The Statue of David
1501 Michelangelo awarded a contract to create a statue of David at Florence Cathedral by the Overseers of the Office of Works (the Operai) of the Duomo
Battle of the Spurs
1513 Battle of the Spurs at Guinegate (now Eguinegatte): Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I beat France
Treaty of Speyer
1570 Treaty of Speyer establishing Principality of Transylvania signed by King of Hungary John Sigismund Zápolyai and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II
- 1625 Earnest Casimir of Nassau-Dietz appointed viceroy of Drenthe
- 1691 Yorktown, Virginia founded
- 1717 Prince Eugenius of Savoye occupies Belgrade
- 1743 Champion of England titleholder Jack Broughton publishes 'Rules of the Ring' - earliest boxing code
- 1748 "Geldermalsen" sails to East-Indies
- 1777 American militiamen defeat British forces at the Battle of Bennington near Vermont, during the American Revolutionary War
- 1780 British decisively defeat Americans in Battle of Camden, South Carolina
- 1787 Turkey declares war on Russia (Russo-Turkish War 1787-92)
- 1794 Hungarian revolutionary Ignác Martinovics arrested in Vienna
- 1797 Comet C/1797 P1 (Bouvard-Herschel) approaches 0.0879 AUs of Earth
British Capture Detroit
1812 General Hull surrenders Detroit and Michigan territory to British forces under the command of Major General Sir Isaac Brock, who capture Fort Detroit with the help of Indigenous warriors led by Tecumseh
British Queen Telegraphs US President
1858 Britain's Queen Victoria telegraphs US President James Buchanan for 1st time by transatlantic telegraph cable, he replies "it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle."
- 1861 Skirmishes at Fredericktown/Kirkville, Missouri
Trading Ban Between Union and Confederacy
1861 US President Abraham Lincoln prohibits Union states from trading with Confederacy
- 1863 Chickamauga campaign of the US Civil War begins in Georgia
- 1864 Federal assault on 4th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia
- 1864 Palace for People's industry official opens in Amsterdam
- 1865 Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic regains its independence after 4 years of fighting against the Spanish Annexation.
Battle of Acosta Ñu
1869 War of the Triple Alliance: A Paraguay battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Battle of Acosta Ñu
- 1870 Fred Goldsmith demonstrates curve ball isn't an optical illusion
Siegfried
1876 Richard Wagner's opera "Siegfried" premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle
Rodin's Gates of Hell
1880 The French state commissions sculptor Auguste Rodin for a large sculpted doorway 'The Gates of Hell' for the proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Bennington Battle Monument
1891 President Benjamin Harrison attends the dedication of the Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont
- 1894 Indian chiefs from the Sioux & Onondaga tribes met to urge their people to renounce Christianity & return to their old Indian faith
- 1896 Gold first discovered in Klondike, found at Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, Canada by George Carmack
- 1898 Edwin Prescott patents roller coaster
- 1904 NYC begins building Grand Central Station
- 1905 Mbunga-rebellion occupy German post Ifakara East-Africa
- 1906 -17] 8.6 earthquake destroys Valparaiso Chile, fire kills 20,000
- 1907 Mulay Hafid is proclaimed the Sultan of Morocco by supporters leading to civil war; Mulay is supported by Germany while France supports the existing Sultan
Young Turks Announce Reforms
1908 The Committee of Union and Progress, 'The Young Turks', announces a program for reforms and respect for the rights of all within the Ottoman Empire, regardless of race or religion
- 1913 Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tōhoku University) admits its first female students.
