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306 - Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

864 - Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings

1261 - The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines also succeed in capturing Thessalonica and the rest of the Latin Empire.

1536 - Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado found the City of Santiago de Cali

1547 - Henry II (France) crowned

1567 - Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.

1593 - Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1603 - James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain

1693 - Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, actual Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México.

1722 - Three Years War begins along Maine and Massachusetts border.

1758 - French and Indian War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.

1759 - French and Indian War: In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.

1797 - Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife Island (Spain).

1799 - At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.

1814 - War of 1812: Battle of Lundy's Lane - Reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall's British and Canadian force, and bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; Americans retreat to Fort Erie.

1824 - Guanacaste annexes Costa Rica from Nicaragua.

1853 - Joaquin Murietta, famous Californio bandit known as "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed.

1861 - American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1866 - The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general") Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.

1868 - Wyoming becomes a United States territory.

1869 - The Japanese daimyō begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869)

1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.

1897 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.

1898 - The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops landing at harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico.

1907 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.

1908 - Ajinomoto is born. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG) and patents a process for manufacturing it.

1909 - St. Louis Bleriot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover in 37 minutes).

1917 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).

1920 - Telecommunications: first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast.

1925 - Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.

1934 - Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

1940 - General Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and make surrender illegal.

1943 - World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

1944 - World War II: Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

1946 - Operation Crossroads: An atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.

1946 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

1952 - The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico adopts a constitution approved by the U.S. Congress

1953 - The Cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century is released prehaps the most famous Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig, and Marvin The Martain.

1956 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.

1958 - The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.

1965 - Newport Folk Festival: Bob Dylan goes electric.

1969 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.

1973 - Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.

1976 - The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach

1977 - A supposed thunderbird is reported attacking a boy named Marlon Lowe.

1978 - The first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born.

1978 - The Cerro Maravilla Incident occurs.

1984 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

1990 - Comedian Roseanne Barr grabs her crotch and spits on the ground when performing the "Star-Spangled Banner" at a San Diego Padres baseball game.

1993 - Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability and the Lebanese call Seven-Day War. The St James Church massacre - Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa

1994 - Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.

1995 - A gas bottle exploded in station Saint Michel of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). 8 were killed and 80 wounded.

1997 - K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called untouchable— to hold this office.

1998 - The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.

1999 - Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.

2000 - Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground.

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1016 - Casimir I, Duke of Poland (d. c. 1058)

1109 - Afonso I of Portugal (d. 1185)

1336 - Albert, Count of Holland (d. 1404)

1404 - Philip I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1430)

1421 - Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (d. 1461)

1562 - Kiyomasa Kato, Japanese warlord (d. 1611)

1653 - Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat (d. 1728)

1658 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)

1750 - Henry Knox, American general (d. 1806)

1799 - David Douglas, Scottish botanist (d. 1834)

1839 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (d. 1873)

1844 - Thomas Eakins, American artist (d. 1916)

1848 - Arthur Balfour, 33rd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)

1867 - Alexander Rummler, American painter (d. 1959)

1867 - Max Dauthendey, German writer (d. 1918)

1870 - Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966)

1883 - Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (d. 1947)

1884 - Davidson Black, Canadian anthropologist (d. 1934)

1886 - Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Swedish big-game hunter (d. 1946)

1894 - Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)

1894 - Gavrilo Princip, Serbian assassin (d. 1918)

1901 - Lila Lee, American actress (d. 1973)

1902 - Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (d. 1983)

1905 - Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1994)

1906 - Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (d. 1970)

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

1908 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)

1917 - Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1990)

1918 - Jane Frank, American artist (d. 1986)

1920 - Rosalind Franklin, English scientist (d. 1958)

1923 - Estelle Getty, American actress

1926 - Whitey Lockman, American baseball player

1928 - Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)

1929 - Somnath Chatterjee, Indian communist leader

1930 - Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto

1935 - Lars Werner, Swedish communist leader

1935 - Barbara Harris, American actress

1936 - Glenn Murcutt, Australian architect

1937 - Colin Renfrew, English archeologist

1941 - Emmett Till, American murder victim (d. 1955)

1941 - Peter Suschitzky, Polish-British cinematographer

1943 - Jim McCarty, English musician

1946 - Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer

1951 - Verdine White, American bassist

1954 - Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)

