Round Table Tournament
1290 Round Table tournament held near Winchester, England, in imitation of King Arthur, to commemorate betrothal of daughter of Edward I, and attended by the king
- 1505 Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
Cartier for Newfoundland
1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail with two ships from Saint-Malo for Newfoundland, tasked by Francis I to look for gold and riches [1]
Event of Interest
1535 Stockholm experiences the atmospheric optical phenomenon called a Sun Dog or parhelion over the city, prompting omens against King Gustav Vasa
- 1551 John Dudley becomes Earl Marshal of England
Macbeth First Performed
1611 First known performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth at the Globe Theatre, London, recorded by Simon Forman
- 1650 Dutch East India Company (VOC) management sets new guidelines
Cromwell Dissolves Parliament
1653 Oliver Cromwell and 40 musketeers forcibly dissolve the English Rump Parliament, after it failed to establish a caretaker government. In Cromwell's words "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... In the name of God, go!" [1]
- 1657 Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife: English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet
- 1702 Comet C/1702 H1 approaches within 0.0437 AUs of Earth
Geodesic Mission to Lapland
1736 French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis begins Lapland expedition to measure latitude and shape of the earth, joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier
Handel Buried
1759 George Frideric Handel is buried in Westminster Abbey, London
- 1777 New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
British Poet Laureate
1785 Thomas Warton appointed the eighth British Poet Laureate by King George III
French Revolutionary Wars
1792 Amidst the French Revolution, France declares war on Austria and Prussia, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars
- 1799 Friedrich von Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod" premieres in Weimar
- 1810 The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain
- 1818 Napoleon Bonaparte bids emotional farewell to his old guard at Palace of Fontainebleau
- 1828 Frenchman René Caillié is the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, returns to win 10,000 franc prize from Société de Géographie
- 1836 Territory of Wisconsin created
1st Pasteurization Test
1862 First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
- 1894 136,000 mine workers strike in Ohio for pay increase
El Capitan
1896 John Philip Sousa's operetta "El Capitan" premieres on Broadway at Broadway Theatre, NYC
- 1898 US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota opens
Beatty Officer HMS Barfleur
1899 David Beatty is appointed executive officer of the HMS Barfleur, a small battleship and flagship of the China Station
Radium Chloride Isolated
1902 Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the radioactive compound radium chloride
- 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis
- 1908 Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
- 1910 Cleveland Naps Addie Joss 2nd no-hitter, beats Chicago, 1-0
- 1910 Halley's Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km
- 1912 Fenway Park officially opens, Red Sox beat NY Highlanders 7-6 in 11
- 1912 Tiger Stadium in Detroit opens, Tigers beat Cleveland Indians 6-5
- 1914 Ludlow Massacre: Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) security team and Colorado National Guard soldiers kill 21 workers, women and children during mine strike in Ludlow, Colorado
- 1914 US President W Wilson, having dispatched more naval ships to Mexico, asks a joint session of Congress to approve armed force if necessary; Congress approves
- 1915 The Armenians rise and seize the Turkish town of Van, which they hold until Russians relieve them on 19 May; thousands of Armenians are killed
- 1916 Chicago Cubs play their 1st game at Weeghman Park (now Wrigley Field) and beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6
- 1916 German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
The Red Baron
1918 Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day
- 1919 King Nicholas of Montenegro abdicates under duress
- 1919 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army
- 1920 Big Show ends 2 year run on NBC radio
- 1920 Phillies manager Gravvy Cravath puts himself in as pinch hitter, his 3- run homer beats NY Giants 3-0
- 1920 Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama & Mississippi
- 1926 1st check sent by radio facsimile transmission across Atlantic
- 1931 British House of Commons agrees for sports play on Sunday
Himmler Chief of Police
1934 Heinrich Himmler appointed chief of all German police including the Prussian secret state police
William's 1st MLB Hit
1939 Ted Williams' first MLB hit comes off of NY Yankees fellow future HOF'er Red Ruffing in Boston's 2-0 opening day defeat at Yankee Stadium, NYC
Stengel Hit by Taxi
1943 Braves manager Casey Stengel is struck by a taxi, fractures a leg
- 1944 Dutch Communist Party resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death
- 1944 NFL legalizes coaching from bench
- 1945 Cleveland Browns organization formed by Arthur "Mickey" McBride
- 1945 Nazi German occupiers flood Beemster & Fencer
- 1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin
- 1945 US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg
- 1945 US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
- 1946 1st baseball broadcast in Chicago, Cards vs Cubs
Make Mine Music
1946 Walt Disney's animated film anthology "Make Mine Music" premieres in New York City
Shoemaker's First Win
1949 Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 1st race, in Albany, California
- 1951 4th Cannes Film Festival: "Miss Julie" directed by Alf Sjoberg and "Miracle in Milan" directed by Vittorio De Sica jointly awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
Ticker-Tape Parade for MacArthur
1951 Huge ticker-tape parade held in NYC for World War II and Korean War General Douglas MacArthur after he was relieved of Command by President Truman
- 1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll
- 1951 Velsen city council demands investigation of police collaborators
- 1958 Morocco demands departure of Spanish troops
- 1958 Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Montreal Canadiens' 3-peat; beat Boston Bruins, 5-3 for a 4-2 for series win
- 1961 American Harold Graham makes 1st rocket belt flight
Aviation History
1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 63,250 m
- 1962 New Orleans Citizens Co gives free 1-way ride to blacks to move North
- 1962 OAS-leader ex-general Salan arrested in Algiers
- 1963 -30] All Africa Conferences of Churches opens in Kampala Uganda
- 1964 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
- 1965 People's Republic China offers North Vietnam military aid
- 1966 WDCA TV channel 20 in Washington, D.C. (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1967 A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126.
