- 215 BC A temple dedicated to Venus Erycina is built on Capitoline Hill to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene
Battle of Clontarf
1014 King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control
- 1154 Damascus surrenders to Sultan Nur ad-Din van Aleppo
Ferdinand III Conquers Cáceres
1229 Christian king Ferdinand III of Castile conquers the Arab-held town of Cáceres as part of the reconquest of Almohad Spain
- 1343 St. George's Night Uprising in Estonia
- 1344 Order of the Garter founded by English King Edward III, the most senior knighthood in the UK with just 24 living members plus the monarch (or 1348)
Order of the Garter
1348 The Order of Garter founded by English King Edward III, Britain's highest civic or military honor
- 1504 King Maximilian I routes troops to Bavaria
German Beer Purity Law
1516 Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorses "The German Beer Purity Law" (Reinheitsgebot) and adds to it standards for the sale of beer in Bavaria, ensuring beer is only brewed from three ingredients – water, barley, and hops
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1597 William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance
Stadtholder Frederick Henry
1625 Prince Frederick Henry appointed Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel
Coronation of Charles II
1661 English king Charles II crowned in London
- 1662 Connecticut chartered as an English colony
Coronation of Anne Stuart
1702 Queen Anne is crowned at Westminster Abbey, London
Tender Husband
1705 Richard Steele's play "Tender Husband" premieres in London
- 1723 Cornelis Steenoven elected archbishop of Utrecht
Il Ré Pastore
1775 Opera "Il Ré Pastore" (The Shepherd King) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is first produced in Salzburg
1st Presidential Residence
1789 President-elect George Washington moves into Franklin House, New York, first official residence of a US President
- 1795 William Hastings acquitted in England of high treason
- 1798 Dutch emperor accepts new Constitution
- 1826 Missolonghi, Greece captured by Turks
- 1827 Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of Systems of Rays
- 1838 English steamship "Great Western" crosses the Atlantic docks in NYC
Dostoyevsky Arrested
1849 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and members of the Petrashevsky Circle are arrested in St. Petersburg
Lee Takes Command
1861 Robert E. Lee named commander of Virginia Confederate forces (US Civil War)
- 1864 Battle of Cane River, Louisiana (Red River Expedition, Monett's Ferry)
Channel Tunnel Turned Down
1867 Queen Victoria and Napoleon III turn down plans for a channel tunnel
Patience
1881 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "Patience" premieres at The Opera Comique, London
- 1883 John Heemskerk Abrahamszoon forms Dutch government
- 1891 Jews are expelled from Moscow, Russia
- 1896 Vitascope system of movie projection 1st shown at Koster & Bial's Music Hall, New York City
- 1900 1st know occurrence of word "hillbillie" (NY Journal)
- 1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) win their first game; beat Washington Senators, 7-2 at American League Park
- 1904 American Academy of Arts & Letters forms
- 1908 Denmark, Germany, Britain, France, Netherlands & Sweden sign North Sea accord
- 1910 International Exhibition opens in Brussels, Belgium
- 1914 MLB Chicago Federals host the Kansas City Packers in the 1st game played at Weeghman Park (now Wrigley Field)
- 1915 ACA becomes National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA)
- 1916 Lord Dunsany's "Night at an Inn" premieres in NYC
- 1918 Dover Patrol overthrows Germany U-boat in East Sea
- 1918 Raid of Zeebrugge; the British navy attempts to block German vessels from leaving port by sinking obsolete ships - mostly fails
- 1919 US Major League Baseball opens a reduced 140-game season
Grand National Assembly
1920 Turkish Grand National Assembly 1st meets in Ankara, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution
Frasquita
1925 1st London performance of Franz Lehár’s operetta "Frasquita" staged
- 1925 Having badly defeated Spain and driven her out of Spanish Morocco, the native Riffi, led by Abd-el-Krim, turn on the French in French Morocco
- 1925 Pastor LH Perquin forms Union of Catholic Dutch Radio (KRO)
The Public Enemy
1931 US gangster film "The Public Enemy" starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow premieres
- 1932 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands, burns down
- 1932 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens at Stratford-on-Avon, England
- 1933 Dovo soccer team forms in Veenendaal
- 1935 Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted
