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1959–Celebrity chef and restaurateur, Geoffrey (Harry) Zakarian, is born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the executive chef of restaurants in New York, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Miami, Florida. Zakarian appears on several Food Network programs as a judge, including Chopped. In 2011, he won the competition show The Next Iron Chef.


285–Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler.

306–Roman Emperor, Constantius Chlorus, dies in Eboracum, Britannia, at age 56.

306–Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops.

315–The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum in Rome, to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

864–The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.

1109–Afonso I of Portugal is born D. Afonso Henriques in Coimbra, Guimarães or Viseu, County of Portugal.

1137–Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Prince Louis, later King Louis VII of France, at the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux.

1139–The Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques, who is proclaimed King of Portugal.

1190–Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem, dies in an epidemic in Acre, Israel, at age 30.

1261–The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

1278–The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista, resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile.

1394–James I of Scotland is born in Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scotland.

1409–Martin I of Sicily dies.

1467–The Battle of Molinella takes place. It is the first battle in Italy in which firearms are used extensively.

1492–Pope Innocent VIII dies.

1538–The city of Guayaquil is founded by Spanish Conquistador, Francisco de Orellana, and is given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.

1547–Henry II of France is crowned.

1554–Mary I marries Philip II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral in London, England.

1564–Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, dies in Vienna, Austria, at age 61.

1567–Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, (present-day Caracas), the capital city of Venezuela.

1593–Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1603–James VI of Scotland is crowned King of England (James I of England), bringing the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.

1609–The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking. The survivors go on to found a new colony there.

1642–Louis I, Prince of Monaco, is born Louis Grimaldi at Prince's Palace in Monaco.

1678–Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, is born in Vienna, Austria.

1693–Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas (present-day Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Mexico).

1722–Dummer's War begins along the Maine-Massachusetts border.

1755–British Governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians. Thousands of Acadians are sent to France, England, and the British Colonies in America. Some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick.

1759–In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.

1775–Anna Harrison, wife of President William Henry Harrison, is born Anna Tuthill Symmes in Morristown, New Jersey, British America. She was the ninth First Lady of the United States.

1788–Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

1792–The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris, France, promising vengeance if the French royal family is harmed.

1795–The first stone of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is laid.

1797–Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).

1799–At Abu Qir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.

1824–Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.

1834–Poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, dies in Highgate, London, England, at the home of his friend and physician, James Gillman.

1837–The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London, England.

1846–French-Dutch King, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, dies in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy, at age 67. His brother was the first Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, and his son was the last, Napoleon III.

1848–Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland. When Balfour came into his inheritance at age 21, he became one of the wealthiest young men in Britain.

1853–Joaquin Murrieta, the famous Californio bandit known as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado," is killed.

1853–Drama impresario, David Belasco, is born in San Francisco, California. He moved to New York City and produced 374 plays between 1884 and 1926.

1861–The United States Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that The Civil War is being fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.

1866–The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant is the first to be promoted to that rank.

1868–Wyoming becomes a United States territory.

1869–The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.

1870–Artist, Maxfield Parrish, is born Frederick Parrish in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His art features idealized neo-classical imagery and dazzlingly luminous colors; the color “Parrish blue” was named for him. Yet, Parrish's work defies categorization, since he was part of no traditional movement or school, and developed an original and individual style.

1887–Religious leader, John Taylor, dies in Kaysville, Utah Territory, at age 78. He was the third President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is the only President of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States.

1893–The Corinth Canal in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, is used for the first time.

1894–The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.

1894–Actor, Walter Brennan, is born in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He is best known for the role Amos McCoy on the TV series The Real McCoys.

1898–After over two months of sea-based bombardment, the United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with troops led by General Nelson Miles landing at the harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico.

1906–Saxophonist, Johnny Hodges, is born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He took up the soprano sax when he was 14, and later specialized on the alto. Hodges joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1928, and was a soloist and mainstay of the ensemble.

1907–Actor, Jack Gilford, is born Jacob Aaron Gellman in New York, New York. He appeared in the films Mister Buddwing, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Enter Laughing, Who’s Minding the Mint?, The Incident, Catch-22, Save the Tiger, Wholly Moses!, Caveman, and Cocoon.

1908–Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda, of the Tokyo Imperial University, discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.

1908–Actor, Jack Gilford, is born.

1909–Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (from Calais to Dover, England) in 37 minutes.

1914–Football player and actor, Woody Strode, is born.

1915–RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British military aviator to earn the Victoria Cross, for defeating three German two-seat observation aircraft in one day, over the Western Front.

