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1980–Actor-comedian, Peter Sellers, dies of heart disease. He appeared in the films Battle of the Sexes, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, The Party, and Being There, but he achieved his international popularity with the “Pink Panther” movies.



658–Mayan ruler, K'an II, also known as Ruler V, Lord Stormwater Moon, and Antenna Top II, dies at age 70.

759–Oswulf, king of Northumbria, dies at the hands of members of his household.

923–Emperor of Japan is born.

946–Egyptian ruler, Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, dies.

1115–Matilda of Tuscany dies.

1129–Emperor Shirakawa of Japan dies.

1132–The Battle of Nocera takes place between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.

1148–Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.

1304–In the Wars of Scottish Independence, upon the Fall of Stirling Castle, King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War Wolf.

1411–Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.

1468–Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria, is born.

1487–Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, strike against a ban on foreign beer.

1534–French explorer, Jacques Cartier, plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.

1567–Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and is replaced by her one-year-old son, James VI.

1568–Carlos, Prince of Asturias, dies.

1701–Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit, Michigan.

1704–Gibraltar is captured from Spain for the British by Admiral Sir George Rooke.

1783–The Kingdom of Georgia and the Russian Empire sign the Treaty of Georgievsk.

1783–Politician, Simón Bolívar, is born. He was the second President of Venezuela.

1802–Author and playwright, Alexandre Dumas, is born in France.

1823–Slavery is abolished in Chile.

1847–A patent for a rotary type printing press with cylinders is issued to Richard Marsh Hoe of New York. This press, which greatly increased the production of newspapers, was first used in the offices of The Philadelphia Ledger.

1847–After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City, Utah.

1860–Princess Charlotte of Prussia is born in Potsdam, German federal state of Brandenburg. Through her mother, Charlotte was the eldest granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1862–Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, dies of of bronchial asthma and heart failure in Kinderhook, New York, at age 79.

1864–In the American Civil War, Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops, led by General George Crook, in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1866–Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.

1895–Poet, Robert Graves, is born in Wimbledon, Surrey, London, England. His passion was poetry, but he wrote novels to support himself. He wrote historical novels such as I, Claudius and Claudius the God, as well as his memoir about World War I, Goodbye to All That. His poems, his analysis and interpretation of Greek Mythology, and his study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of print.

1897–Aviator, Amelia Earhart, is born.

1899–Actor, Chief Dan George, is born.

1899–Supercentenarian, Bernice Madigan, is born Bernice Emerson in West Springfield, Massachusetts. She would live to the age of 115 years (and 163 days).

1900–Zelda Sayre is born in Montgomery, Alabama. She was courted by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who to prove himself and win her hand, rewrote a novel he had begun at Princeton. In 1920, This Side of Paradise was published and Zelda married him. Zelda wrote one novel, Save Me the Waltz, which is about a southern belle who marries a flamboyant writer in order to escape her father's suffocating morality.

1901–Writer, O. Henry, is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

1901–Supercentenarian, Francisco Fernández Fernández, is born in Pinilla de la Valderia, Castille and León, Spain. He would live to the age of 111 years (and 45 days).

1910–The Ottoman Empire captures the city of Shkodër, putting down the Albanian Revolt of 1910.

1911–Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas.

1915–The passenger ship S.S. Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew members are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

1920–Politician, Bella Abzug, is born Bella Savitsky in New York, New York. She was a lawyer, U.S. Representative, social activist, and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971, Abzug joined leading feminists, Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, to found the National Women's Political Caucus.

1920–Model and actress, Constance Dowling, is born.

1922–The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine is formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations.

1923–The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria, and other countries that fought in World War I.

1924–Archeologist, Themistoklis Sofoulis, becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

1929–The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect.

1929–Film director, Peter (James) Yates, is born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. His films include Bullitt, John and Mary, For Pete’s Sake, The Deep, Breaking Away, Eyewitness, The Dresser, Suspect, and An Innocent Man.

1931–A fire at a home for the elderly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, kills 48 people.