Hubbell Continues Streak
1937 New York Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell's first start of season, a 3-0 win over the Boston Bees, is his 17th straight win; streak continues for league record 24 victories in a row
Williams 1st Home Run
1939 Boston Red Sox Ted Williams hits his 1st HR
- 1940 Dance hall fires kills 198 in Natchez, Mississippi
- 1940 NY Yankees dedicate a plaque to Jacob Rupert
- 1941 Greek Army surrenders to Germany; British RAF evacuates the Greek King George II to Egypt
- 1942 1st night Exeter bombed by German Luftwaffe
- 1942 4-day allied bombing on Rostock begins
- 1943 British & US offensive directed at Tunis and Bizerta
- 1945 Concentration camp Flossenburg liberated
- 1945 US troops in Italy cross river Po
- 1946 Brooklyn Dodger Ed Head no-hits Boston Braves, 5-0
- 1948 KSTP TV channel 5 in St Paul-Minneapolis, MN (ABC) 1st broadcast
- 1949 Chinese Red army conquers Nanjing
- 1949 Courtesy mail boxes for motorists started in San Francisco
- 1949 Netherlands annexes Elten & Tudderen
- 1950 1st major league day game completed under lights (Phils 6, Braves 5)
- 1950 Nationalist China evacuates Hainan Island
- 1950 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Pete Babando scores Cup-winning goal in double overtime of Game 7 as Detroit Red Wings beat NY Rangers, 4-3 for a 4-3 series win
Sports History
1952 Bob Cain of St. Louis Browns and Bob Feller of Cleveland Indians each pitch a one-hitter, as the home team wins 1-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri
- 1952 Crude oil pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq to Banias, Syria completed
Sports History
1952 New York Giant Hoyt Wilhelm wins his 1st game in relief & hits his only HR
- 1953 "Shane", directed by George Stevens and based on the 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer, starring Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur premieres
- 1953 USAF General Charles P. Cabell becomes deputy director of CIA, serves until 1962
- 1953 WCOV TV channel 20 in Montgomery, Alabama (IND/CBS) begins broadcasting
Baseball Record
1954 Hammerin' Hank Aaron hits 1st of his 755 homers
Sports History
1958 Gil Hodges hits his 300th HR & Pee Wee Reese plays in 2,000th game
Music History
1961 Singer Judy Garland appears in concert at Carnegie Hall, NYC; event is recorded for a double live album, wins Grammy Award for Album of the Year (the first such win by a female artist)
- 1962 NY Mets win their 1st game ever, after going 0-9, beat Pirates 9-1
- 1962 Ranger 4, 1st US satellite to reach Moon launched from Cape Canaveral
- 1964 Houston Colt 45s Ken Johnson becomes 1st major league pitcher to lose a 9 inning no-hitter, Reds win 1-0
- 1964 New York State Theater opens
- 1965 "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" single released by the Four Tops (Billboard Song of the Year 1965)
- 1965 Launch of 1st Soviet communications satellite
- 1967 Soyuz 1 launched; Vladimir Komarov becomes 1st in-flight casualty
- 1968 First decimal coins issued in Britain, the 5 and 10 new pence, replacing the shilling and two-shilling pieces
- 1968 United Methodist Church forms
- 1969 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Jim Chestney
- 1969 Over 1000 square miles flooded in Shantung Province, China
Event of Interest
1969 Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for killing US Senator Robert F. Kennedy (later commuted to a life sentence)
- 1969 The Unionist Parliamentary Party votes by 28 to 22 to introduce universal adult suffrage in local government elections in Northern Ireland; the demand for 'one man, one vote' had been one of the most powerful slogans of the civil rights movement
- 1971 Columbia University operations virtually end, by student strike
- 1972 26th Tony Awards: "Sticks and Bones" (play) & "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (musical) win
- 1972 Apollo 16 astronauts explore the moon's surface
- 1972 The Sunday Times Insight Team publish their account of the events of 'Bloody Sunday'
- 1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
No Man's Land
1975 Harold Pinter's play "No Man's Land" premieres in London
- 1977 ADO Den Haag soccer team forms in The Hague, Netherlands
- 1977 Czech chess master Vlastimil Hort plays 201 games simultaneously & only loses 10
- 1977 Dr Allen Bussey completes 20,302 yo-yo loops
- 1977 Milt workers kill 300-500 students in Addis Ababa
Sports History
1978 MLB Cincinnati Reds second baseman Joe Morgan ends record streak of 91 consecutive errorless games
- 1978 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1979 Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group results in the death of protester Blair Peach.
