1456
Hungarian forces led by János Hunyadi, including an untrained army of peasants, won one of the most remarkable victories in the history of Turkish wars, resisting the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II’s siege of Belgrade.
1812
The duke of Wellington defeated “40,000 Frenchmen in 40 minutes” at Salamanca, Spain, during the Peninsular War.
1923
Bob Dole—U.S. senator (1968–96), Republican congressional leader, and his party’s candidate for the presidency in 1996—was born in Russell, Kansas.
American baseball player Walter Johnson became the first pitcher in the MLB to strike out 3,000 batters; his career record of 3,508 strikeouts stood until 1983.
1943
Led by U.S. General George S. Patton, Allied forces took Palermo, on the northwest corner of Sicily, giving them a strategic foothold from which to invade mainland Italy during World War II.
1946
A violent Jewish right-wing underground movement in Palestine, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 soldiers and civilians.
1977
After falling from favour during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Deng Xiaoping returned to power on this day in 1977 after the Chinese Communist Party reinstated all his former high posts, including that of vice-premier.
2011
Terrorist attacks on Oslo and the island of Utøya in Norway resulted in the deaths of 77 people; Anders Behring Breivik later confessed to the attacks.
2013
Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, the first child of Prince William, duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, was born in London.
