1274: Edward I is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey after returning from the Ninth Crusade

1399: King Richard II of England surrenders to his cousin Henry

1561: Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith, Scotland to assume the throne after spending 13 years in France

1692: Five more people hanged for witchcraft (19 in all) in Salem, Massachusetts

1745: Jacobite Rising 1745 : Bonnie Prince Charlie, raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion.

1793: Yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, then the US capital has its 1st fatality. Lasts till November killing around 5,000 people

1839: Details of Louis Daguerre’s 1st practical photographic process are released in Paris

1849: NY Herald reports gold discovery in California

1861: Confederacy Congress allies with government of Missouri

1895: American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin is shot and killed by John Selman Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas

1914: German army executes 150 Belgians by firing squad

1914: German fleet bombs the English coast

1914: In a message to the Senate, US President Woodrow Wilson urges the American people to be ‘neutral in fact as well as name’

1915: British liner “SS Arabic” sunk by German submarine without warning leaving Liverpool for New York; killing 44. Creates diplomatic incident

1919: After nearly 100 years of British control, Afghanistan declares itself independent

1934: The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

1942: World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France

1942: World War II: General Friedrich Paulus orders the German 6th Army to conquer Stalingrad

1943: US air raid on German bases at Gilze-Rijen/Vlissingen

1944: US general Omar Bradley visits British general Bernard Montgomery

1944: Last Japanese troops driven out of India

1944: Nazis give parts of Paris to Resistance

1944: Polish 1st Division occupies Hill 262 (Mont Ormel), Normandy

1944: US 15th Army Corps occupies Mantes-Gassicourt at Paris

1954: American Ralph Bunche named undersecretary of the UN

1955: US raises import duty on bicycles 50%

1960: Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident)

1960: Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into orbit, - 1st animals to return alive from orbit

1961: US vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson visits West Berlin

1965: Auschwitz trials end with 6 life sentences

1976: President Gerald Ford wins Republican presidential nomination at KC convention

1984: Republican convention in Dallas, Texas nominates incumbent Ronald Reagan for President

1989: 1st crack in the Iron Curtain when Hungary opens its borders to Austria for a pan-European picnic for a few hours

1991: Conservative members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempt to depose Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup d’état