- 1914 German army occupies last fort at Liege, Belgian general Leman caught
- 1914 World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
- 1914 Zapata & Pancho Villa over run Mexico
- 1915 Kansas City Packers' Alex Main no-hits Buffalo Blues (Federal League), 5-0
- 1918 US troops overrun at Archangelsk by Bolshevik troops
- 1920 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is hit in head by NY Yankees pitcher Carl Mays; he dies the next day in only MLB game related fatality
- 1921 Members of the Dail (parliament) swear allegiance to the Irish Republic at their first meeting, held at Dublin House
- 1922 AT&T radio station WBAY becomes WEAF (NYC)
- 1924 Conference about German recovery payments opens in London
- 1924 Dutch-Turkish peace treaty signed
- 1928 Belgian cyclist Georges Ronsse wins men's road race at UCI Road World Championships in Budapest, Hungary
- 1930 I British Empire Games open in Hamilton, Canada
- 1930 The first color sound cartoon "Fiddlesticks" by Ub Iwerks (ex Walt Disney studio) is released
- 1934 US explorer William Beebe descends 3,028' (923 m) in Bathysphere, off the coast of Bermuda
- 1936 The Berlin Olympic equestrian competition concludes with Germany winning all 6 gold medals in an unprecedented team achievement
- 1936 XI Summer Olympic Games close in Berlin
- 1940 45 German aircraft shot down over England
Blood for Britain
1940 Pioneering 'Blood for Britain' program sending blood plasma for WWII wounded from the US, headed by Charles R. Drew, officially begins in Britain
- 1941 HMS Mercury, Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
Churchill Back to Cairo
1942 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels back to Cairo from Moscow
- 1943 1st Long Tom bombs on Italian mainland (from Sicily)
Tsar Boris Visits Hitler
1943 Bulgarian Tsar Boris III visits Adolf Hitler
- 1944 2nd Canadian Division occupies Falaise, Normandy, during Operation Intractable
- 1944 Dutch begin diplomatic contact with Vatican in London
- 1944 US 15th Army corp reaches Eure, surrounds Dreux, France
- 1945 Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor and ruler of Manchukuo is captured by Soviet troops
- 1946 Direct Action Day: Widespread riots erupt in Calcutta between Muslims and Hindus over whether Pakistan should be a separate state, killing over 4,000 and leaving 100,000 homeless
Pirates 12 Cardinals 7
1947 Future Baseball HOF outfielder Ralph Kiner hits 3 successive HRs for host Pittsburgh Pirates in a 12-7 win over St. Louis Cardinals; both clubs smash a then MLB record 10 homers
Shah Flees
1953 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi & princess Soraya flee to Baghdad & Rome
Sports History
1956 MLB Cleveland Indians' Rocky Colavito hits his 1st grand slam, Cleveland 5, Tigers 4
- 1959 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Ranier G&CC: Betsy Rawls wins her second WO by 6 strokes from JoAnne Gunderson and Patty Berg
- 1959 USSR introduces installment buying
- 1960 Britain grants independence to crown colony of Cyprus
- 1960 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from balloon at 31,330 m (84,700')
- 1960 Republic of Congo (Zaire, Dem Rep of Congo) forms
- 1961 250,000 West Berliners demonstrate against the division of East Berlin
Event of Interest
1961 Martin Luther King Jr. protests for black voting rights in Miami, Florida
Music History
1962 Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatles' drummer, first official concert two days later
Sports History
1964 St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood gets 8 straight hits in a doubleheader split against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium
Sports History
1965 American Football League's 9th franchise is officially awarded to Joe Robbie and television star Danny Thomas; Miami Dolphins start play in AFL's Eastern Division in 1966
- 1966 The Beatles in concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; their second and final show in the city
- 1967 WFIQ TV channel 36 in Florence, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1969 First performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Auditorium Theater, Chicago)
- 1969 V.V. Giri is elected the fourth President of India
- 1969 WATL TV channel 36 in Atlanta, GA begins broadcasting
- 1971 Over 8,000 workers go on strike in Derry, Northern Ireland, in protest at the introduction of Internment (allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial)
- 1972 Philip Potter appointed sect-gen of World council of Churches
- 1972 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Music History
1975 British singer Peter Gabriel announces his departure from the rock group Genesis
- 1976 St. Louis Cardinals beat San Diego Chargers, 20-10 in Tokyo, Japan (NFL Expo)
- 1977 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1977 Yanks blow 9-4 lead in 9th but beat Chicago 11-10 in bottom of 9th
- 1980 British rock keyboardist Jools Holland quits band Squeeze to pursue a solo career
- 1980 Cozy Powell quits Rainbow
- 1981 American swimmer Mary T. Meagher breaks her own world women's 100 m butterfly record (57.93) in Brown Deer, Wisconsin; holds 100/200m double WR
- 1981 Highest score in World Cup soccer match (New Zealand-13, Fiji-0)
- 1984 LA federal jury acquits auto maker John Z DeLorean on cocaine charges
- 1984 Largest harness racing purse ($2,161,000-Nihilator wins $1,080,500)
- 1984 NASA launches Ampte
- 1984 Sunken liner Andrea Doria's safe opened
Death of A Salesman
1985 CBS' premiere of its TV adaptation of "Death of A Salesman", starring Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich
- 1986 Sudan rebels shoot a Fokker's F-27 down, 57 killed
- 1987 Astrological Harmonic Convergence-Dawn of New Age
- 1987 Northwest Airlines 255 plane crashes in Detroit, 156 die (1 lives)
- 1987 NY Mets beat Chicago Cubs, 23-10 at Wrigley Field, Chicago; Greg Maddox records the loss
- 1988 IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence
- 1988 NYC Mayor Ed Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
- 1989 A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.
