Duke of York's fleet defeats the Dutch off Lowestoft (1665), and Byzantine emperor Philippicus blinded and deposed by army conspirators (713). Born on this day: Rafael Nadal, George V and Raúl Castro. Died: Franz Kafka, Muhammad Ali and Ruhollah Khomeini.
32 events, 72 births and 74 deaths on this date.
The Duke of York, the future James II, led the English fleet to a decisive victory over the Dutch navy in the North Sea during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The battle was the largest naval engagement of the war and a major English triumph at sea.
Godfrey Kneller · Public domainConspirators from the Opsikion army in Thrace seized Philippicus, blinded him and sent him into exile. His successor, Anastasios II, then set about reorganising the Byzantine army.
The club was formed in Liverpool and went on to become one of the most decorated sides in English football. It joined the Football League the following year and has played at Anfield ever since.
Off South Vietnam, the Australian carrier Melbourne sliced the American destroyer Frank E. Evans in two during a night-time exercise, killing 74 sailors. The disaster prompted inquiries into naval training and night operations, and remains one of the worst peacetime losses in US Navy history.
Crusader forces finally broke into the walled Syrian city of Antioch, ending months of hunger and waiting outside its defences. The capture gave the crusading army a foothold on the road toward Jerusalem.
A church council ruled against Peter Abelard over his teaching on the Trinity, branding his views heretical. Abelard was among the most celebrated logicians of his day, and his fame outlived the ruling against him.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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Spanish tennis player remembered for his dominance on clay, where he won a record 14 French Open titles. He was ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks and retired in 2024.
Barcex · CC BY-SA 4.0
George V was the king who steered the monarchy through the First World War and renamed the royal house Windsor in 1917. He reigned from 1910 until his death in 1936, and was also a keen stamp collector.
Bassano Ltd · Public domain
Cuban general and politician who led the country's armed forces for decades and succeeded his brother Fidel as president in 2008. He is still widely seen as the most influential figure in Cuba's communist government.
[1] · CC BY 2.0
Franz Kafka, the Prague writer whose stories of isolated people trapped by baffling bureaucracy gave us the word Kafkaesque, died of tuberculosis in 1924. Almost unknown when he died, his fiction was published posthumously, largely thanks to his friend Max Brod, who ignored his wish to destroy it.
Atelier Jacobi: Sigismund Jacobi (1860–1935) · Public domain
Muhammad Ali was a heavyweight boxer who became one of the most famous sportsmen of the twentieth century. He was also a vocal activist who refused military service in Vietnam, a stand that cost him his titles for years.
Ira Rosenberg · Public domain
Ruhollah Khomeini was a Shia cleric who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution and became the country's first supreme leader. He is remembered for turning Iran into an Islamic republic, a shift that reshaped its politics and its relations with the West.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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