Battle of Nancy
1477 Battle of Nancy: Swiss Confederacy led by René II decisively defeats the Duchy of Burgundy, 7,000+ killed including the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold
Milan Reconquered
1500 Duke Ludovico Sforza's troops reconquer Milan
- 1527 Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning. (b. 1498)
Pope Forbids Henry VIII Remarry
1531 Pope Clement VII forbids English King Henry VIII to remarry
- 1554 Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 1593 William Louis of Nassau becomes governor/viceroy of Drenthe
- 1638 Petition in Recife Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues
- 1649 Francesco Cavalli's opera "Giasone" premieres in Venice (the most popular opera of the 17th century)
- 1675 Battle at Turkheim (Colmar): French army beats Brandenburg
Great Frost of 1709
1709 The Great Frost begins during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter. Thousands are killed across the continent and crops fail in France.
British Burn Richmond
1781 British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia
- 1800 1st Swedenborgian temple in US holds 1st service in Baltimore
- 1804 Ohio legislature passes 1st laws restricting free blacks movement
- 1809 Treaty of Dardanelles concluded between Britain & France
- 1822 Central America proclaims annexation to Mexican Empire
- 1828 1st edition of Amsterdam General Trade Journal (Algemeen Handelsblad)
- 1834 Kiowa Indians record this as the night the stars fell
Crockett Aids Revolution
1836 Davy Crockett arrives in Nacogdoches, Texas, to aid the revolution
- 1840 Records show 95,820 licensed public houses in England on this date
- 1841 James Clark Ross (UK) is 1st to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf
- 1846 The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom
- 1850 California Exchange opens
- 1854 Steamship San Francisco wrecked off US eastern seaboard, 300 die
- 1859 1st steamboat the North Star sails up the northern Red River, America
- 1861 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Ft Sumter
- 1861 Alabama troops seize Forts Morgan & Gaines at Mobile Bay
Music Premiere
1866 Bedřich Smetana's first opera "Branibori v Cechach" ("The Brandenburgers in Bohemia") premieres in Prague
"Liebeslieder Walzer"
1870 Johannes Brahms' collection of lovesongs, "Liebeslieder Walzer" premieres
- 1875 Charles Garnier's new Opera opens in Paris
- 1875 President Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg, Mississippi
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
1886 "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson published by Longmans, Green & Co.
Dreyfus Affair
1895 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, publicly stripped of his rank; later exonerated
- 1895 Henry James' play "Guy Domville" opens in London
- 1895 Victor Trumper makes first-class debut for NSW 17 yrs 64 days
Discovery of X-rays
1896 "Die Presse" newspaper (Germany) publicly announces Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and their potential for new methods of medical diagnoses in a front-page article
- 1896 Isaac Albéniz' opera "Pepita Jiminez" premieres in Barcelona
- 1900 Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule
- 1903 SF-Hawaii telegraph cable opens for public use
- 1904 -34°F (-36.7°C), River Vale, New Jersey (state record)
- 1904 -42°F (-41.1°C), Smethport, Pennsylvania (state record)
- 1904 England beat Australia at the MCG, Rhodes 7-56 & 8-68
- 1905 Charles Perrine announces discovery of Jupiter's 7th satellite, Elara
- 1905 Incorporation of the National Association of Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to conservation
- 1909 Colombia recognizes Panama's independence
- 1911 San Francisco has its first air meet
- 1912 1st National Hockey Association game (Victoria)
- 1912 The Prague Party Conference takes place.
