St. Patrick Returns to Ireland
456 Saint Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop
Battle of the Ice
1242 Russian Prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky defeats the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice
Accession of James I
1603 New English King James I (James VI of Scotland) departs Edinburgh for London
- 1609 Daimyo (Lord) of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa
- 1614 Second parliament of King James I begins session, no bills pass and lasts only 2 months and 2 days, thus its name the Addled Parliament
Mayflower Returns to England
1621 Mayflower sails from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England
- 1648 Spanish troops and feudal barons strike down people's uprising in Naples
Europeans Discover Easter Island
1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to discover Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific
Sugar Tax Passed
1764 British Parliament passes the Sugar Tax on the American colonies, introduced by Prime Minister George Grenville
- 1768 1st US Chamber of Commerce forms (NYC)
1st Presidential Veto
1792 George Washington exercises first presidential veto to strike down a Congressional bill to increase the number of seats for northern states in the House of Representatives
Beethoven's 2nd Symphony
1803 1st performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's 2nd Symphony in D, conducted by the composer, in Vienna
Eruption of Mount Tambora
1815 Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies, has its first violent eruption after several centuries of dormancy
Battle of Maipú
1818 Battle of Maipú: Chile's independence movement led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead
- 1847 Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, opens in Birkenhead, England, designed by Joseph Paxton
- 1861 Federals abandon Ft Quitman, Texas
- 1862 Siege of Yorktown, fought in York County and Newport News, Virginia ends (Yorktown campaign), inconclusive result (US Civil War)
- 1865 Battle at Amelia Springs, Jetersville Virginia (Appomattox Campaign)
- 1874 Johann Strauss Jr's opera "Die Fledermaus" premieres in Vienna
- 1879 Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
- 1881 Transvaal regains independence under British suzerainty
Helen Keller's Lesson
1887 Anne Sullivan teaches "water" to blind and deaf six-year-old Helen Keller by holding one of her hands under a dripping water pump and spelling out “w-a-t-e-r” in Keller’s palm. She goes on to learn how to read, write, speak and graduate from college.
Wilde v Queensberry
1895 Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices
- 1897 The Greco-Turkish War, also called "Thirty Days' War", is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
- 1900 Attempted assassination of Edward Prince of Wales in Brussels, fails
- 1901 Under threats from the Ottoman Turkish Government, Bulgaria is forced to arrest the leaders of the Macedonian Committee
- 1902 In Glasgow, Scotland the Ibrox disaster occurs after a section of a grandstand collapses killing 25 and injuring 517
Pavane for A Dead Princess
1902 Maurice Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante defunte (Pavane for A Dead Princess)" premieres in Paris, performed by Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes
- 1904 The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh & Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.
- 1905 J.m.Barrie's stage play "Alice Sit-by-the-Fire" premieres in London
- 1906 Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates towns in the Naples province, killing more than 100 people
- 1906 St Pius X encyclical "On the Mariavites or Mystic Priests of Poland"
Campbell-Bannerman Resigns
1908 British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman resigns
Willard vs Johnson
1915 Jess Willard KOs Jack Johnson after 26 rounds to win the heavyweight boxing title in front of 25,000 fans at Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba
Eamon de Valera President
1919 Eamon de Valera becomes President of Dail Eireann, the Irish parliament
- 1919 Polish Army executes 35 young Jews
- 1922 KOB-AM in Albuquerque NM begins radio transmissions
- 1922 WDZ-AM in Decatur IL begins radio transmissions
- 1925 Belgian Workers Party wins parliamentary election
Johnny Weissmuller
1927 Johnny Weissmuller sets world records in both the 100m and 200m free style swimming events
- 1929 Lithuania signs Litvinov-pact
- 1930 England cricketers dismissed for then record 849 v West Indies in 4th Test in Kingston, Jamaica; Andy Sandham out for 325
Salt March
1930 Mahatma Gandhi and thousands of followers reach the sea at Dandi and boil seawater to make illegal salt, marking the end of his famous 200 mile (300km) protest march against the widely hated British salt tax
- 1932 Dominion of Newfoundland: 10,000 rioters seize the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government
- 1932 Dutch textile strike broken by trade unions
- 1934 Baseball superstar Babe Ruth agrees to do three 15-minute broadcasts a week over NBC for a fee of $39,000 for 13 weeks; $4,000 more than his NY Yankees playing contract
- 1935 Croatian Farmers Party wins Yugoslavian election
- 1936 Tupelo, Mississippi virtually annihilated by a tornado, 216 die
Gretchaninov's 5th Symphony
1939 Alexander Gretchaninov's 5th Symphony premieres at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with Leopold Stowkowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
- 1939 Membership of Hitler Youth becomes obligatory
- 1941 San Francisco Castro & Fillmore streetcars replaced by buses
Poon Lim's 133 Day South Atlantic Odyssey
1943 Chinese steward Poon Lim is found off the coast of Brazil by a Brazilian fisherman family after being adrift for 133 days, after British ship SS Benlomond was torpedoed by a German U-boat
