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490 BC - the Battle of Marathon, in which Athens defeated an invading army of Persians, may have been fought on this date in the proleptic Julian calendar - but see 12 September.

30 BC - Cleopatra commits suicide after her defeat and Mark Antony's defeat at the battle of Actium.

1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah. Considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.

1121 - Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.

1323 - Treaty of Nöteborg - Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) regulates the border for the first time

1332 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol

1676 - Praying Indian John Alderman shot and killed Metacomet the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.

1806 - Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of Buenos Aires after the first English invasion.

1851 - Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine

1868 - US President Andrew Johnson suspends Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, thus setting up his own impeachment.

1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos

1883 - The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam

1898 - Armistice ends the Spanish-American War

1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the American flag to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai`i to the United States.

1908 - First Model T Ford built

1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.

1925 - The first cast of Alpha Psi Omega, drawn from The Masquers of Fairmont College, West Virginia, was initiated.

1943 - Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.

1944 - Alençon liberated by General Leclerc, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by the Allied forces.

1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets - Thirteen most prominent Jewish intellectuals were murdered in Moscow.

1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

1960 - Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched

1966 - Massacre of Braybrook Street as three policemen are shot dead in East Acton, London.

1969 - Battle of the Bogside, Catholic community of Derry engage in two-day battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary

1978 - Japan and the People's Republic of China sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China.

1980 - Signing of the Montevideo Treaty, which established the Latin American Integration Association.

1981 - Release of the IBM PC or Personal Computer

1982 - Mexico announces it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spread to all of Latin America and the Third World.

1985 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, crashes into Mount Ogura in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 in the world's worst single-plane air disaster. Four people miraculously survive.

1990 - Sue, the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota.

1992 - Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1994 - Major League Baseball players go on strike. The work stoppage forces the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

2000 - The Oscar class submarine K-141 ''Kursk'' of the Russian Navy exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

2004 - Sweden's nine millionth inhabitant is born.

2004 - Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's 3rd Prime Minister.

2005 - Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a sniper at his home.

2005 - An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.

2005 - Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives

2005 - An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island

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1503 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (d. 1559)

1566 - Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)

1604 - Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1651)

1629 - Tsar Alexei I of Russia (d. 1676)

1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)

1644 - Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Bohemian composer (d. 1704)

1647 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)

1686 - John Balguy, English philosopher (d. 1748)

1696 - Maurice Greene, English composer (d. 1755)

1720 - Konrad Ekhof, German actor (d. 1778)

1762 - King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)

1774 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843)

1831 - Helena Blavatsky, Ukrainian-born author (d. 1891)

1856 - "Diamond Jim" Brady, American financier (d. 1917)

1859 - Katharine Lee Bates, American poet (d. 1929)

1866 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1954)

1867 - Edith Hamilton, German classicist (d. 1963)

1876 - Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author (d. 1958)

1880 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (d. 1943)

1880 - Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d. 1925)

1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (d. 1959)

1883 - Pauline Frederick, American actress (d. 1938)

1885 - Jean Cabannes, French physicist (d. 1959)

1886 - Sir Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist and newspaper owner (d. 1952)

1887 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1961)

1889 - Zerna Sharp, American writer and educator (Dick and Jane) (d. 1981)

1892 - Alfred Lunt, American actor (d. 1977)

1902 - Mohammad Hatta, Vice President of Indonesia 1945-1956 (d. 1980)

1904 - Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia (d. 1918)

1906 - Harry Hopman, Australian-born tennis player and coach (d. 1985)

1906 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)

1907 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (d. 1988)

1910 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)

1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican actor (d. 1993)

1919 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)

1924 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer

1924 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)

1925 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)

1925 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)

1925 - George Wetherill, American scientist (d. 2006)

1926 - John Derek, American actor (d. 1998)

1926 - Joe Jones, American R&B singer (d. 2005)

1926 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)

1927 - Porter Wagoner, American singer

1928 - Charles Blackman, Australian artist

1928 - Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)

1928 - Dan Curtis, film and television producer and director

1929 - Buck Owens, American singer (d. 2006)

1930 - George Soros American businessman

1930 - Jacques Tits, French mathematician

1931 - William Goldman, American screenwriter

1932 - Somdej Phra Nangchao Sirikit Phra Boromarajininat HM Queen Sirikit of Thailand

1933 - Parnelli Jones, American race car driver

1935 - John Cazale, Italian-American actor (d. 1978)

