1493 – Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published.
1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
1562 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, burns the sacred books of the Maya.
1580 – The Ostrog Bible, one of the early printed Bibles in a Slavic language, is published.
1690 – Battle of the Boyne (Gregorian calendar): The armies of William III defeat those of the former James II.
1691 – Battle of Aughrim (Julian calendar): The decisive victory of William III of England’s forces in Ireland.
1776 – Captain James Cook begins his third voyage.
1789 – In response to the dismissal of the French finance minister Jacques Necker, the radical journalist Camille Desmoulins gives a speech which results in the storming of the Bastille two days later.
1790 – The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed in France by the National Constituent Assembly.
1804 – Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton dies a day after being shot in a duel.
Spurred by the news of the politically unsettling dismissal of finance minister Jacques Necker, radical French journalist Camille Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy (in the garden of the Palais Royal, frequented by political dissidents) and delivered an impassioned call to arms.
1806 – Sixteen German imperial states leave the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine.
1812 – The American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now at Windsor, Ontario.
1862 – The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress.
1920 – The Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed, by which Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of Lithuania.
1948 – Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.
1962 – The Rolling Stones perform their first concert, at London’s Marquee Club.
1963 – Pauline Reade (16 years old) disappears in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders.
1971 – The Australian Aboriginal Flag is flown for the first time.
1973 – A fire destroys the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States.
2006 – Lebanon-Israel war begins.
2007 – U.S. Army Apache helicopters perform airstrikes in Baghdad, Iraq; footage from the cockpit is later leaked to the Internet.
2012 – A tank truck explosion kills more than 100 people in Okobie, Nigeria.
2013 – Six people are killed and 200 injured in a French passenger train derailment in Brétigny-sur-Orge.
Births
1817 – Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist and pacifist (Walden Pond)
1854 – George Eastman, American inventor (Kodak camera, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company)
1904 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (Residence on Earth-Nobel 1971)
Deaths
1892 – Alexander Cartwright, American sportsman (recognized as inventor of modern baseball)