- 1943 Mortsel, Belgium: Allies target Minerva car factory, used for repairing Luftwaffe planes for bombing raid; collateral damage from missed targets kills 936 civilians, Belgium's greatest loss of WWII
- 1944 World War II: 145 RAF Lancasters bomb German aircraft factory in Toulouse, France
- 1944 World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans
- 1945 World War II: Dutch city of Almelo is freed by the Second Canadian Corps
Ives' 3rd Symphony
1946 1st performance of Charles Ives' 3rd Symphony
A Place in the Sun
1951 "A Place in the Sun", film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy", directed by George Stevens, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in France
The Rosenberg Trial
1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, atomic spies, sentenced to death
PM Anthony Eden
1955 Anthony Eden succeeds Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
TV Show Appearance
1961 Barbra Streisand appears on "Jack Paar Show"
- 1961 Dutch governor Platteel installs New Guinea Council
- 1962 Herb Gardner's "Thousand Clowns" premieres in NYC
- 1962 Mgr J Daems appointed bishop of Antwerp
Armstrong's X-15 Rocket
1962 NASA's Neil Armstrong pilots the X-15 to a height of 54,600 meters
Academy Awards
1965 37th Academy Awards: "My Fair Lady", Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady) & Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) win
- 1965 Lava Lamp Day celebrated
- 1965 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1966 WTVX TV channel 34 in Ft Pierce-Vero Beach, FL (IND) 1st broadcast
NBA Record
1967 '76er Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA record of 41 rebounds
- 1967 ATS II launched but fails to reach orbit
- 1968 Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego opens
- 1969 Massive anti-Vietnam War demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities
- 1970 WSNS TV channel 44 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1971 Fran Phipps is 1st woman to reach North Pole
- 1971 Mount Etna erupts in Sicily
Event of Interest
1971 Sri Lanka's communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launches insurrection against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike
- 1971 US Lt William Calley sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre
- 1971 WNJT TV channel 52 in Trenton, New Jersey (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1972 Mets trade Ken Singleton to Expos for Rusty Staub
- 1972 The regular MLB season fails to open due to a player strike for the first time in history; 86 games are lost before the labor dispute settled
- 1973 NFL adopts jersey numbering system (ie QBs, 1-19)
- 1973 Pioneer 11 launched to Jupiter
Cricket History
1974 Last day of Test cricket for Garfield Sobers and Rohan Kanhai
Sports History
1975 American tennis #1 Chris Evert wins her 3rd WTA Tour Championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena; beats Martina Navratilova 6-4, 6-2
- 1975 Soyuz 18A launch aborted short of orbit; cosmonauts return safely
Election of Interest
1976 Harold Wilson resigns as James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land
1976 Tom Stoppard's play "Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land" premieres in London
- 1977 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1981 Philadelphia Flyers amass a record 2,621 penalty minutes
- 1982 43-year-old St. Louis reliever Jim Kaat pitches 1 inning for the Cardinals in a season-opening, 14-3 rout of Houston; sets a MLB record for pitchers by playing in his 24th consecutive season
- 1982 British Royal Navy aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, with escort vessels, depart Portsmouth, England for the Falkland Islands in response to the Argentine invasion
- 1982 Lord Carrington, British Foreign Secretary resigns for his failure to foresee the invasion of the Falkland Islands
- 1983 France throws out 47 Soviet diplomats
Sports History
1983 NY Met Tom Seaver's sets record 14th NL Opening Day assignment
NBA Record
1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)
Golf Major
1987 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Betsy King wins the first of her 6 major titles in a sudden-death playoff with Patty Sheehan, with a par on the 2nd extra hole
Sports History
1987 Wayne Gretzky wins 7th straight NHL scoring title
Sports History
1989 Los Angeles Dodger Orel Hershiser's consecutive scoreless streak of 59 innings ends
1st TV Show in Dolby Stereo
1989 NBC's "Late Night With David Letterman" becomes 1st network TV show broadcast in Dolby Stereo
- 1989 Poland grants legal status to trade union Solidarność (Solidarity)
NBA Record
1990 John Stockton reaches 1000-assist mark for NBA record 3 yrs in a row
- 1990 NY Rangers beat NY Islanders 2-1 in 1st game of preliminary
Film & TV History
1990 Paul Newman wins a court victory over Julius Gold, to keep giving all profits from Newman foods to charity
- 1991 Detroit Pistons Joe Dumaars ends NBA free throw streak of 62 games
Historic Publication
1991 Kitty Kelley publishes an unauthorized biography of former US First Lady Nancy Reagan
- 1991 Southeast Airlines Embracer 120 crashes in Georgia, killing 23
- 1991 Space Shuttle STS 37 (Atlantis 8) launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida
- 1991 US begins air drops to Kurd refugees in Northern Iraq
- 1992 Game 2 of Mayor Challenge - NY Yankees sweep NY Mets 6-5 at Shea
Event of Interest
1992 Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori suspends the constitution and dissolves Congress
- 1992 Serbian troops begin besieging Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which would become the longest siege in modern warfare
- 1992 Several hundred-thousand abortion rights demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.
