“Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.”
– Francis Bacon, The Collected Works of Sir Francis Bacon
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With this in mind, here are some important events that took place on this day.
1539 – Emperor Charles V reaches a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
1689 – Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros.
1764 – The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money.
1775 – The American Revolution begins as fighting breaks out at Lexington, Massachusetts.
1782 – The Netherlands recognises the United States.
1794 – Tadeusz Kosciuszko forces the Russians out of Warsaw.
1802 – The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants.
1824 – English poet Lord George Gordon Byron dies of malaria at age 36 while aiding Greek independence.
1861 – The Baltimore riots result in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed.
1861 – President Abraham Lincoln orders a blockade of Confederate ports.
1927 – In China, Hankow communists declare war on Chiang Kai-shek.
1934 – Shirley Temple appears in her first movie.
1938 – General Francisco Franco declares victory in the Spanish Civil War.
1939 – Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights.
1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule begins.
1960 – Baseball uniforms begin displaying player’s names on their backs.
1971 – Russia launches its first Salyut space station.
1977 – Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots.
1982 – NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut.
1989 – The battleship USS Iowa’s number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors.
1993 – The FBI ends a 51-day siege by storming the Branch Davidian religious cult headquarters in Waco, Texas.
1995 – A truck bomb explodes in front of the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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