313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia.
1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.
1381 – The Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, breaking the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
1740 – Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine.
1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain’s North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.
1881 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
1886 – A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
1893 – Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.
Pioneer 10, a spacecraft launched by NASA in March 1972. Its aims were to study the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and the edges of the Solar System.
1898 – Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
1917 – World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London of the war is carried out by Gotha G.IV bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade in New York City.
1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1970 – “The Long and Winding Road” becomes The Beatles’ last U.S. number one song.
1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.
1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Births
1731 – Martha Washington, 1st US First Lady (1789-97)
1928 – John Nash, American mathematician (subject of movie “A Beautiful Mind”) and Nobel laureate
1951 – Mike Weaver, American WBA World Heavyweight Champion
Deaths
1861 – Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, French magician and father of modern magic
1920 – Essad Pasja, Albanian military man/minister, murdered at the Versailles Peace Conference
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com
Wikipedia and other internet searches