1915–Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr., the oldest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, is born in Hull, Massachusetts. His death in a World War II bombing run in 1944, would lead to his younger brother John Kennedy's entrance into politics.

1917–Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure: the lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%.

1923–Actress, Estelle Getty, is born.

1925–Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.

1925–Director-actor, Jerry Paris, is born William Gerald Paris in San Francisco, California. He is best known for the role of dentist Jerry Helper on The Dick Van Dyke Show. As a director, he worked most notably on the 1950s nostalgia TV series Happy Days, directing 234 of the show's 255 episodes. He appeared in the films DOA, Bonzo Goes to College, The Wild One, The Caine Mutiny, Marty, Good Morning, Miss Dove, Zero Hour!, Sing, Boy, Sing, Career, and The Great Imposter.

1929–Outlaw, Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock, dies of a heart attack in Eastland, Texas, at age 80. A founding member of The Regulators during the Lincoln County War in New Mexico, Scurlock rode alongside such men as Billy the Kid. In late 1879, Scurlock moved to Texas, where he settled down and became a highly respected citizen. In the western film, Young Guns, Scurlock was played as a polite, moral, poetry-writing cowboy.

1930–Annie Ross, of jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, is born.

1930–Comedienne and entrepreneur, Mitzi Shore, is born Mitzi Saidel in Marinette, Wisconsin. In 1972, she co-founded The Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Sammy Shore, and became owner two years later. Through the club, she had a huge influence on the careers of up-and-coming comedians. Big names, such as Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Freddie Prinze, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Chevy Chase, Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay, and Jim Carrey all worked at the club. Her son is comedian, Pauly Shore.

1932–Astronaut, Paul J. Weitz, is born Paul Joseph Weitz in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, who flew into space twice. He was a member of the three-man crew who flew on Skylab 2, the first manned Skylab mission. He was also Commander of the STS-6 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle Challenger flights.

1934–The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

1934–Businessman, François Coty, dies. He founded Coty, Inc.

1935–Actress, Barbara Harris, is born.

1940–General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion, making surrender illegal.

1942–The Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the Nazis.

1942–Capitol Records gets its first #1 hit with Cow Cow Boogie by Ella Mae Morse and Freddy Slack.

1943–Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

1943–Jim McCarty, drummer for The Yardbirds, is born.

1944–Tom Dawes, of The Cyrkle, is born in Albany, New York. The Cyrkle was the only American group to be managed by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and they were among the opening acts on one of The Beatles’ American tours. Their hits included Red Rubber Ball and Turn Down Day.

1946–The U.S. detonates an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, in the first underwater test of the device.

1946–At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as the comedy team of Martin & Lewis.

1946–Singer, Rita Marley, is born.

1952–The U.S. non-incorporated territory of Puerto Rico adopts a constitution.

1955–Model, Iman, is born. She was married to musician, David Bowie.

1956–Forty-five miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51 people.

1956–Specialty Records releases Little Richard's Slippin' and Slidin'.

1956–Artist, Andy Goldsworthy, is born.

1957–The Republic of Tunisia is proclaimed.

1958–The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.

1959–The SR.N1 hovercraft crosses the English Channel from Calais, France, to Dover, England, in just over two hours.

1959–Celebrity chef and restaurateur, Geoffrey (Harry) Zakarian, is born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the executive chef of restaurants in New York, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Miami, Florida. Zakarian appears on several Food Network programs as a judge, including Chopped. In 2011, he won the competition show The Next Iron Chef.

1963–The first major nuclear test ban treaty is signed, banning all but underground tests. Signatories include the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.

1964–The Beatles' album, A Hard Day's Night, is #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K.

1965–Bob Dylan breaks out his electric guitar and "plugs-in" for the very first time at the Newport Jazz Festival. His reception is less than enthusiastic. Cries of “selling out” abound, but The Beatles remain among his strongest supporters.

1966–The Rolling Stones perform their last U.S. concert with Brian Jones in San Francisco, California.

1965–Actress, Illeana Douglas, is born.

1967–A chart topper: Light My Fire by The Doors.

1969–President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.

1969–Actor, D.B. Woodside is born David Bryan Woodside in Jamaica, Queens, New York. He is best known for his appearances on the Fox TV series 24. He has also appeared in the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Parenthood, and Suits.

1971–The Beach Boys enjoy a commercial comeback of sorts with the release of Surf's Up.

1973–The Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.

1973–George Harrison pays taxes of £1 million owed to the British government on revenues from the “Concert for Bangladesh” concert and album. Although not personally responsible for making the payment, Harrison paid the taxes so that frozen monies could be released and used for the intended purpose of bringing relief to starving people in Bangladesh.

