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.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.
1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in Exsurge Domine.
1648 – Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1667 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.
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.
1804 – New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.
1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
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.
Eadweard Muybridge stop-motion photo series.
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.
1896 – The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.
1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in the East River kills 1,000. The worst disaster in New York City until September 11, 2001
1970 – Charles Manson goes on trial for the Sharon Tate murders.
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.
1994 – Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.
2012 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to successfully tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls.
Births
1890 – Georg Wüst, Posen, German oceanographer who provided the first complete understanding of the temperature, salinity and deep-current structure of the Atlantic Ocean
1902 – Erik Erikson, Frankfurt Germany, American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who coined the phrase “identity crisis”
1932 – Mario Cuomo, American (Gov-D-NY, 1983-95)
Deaths
1381 – Wat Tyler, leader of English Peasants’ Revolt, beheaded in London
1849 – James Knox Polk, 11th US President (1845-1849)
1996 – Ella Fitzgerald, singer and jazz musician
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com
Wikipedia and other internet searches