1931–Film director, Ermanno Olmi, is born in Bergamo, Italy. His films, like most of those considered to be products of the neorealist movement, were shot in long, slow takes, and generally contained some sort of social commentary. His films include Il Posto, The Fiances, A Man Named John, One Fine Day, The Circumstance, and The Tree of Wooden Clogs, The Secret of the Old Woods, Genesis: The Creation and the Flood, and The Cardboard Village.

1935–The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109°F in Chicago, Illinois, and 104°F in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1936–Comedienne-actress, Ruth Buzzi, is born.

1937–Alabama drops rape charges against the "Scottsboro Boys."

1940–Actor, Dan Hedaya, is born.

1942–Actor, Chris Sarandon, is born.

1943–In World War II, Operation Gomorrah, the concentrated heavy bombing of Hamburg, Germany, by the allies, begins. British and Canadian planes bomb during night, and American planes bomb during day. By the end of the operation in November, 1943, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.

1946–Standup comedian, Gallagher, is born.

1947–Actor, Robert Hays, is born.

1947–Pianist, Peter Serkin, is born.

1949–Actor, Michael Richards, is born.

1950–Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.

1951–Actress, Lynda Carter, is born.

1951–Gypie Mayo, of Dr. Feelgood and The Yardbirds, is born John Phillip Cawthra in Hammersmith, London, England.

1952–Film director, Gus Van Sant, is born.

1956–After a decade together as the country’s most popular comedy team, Martin & Lewis, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis call it quits. They do their last show at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City, ending their relationship exactly 10 years after they had started it.

1957–Country singer, Pam Tillis, is born. She is the daughter of country singer, Mel Tillis.

1959–At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Russia, American Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate."

1961–The first U.S. commercial airplane is hijacked to Cuba.

1963–The ship Bluenose II is launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada.

1963–Roy Orbison makes his first appearance on American Bandstand.

1965–Actor, Kadeem Hardison, is born.

1965–Actress, Constance Bennett, dies.

1966–Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan, along with Brian Schubert. Both come out with broken bones. BASE jumping has since been banned from El Capitan.

1967–An advertisement appears in The London Times, signed by all four of the Beatles and Brian Epstein, urging the British government to legalize marijuana.

1967–During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!") The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers, but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.

1967–The Beatles appear on the front cover of Life magazine (the Asia edition) with the headline: “The New Far-Out Beatles.” The cover photo features their new “Sgt. Pepper mustache” look.

1969–After completing its Moon landing mission, Apollo 11 returns safely to Earth.

1969–Singer and actress, Jennifer Lopez, is born.

1972–U.S. health officials concede that black men were used as guinea pigs in a 40-year syphilis experiment.

1974–In the Watergate scandal, the U.S. House Judiciary vote three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

1977–A four-day-long Libyan-Egyptian War comes to an end.

1980–Actor-comedian, Peter Sellers, dies of a heart attack in London, England, at age 54. He appeared in the films The Ladykillers, Up the Creek, Tom Thumb, The Mouse That Roared, The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, I'm All Right Jack, Two Way Stretch, The Battle of the Sexes, Never Let Go, The Millionairess, Only Two Can Play, Waltz of the Toreadors, Lolita, Trial and Error, The Wrong Arm of the Law, Heavens Above!, The Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The World of Henry Orient, A Shot in the Dark, What’s New Pussycat, The Wrong Box, After the Fox, The Bobo, Casino Royale, Woman Times Seven, The Party, I Love You Alice B. Toklas!, The Magic Christian, Hoffman, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Prisoner of Zenda, Being There, and The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu.

1982–Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299 people.

1982–Actress, Anna Paquin, is born.

1983–The Black July anti-Tamil riots begin in Sri Lanka, killing between 400 and 3,000 people. Black July is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

1983–George Brett, batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident."

1987–La Bamba, the Ritchie Valens biopic starring Lou Diamond Phillips, opens in American theaters.

1987–At 91 years of age, Hulda Crooks climbs Mt. Fuji, becoming the oldest person to climb Japan’s highest peak.

1990–Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwait–Iraq border.

1991–Manmohan Singh presents his budget speech to the Indian Parliament, which leads to economic liberalisation in India.

1994–Native American potter, Helen Cordero, dies in Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, at age 79. She is renowned for her storyteller pottery figurines, a motif she invented, based upon the traditional "singing mother" motif.