1939 - George Hamilton, American actor

1943 - Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)

1945 - Ann M. Martin, American author

1949 - Mark Knopfler, British guitarist (Dire Straits)

1951 - Willie Horton, American murderer and rapist

1954 - Sam J. Jones, American actor

1954 - Pat Metheny, American guitarist

1955 - Terry Taylor, American retired professional wrestler

1956 - Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor

1960 - Laurent Fignon, French cyclist

1962 - Miss Cleo, American psychic

1965 - Peter Krause, American actor

1967 - Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer

1968 - Andras Jones, American actor

1971 - Michael Ian Black, American comedian

1971 - Rebecca Gayheart, American actress

1971 - Pete Sampras, American tennis player

1972 - Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer

1973 - Joseba Beloki, Spanish cyclist

1973 - Jonathan Coachman, American professional wrestler and executive

1973 - Richard Reid (shoe bomber)

1974 - Matt Clement, American baseball pitcher

1975 - Casey Affleck, American actor

1976 - Mikko Viljami "Linde" Lindström, Finnish guitarist

1976 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player

1976 - Wednesday 13, American musician (Wednesday 13, Murderdolls)

1977 - Plaxico Burress, American football player

1977 - Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer

1980 - Dominique Swain, American actress

1980 - Matt Thiessen, Canadian-born musician (Relient K)

1981 - Djibril Cissé, French footballer

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30 BC - Cleopatra (b. 69 BC)

875 - Louis II Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)

1424 - Yongle, Emperor of China (b. 1460)

1484 - George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher (b. 1395)

1484 - Pope Sixtus IV (b. 1414)

1512 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)

1577 - Thomas Smith, English diplomat and scholar (b. 1513)

1588 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (b. 1543)

1612 - Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian composer

1633 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (b. 1561)

1648 - Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1615)

1674 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (b. 1602)

1689 - Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)

1778 - Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)

1809 - Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)

1810 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)

1848 - George Stephenson, British locomotive designer (b. 1781)

1864 - Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese reformer (b. 1811)

1865 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (b. 1785)

1891 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (b. 1819)

1900 - Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player (b. 1836)

1901 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish explorer (b. 1832)

1914 - John Philip Holland, Irish submarine designer (b. 1840)

1918 - Anna Held, Polish-born actress and singer (b. 1872)

1922 - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (b. 1871)

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

1934 - Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (b. 1856)

1935 - Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (b. 1851)

1943 - Bobby Peel, English cricketer (b. 1857)

1948 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)

1952 - David Bergelson, Yiddish language writer (b. 1884)

1955 - Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1875)

1955 - James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1887)

1959 - Mike O'Neill, Irish-born American baseball player (b. 1877)

1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist (b. 1908)

1973 - Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1881)

1973 - Karl Ziegler, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1898)

1979 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1906)

1982 - Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)

1982 - Salvador Sanchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)

1982 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (b. 1907)

1982 - Joe Tex, American singer (b. 1933)

1985 - Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (plane crash) (b. 1941)

1985 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)

1988 - Jean-Michel Basquiat, Haitian-American artist

1988 - Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Gosvami Maharaja, religious Guru from India (b. 1895)

1989 - William Shockley, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1910)

1989 - Samuel Okwaraji, Nigerian international footballer (b. 1964)

1990 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)

1992 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)

1997 - Luther Allison, American musician (b. 1939)

2000 - Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)

2002 - Enos Slaughter, American baseball player (b. 1916)

2004 - Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1919)

2004 - Peter Woodthorpe, British actor (b. 1931)

2005 - John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)

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United Nations - International Youth Day (since 1999)

Glorious Twelfth at the Yorkshire Dales

Thailand - The Queen's Birthday, Mother's Day

Zaraday (Discordianism)

Zimbabwe - Defence Force Day

International Ponce de Leon day

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Liturgical feasts
Roman Catholicism

Translation of Saint Andeolus, martyr Viviers, Lyon
Saint Claudius, martyr Paderborn
Saint Chrysanthus and Daria, martyrs Toul
Feast of the Crown of Thorns Paris
Saint Euplus, deacon, martyr Cologne, Paderborn, Trier
Saint Macarius, abbot, confessor Langres
Saint Muredach, bishop of Killala
Saint Thomas Percy, earl of Northumberland, martyr
Saint Tiburtius, martyr Paris
Saint Clare, virgin common
Saint Hilaria and companions, martyrs Augsburg
Translation of Saint Waldetrudis, virgin Mons