Cabral Claims Brazil for Portugal
1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral is the first European to discover Brazil, landing near Monte Pascoal, claims it for Portugal
King Henry VIII
1509 Henry VIII, 2nd Tudor king of England ascends to the throne at age 17, after the death of his father, Henry VII
- 1526 1st slave revolt in North America at San Miguel de Gualdape, a Spanish settlement (now part of South Carolina)
- 1529 Treaty of Saragosa: Spain and Portugal divide eastern hemisphere
- 1608 Dutch trading ship arrives at the kingdom of Loango (modern Congo) to acquire ivory, their king requests audience with VOC official Pieter van den Broecke [1]
Richard Cromwell Disbands Parliament
1659 Lord Protector Richard Cromwell disbands English parliament
Salem Witch Trials
1692 Edward Bishop is jailed for proposing flogging as a cure for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts
- 1712 Last sighting of Dutch ship Zuytdorp as it leaves Cape of Good Hope carrying cargo of silver with 200 crew and passengers - wreck discovered 1927 north of Perth, Western Australia [1]
- 1721 HMS Seahorse infected with smallpox arrives in Boston harbor, causing the first outbreak in two decades. - half of the population catch it, causing 850 deaths [1]
- 1722 19 VOC "komplotteurs" in Batavia executed
- 1728 Pierre de Marivaux's play "Le Triomphe de Plutus" premieres in Paris
- 1745 Austria & Bavaria sign Peace Treaty of Füssen, ending Bavaria's participation (on the French side) in the War of the Austrian Succession
- 1769 Madame du Barry becomes French King Louis XV's "official" mistress
- 1793 President Washington attends opening of Rickett's, 1st circus in US
Rossini's Early Performance
1804 Gioachino Rossini performs as a singer in Imola, Italy, aged only 12 years old
Battle of Eckmühl
1809 Battle of Eckmühl: Napoleon's French and Bavarian force defeats the Austrians under the Archduke Charles at Eggmühl, Bavaria. Gives Napoleon the strategic initiative for the rest of the War of the Fifth Coalition.
- 1817 Curacao prohibits use of white paint due to fierce sunlight
- 1823 Baltic Club (Exchange) forms in London
- 1823 British inventor Robert John Tyers patents an in-line roller skate he calls the "Volito", with a single row of 5 wooden wheels, a wooden sole, and a curved iron bar at the front as a rudimentary brake. [1]
- 1838 English steamship "Sirius" docks in NYC after crossing the Atlantic, first transatlantic steam passenger service
- 1864 US mints 2 cent coin (1st appearance of "In God We Trust")
- 1871 All German Jews emancipated after the German Constitution adopted by its last state Bavaria
- 1876 1st official National League baseball game is played; Boston Red Caps beat Philadelphia Athletics, 6-5 at the Jefferson Street Grounds, Philadelphia
- 1876 Philadelphia native Tim McGinley of the Boston Red Caps scores baseball National League's 1st run, in Philadelphia
Swan Lake Completed
1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completes his ballet "Swan Lake"
- 1884 Thomas Stevens leaves San Francisco on the first bicycle trip around the world, takes him 2 years and 9 months
Congo Free State
1884 US recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
Kruger Again Transvaal President
1893 Paul Kruger elected President of Transvaal for the third time
- 1894 The very first Venice Biennale opens in Venice, Italy, as a biennial exhibition of Italian art [1]
- 1897 NYC Jewish newspaper "Forward" begins publishing (still active)
- 1898 1st Spanish–American War action sees the USS Nashville capture a Spanish ship
- 1898 Baltimore James Hughes no-hits Boston Braves 8-0
- 1898 Cincinnati Red Theodore Breitenstein no-hits Pirates 11-0
- 1898 Congress passes Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry
- 1898 US President McKinley orders blockade of Cuban harbors
- 1903 American Power Boat Association forms
- 1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) first MLB game; lose 3-1 before 11,950 vs Washington Senators at American League Park
- 1905 Operations begin uniting conservatory of Nature monument Amsterdam
- 1906 Intercalated Games opens in Athens
- 1906 New rule puts umpire in sole charge of all game balls
- 1908 Queensland beat NSW by 171 runs for their 1st cricket win at Gabba