1976–Viking 1 takes the “Face on Mars” photo.

1978–Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" is born.

1979–Another section of the Sinai Peninsula is peacefully returned by Israel to Egypt.

1982–Actor, Brad (Barron) Renfro, is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He appeared in the films The Client, The Cure, Sleepers, Telling Lies in America, and The Jacket.

1983–Thirty-seven Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.

1984–Salyut 7 Cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

1984–Blues singer, Big Mama Thornton, dies.

1986–Film director, Vincente Minnelli, dies of emphysema and pneumonia in Beverly Hills, California, at age 83. He had also suffered from Alzheimer's disease. His films include Cabin in the Sky, Meet Me in St. Louis, Father of the Bride, An American in Paris, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Bandwagon, The Long, Long Trailer, Brigadoon, Lust for Life, Gigi, Some Came Running, Bells Are Ringing, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Goodbye Charlie, The Sandpiper, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

1989–Steve Rubell, co-owner of Studio 54, dies.

1992–The opening ceremony of 1992 Summer Olympics takes place.

1993–Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call the Seven-Day War.

1993–The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.

1994–Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.

1995–A gas bottle explodes in the Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network) in Paris, France. Eight people are killed and 80 others are wounded.

1995–Country singer, Charlie Rich, dies.

2000–Concorde Air France Flight 4590 crashes at Charles de Gaulle airport, in Paris, France, killing 113 passengers.

2002–A.P.J. Abdul Kalam becomes the 11th President of India.

2003–Erik Brann, of Iron Butterfly, dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, at age 52. He was featured on the band's greatest hit, the 17-minute In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, recorded when he was 17.

2003–Film director, John Schlesinger, dies in Palm Springs, California, at age 77. His films include A Kind of Loving, Darling, Far From the Madding Crowd, Midnight Cowboy, The Falcon and the Snowman, Madame Sousatzka, and Pacific Heights.

2007–Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first female President.

2010–WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.

2012–Pranab Mukherjee becomes the 13th President of India.

2016–Verizon Communications buys Yahoo! for $4.83 billion in cash, ending the latter's over 20-year run as an independent corporation.

2016–President Barack Obama’s half brother, Malik Obama, reveals that he plans to vote for Republican nominee, Donald Trump, for president, not Hillary Clinton. The 58-year-old Kenyan, who used to work in Maryland, says he plans to travel back to the U.S. to cast his Trump vote.

2016–At least two people are killed and as many as 17 people are injured during a mass shooting at a “teen night” event at Club Blu, a nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida.

2016–Broadway impresario, James M. Nederlander, dies in New York, New York, at age 94. He was a theatre owner, operator, producer, and President of the Nederlander Organization. He produced or co-produced more than 100 shows, including Annie, Copenhagen, The Will Rogers Follies, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, La Cage aux Folles, Nine, Noises Off, Noises Off, and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

2017–Amid a public backlash, Microsoft reneges on its decision to end its Paint program and states that it will be placed in its app store rather than bundled with future editions of Windows.

2017–Pope Francis halts the fountains of the Vatican amidst a drought in Italy.

2017–Adobe Systems announces it will stop updating and distributing its multimedia software platform, Flash, by the end of 2020.

2017–Singer, Michael Johnson, dies in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at age 72. His biggest hit was Bluer Than Blue in 1973.

2017–Barbara Sinatra dies in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 90. She was a model and showgirl who was the fourth and final wife of Frank Sinatra from 1976 until his death in 1998. Upon his death, Frank Sinatra left her $3.5 million in assets, along with mansions in Beverly Hills, Malibu, and Palm Springs, California. She also inherited the rights to Sinatra's Trilogy recordings, most of his material possessions, and control over his name and likeness.

2018–A “cord-cutting” study shows that 33 million adults will stop paying for cable or satellite TV in 2018. That’s compared with a total of 24.9 million cord-cutters by the end of 2017. The number of viewers accessing over-the-top, internet-delivered video services continues to grow.

2018–Film and television composer, Patrick Williams, dies of cancer in Santa Monica, California, at age 79. His TV credits include Decoration Day, We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, The Thin Blue Line, and Saved by the Light. His film credits include Kiss the Sky, The Grass Harp, The Cutting Edge, Cry-Baby, In the Spirit, Fresh Horses, Just Between Friends, Violets Are Blue, All of Me, The Buddy System, Swing Shift, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Some Kind of Hero, It’s My Turn, Used Cars, Breaking Away, and The Cheap Detective.


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