173Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm, emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called "miracle of the rain".
631Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang.
786A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh.
980Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'.
1011Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy.
1118Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks.
1157Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave.
1345The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners.
1482The Treaty of Fotheringhay is signed between the English and Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, the rebellious brother of king James III of Scotland.
1488The Battle of Sauchieburn is fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king.
1559Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano sails for Florida with a party of 1,500, intending to settle on the gulf coast (Vera Cruz, Mexico).
1594Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines).
1702Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall.
1724Johann Sebastian Bach leads his cantata (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his second cycle, the chorale cantata cycle.
1748Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.
1770British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
1775The Coronation of Louis XVI in Reims, the last coronation before the French Revolution.
1775The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.
1788Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
1805A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.
1825The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.
1837The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.
1865The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.
1882Nationalist riots break out in Alexandria directed against foreign domination. More than 50 Europeans are killed, including the British consul.
1892The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
1895Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.
1898The Hundred Days' Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.)
1901The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
1903A group of Serbian officers storms the royal palace and assassinates King Alexander I of Serbia and his wife, Queen Draga.
1917King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, is deemed to have abdicated under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.
1919Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
1920During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gather in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".
1936Inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrates FM broadcasting to an audience of engineers at the FCC in Washington, DC.
1936The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens.
1940World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids.
1942World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
1942Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance.
1944, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.
1955Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
1956Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.
1962Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
1963American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of AlabamaGeorge Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.
1963John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.
1964World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers, and seriously injuring several more, with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
1968Lloyd J. Old identifies the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types.
1970After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army general officers, becoming the first women to do so.
1971The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.
1978Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.
1981A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000.
1987Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain.
1998Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
2012Seventy-five people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.
2013Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It would be opened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
Nacimientos (142)
1403John IV, Duke of Brabant (died 1427)
1456Anne Neville, Princess of Wales and Queen Consort of England (died 1485)
1540Barnabe Googe, English poet and translator (died 1594)
1555Lodovico Zacconi, Italian composer and theorist (died 1627)
1572Ben Jonson, English poet, playwright, and critic (died 1637)
1585Evert Horn, Swedish soldier (died 1615)
1588George Wither, English poet (died 1667)
1620John Moore, English businessman and politician, Lord Mayor of London (died 1702)
1655Antonio Cifrondi, Italian painter (died 1730)
1662Tokugawa Ienobu, Japanese shōgun (died 1712)
1672Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (died 1749)
1690Giovanni Antonio Giay, Italian composer (died 1764)
1696James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (died 1758)
1697Francesco Antonio Vallotti, Italian organist and composer (died 1780)
1704Carlos Seixas, Portuguese harpsichord player and composer (died 1742)
1709Joachim Martin Falbe, German painter (died 1782)
1723Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (died 1788)
1726Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain (died 1746)
1741Joseph Warren, American physician and general (died 1775)
1776John Constable, English painter and academic (died 1837)