763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.
1215 – King John of England puts his seal to the Magna Carta.
1300 – The city of Bilbao is founded
1389 – Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.
1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in papal bull Exsurge Domine.
1648 – Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).
1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington is appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
1785 – Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, co-pilot of the first-ever manned flight (1783), and his companion, Pierre Romain, become the first-ever casualties of an air crash when their hot air balloon explodes during their attempt to cross the English Channel.
1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
1888 – Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II; he will be the last Emperor of the German Empire. Due to the death of his predecessors Wilhelm I and Frederick III, 1888 is the Year of the Three Emperors.
Yuri Andropov was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later
1896 – The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.
1904 – A fire aboard the SS General Slocum in the East River kills 1,000.
1985 – Rembrandt’s painting Danaë is attacked by a man (later judged insane) who throws sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.
1991 – In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. In the end, over 800 people die.
1994 – Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.
Births
1479 – Lisa del Giocondo, Italian model, subject of the Mona Lisa (d. 1542)
1843 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian pianist and composer (d. 1907)
1910 – David Rose, English-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990)
1914 – Yuri Andropov, Russian leader, briefly (d. 1984)
1914 – Saul Steinberg, Romanian-American cartoonist (d. 1999)
1932 – Mario Cuomo, 52nd Governor of New York (d. 2015)
1953 – Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party
Deaths
923 – Robert I of France (b. 866)
1381 – John Cavendish, English lawyer and judge (b. 1346)
1968 – Wes Montgomery, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1925)
1993 – James Hunt, English race car driver and sportscaster (b. 1947)
2003 – Hume Cronyn, Canadian-American actor and producer (b. 1911)