1679: Habeas Corpus Act passes in England, strengthening a person’s right to challenge unlawful arrest and imprisonment

1703: Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) is founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great

1873: Heinrich Schliemann discovers “Priam’s Treasure” a cache of gold and other objects in Hisarlik (Troy) in Anatolia

1905: Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive clash between modern steel battleships in history

1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during World War II

1963: Jomo Kenyatta is elected as the first Prime Minister of Kenya

1999: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo

2006: An earthquake strikes Java, Indonesia, at 5:53:58 AM local time, devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta and killing over 6,600 people

Source: Onthisday.com