1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon was elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1342 – St. Mary Magdalene’s flood was the worst such event on record for central Europe.
1587 – Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
1598 – William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, was entered on the Stationers’ Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers’ Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.
1686 – Albany, New York was formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan.
1793 – Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean and became the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company named an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
1797 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson was wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta: Outside Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood led an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
1893 – Katharine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1894 – The first ever motor race was held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the ‘official’ victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître driving his three-horsepower petrol engined Peugeot.
1916 – Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb exploded on Market Street during a parade, killing ten and injuring 40.
1933 – Aviator Wiley Post returned to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, and completed the first solo flight around the world (in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes).
1937 – New Deal: The United States Senate voted down President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
1937 – Hal Kemp and his orchestra recorded “Got a Date with an Angel.”
1942 – The United States government began compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
1942 – Grossaktion Warsaw: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto began.
1943 – World War II: Allied forces captured Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
1943 – World War II: Axis occupation forces violently dispersed a massive protest in Athens, killing 22.
1962 – Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch and had to be destroyed.
1963 – The Beach Boys released the single “Surfer Girl.”
1967 – Vanilla Fudge made its concert debut in New York.
1969 – Aretha Franklin was arrested for disorderly conduct after creating a disturbance in a Detroit parking lot.
1977 – Tony Orlando announced his retirement from show business.
1979 – Little Richard, known as Reverend Richard Penniman, spoke at a revival meeting in North Richmond, CA. He warned the congregation about the evils of rock & roll music.
1990 – Greg LeMond, an American road racing cyclist, won his third Tour de France after leading the majority of the race. It was LeMond’s second consecutive Tour de France victory.
1992 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
1993 – Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois ruptured and forced the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
1997 – The second Blue Water Bridge opened between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attacked a compound in Iraq and killed Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay’s 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard.
