1381: Richard II in England meets leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance.

1645: Battle of Naseby, Leicestershire: Parliament’s New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax defeats the Royalist forces of English King Charles I

1777: US Continental Congress adopts the Stars & Stripes flag, designed by Francis Hopkinson, replacing the Grand Union flag

1821: King of Sennar, Badi VII, surrenders his throne and realm to General Ismail Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, bringing the 300-year-old Sudanese kingdom to an end

1940: Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs, later expanded to include civilian Jews, Roman Catholics, Gypsies and Soviet POWs (at least 1.1 million would die within its walls)

1941: Estonia loses 11,000 inhabitants as a consequence of mass deportations into Siberia

1982: Argentina surrenders to the United Kingdom, ending the 74-day Falklands Islands conflict

Source: Onthisday.com