1542: Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sets sail from the Mexican port of Navidad on the first European voyage to explore the west coast of North America for the Spanish Empire

1709: Great Northern War: Peter the Great of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava; Charles goes into exile in Bender, Ottoman Empire

1743: War of the Austrian Succession: King George II of Britain personally leads Allied troops to victory in the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria. The last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.

1905: Russian sailors mutiny aboard battleship “Potemkin” and sail for Odessa

1923: Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane

1950: North Korean troops reach Seoul, causing the UN to ask member states to aid South Korea. Harry Truman orders the US Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict.

1954: First nuclear power station opens, in Obninsk near Moscow, Russia

Source: Onthisday.com