Ford's $5 Day
1914 Industrialist Henry Ford announces his $5 minimum per-day wage, doubling most workers pay from $2.40 for a 9hr day to $5 for an 8hr day
- 1916 Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro
- 1918 British premier Lloyd George demand for unified peace
- 1919 German Workers' Party forms, precursor to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi)
- 1919 Left-wing Spartacus organization instigates a revolt in Berlin; terrified by the spread of Bolshevism, German troops brutally suppress the uprising
- 1925 England cricket openers Herbert Sutcliffe (176) and Jack Hobbs (154) display heroics in their 1st innings but the tourists sink to an 81 run defeat in the 2nd Test against Australia in Melbourne; Sutcliffe also adds 127 in the England 2nd innings
- 1925 French Baseball Federation awards silver medals to John McGraw, Charlie Comiskey, & Hugh Jennings
- 1925 James Gleason & Richard Tabers "Is zat so?" premieres in NYC
- 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross sworn in as Governor of Wyoming, 1st woman governor in USA
- 1925 Under Polish control, Danzig establishes Port Gdańsk post office
- 1927 Fox Studios exhibits Movietone
Public Hearing Begins
1927 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges that 4 games played between Chicago & Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to White Sox
- 1929 Coup by King Alexander in South Slavia
Bonnie Meets Clyde
1930 Bonnie Parker meets Clyde Barrow for the first time at Clarence Clay's house
"A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire"
1930 Mao Zedong writes the essay "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire" to criticize cadres not creating rural revolutionary base areas
- 1931 First woman to purchase a baseball team, Lucille Thomas buys Topeka Senators franchise in the Western League
Premiere of "Cavalcade"
1933 "Cavalcade" based on the play by Noël Coward, directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook premieres in New York (Best Production/Picture 1934)
- 1933 Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, starting on the Marin County side
- 1934 Boston's Fenway Park catches fire for 2nd time (May 8th 1926 also)
- 1934 National & American baseball leagues select a uniform ball
Record 6th Wicket Stand
1937 Australian cricket batsmen Jack Fingleton (136) and Don Bradman (out 270 the following day) make then record stand of 346 for 6th wicket in 3rd Test vs England in Melbourne
- 1937 Only unicameral state legislature in US opens 1st session in Nebraska
- 1940 FCC hears the 1st transmission of FM radio with clear, static-free signal
- 1940 Finnish offensive at Suomossalmi against Russia
- 1941 British Australian troops conquer Bardia, Libya
- 1942 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
- 1943 Teams agrees to start season later due to WW II
- 1943 William H Hastie, civilian aide to secretary of war, resigns to protest segregation in armed forces
- 1944 The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- 1945 Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Bros cartoon "Odor-able Kitty"
- 1945 Surprise attack on Liese-Aktion-office on Marnix St, Amsterdam
- 1949 General Spoor orders cease-fire on Sumatra
"Fair Deal"
1949 US President Harry Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal"
- 1950 Carson McCuller's "Member of the Wedding" premieres in NYC
- 1952 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes an official visit to the US
West Point Suite
1952 Darius Milhaud's orchestral composition "West Point Suite", marking the US Military Academy's sesquicentennial, premieres at Carnegie Hall, NYC
- 1952 Flying Enterprise sinks
"Waiting for Godot"
1953 Samuel Beckett's French-language play "En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot)" premieres in Paris
- 1955 KMSP TV channel 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (IND) 1st broadcast
Jackie Robinson Retires
1957 Dodgers' Jackie Robinson announces his retirement rather than be traded to the NY Giants
Eisenhower's Troop Request
1957 US President Eisenhower asks Congress to send troops to the Middle East
- 1959 "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres on TV
"It Doesn't Matter"
1959 Buddy Holly releases his last record "It Doesn't Matter"; he is killed in a plane crash 29 days later
- 1960 Continental League, a proposed third baseball major league, gets an assurance of congressional support from NY Senator Kenneth Keating
McCartney Plays Bass
1961 The Beatles perform with Paul McCartney on bass guitar for the 1st time, at Litherland Town Hall, in Lancashire, England
- 1964 AFL Championship, Balboa Stadium, San Diego: San Diego Chargers beat Boston Patriots, 51-10; Chargers RB Keith Lincoln rushes for 206 yards, 2 TDs
- 1967 KLXA (now KTBN) TV channel 40 in Fontana-San Ana, CA (IND) begins
Dubček succeeds Novotný
1968 Alexander Dubček succeeds Antonín Novotný as communist party leader of Czechoslovakia
Spock Indicted
1968 Dr Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law
- 1969 Bollingen prize for poetry presented to John Berryman & Karl Shapiro
"Bayou Country"
1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival release their second album "Bayou Country", featuring singles "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and "Proud Mary"
- 1969 Neville Williams' "Chronology of the Expanding World" completed
- 1969 USSR Venera 5 launched for 1st successful planet landing (Venus)
- 1970 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
- 1970 American daytime soap opera "All My Children" premieres on ABC
Lennon, Yoko in Denmark
1970 John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono give a press conference in Aalborg, Denmark, revealing that they were only visiting
- 1970 KPTS TV channel 8 in Hutchinson-Wichita, Kansas (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1971 1st one-day international, Australia v England at the MCG
Liston Found Dead
1971 Body of former world heavyweight boxing champion Charles "Sonny" Liston (40) is found by his wife Geraldine at their Las Vegas home; he had been dead for an estimated 6 days; foul play suspected
- 1971 Globetrotters lose 100-99 to NJ Reds, ending 2,495-game winning streak
- 1972 Largest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavs vs Lakers-11,178)
- 1972 NYC transit fare rises from 30 cents to 35 cents
President Mujib Freed
1972 President of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman freed by the newly elected President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
- 1972 US President Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on a manned space shuttle
"Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."
