1633-Galileo Galilei recants his "heretical" position that the Earth orbiting the Sun is at odds with the Bible and church teaching (Vatican apologizes in 1992 for how it handled the case)
1675-Royal Greenwich Observatory is established in England by King Charles II
1772-Somerset v Stewart court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, encouraging the abolitionist movement
1848-Beginning of the June Days uprising in Paris by French workers
1865-The CSS Shenandoah fires the last shot of the American Civil War in the Bering Strait to indicate surrender
1941-Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany and its allies invade the Soviet Union during World War II, the largest military operation in history