- 1913 Montenegro troops march into Skoetari, North-Albania
- 1915 First military use of poison gas occurs when Germany uses chlorine gas against the Allies at Ypres in World War I [1]
- 1915 NY Yankees don pinstripes & hat-in-the-ring logo for 1st time
- 1915 The Second Battle of Ypres begins on the Western Front in WW I
- 1916 Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers Eóin MacNeill issues the Countermanding order in Dublin to try to stop what would become the Easter Rising
- 1916 France battles at Fort Douaumont
- 1916 Karl Spindler scuttles the Aud near Daunt's Rock, to prevent its cargo of 20,000 rifles destined for Irish republicans falling into enemy hands
- 1922 South Ossetian Autonomous Region forms in Georgian SSR
- 1924 Hague Chambers of Commerce forms
- 1926 Persia, Turkey & Afghanistan sign treaties of security
- 1927 Roger Sessions' 1st Symphony in E premieres with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra
- 1930 British troops battle pro-independence revolutionaries in the Jalalabad hills near Chittagong, Bengal province, British India, 80 troops and 12 revolutionaries killed
- 1930 US, Britain & Japan sign London Naval Treaty
- 1931 Egypt & Iraq sign peace treaty
- 1933 Dutch government forbids left wing radio address
Little Bohemia Lodge Raid
1934 US Division of Investigation (later the FBI) under Melvin Purvis botch an operation to capture the John Dillinger Gang at Little Bohemia Lodge, Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, with 2 dead and 4 injured
- 1937 NYC college students stage 4th annual peace strike
- 1940 Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable
- 1943 German counterattack in North Tunisia
- 1943 RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea
- 1944 Allies land near Hollandia, New Guinea
Fascist Leaders' Salzburg Conference
1944 Fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at their Salzburg conference
Battle of Berlin
1945 Battle of Berlin: Upon being informed that a planned counter-attack never happened, Adolf Hitler flies into a rage, denounces the German Army and concedes World War II is lost
- 1945 Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany is liberated by the Polish Army
Himmler's Secret Meeting
1945 SS chief Heinrich Himmler secretly meets with Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, asking him to act as an intermediary for a surrender offer to the Western Allies. The Allies do not take the offer seriously.
- 1945 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 for a 4-3 series win; Leafs lead series 3-0, but Wings recover to 3-3 to force a decider
- 1946 Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) is founded in East Germany via a merger of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
- 1948 WTVR TV channel 6 in Richmond, VA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1952 1st atomic explosion on network news, Nob, Nevada
Event of Interest
1952 Eugene Ionesco's "Les Chaises" premieres in NYC
- 1954 Achiel van Acker forms Belgian government
- 1954 NBA adopts 24-second shot clock & 6 team-foul rule
- 1954 US Senate Army-McCarthy televised hearings begin
- 1954 USSR joins UNESCO
- 1955 KC Athletic's 1st game, beat Tigers 6-2
- 1957 All NL baseball teams integrate, John Irwin Kennedy becomes the 1st Black player for the Philadelphia Phillies
- 1959 Chicago White Sox beat KC Athletics 20-6, in 1 inning Sox score 11 runs on 1 hit, 10 walks, & 3 errors
Baseball Record
1959 Yankee Whitey Ford strikes out 15, beating Senators, 1-0 in 14 innings
- 1961 Uprising of French parachutist of General Salan and Challe in Algeria
- 1962 NY Mets tiea NL record by losing 9 straight to start season
- 1962 Pirates tie then record of 10 straight wins to start season
- 1962 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Dick Duff scores the winner as Toronto Maple Leafs beat Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 for a 4-2 series victory
PM Lester B. Pearson
1963 Lester B. Pearson is sworn in as the 14th Prime Minister of Canada
- 1964 World's Fair at Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, NY opens
- 1966 Atlanta Braves win their 1st game, beating NY Mets 8-4