1998–Russell Eugene Weston, Jr. bursts into the U.S. Capitol and opens fire, killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.

2001–Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria. He becomes the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.

2001–The Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, who all die in the attack. They destroy 11 Aircraft (mostly military) and damage 15 others.

2002–Democrat James Traficant is expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1. He was expelled after being convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and houseboat in Washington, D.C. He was sentenced to prison and released on September 2, 2009, after serving a seven-year sentence.

2011–Digital switchover is completed in 44 of the 47 prefectures of Japan, with Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima television stations terminating analog broadcasting operations later, as a result of the Tohoku earthquake.

2011–Dan Peek, of America, dies.

2012–Actor, Chad Everett, dies of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 75. He is best known for the role of Dr. Joe Gannon in the TV drama Medical Center. He appeared in the films Rome Adventure, Get Yourself a College Girl, Johnny Tiger, Made in Paris, The Singing Nun, The Impossible Years, Airplane II: The Sequel, and Mulholland Drive.

2012–Actor, Sherman Hemsley, dies.

2012–Larry Hoppen, of Orleans, dies.

2012–Physiologist and physicist, Robert Ledley, dies. He invented the CT scanner.

2012–Politician, John Atta Mills, dies. He was the third President of Ghana.

2013–Rounding a curve with a 50 mph speed limit at 120 mph, a high-speed train derails in Spain, killing 78 passengers.

2013–Psychologist and sexologist, Virginia E. Johnson, dies.

2014–The Lifetime channel announces that it has canceled plans to air the reality television series Good Grief, which would have followed the owners of the Johnson Family Mortuary in Fort Worth, Texas. The program's scrapping came in the wake of the July 15th discovery of eight unattended or decomposing bodies at the funeral home, which led to the arrests of owner Dondre Johnson and his wife, Rachel Hardy-Johnson. The funeral home's landlord, who was executing an eviction process, discovered the bodies and alerted authorities. The funeral home itself has been the subject of an investigation by The Texas Funeral Services Commission.

2015–Russian President Vladimir Putin cuts the government workforce in the Interior Ministry by about 110,000 officials. The move came as Russia’s economy continues to tumble from a combination of dropping oil prices and Western sanctions. To compensate, the Kremlin is trying to cut (nearly) all government spending by 10 percent, in what commentators are calling “Russian austerity.”

2015–A group of hackers claims to have successfully hacked the U.S. Census Bureau, compromising the data of over 4,200 workers. The hackers claim to be part of the loose-knit Anonymous “hacktivist” collective. The hackers say they mounted the attacks in protest of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations.

2015–Journalist, Ingrid Sischy, dies of breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York, at age 63. She was Editor in Chief of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine for 18 years (until January 2008). She and her girlfriend and partner, Sandra Brant, worked together as the International Editors of the Italian, Spanish, and German versions of Vanity Fair. She was also featured in the film documentary, !Women Art Revolution, as an artist who took part in the pioneering feminist movement of female artists in the 1970s.

2016–Democratic National Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, will not be allowed to speak at or preside over the party's convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after a WikiLeaks email leak shows her alleged implicit support of Hillary Clinton's campaign during the primaries. Bernie Sanders, and other party leaders, respectfully ask Wasserman Schultz to resign in order to quell the growing turmoil within the Democratic Party. She shortly thereafter announces that she will resign at the end of the party’s convention.

2016–The athlete's village at the XXXI Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is dirty and unsafe for human habitation, according to the Australian delegation.

2016–Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

2016–A peaceful protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, is attacked by ISIL suicide bombers, killing at least 80 people and injuring 260 others.

2016–Vocalist, Marnie Nixon, dies of breast cancer in Manhattan, New York, at age 86. She is best known for having dubbed the singing voices of the leading actresses in films, including The King and I (Deborah Kerr), West Side Story (Natalie Wood), and My Fair Lady (Audry Hepburn).

2017–U.S. Defense Secretary, James Mattis, criticizes the Pentagon for wasting $28 million for Afghan camouflage that did not match the country's terrain.

2017–Brown University researchers discover that water may be present beneath the surface of the Moon.

2017–At least five people are injured, two seriously, after a man attacks people with a chainsaw in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.


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