On this day King Henry III of France was stabbed by Jacques Clément, a Jacobin friar, at his headquarters in Saint-Cloud. The wound proved to be fatal; Henry died the following day and left no heir, ending the Valois dynasty. Before he expired, though, Henry acknowledged his Bourbon ally, Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, as his successor. (He ruled as Henry IV.) Throughout Henry III's reign (1574–89), he was embroiled in the French Wars of Religion (1562–98).
| 1944: | | The final entry was recorded this day in the diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who spent two years in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands; her diary became a classic of Holocaust literature. |
|
| 1940: | | Why England Slept, written by John F. Kennedy, was published this day. This best-selling book, which was critical of the British military, was an expanded version of his senior thesis. |
|
| 1876: | | Colorado was admitted to the Union, becoming the 38th state in the United States. |
|
| 1714: | | Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler of England, died; she was succeeded by George I. |
|
| 10: | | | Roman Emperor Claudius I was born in Lugdunum, Gaul (now Lyon, France). |
|