1040 Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry, according to legend, to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.
1778 American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1940 Battle of Britain begins as Nazi forces attack shipping convoys in the English Channel.
1942 Himmler orders sterilization of all Jewish women in Ravensbrück concentration camp, in northern Germany.
1943 6th day of Battle of Kursk, USSR: Operation Citadel continues.
1985 French foreign intelligence agents blow up the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor, New Zealand to prevent it interfering with French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira is killed.
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