1633: Galileo Galilei recants his “heretical” position that the Earth orbiting the Sun was at odds with the Bible and church teaching (Vatican apologizes in Oct 1992 for how it handled the case)

1675: Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by 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 WWII, the largest military operation in history

Source: Onthisday.com