- 1989 Roger Kingdom of USA sets 110m hurdle record (12.92) in Zurich
- 1990 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1990 Iraq orders 4000 Britons & 2500 Americans in Kuwait to Iraq
Event of Interest
1990 South African President F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela hold emergency talks in Pretoria about increasing violence in Soweto
- 1991 Belgium census is 10,000,963 inhabitants
Event of Interest
1991 John Gutfreund announces his resignation as chief executive of Salomon Brothers amid illegal bidding scandal
Event of Interest
1991 US President George H. W. Bush declares recession is near an end
F1 World Champion
1992 British Williams driver Nigel Mansell finishes second in Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring to clinch his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship
- 1992 Moses Kiptanui of Kenya runs world 3,000m record 7:28.96 in Cologne, Germany
- 1993 South Africa relinquishes sovereignty over Walvis Bay
- 1993 The Debian distribution first announced by Ian Murdock, a student at Purdue University (Murdock initially called his system the "Debian Linux Release")
- 1994 Chandrika Kumaratungo's party wins Sri Lanka elections
- 1997 For only 2nd time Stanley Cup leaves North America (heads to Russia)
- 1997 New Zealand beats Australia, 36-24 in Dunedin to retain the Tri Nations Rugby Series with an unbeaten record; All Blacks flyhalf Carlos Spencer lands 5 penalties and 3 conversions; halftime NZ, 36-0
- 1997 The South African soccer team, Bafana Bafana wins against the national team of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at First National Bank stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2000 "Hanging by a Moment" single released by Lifehouse (Billboard Song of the Year 2001)
- 2002 Africa Women's Peace Train leaves Kampala for Johannesburg
Sports History
2003 Cristiano Ronaldo (18) makes his debut for Manchester United and the Premier League in a 4–0 home victory over Bolton Wanderers
- 2003 New Zealand beats Australia, 21-17 at Eden Park, Auckland to win their 5th Tri Nations Rugby Series; All Blacks have undefeated 4-0 record and regain Bledisloe Cup from Wallabies
- 2003 U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
- 2004 Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe wins the men's 200m freestyle in Olympic record 1:44.71, giving him the 200/400m freestyle double at the Athens Olympics
- 2005 West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard.
Olympic Gold
2008 American swimmer Michael Phelps wins his 7th of 8 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics when he takes the 100m butterfly in Olympic record 50.58; beats Milorad Čavić of Serbia by 0.01
- 2008 British cyclist Bradley Wiggins becomes the first rider ever to successfully defend his Olympic title in the individual pursuit when he takes gold at the Beijing Olympics
Olympic Gold
2008 British sailor Ben Ainslie convincingly wins the Finn class at the Beijing Olympics, his third gold medal in as many Games
- 2008 British swimmer Rebecca Adlington wraps up the 400/800m freestyle double at the Beijing Olympics with a world record 8:14.10 in the 800
- 2008 British team of Tom James, Steve Williams, Pete Reed & Andrew Triggs Hodge wins the men's rowing coxless fours in Beijing, the third straight Olympics that Great Britain wins gold in this event
- 2008 César Cielo wins the men's 50m freestyle in 21.30 in Beijing, Brazil's first ever swimming Olympic gold medal
World Record
2008 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets new world record of 9.69 seconds to win the coveted 100m gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
- 2008 Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe swims a world record 2:05.24 to beat American Margaret Hoelzer by 1.01 and win the 200m backstroke at the Beijing Olympics
- 2008 New Zealand rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell successfully defend their 2004 Olympic title in the women's double sculls by beating Germany by 0.01 seconds at the Beijing Games
- 2008 Romanian rower Georgeta Andrunache wins the women's coxless pairs at the Beijing Olympics; her 5th career gold medal, and her 3rd consecutive Olympic gold in the event
- 2008 South Korean weightlifter Jang Mi-Ran wins the women's unlimited (+75 kg) division at the Beijing Olympics by breaking world records 5 times: once in snatch, twice in clean-and-jerk, and twice in total
- 2011 World Youth Day 2011, organised by the Catholic church, begins in Madrid
- 2012 113 people are killed and over 200 wounded in a series of attacks across Iraq
- 2012 South African police open fire on striking mine workers and kill at least 34 people
Event of Interest
2012 Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador
Hurricane Katrina
2016 "When the Levees Broke" documentary directed by Spike Lee, of effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, premieres at New Orleans Arena
- 2016 Croatian discus thrower Sandra Perković retains her Olympic title with a distance of 69.21m at the Rio de Janeiro Games