- 1966 The Troggs second single "Wild Thing" released; tops the charts in July
- 1966 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1967 Martial Law goes into effect in Greece
- 1969 1st human eye transplant performed
Joe Frazier KOs Dave Zyglewick
1969 American Joe Frazier KOs American Dave Zyglewick in 1st round to retain heavyweight boxing title, in Houston, Texas
- 1969 Bernadette Devlin, the youngest woman ever to be elected to Westminster, makes a controversial maiden speech in the House of Commons concerning the situation in Northern Ireland
1st Single-Handed Circumnavigation
1969 Robin Knox-Johnston ends 312 days of non-stop sailing to become the 1st person to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe
- 1970 First Earth Day celebrated, founded by Gaylord Nelson
- 1970 NY Met Jerry Grote sets record of 20 put outs by a catcher
Baseball Record
1970 NY Met Tom Seaver strikes out last 10 Padres, for a total of 19
- 1970 Senators beat Yankees 2-1 in 18 innings
- 1971 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 10 launched
- 1971 Soyuz 10 launches as the world's first mission to the first-ever space station (the Salyut 1) however the docking was unsuccessful and the cosmonauts returned to Earth
- 1972 An 11-year-old boy killed by a rubber bullet fired by the British Army in Belfast; he was the first to die from a rubber bullet impact
- 1972 NASA Apollo 16 astronauts John Young & Charles Duke ride the Lunar Rover on the moon
1st US Female Nightly News Anchor
1976 Barbara Walters becomes the first female US nightly network news anchor (ABC News)
Film & TV History
1976 Director Ingmar Bergman leaves Sweden due to taxation
PM Shimon Peres
1977 Shimon Peres becomes Acting Prime Minister of Israel
Event of Interest
1978 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Earl Anthony
Rolling Stones Benefit Concerts
1979 The Rolling Stones play two benefit concerts for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, in Oshawa, Ontario; performance part of guitarist Keith Richards’ heroin conviction sentence
- 1981 10,000 copper workers in Chile strike
- 1981 Almost 1 million West German metalworkers go on strike
Baseball History
1981 Dodgers rookie Fernando Valenzuela tosses his 3rd shutout in 4 starts
- 1981 More than $3.3 million is stolen from the First National Bank of Arizona in Tucson in the then largest US bank robbery in history
- 1981 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1982 Atlanta Braves lose after winning 1st 13 games of season
- 1983 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1983 Soyuz T-8 returns to Earth
- 1983 Start of 1st Sri Lanka-Australia Test Cricket match (at Kandy)
- 1983 Stern mag announces major historical find-discovery of 60 volume personal diaries written by Adolf Hitler (turned out to be a hoax)
Premiere of "Pope John Paul II"
1984 CBS premiere of TV film "Pope John Paul II", starring Albert Finney in title role
- 1986 Consumer Price Index drops .04% for 2nd month in a row
- 1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1987 Sri Lanka Air Force bomb Tamil, 100s killed
- 1988 NJ Devil Patrik Sundstrom sets NHL playoff record of 8 pts in a playoff game (hat trick & 5 assists) in 10-4 rout over the Capitals
- 1988 Women are allowed to compete in Little 500 bicycle race (Indiana)
- 1990 Lebanon release US hostage Robert Polhill after 39 months
- 1990 NFL Draft: University of Illinois quarterback Jeff George first pick by Indianapolis Colts
- 1991 Earthquake strikes Costa Rica & Panama, kills 95
- 1991 Frank Thomas is 1st White Sox to homer at new Comiskey Park
Carson Announces Retirement
1991 Johnny Carson announces he will retire next year from "The Tonight Show"
- 1991 Shalom America (Jewish cable network) is launched in Brooklyn & Queens
- 1992 6.1 earthquake under the Little San Bernadino Mountains, near Joshua Tree, California
- 1992 Gas explodes in sewer, kills 200 in Guadalajara, Mexico
- 1992 Plane crash at Perris Valley Airport California, kills 16 parachutists
- 1993 Candid Camera creator Allen Funt suffers a stroke at 78
- 1993 Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 1993 Seattle Mariner Chris Basio no-hits Boston Red Sox
- 1993 The web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.
