In A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome, which lasted several days, began. (Contrary to popular belief, Emperor Nero did not fiddle as the city burned, but probably did recite poetry).
In 1536, the authority of the pope was declared void in England.
In 1872, Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot.
In 1918, during World War I, U.S. and French forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans between the Aisne and Marne rivers in France.
In 1927, Ty Cobb hit safely for the 4,000th time in his career.
In 1969, a car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. A passenger in the car, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
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Actor Hume Cronyn (1911)
Comedian Red Skelton (1913)
South African dissident Nelson Mandela (1918)
Senator John Glenn (1921)
Author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1939)
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"What men perceive as real is real in its consequences."