- 1980 Soviet sub catches fire off Japan, 9 die
- 1982 Conch Republic is established - secession of the Florida Keys from the United States of America
- 1982 The 8-bit personal home computer the Sinclair ZX Spectrum is released (goes on to sell 5 million worldwide)
- 1983 David Hookes scores his only Test Cricket century, 143* v Sri Lanka
- 1984 AIDS-virus identified as HTLV-III (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)
- 1985 Brooklyn College soccer team wins Nepal's invitational
- 1985 New Coke debuts; Coca-Cola announced it is changing its secret flavor formula
- 1986 Disney World breaks ground for Victorian themed Grand Floridian Beach Resort (now known as Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa)
- 1986 Madrid-Nelli Cooman runs world record 60m indoor (7 sec)
- 1987 28 construction workers killed in an apt collapse in Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1987 NJ Devils farm team Maine Mariners (AHL) move to Utica (Devils) NY
- 1988 A Greek pedals self-powered aircraft, 74 miles
- 1988 Federal smoking ban during domestic airline flights of 2 hrs or less
- 1988 Karolina Szabo runs female world record 25k (1:29:30)/30k (1:47;06)
- 1989 CBS' premiere of fact based "The Littlest Victims", based on Newark, N.J. physician James Oleske as the first doctor to discover AIDS in children
Sports History
1989 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 10 points in his last game as a Laker in a 121-117 win over Seattle SuperSonics at the LA Forum
- 1989 NFL Draft: #1 pick UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman by Dallas Cowboys
Sports History
1989 Nolan Ryan blows a no hitter in 9th inning
- 1989 Students in Beijing China announce class boycotts
Event of Interest
1989 Wine merchant William Sokolin breaks a bottle of 1787 Château Margaux, possibly belonging to Thomas Jefferson, worth $500,000 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York
Sports History
1991 Björn Borg loses 6-2, 6-3 to Jordi Arrese after an 8 year lay off without practising or playing any exhibition matches
- 1991 Outstanding West Indian cricket opening batsman Gordon Greenidge scores 226 in his final Test innings at home in Bridgetown, Barbados; WI win 4th Test v Australia by 343 runs
- 1991 USSR grants republics right to secede under certain conditions
- 1992 Marion Berry (former mayor of Washington, D.C.) let out of prison
- 1992 McDonald's opens its 1st fast-food restaurant in China
- 1993 Eritrea votes to secede from Ethiopia
- 1994 Army shoots to death 23-40 fishermen in Gonaives, Haiti
- 1994 General Tire World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Norm Duke
Presidential Convention
1994 Libertarian party nominates Howard Stern for Governor of NY
Event of Interest
1995 President Clinton declares a national day of mourning for Oklahoma City
Weapon of Choice
2001 Fatboy Slim releases single "Weapon of Choice", music video directed by Spike Jonze starring Christopher Walken dancing
Meeting of Interest
2002 Pope John Paul II meets with U.S. Catholic Church leaders at Vatican regarding sexual abuse of minors
SARS Outbreak
2003 Beijing closes all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus
- 2005 NFL Draft: University of Utah quarterback Alex Smith first pick by San Francisco 49ers
- 2005 YouTube's co-founder Jawed Karim uploads the first video to YouTube, "Me at the zoo" showing him in front of two elephants at the San Diego Zoo. Has over 311 million views. [1]
- 2009 Gamma ray burst (GRB) 090423 is observed for 10 seconds, the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe
- 2011 Zach Daniels defeated Rick Michaels to become the new TNT Heavyweight Champion.