- 1994 7,000 Tutsi slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda
Figure Skating History
1994 American figure skater Tonya Harding sues ex-husband Jeff Gillooly for $42,500
- 1994 Borge Ousland is the 1st person on a solo and unsupported journey to reach the North Pole
Moorer vs Holyfield
1994 Michael Moorer beats Evander Holyfield in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1994 Schelto Patijn appointed Mayor of Amsterdam
- 1994 World's largest lollipop, weighing 3,011 pounds, made by BonBon, a candy factory in Home-Olstrup, Denmark; record later broken
- 1995 General Tire World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Mike Aulby
Foreman vs Schulz
1995 George Foreman beats Axel Schulz in 12 for heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas
- 1995 NFL Draft: Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter first pick by Cincinnati Bengals
- 1997 Haouch Khemisti massacre in Algeria - 93 villagers killed.
- 1997 The Japanese embassy hostage crisis ends in Lima, Peru.
- 1998 Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
- 1999 Luis Garavito [The Beast, Tribilín], Colombian serial killer described as "the world's worst serial killer" (138-300+ victims) apprehended
- 2000 In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida.
- 2000 The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom
NHL History
2003 Patrick Roy plays his final career NHL game
- 2004 Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
- 2006 Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War
- 2006 Nepali security forces open fire on Pro-democracy protesters demonstrating against King Gyanendra, injuring hundreds. The protesters go on to secure the restoration of Parliament and a federal state.
- 2007 Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan's musical "The Producers", based on Brooks' 1967 film , closes at the St. James Theatre, NYC; after 2,502 performances, and 12 Tony Award wins
- 2010 NFL Draft: Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford first pick by St. Louis Rams
- 2012 30-year-old woman collapses and dies during London Marathon
Premiere of Veep
2012 TV political comedy "Veep" created by Armando Iannucci, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Anna Chlumsky premieres on HBO
- 2013 6 people are killed in a shooting rampage in Belgorod, Russia
- 2013 Manchester United defeat Aston Villa to claim the 2012/2013 English Premier League
- 2014 David Moyes is sacked as manager of Manchester United
- 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change signed in New York binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C
- 2018 Bus crash in North Korea kills 36, with most Chinese tourists
- 2018 Gunman opens fire at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee, killing four before James Shaw Jr. wrestled the rifle from the gunman's hands
Footballer of the Year
2018 Liverpool's Egyptian soccer forward Mohamed Salah is named Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year
Tennis Open Record
2018 Monte Carlo Tennis Masters: Rafael Nadal beats Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-2 to extend his Open-era record for most wins at the same event (11)
- 2018 Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills more than 20 at a wedding in northwestern Yemen
Avengers: Endgame
2019 Marvel film "Avengers: Endgame" directed by Anthony and Joe Russo starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and an ensemble cast, premieres in Los Angeles, California
Editor Sacked for AI Interview
2023 Editor of German magazine "Die Aktuelle" sacked after running a so-called interview generated by AI with FI racing driver Michael Schumacher [1]
- 2023 Foreign countries begin evacuating their citizens out of Khartoum, Sudan's capital, as fighting continues to escalate, with WHO and UN saying over 400 people killed and 200,000 fled the country [1]
- 2023 Record outbreak of dengue fever in northwest Argentina kills over 40 people and infects more than 60,000 [1]
- 2024 Britain's Parliament approves a controversial bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda [1]
- 2024 Widespread flooding across southern China forces the evacuation of 110,000 people with warning of a "once in a century" flood on the Bei River [1]
