Today:
168 BC – Roman forces defeated Macedon at the Battle of Pydna, helping end the Third Macedonian War.
431 – The Council of Ephesus opened, a major early Christian council.
1633 – Galileo Galilei was forced by the Roman Inquisition to recant his view that Earth moves around the sun.
1772 – The Somerset v. Stewart decision in England ruled that an enslaved man, James Somerset, could not be forcibly sent out of the country to be sold.
1813 – Laura Secord began her famous journey to warn British forces of an American attack during the War of 1812.
1941 – Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
1944 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill into law.
1945 – The Battle of Okinawa effectively ended during World War II.
1969 – The Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire, becoming a symbol of pollution and helping spur environmental reforms.
1986 – Diego Maradona scored both the “Hand of God” goal and the “Goal of the Century” against England in the FIFA World Cup.