- 2016 Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze sets a world record of 473 total kilograms to win the men's +105kg gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
- 2016 New Zealand canoeist Lisa Carrington retains her K-1 200m Olympic title with a time of 39.864 at the Rio de Janeiro Games
- 2016 Russian pair Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina retain their Olympic synchronised swimming duet title at the Rio de Janeiro Games with final score 194.9910
- 2016 Wildfire breaks out in San Bernardino County, California, engulfing 15,000 acres, prompting evacuation of 82,000 people
- 2017 Baltimore city council removes confederate statues under cover of darkness in response to Charlottesville violence
Film & TV History
2017 Emma Stone is the year's highest-paid actress with $26 million, according to Forbes
- 2017 Last batch of Farc rebel weapons removed by the UN in Colombia
- 2017 Lebanon parliament abolishes article 522, which exempted rapists from prosecution if they married their victim
- 2017 Over 100 Maasai houses destroyed in Tanzania by game park authorities as part of a border dispute near Serengeti National Park
Event of Interest
2017 Philippine police kill 32 in raids near Manilia, most deadly night in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs
- 2017 Three suicide bombers kill 27 people outside a refugee camp near Maiduguri in Borno state, Nigeria, Boko Haram suspected
- 2018 Brandt Snedeker shoots 10th sub-60 round in PGA history with an 11-under par 59 in the opening round of the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina
- 2018 British Columbia, Canada, declares State of Emergency with 566 wildfires burning, prompting evacuation of 3,000 people
- 2018 Brooke Raboutou wins a gold medal in lead climbing at the IFSC Youth World Championships in Moscow, Russia
Event of Interest
2018 Pope Francis and the Vatican issues statement in support of the 300 victims of "predator priests" in Pennsylvania
Film & TV History
2018 Scarlett Johansson is the world's best-paid actress of the year earning $40.5 million according to Forbes
- 2018 Unprecedented flooding and landslides in Kerala, India, reported to have killed 106 people with 150,000 homeless
- 2018 World's first floating dairy farm opens in Merwehaven harbour, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with 40 cows milked by robots
- 2019 Huge fire in Chalantika slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, destroys 1,200 houses and leaves up to 10,000 homeless
- 2020 At least 17 people killed in attack on beach resort in Mogadishu, Somalia, by al-Shabab group
- 2020 Biggest protests in Thailand in six years as 10,000 people demonstrate in Bangkok for reforms of the government and the monarchy
- 2020 Japan's economy, the world's third largest, posts its worst-ever decline, falling 7.8% (April-June quarter)
Election of Interest
2020 Largest-ever demonstration in Belarus as 100,000 people gather in Minsk to protest against controversial election results and regime of Alexander Lukashenko
Sports History
2020 World Snooker Championship, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield: Englishman Ronnie O'Sullivan wins his 6th world title with an 18-8 win over countryman Kyren Wilson
- 2021 First Marvel film with an Asian superhero "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings" starring Simu Liu premieres in Los Angeles
- 2021 First official water shortage declared at Lake Mead, major reservoir on Colorado river supplying 40 million people, with cuts mandated mainly for Arizona
- 2021 Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resign after losing their majority amid political turmoil
Appointment of Interest
2022 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reveals former PM Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to five ministerial portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021 [1]
- 2022 Philadelphia Phillies 11-4 win over visiting Cincinnati Reds makes them 9th MLB team with 10.000 franchise victories (and last of those founded in 19th century); they were the 1st to lose 10,000, in 2007
- 2022 Sections of China's Yangtze River launch weather modification programs due to severe drought conditions, including seeding clouds with silver iodide rods to encourage rain
- 2022 US President Joe Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act into law with $370 billion of spending and tax cuts to combat climate change [1]
- 2023 British Museum reveals a staff member has been sacked for stealing about 2,000 objects including jewellery and semi-precious stones [1]
- 2023 Longest survival of a pig's kidney transplant - survives a month (so far) in body of a brain dead man in research at NYU Langone Health [1]
- 2023 Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,300 years old mummy, had dark skin, dark eyes and was descended from early Anatolian farmers in results from updated DNA study [1]
- 2023 The Northwest Territories in Canada declare a state of emergency due to wildfires and order an evacuation of the city of Yellowknife, affecting 22,000 people [1]