1955 - Iman Abdulmajid, Somali model

1958 - Thurston Moore, American musician

1960 - Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player

1963 - Julian Hodgson, English chess player

1965 - Illeana Douglas, American actress

1967 - Matt LeBlanc, American actor

1967 - Chuck Paugh, American record company owner

1967 - Tommy Skjerven, Norwegian football referee

1973 - Dani Filth, British singer (Cradle of Filth)

1973 - Kevin Phillips, English footballer

1973 - Michael C. Williams, American actor

1974 - Kenzo Suzuki, Japanese professional wrestler

1976 - Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan, Macedonian poet

1977 - Kenny Thomas, American basketball player

1978 - Louise Brown, first test tube baby

1978 - Gerard Warren, American football player

1979 - Amy Adams, American singer

1979 - Allister Carter, professional Snooker player

1980 - Diam's, French female rapper

1980 - Toni Vilander, Finnish racing driver

1982 - Brad Renfro, American actor

1985 - Nelson Angelo Piquet, Brazilian race car driver

1985 - James Lafferty, American actor

1987 - Nathan Lawrence, American actor

1987 - Michael Welch, American actor

1988 - Heather Marks, Canadian supermodel

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306 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (b. 250)

1409 - King Martin I of Sicily

1492 - Pope Innocent VIII (b. 1432)

1616 - Andreas Libavius, German physician and chemist (b. 1550)

1643 - Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English statesman (b. 1584)

1676 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (b. 1604)

1681 - Urian Oakes, English-born President of Harvard University (b. 1631)

1790 - Johann Bernhard Basedow, German education reformer (b. 1723)

1790 - William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1723)

1791 - Isaac Low, American Continental Congressman (b. 1735)

1794 - André Chénier, French writer (b. 1762)

1826 - Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, Russian poet and revolutionary (b. 1795)

1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (b. 1772)

1842 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (b. 1766)

1843 - Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor (b. 1766)

1853 - Joaquin Murieta, California outlaw

1861 - Jonas Furrer, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1805)

1887 - John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)

1934 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)

1934 - Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)

1934 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)

1963 - Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (b. 1877)

1971 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (b. 1896)

1973 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1882)

1980 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet, singer, and actor (b. 1938)

1986 - Vincente Minnelli, American film director (b. 1903)

1988 - Judith Barsi, American actress (b. 1978)

1996 - Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (b. 1914)

1997 - Ben Hogan, American golfer (b. 1912)

1998 - Tal Farlow, American jazz guitar virtuoso. (b. 1921)

2003 - Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1912)

2003 - John Schlesinger, British film director (b. 1926)

2005 - Albert Mangelsdorff, German jazz trombonist (b. 1928)

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Inca festival in honor of the thunder god Ilyap'a

Roman festivals - Furinalia

Costa Rica - Anniversary of the Annexation of Guanacaste Province

Cuba - Eve of Revolution Day

Galicia (Spain) - National Day (Día da Pátria Galega).

Mexico - Anniversary of the Foundation of Santiago de Querétaro and Santiago de Saltillo

Puerto Rico - Constitution Day (1952)

Tunisia - Republic Day (1957)

Virgin Islands - Hurricane Supplication Day

Ebernoe Horn Fair in Sussex, southern England

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Liturgical feasts

Roman Catholicism
Saint Nissen
St. Paul
Saint Christopher, martyr in the fifteenth century often moved, usually to July 27; Paris, Bruges), in red
Saint Cucufas/Cougat, martyr England, Orden; Paris
Saint Ebrulf, abbot at Beauvais Beauvais
Saint Germanus, bishop of Paris, confessor (Translation of Paris, LeMans; Paris
Saint James the Great, Apostle, died 44 AD, patron saint of Spain common
Translation of Saint Julian, bishop of Le Mans, confessor (sometimes martyr) LeMans, Paris
Saint Magnericus, bishop of Trier, confessor Trier
Saint Rusticus and Florentius, martyrs Magdeburg
Saint Ursus, bishop of Troyes Troyes
Saint Chlodesindis, virgin Metz, Liège
Saint Thea, Valentine and Paul, martyrs
Saint Valentina