1540 – Thomas Cromwell was executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in Paris, France.
1821 – José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from Spain.
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.
1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after Serbia rejected the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that killed 42,000 German civilians.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
1948 – The Flying Squad foiled a bullion robbery in the "Battle of London Airport".
1957 – Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, killed 992 people.
1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattened Tangshan in the People's Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
1993 – Andorra joined the United Nations.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army called an end to its thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
2005 – Tornadoes touched down in residential areas in south Birmingham and Coventry, England, causing £4,000,000 worth of damages and injuring 39 people.