Today:
1261 – Recapture of Constantinople: Forces of the Empire of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople from the Latin Empire, restoring the Byzantine Empire.
1593 – Henry IV of France converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, a pivotal step toward ending the French Wars of Religion.
1797 – Horatio Nelson lost his right arm during the failed British assault at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1861 – The First Battle of Bull Run was officially recognized as a Confederate victory after the Union Army retreated to Washington, D.C.
1909 – Louis Blériot became the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1943 – Benito Mussolini was dismissed as Prime Minister of Italy and arrested on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III.
1952 – Puerto Rico officially became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States under its new constitution.
1978 – Birth of the First Test-Tube Baby: Louise Brown, the world’s first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), was born in England.
1984 – Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk during the Soyuz T-12 mission.
2000 – Air France Flight 4590 Crash occurred near Paris shortly after takeoff, becoming the only fatal crash involving the Concorde supersonic airliner.