335 – Flavius Dalmatius is raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle, emperor Constantine I.
634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.
1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures the French king, John II.
1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon’s Rebellion.
1692 – Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga.
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.
1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.
1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Iuka: Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.
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.
1864 – American Civil War: Third Battle of Winchester: Union troops under General Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley and was not only militarily decisive in that region of Virginia but also played a role in securing Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1864.
1868 – Spanish revolution: La Gloriosa.
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.
1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
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.
1893 – Women’s suffrage: In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.
1916 – During the East African Campaign of World War I, colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of General Charles Tombeur captured the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.
1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.
1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to smuggle out information and start a resistance.
1944 – Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union is signed, marking the end of the Continuation War.
1944 – Battle of Hürtgen Forest between United States and Nazi Germany begins.
1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
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).
1959 – Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland due to security concerns.
1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival is held at Michael Eavis’s farm in Glastonbury, United Kingdom.
1970 – Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.
1971 – Montagnard troops of South Vietnam revolt against the rule of Nguyễn Khánh, killing 70 ethnic Vietnamese soldiers.
1973 – King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has his investiture.
1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Osmaniye, Turkey, killing all 154 passengers and crew.
1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.
1978 – The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.
1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171.
1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by German tourists.
1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber’s manifesto.
1997 – Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria where 53 people are killed.
2006 – The Thai military stages a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