- 1992 Thailand General Suchinda Kraprayoon installed as president
Golf Tournament
1992 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Lee Trevino win his second Champions Tour major by 1 stroke from Jack Nicklaus
- 1993 73,293 see the NY Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-1 in the season opener at Cleveland Stadium
- 1993 A win and a loss for MLB expansion teams in their debut games; Florida Marlins beat LA Dodgers, 6-3 in Miami; the Colorado Rockies lose to Mets, 3-0 in NYC
- 1994 Miami Heat beat NY Knicks ending 15 game NBA winning streak
- 1995 Pages of Codex Argenteus (the Silver Bible), the oldest text in the Gothic language (5th century) stolen from Uppsala University Library, Sweden in broad daylight (recovered a month later)
- 1996 John Bobbitt is put under house arrest in Las Vegas for 120 days
- 1997 Galileo, 3rd Ganymede Flyby (Orbit 7)
Film & TV History
1997 Steve Irwin's "The Crocodile Hunter" debuts
- 1998 The Arizona Diamondbacks record their first win in team history with a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Phoenix, AZ; ends second-worst start ever (0-5) by an expansion team
- 1998 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Defending champion Gil Morgan wins by 2 strokes from Tom Wargo
Lockerbie Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
1999 Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands
- 2003 The Kansas City Royals become the first MLB team to begin the season 5-0 after losing 100 games the previous year, beating the Cleveland Indians, 2 - 1
- 2005 The Washington Nationals lose their inaugural season opener, 8-4 to the Philadelphia Phillies; first team to represent the nation's capital since the Washington Senators left after the 1971 season
- 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Brittany Lincicome eagles the final hole to win her first major title, 1 stroke ahead of fellow American Cristie Kerr
- 2009 North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks
- 2012 77-year old pensioner's suicide outside Greek parliament prompts further protests in Athens
- 2012 A three-run homer by J.P. Arencibia off Jairo Asencio gives the Toronto Blue Jays a 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians; 16 inning game duration a MLB Opening Day record
- 2012 International internet group Anonymous hack several Chinese bureaus in opposition to censorship
- 2012 Severe storms in Argentina kill 14 people
- 2013 60 people are killed in Nigeria after a bus collides with an oil tanker
- 2013 Baltimore outfielder Chris Davis becomes 4th player to homer in first 4 games of a MLB season; 8th-inning grand slam propels Orioles to a 9-5 win over the Twins; his RBI total of 16 a MLB record
- 2013 Japan’s Nikkei 225 reaches its highest level in five years
- 2014 Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire picks up the 1,000th win of his MLB career as the Twins score a 7 - 3 victory over the Cleveland Indians
- 2015 ANA Inspiration Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Brittany Lincicome eagles last hole to force a playoff, then beats Stacy Lewis on 3rd extra hole to win her 2nd major title
- 2015 Rolling Stone Magazine retracts its "Rape on Campus" story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia after being discredited
- 2016 Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigns after the Panama Papers leak show a conflict of interest
- 2016 PayPal announces it is cancelling a $3.6 million investment in North Carolina after the state passes anti-gay legislation
- 2016 San Francisco becomes the first US city to mandate paid parental leave
Film & TV History
2017 Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner pulled after criticized for trivializing demonstrations
- 2019 OKC guard Russell Westbrook becomes first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for the third consecutive season during the Thunder's 123-110 win at home over Detroit Pistons
Event of Interest
2020 British monarch Queen Elizabeth II makes an address to the nation “we will meet again”, for only the 5th time in her 66-year reign
COVID-19 Pandemic
2020 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted to hospital suffering from COVID-19
- 2021 India records over 100,000 new daily COVID cases for the first time, more than half in the state of Maharashtra, which begins a new lockdown
- 2021 Italy scraps its 1914 film censorship law that could ban films on moral and religious grounds
- 2021 Tropical Cyclone Seroja causes floods and landslides in southeast Indonesia and East Timor, killing at least 113 people according to local authorities [1]
- 2022 Shanghai lockdown extended to cover the whole city as COVID-19 cases increase, as China remains one of the last to employ a "zero-Covid" system [1]
Event of Interest
2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urges UN Security Council to act against Russia, accusing Russian military of the worst war crimes since WWII, including execution, rape and torture of civilians [1]