- 2012 38,000 London Marathon entrants have their home and email contacts published in a data protection breach
Election of Interest
2012 Netherlands Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, tenders resignation, paving the way for early elections
- 2012 Rangers F.C. owner, Craig Whyte, is banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football
Star Trek Into Darkness
2013 "Star Trek Into Darkness" directed by J. J. Abrams starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto premieres in Sydney
- 2013 21 people are killed during violent unrest in Xinjiang, China
- 2013 28 people are killed and 70 are injured during clashes between police and Sunni Muslims in Hawija, Iraq
Event of Interest
2013 A 1% flash crash hits the US stock market after a news agency was hacked and claimed injury to President Obama
- 2013 The French National Assembly passes an amended bill legalizing same-sex marriage
Cricket History
2013 West Indian cricketer, Chris Gayle, smashes the fastest century in history in just 30 balls
- 2014 60 people are killed & 80 are injured after a train crashes in The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sports History
2015 Kawhi Leonard is named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year for the first time
Appointment of Interest
2015 Loretta Lynch is confirmed by US Senate vote, 56-43, as the first African-American woman as US Attorney-General, succeeding Eric Holder
- 2017 Adam Ondra sets a new highpoint for the Project indoor sport route in Stockholm, Sweden
- 2018 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan resigns after 10 years in office after mass protests against him beginning an unconstitutional third term
- 2018 Mario Abdo Benítez is elected President of Paraguay
Avengers: Infinity War
2018 Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and large ensemble cast premieres in Los Angeles, California
- 2018 Van deliberately driven into pedestrians in Toronto, Canada, killing 10 and injuring 13
- 2019 At least 54 jade miners buried by a mudslide in Kachin state, Myanmar
- 2019 Second of two major earthquakes strikes island of Samar, Philippines, magnitude 6.3, a day after magnitude 6.1 hits Luzon Island killing at least 16 people
- 2019 Southampton striker Shane Long scores fastest goal in English Premier League history when he nets after 7.69 seconds in 1-1 draw at Watford
- 2019 World's first malaria vaccine, giving partial protection to children, begins in Malawi by the WHO
- 2020 Ecuador's COVID-19 death toll is then one of world's highest per capita after 7,600 more deaths than usual (503 official toll), in report by "The New York Times"
- 2020 First findings of a frog fossil 40 million years old, found on Seymour Island, Antarctica (2015) published in "Scientific Reports"
- 2020 German Chancellor Angela Merkel warns this is "not the end phase but still just the beginning" of the COVID-19 pandemic
Sports History
2020 NFL Draft: LSU quarterback Joe Burrow first pick by Cincinnati Bengals
Trump's Disinfectant Ideas
2020 US President Donald Trump suggests studying if COVID-19 could be treated by introducing disinfectant or UV lights into a human body, during a White House press briefing; government officials and disinfectant companies quickly state doing so is not only extremely dangerous but potentially deadly
- 2022 59th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition opens, with 80 participating. Main exhibition "The Milk of Dreams" curated by Cecilia Aleman. [1]
- 2022 American Simone Leigh is the first Black woman artist to win the main prize at Venice Biennale for her sculpture "Brick House" [1]
- 2022 Venice Biennale's top award, The Golden Lion (Best National Participation) awarded to UK's Sonia Boyce for her work "Feeling Her Way" [1]
- 2023 At least 100 bodies discovered in shallow graves in Shakahola forest, eastern Kenya. Believed to be members of Good News International Church, which encourages salvation through starvation. [1]
- 2023 Chevron Championship Women's Golf, The Club at Carlton Woods: Lilia Vu wins her first major beating fellow American Angel Yin on the first playoff hole
- 2023 MLB Boston Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida hits a solo home run and a grand slam in the eight inning in 12-5 win over the Brewers in Milwaukee
Albanese-Musk Feud
2024 Australian PM Anthony Albanese hits back at Elon Musk saying it will "do what's necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he's above the law" as a court orders X take down terrorist attack footage [1]
