484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.
711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete: Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.
998 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Battle of Apamea: Fatimids defeat a Byzantine army near Apamea.
1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill: The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.
1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.
1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days on the throne.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is spotted in the English Channel, off The Lizard in Cornwall. A series of warning beacons brings the news across the south of England to London.
1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
1702 – Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.
1817 – Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schäffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauai.
1821 – Coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom.
1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.
1843 – Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1845 – Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed 4 firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.
1848 – The first ever Women's Rights Convention, lasting two days, opens in Seneca Falls, New York. "Bloomers," a radical departure in women's clothing named after Amelia Jenks Bloomer, were introduced to the convention.
1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid: At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
1867 – Despite President Andrew Johnson’s veto, congress passes the 3rd Reconstruction Act.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
1903 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.
1911 – Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to pass laws censoring movies.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.
1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen riot and burn down Luton Town Hall.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
1940 – Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II, that Hitler appointed field marshals due to military achievements.
1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
1942 – World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.
1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.
1943 – Yekaterina Budanova died when she was shot down by the Luftwaffe. The Soviet fighter pilot is widely considered one of the world's two female fighter aces, having been credited with five or more aerial victories.
1946 – Marilyn Monroe was given her first screen test at Twentieth Century-Fox Studios. Even without sound, the test was enough to earn Monroe her first contract.
1947 – The Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members are assassinated by Galon U Saw.
1947 – Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.
1952 – The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were opened in Helsinki, Finland.
1954 – Elvis Presley's first single "That's All Right" is released.
1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.
1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
1964 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
1969 – John Fairfax of Britain arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to become the first person to row across the Atlantic alone.
1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.
1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
1980 – The Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, opened in Moscow, Soviet Union. The U.S. leads a 66-nation boycott.
1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development.
1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
1989 – United Flight 232, a crippled DC-10 jetliner, crash-landed in a cornfield in Sioux City, Iowa. One-hundred-eighty-four of the 296 people aboard survived.
1992 – A car bomb placed by mafia with collaboration of Italian intelligence kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort.
1993 – The Pentagon announced its "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy toward homosexuals in the U.S. military.
1996 – The Summer Olympics opened in Atlanta with a record 197 countries taking part.
1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
2005 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge John Roberts was nominated by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Sandra Day O'Connor, who resigned. After the death of William Rehnquist, Roberts' nomination was changed to make him chief justice.
2007 – On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 14,000 for the first time.
2010 – A speeding express train slammed into the rear of a train preparing to leave a West Bengal station in India, killing more than 60 people and injuring about 100 others.
2012 – The U.S. Defense Department said military personnel would be permitted to march in uniform in a San Diego Gay Pride Parade.
2013 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a "hard decision" on asylum-seekers. In the future, he said, the so-called boat people would be sent to Papua New Guinea.
2014 – Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.