335 – Flavius Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle, emperor Constantine I.
1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon’s Rebellion.
1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.
1796 – George Washington’s Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.
1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war’s Western Theater.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Paris begins, which will result on January 28, 1871 in the surrender of Paris and a decisive Prussian victory.
1870 – Having invaded the Papal States a week earlier, the Italian Army lays siege to Rome, entering the city the next day, after which the Pope described himself as a Prisoner in the Vatican.
1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield’s death.
1940 – World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to smuggle out information and start a resistance.
1952 – The United States bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.
1957 – First American underground nuclear bomb test (part of Operation Plumbbob).
1985 – A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber’s manifesto.
2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.
Births
1560 – Thomas Cavendish, English naval explorer, led the third expedition to circumnavigate the globe (d. 1592)
1749 – Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1822)
1824 – William Sellers, American engineer, inventor, and businessperson (d. 1824)
1905 – Leon Jaworski, American lawyer, co-founded Fulbright & Jaworski (d. 1982)
1909 – Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche (19 September 1909 – 27 March 1998), mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche, Sr. was also a renowned automobile engineer and founder of Volkswagen and Porsche.
1934 – Brian Epstein, English talent manager (d. 1967)
1941 – Cass Elliot, also known as Mama Cass, was a member of the Mamas & the Papas. On July 29, 1974, after a concert series at the London Palladium, Elliot was found dead in her hotel room. She had succumbed to heart failure, at the age of 32.
1949 – Twiggy, AKA Lesley Lawson is an English model, actress, and singer widely known as Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenage model in swinging sixties London.
1949 – Barry Scheck, American lawyer, co-founded the Innocence Project
Deaths
1147 – Igor II of Kiev
1942 – Condé Montrose Nast, American publisher, founded Condé Nast Publications (b. 1873)