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180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

1048 - Damasus II appointed Pope.

1203 - Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.

1453 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Castillon - The French under Jean Bureau utterly defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony

1762 - Catherine II becomes tzar of Russia upon the accidental murder of Peter III of Russia.

1771 - Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.

1791 - Massacre at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution. 1200-1500 people were killed, including women and children.

1815 - Napoleonic Wars: In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to British forces.

1816 - The French passenger ship Medusa runs aground off the coast of Senegal.

1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States

1858 - Salving of the Lutine bell. The bell is subsequently hung in Lloyd's of London.

1897 - Klondike gold rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle, Washington.

1898 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.

1899 - NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.

1917 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.

1918 - By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by Cheka, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his immediate family, and retainers were murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

1933 - After successfully crossing the Atlantic ocean, the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica crashes in Europe under mysterious circumstances.

1936 - Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the Spanish civil war.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio's baseball hitting streak ends at 56 games, by Cleveland Indian pitchers, Al Smith & Jim Bagby.

1944 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.

1944 - World War II: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.

1944 - Napalm incendiary bombs were dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France

1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the three main Allied leaders, begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.

1955 - Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California.

1962 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.

1975 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.

1976 - History of East Timor: East Timor was annexed, and became the 27th province of Indonesia.

1976 - The opening of the Summer Olympics is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team

1979 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.

1981 - Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby during a "tea dance," killing 114.

1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time at 2510.04.

1995 - The Midwestern heat wave in the United States reaches its peak. Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, among other cities, set all-time high temperature records. The heat claims over 400 lives on this day alone.

1995 - The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.

1996 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes, killing all 230 on board.

1997 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.

1998 - In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.

1998 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.

1998 - Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.

2004 - Ninety children die in a fire at a private school in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India.

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1487 - Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)

1674 - Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter (d. 1748)

1698 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)

1744 - Elbridge Gerry, 5th Vice President of the United States (d. 1814)

1745 - Petr Alekseevich Pahlen, Russian general (d. 1826)

1797 - Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter (d. 1856)

1831 - Xianfeng, Emperor of China (d. 1861)

1839 - Ephraim Shay, American inventor (d. 1916)

1888 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)

1889 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (Perry Mason) (d. 1970)

1893 - Marvin Pierce, Women's magazine publisher (d. 1969)

1899 - James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)

1901 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)

1902 - Christina Stead, Australian novelist (d. 1983)

1911 - Ted Anderson, English footballer (d.1979)

1913 - Bertrand Goldberg, American architect (d. 1997)

1912 - Art Linkletter, Canadian television host

1917 - Phyllis Diller, American comedian

1917 - Red Sovine, American country music singer (d. 1980)

1917 - Lou Boudreau, Major League baseball player and manager (d. 2001)

1918 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)

1920 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish chairman of the International Olympic Committee

1920 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, English sports commentator (d. 2002)

1921 - František Zvarík, Slovakian actor

1928 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician and composer (d. 1976)

1929 - Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician

1935 - Diahann Carroll, American actor

1935 - Peter Schickele, American composer, author, and radio host

1935 - Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor

1941 - Spencer Davis, British singer and guitarist (Spencer Davis Group)

1941 - Jürgen Flimm, German theatre director and manager

1941 - Daryle Lamonica, American football player

1942 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedian

1942 - Don Kessinger, baseball player

1944 - Carlos Alberto, Brazilian football player

1944 - Catherine Schell, Hungarian born British actress

1945 - Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia

1947 - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

1948 - Ron Asheton, American musician and composer (Iggy Pop & The Stooges)

1949 - Terence "Geezer" Butler, British musician and lyricist (Black Sabbath)

1949 - Snyder Rini, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands for eight days

1949 - Charlie Steiner, American sports broadcaster

1951 - Lucie Arnaz, American actress

1952 - David Hasselhoff, American actor and musician

1952 - Phoebe Snow, singer and songwriter

1952 - Nicolette Larson, American singer (d. 1997)

