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324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium

987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.

1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.

1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.

1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.

1767 - Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (first edition published this date).

1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre.

1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria.

1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens.

1839 - The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.

1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.

1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).

1849 - The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. This would prove a major obstacle to Italian unification.

1852 - Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.

1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

1866 - Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.

1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.

1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.

1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.

1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Army in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1928 - First color television broadcast in London.

1938 - World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).

1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.

1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States.

1962 - The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.

1970 - A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 people.

1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.

1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded.

1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

1985 - Back to the Future debuts in theaters all over the U.S.

1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

1988 - United States Navy warship USS ''Vincennes'' shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

2001 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.

2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.

2005 - The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.

2006 - Asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies by Earth's atmosphere.

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1423 - King Louis XI of France (d. 1483)

1442 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500)

1530 - Claude Fauchet, French historian (d. 1601)

1567 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (d. 1635)

1676 - Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal (d. 1747)

1683 - Edward Young, English poet (d. 1765)

1685 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (d. 1768)

1728 - Robert Adam, Scottish architect (d. 1792)

1738 - John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)

1793 - John Clare, British poet (d. 1864)

1854 - Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (d. 1928)

1870 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)

1875 - Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon (d. 1951)

1879 - Alfred Korzybski, Polish linguist (d. 1950)

1883 - Franz Kafka, Czech writer (d. 1924)

1893 - Mississippi John Hurt, American musician (d. 1966)

1903 - Ace Bailey, Canadian hockey player (d. 1992)

1906 - George Sanders, Russian-born actor (d. 1972)

1908 - M. F. K. Fisher, American writer (d. 1992)

1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen, American columnist and television personality (d. 1965)

1921 - Susan Peters, American actress (d. 1952)

1927 - Ken Russell, British director

1930 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 2004)

1935 - Harrison Schmitt, astronaut

1937 - Tom Stoppard, Czech-born playwright

1939 - László Kovács, Hungarian politician and diplomat

1940 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 1994)

1940 - Lamar Alexander U.S. Senator from Tennesse

1944 - Michel Polnareff, French singer and songwriter

1946 - Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland

1947 - Dave Barry, American writer

1947 - Betty Buckley, American actress

1949 - Jan Smithers, American actress

1949 - Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (Heatwave) (d. 2006)

1950 - James Hahn, American politician

1951 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer

1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician

1955 - Sanma Akashiya, Japanese television performer and actor

1956 - Don Vito, of MTV's Viva La Bam

1957 - Laura Branigan, American singer (d. 2004)

1959 - Julie Burchill, British journalist and author

1959 - Stephen Pearcy, American singer (Ratt)

1960 - Vince Clarke, British songwriter (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure)

1961 - Pedro Romeiras, Portuguese dancer

1961 - Tim Smith, English musician (Cardiacs)

1962 - Tom Cruise, American actor

1964 - Joanne Harris, British author

1964 - Yeardley Smith, American actress

1965 - Shinya Hashimoto, Japanese wrestler (d. 2005)

1966 - Moises Alou, baseball player

1969 - Kevin Hearn, Canadian keyboardist (Barenaked Ladies)

1970 - Teemu Selänne, Finnish hockey player

1970 - Shawnee Smith, American actress

1970 - Serhiy Honchar, Ukrainian cyclist

1973 - Johnny Terris, Canadian-born actor and director

1976 - Andrea Barber, American actress

1980 - Roland Mark Schoeman, South African swimmer

1986 - Oscar Ustari, Argentine footballer

1987 - Sebastian Vettel, German racing driver

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683 - Pope Leo II

1570 - Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist

1642 - Maria de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (b. 1573)

1672 - Francis Willughby, English biologist (b. 1635)

1704 - Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (b. 1657)

1749 - William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b. 1675)

1778 - Anna Maria Walburga Mozart née Pertl, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1720)

1790 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French chemist (b. 1736)

1795 - Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (b. 1714)

1795 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and governor of Louisiana (b. 1716)

1858 - Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, Russian painter (b. 1806)

1863 - George Hull Ward, American general (b. 1826)

1904 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian Zionist (b. 1860)

1914 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (b. 1836)

1918 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)

1933 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (b. 1852)

1935 - André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (b. 1878)

1942 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (b. 1856)

1957 - Dolf Luque, baseball player (b. 1890)

1969 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (drowned) (b. 1942)

1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943)

1977 - Alexander M. Volkov, Russian novelist and mathematician (b. 1891)

1979 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)

1986 - Rudy Vallee, American singer (b. 1901)

1989 - Jim Backus, American actor (b. 1913)

1993 - Joe DeRita, American actor and comedian (b. 1909)

1993 - Don Drysdale, Baseball player (b. 1936)

1994 - Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player (b. 1934)

1995 - Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (b. 1928)

1998 - Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (b. 1949)

1999 - Mark Sandman, American musician (b. 1952)

2000 - Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor (b. 1944)

2001 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (b. 1931)

2003 - Gaetano Alibrandi, Papal diplomat (b. 1914)

2004 - Andrian Nikolayev, cosmonaut (b. 1929)

2005 - Alberto Lattuada, Italian film director (b. 1914)

2005 - Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b. 1916)

2006 - Benjamin Hendrickson, American actor (b.1950)

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Start of the Dog Days

National holiday in Belarus

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Liturgical Feast days

Saint Anatolus
Saint Appolin
Saint Bertran, bishop of Le Mans
Saint Gunthiern, abbot
Saint Guthagon, recluse
Saint Leo II (died 683)
Saint Marinus, bishop, martyr Sleswig, Scandinavia
Saint Phocas, martyr
Saint Raymond, confessor at Toulouse
Saint Sidronius, martyr Sens
Translation of Saint Thomas
Saint Tryphon