- 1967 French author Régis Debray caught in Bolivia
Baseball History
1967 NY Met pitcher Tom Seaver wins his 1st game, helps beat Cubs, 6-1
- 1967 US Surveyor 3 lands on Moon
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Enoch Powel's "Rivers of Blood"
1968 British politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech
- 1968 British rock band billed as "Roundabout" debuts in Kastrup, Denmark; after a brief tour of Scandinavia, they change their name to "Deep Purple"
PM Pierre Trudeau
1968 Pierre Trudeau sworn in as Canada's 15th Prime Minister
- 1968 South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes at Windhoek, 122 killed
- 1969 23rd Tony Awards: "The Great White Hope" (play) & "1776" (musical) win
- 1969 Bombs planted by Loyalists members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers explode at Silent Valley reservoir in County Down and at an electricity pylon at Kilmore, County Armagh
- 1970 Bruno Kreisky becomes 1st socialist chancellor of Austria
We've Only Just Begun
1971 Barbra Streisand records "We've Only Just Begun"
- 1971 US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
- 1972 Kallicharran scores his 2nd Test century in his 2nd Test Cricket
- 1972 NASA Apollo 16's John Young & Charles Duke land on the moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2
Lord Byron
1972 Virgil Thomson's final opera, "Lord Byron", with libretto by Jack Larson, first performance at Lincoln Center, New York City
- 1973 Canadian ANIK A2 becomes 1st commercial satellite in orbit
- 1973 Mass murderer Ed Kemper attempts to dispose of his mother's vocal chords in a domestic waste disposal unit
- 1974 'The Troubles', the Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim
- 1975 29th Tony Awards: "Equus" (play) & "The Wiz" (musical) win
Music History
1976 George Harrison sings "The Lumberjack Song" with Monty Python in NYC
Annie Hall
1977 "Annie Hall", directed by Woody Allen and starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1978)
- 1977 Al Pacino wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel"
- 1977 Supreme Court rules "Live Free or Die" may be covered on NH licenses
Jimmy Carter Attacked by a Rabbit
1979 US President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a swamp rabbit which swam up to his fishing boat in Plains, Georgia
- 1980 Climax of the Berber Spring in Algeria sees hundreds of Berber political activists arrested
Event of Interest
1980 Cuban President Fidel Castro announces he is opening the Mariel Port for Cubans to leave, about 125,000 leave in next 5-6 months
- 1980 Cubans begin to arrive in US from Mariel boatlift
- 1981 "Fire and Smoke" single released by Earl Thomas Conley (Billboard Song of the Year 1981)
- 1981 Final performance of TV show "Soap" airs
- 1981 Rocker Papa John Phillips arrested for drug possession
- 1982 Atlanta Braves become 1st team to win 1st 12 games of the season
- 1982 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode bombs in Belfast, Derry, Armagh, Ballymena, Bessbrook and Magherafelt; 2 civilians are killed and 12 injured
Event of Interest
1983 President Reagan signs a $165B bail out for Social Security
- 1983 Soyuz T-8 launched; mission aborted when capsule fails to dock (lands 2 days later)
- 1984 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghanistan
- 1985 ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas
- 1985 Carlos Lopes runs world record marathon (2:07:12)
- 1985 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Mark Williams
- 1985 Karyn Marshall of NYC lifted 303 lbs in a clean & jerk lift
NBA Record
1986 Michael Jordan sets NBA playoff record with 63 points in a game
- 1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1986 Vladimir Horowitz performs in Moscow, Russia, his first appearance in his Russian homeland since 1925
- 1987 Sri Lankan Civil War: Tamils shoot 122 Sinhalese dead
- 1987 US deports Karl Linnas to USSR, charged with Nazi war crimes
- 1988 Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
- 1988 NJ Devils 1st playoff hat trick-Eric Broten
- 1988 US accuses Renamo of killing 100,000 Mozambiquians
- 1988 Yanks HR 9,999 (D Winfield) 10,000 (C Washington) 10,001 (J Clarke)
- 1990 8 2/3 inning perfect game pitched by Brian Holman of Oakland A's is spoiled by a home run hit by Ken Philips
- 1991 1st non stop flight Schiphol-Flamingo airport Bonaire
- 1991 Mark Lenzi is 1st diver to score 100 pts on a dive (101.85)
- 1991 Raghib "Rocket" Ismael signs with Toronto Argonauts for $26.2 million
- 1992 100th episode of American sitcom "Murphy Brown" airs
- 1992 Expo '92 opens in Seville Spain
