Events

• 1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
• 1534 - European colonization of the Americas: First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
• 1543 - French troops invade Luxembourg.
• 1585 - Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Hubbardton
• 1798 - Quasi-War: The U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the 'war.'
• 1799 - Ranjit Singh's men take up their positions outside Lahore.
• 1807 - Napoleonic Wars: Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ends the Fourth Coalition.
• 1846 - Mexican-American War: American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States conquest of California.
• 1863 - United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $100
• 1865 - American Civil War: Four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were hanged.
• 1892 - Katipunan: The Revolutionary Philippine Brotherhood is established leading to the fall of the Spanish Empire in Asia.
• 1898 - President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
• 1915 - World War I: End of First Battle of the Isonzo.
• 1915 - A Great Gorge and International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashed near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15.
• 1917 - Russian Revolution: Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov forms Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the Tsar Nicholas II.
• 1930 - Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
• 1937 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge - Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
• 1941 - World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.
• 1941 - World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
• 1946 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
• 1946 - Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
• 1947 - Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.
• 1953 - Che Guevara set out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
• 1954 - Formation of the TANU in Tanzania
• 1956 - Fritz Moravec reaches the peak of Gasherbrum II (8,035 m).
• 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
• 1959 - 14:28 UT Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event was used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
• 1967 - Beginning of the civil war in Biafra.
• 1969 - In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government.
• 1978 - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1980 - Institution of sharia in Iran.
• 1980 - The Safra massacre in Lebanon.
• 1983 - Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
• 1991 - Yugoslav Wars: Brioni Agreement ended ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 2002 - A scandal broke out in the United Kingdom when news reports alleged MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, the supposed European Al Qaeda leader.
• 2003 - The United Communist Party of Armenia was formed.
• 2005 - A series of four terrorist explosions occur on London's transport system killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers.
• 2005 - Influenced by Live 8, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to Africa from US$25 to US$50 billion by the year 2010.
• 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI issues the Summorum Pontificum, removing restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass.
• 2007 - Worldwide performances by charity event Live Earth.

Births