1954 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

1954 - J. Michael Straczynski, American author

1955 - Paul Stamets, American mycologist and environmentalist

1956 - Bryan Trottier, Canadian ice hockey player

1957 - Fern Britton, British television presenter

1958 - Wong Kar-wai, Chinese film director

1960 - Mark Burnett, English-born television producer

1960 - Jan Wouters, Dutch football player and manager

1963 - Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper

1963 - Letsie III, King of Lesotho

1965 - Craig Morgan, American singer

1968 - Bitty Schram, American actress

1971 - Jarrett Cordes, American Hip-hip artist (P.M. Dawn)

1971 - Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist

1973 - Eric Moulds, American football player

1975 - Konnie Huq, English television presenter

1975 - Cécile de France, Belgian actress

1975 - Terence Tao, Australian Chinese mathematician

1977 - M.I.A., British rapper

1978 - Mike Hettinga, American professional wrestler

1980 - Ryan Miller, American hockey player

1982 - Natasha Hamilton, British singer (Atomic Kitten)

1983 - Ryan Guettler, professional Australian BMX rider

1985 - Tom Fletcher, British singer (McFly)

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521 - Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop and Latin poet (b. 474)

924 - King Edward the Elder of England

1070 - Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)

1086 - King Canute IV of Denmark

1105 - Rashi, French rabbi and commentator (b. 1040)

1453 - John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader

1531 - Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)

1566 - Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)

1571 - Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)

1588 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)

1645 - Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician

1704 - Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer

1709 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (b. 1646)

1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)

1791 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)

1793 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat and murderer (b. 1768)

1794 - John Roebuck, British inventor (b. 1718)

1845 - Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1764)

1878 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)

1881 - Jim Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer (b. 1804)

1885 - Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian politician (b. 1811)

1887 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)

1894 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist, (b. 1810)

1894 - Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle, French poet (b. 1818)

1912 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician (b. 1854)

1917 - Hector Malot, French writer (b. 1830)

1918 (N.S.) - Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868)

Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna (b. 1872)

Grand Duchess Olga (b. 1895)

Grand Duchess Tatiana (b. 1897)

Grand Duchess Maria (b. 1899)

Grand Duchess Anastasia (b. 1901)

Tsarevich Alexei (b. 1904)

1928 - Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman (b. 1842)

1935 - George William Russell, Irish nationalist, poet and artist (b. 1867)

1944 - William James Sidis, gifted mathematician and child prodigy (b. 1898)

1945 - Ernst Busch, German field marshal (b. 1885)

1946 - General Dragoljub Mihailović, commandant of the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland (b. 1893)

1950 - Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1865)

1959 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)

1959 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (b. 1875)

1961 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)

1967 - John Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)

1974 - Dizzy Dean, Major League baseball pitcher (b.1910)

1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (b. 1893)

1980 - Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)

1987 - Yujiro Ishihara, Japanese actor (b. 1934)

1988 - Bruiser Brody, Professional wrestler (b. 1946)

1995 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)

1996 - Chas Chandler, bass guitarist (The Animals), record producer and manager (b. 1938)

2001 - Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)

2003 - David Kelly, Welsh UN weapons inspector (b. 1944)

2003 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)

2004 - Pat Roach, British professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)

2005 - Laurel Aitken, Jamaican singer (b. 1927)

2005 - Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)

2005 - Joe Vialls, Australian writer (b. 1944)

2006 - Sam Myers, American musician and songwriter (b. 1936)

2006 - Mickey Spillane, American author (b. 1918)

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South Korea - Constitution Day.

Kyoto, Japan - Gion Matsuri.

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Liturgical feasts

Saint Alexius, confessor common; in red
Saint Andrew and Benedict, martyrs Hungary
Holy Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne, martyrs
Saint Cynllo
Saint Ennodius, bishop of Pavia
Saint Fredegaudus, bishop, confessor Liège
Saint Kenelmus, king, martyr England
Saint Marcellina, virgin
Translation of Saint Marina virgin, martyr Venice
Saints Quiricus and Julitta, martyrs Augsburg
Saint Piatus, bishop of Tournai Paris
Saint Speratus and companions 'the Sicilian Martyrs' Paderborn, Verdun, France
Saint Theodosius, bishop of Auxerre Auxerre
Saint Turninus, monk
Blessed Charlotte and companions (died 1794).