - Leo Sayer, English musician

1951 - Al Franken, American comedian

1952 - Mr. T, (Birth Name Laurence Tureaud) American actor

1955 - Paul Barber, British field hockey player

1955 - Stan Lynch, American drummer

1957 - Judge Reinhold, American actor

1957 - Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress

1959 - Nick Cassavetes, American actor

1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)

1963 - Richard Appel, American writer

1964 - Danny Bailey, English footballer

1964 - Danny Lee Clark, American football player

1967 - Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler

1967 - Lisa Edelstein, American actress

1968 - Matthias Ungemach, German rower

1969 - Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress

1970 - Carl Veart, Australian Soccer player

1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)

1972 - Alesha Oreskovich, American model

1974 - Fairuza Balk, American Actress

1974 - Havoc, American rapper (Mobb Deep)

1977 - Quinton Fortune, South African footballer

1977 - Ricky Williams, American football player

1978 - Briana Banks, German-American adult film star

1979 - Damian Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer

1979 - Jesse Capelli, Canadian pornographic actress

1980 - Raab Himself, American actor

1981 - Belladonna, American pornographic actress

1981 - Max, German singer

1984 - Bria Myles, American model

1985 - Kano, British rapper

1985 - Mutya Buena, British singer (ex-Sugababes)

1987 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress

1990 - Tim Smith, American model

1992 - Olivia Olson, American singer and actress

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987 - King Louis V of France

1254 - Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)

1481 - King Christian I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. 1426)

1512 - Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena

1524 - Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier

1542 - Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer

1607 - John Rainolds, English scholar (b. 1549)

1639 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (b. 1568)

1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet (b. 1581)

1650 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)

1664 - Elizabeth Poole, Puritan businesswoman

1670 - Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)

1690 - John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)

1724 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)

1742 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)

1771 - Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)

1786 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)

1790 - Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)

1844 - Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)

1862 - John Drew, Irish-born American actor (b. 1827)

1879 - Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1848)

1894 - Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)

1894 - August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)

1895 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)

1911 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)

1915 - Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (b. 1875)

1919 - Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1853)

1929 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)

1935 - Jane Addams, American social worker, Nobel laureate (b. 1860)

1949 - Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)

1952 - John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)

1957 - Aleksandr Vertinsky, Russian singer (b. 1889)

1964 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)

1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)

1970 - E. L. Grant Watson, Australian biologist (b. 1885)

1973 - Vaughn Monroe, American musician (b. 1911)

1981 - Patsy O'Hara, Irish Hunger striker (b. 1957)

1984 - Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)

1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)

1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)

1996 - Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)

1999 - Karnail "Bugz" Pitts, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)

2000 - Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)

2000 - Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)

2000 - Mark R. Hughes, American enterpreneur (b. 1956)

2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)

2003 - Frank D. White, American politician (b. 1933)

2006 - Katherine Dunham, American dancer (b. 1909)

2006 - Spencer Clark, American racecar driver, (b. 1987)

2006 - Billy Walker, American singer (b. 1929)

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Navy Day (Día de las Glorias Navales) in Chile.

Dia de la Afrocolombianidad marks the abolition of slavery in Colombia.

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Liturgical feasts
Catholic


Saint Constantine the Great
Saint Charles-Eugène de Mazenod
Saint Goderik
Saint Mireille

Saints Constantine and Helena

Equals-to-the-Apostles