- 1992 Joan Lunden, breaks her left shoulder after being thrown from a horse
Shania Twain
1993 Mercury Nashville Records releases "Shania Twain", the debut studio album by Shania Twain
- 1993 Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
- 1994 Danny Harold Rolling sentenced to death in Florida for killing 5
- 1994 Pakistani cricket batsmen Sohail & Inzamam make world record ODI partnership of 263 against NZ in Sharjah
- 1994 Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze, Bosnia, 47 killed
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-59 (Endeavour 6), lands
- 1996 1996 NFL Draft: Keyshawn Johnson from USC first pick by New York Jets
- 1996 Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
- 1997 "Present Laughter" closes at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
- 1997 1st baseball game in Hawaii, Cards beat Padres in doubleheader
- 1997 27th Easter Seal Telethon raises $47,392,682
- 1997 Cubs beat NY Mets ending NL worst opening, lost 14 straight games
Sports History
1997 Mark McGwire is 4th to HR on Detroit Tiger left field roof (others are Frank Howard, Harmon Killibrew, & Cecil Fielder)
- 1998 German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
- 1998 TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France, crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53
- 1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School, Colorado
- 2002 NFL Draft: Fresno State quarterback David Carr #1 pick by Houston Texans
- 2004 In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
- 2007 Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
- 2008 Danica Patrick driving for Andretti Green Racing wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi; first female driver in history to win an IndyCar Series race
- 2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster
- 2012 40 people are killed and 27 injured after a tractor trailer collided with a bus in Alamo, Mexico
Film & TV History
2012 People magazine name Eva Mendes as one of 2012's Most Beautiful at Every Age
- 2012 Plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 127 people
- 2013 193 people are killed and 11,826 are injured after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Lushan County, China
- 2013 5 snowboarders are killed by an avalanche in Loveland Pass, Colorado
- 2013 Giorgio Napolitano is re-elected President of Italy
- 2015 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Anthony Doerr's for his novel "All the Light We Cannot See" and to Elizabeth Kolbert for "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History"
- 2017 Terrorist attack on police van on Champs Élysées, Paris 1 police officer killed, 2 injured
- 2018 Actress Allison Mack arrested on charges of sex trafficking in relation to sex cult NXIVM in New York
- 2018 Arsène Wenger announces he will leave London EPL club Arsenal after 22 years as manager
Charles to Succeed Elizabeth
2018 Commonwealth countries decide Prince Charles will succeed Queen Elizabeth as the next head of the Commonwealth
Frida Kahlo Barbie Banned
2018 Mexican court bars sales of controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll
- 2020 Price of US oil turns negative for the 1st time in history - West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, falls as low as minus $37.63 a barrel as worldwide demand falls
- 2020 The last three cruise ships still afloat amid COVID pandemic, finally dock at the ports of Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles California
- 2020 Three US states, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina the 1st to announce end to some COVID-19 restrictions
- 2021 All six EPL clubs withdraw from the controversial European Super League just 3 days after it was announced - Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham
Derek Chauvin Convicted
2021 Former police officer Derek Chauvin convicted of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in a case that prompted huge nationwide racial justice protests [1]
Idriss Déby Killed in Battle
2021 President of Chad for three decades, Idriss Déby reported to have been killed on a battlefield fighting rebels near the capital of Ndjamena
- 2021 Record number of new COVID-19 cases reported (5.24 million) in one week around the world according to WHO, with a third in India [1]
- 2022 Online streaming service Netflix suffers its first subscriber loss in a decade, losing 200,000 customers Jan-Mar [1]
- 2023 136 people massacred in village of Karma, Burkina Faso, one of the country worst attacks on civilians, blamed on the country's security forces [1]