1973 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen's debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."
- 1973 Mali & Niger break diplomatic relations with Israel
- 1973 Netherlands recognizes German DR
- 1974 An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses
Raul Julia on Bob Newhart Show
1974 Raul Julia appears on "The Bob Newhart Show" in the episode "Oh, Brother"
Chappell's 182 Not Out
1976 Greg Chappell scores 182* for Australia at SCG against West Indies
- 1976 In retaliation for the Reavey and O'Dowd killings, the South Armagh Republican Action Force shoot dead 10 Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus in County Armagh
Ecevit Again PM
1978 Bülent Ecevit becomes Prime Minister of Turkey for the 3rd time
Sex Pistol's Final Tour
1978 Start of the Sex Pistols final tour in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1981 Late night television news program "Nightline" with Ted Koppel extended from 20 mins to 30 mins
Peter Sutcliffe Confesses
1981 Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver confesses that he is the "Yorkshire Ripper" and murdered 13 women
- 1982 Arkansas judge rules against obligatory teaching of creation
Sittler Leaves Maple Leafs
1982 Star center Darryl Sittler leaves the Toronto Maple Leafs on medical advice because of mental depression; trade request was taking too long
- 1984 Greg Chappell scores 182* for Australia in his last Test innings
Trottier's Penalty Fail
1985 Bryan Trottier failed on 9th Islander penalty shot
- 1985 Discovery moves to launch pad for STS 51-C mission
- 1985 Operation Moses, covert airlifting of about 8000 Ethiopian Jews from war-torn Sudan to Israel via Belgium ends
- 1987 Surrogate Baby M case begins in Hackensack, New Jersey
- 1989 2 French TV newsmen arrested for trying to plant fake bombs on 3 airlines at JFK airport in security test
- 1989 Baseball signs $400M with ESPN, showing 175 games in 1990
- 1990 J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
- 1991 Edwin Jongejans of Netherlands wins 1-metre springboard diving title
- 1991 Kevin Bradshaw of US Intl scores NCAA Div 1 record 72 pts
Shastri Scores 206
1992 Indian cricket all-rounder Ravi Shastri scores 206 in 3rd Test in Sydney before being Shane Warne's first Test wicket, the first of 708 for Australia
Lara's Maiden Test Century
1993 Brian Lara scores his maiden Test century with 277 for the West Indies v Australia in drawn 3rd Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Reggie Jackson Elected
1993 Former MLB player Reggie Jackson elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1993 Oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil
- 1993 Price is Right model Janice Pennington sues CBS for show accident
- 1993 Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (first legal hanging in America since 1965)
- 1994 Aleksandr Popov swims world record 100m free style (47.82)
- 1995 Bill Fitch becomes the 5th coach in NBA history to register 850 career victories with the LA Clippers' 95-93 home win over Philadelphia 76'ers at the LA Memorial Sports Arena
- 1995 Lockheed C-140 Jetstar crashes at Isfahan, Iran, killing 18
- 1996 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone
- 1996 Muralitharan no-balled for throwing in ODI v WI at the Gabba
- 1997 "Juan Darien-Carnival Mass" closes at Vivian Beaumont NYC
- 1997 "Love Thy Neighbor" closes at Booth Theater NYC
- 1997 "Show Boat" closes at Gershwin Theater NYC
- 1997 Elliot Goldenthal's musical "Juan Darién - A Carnival Mass" closes at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, NYC, after 49 performances
- 1998 Ice storm knocks out electricity in Quebec & Ontario
- 1998 Vandals decapitate Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue in Langelinie Park
- 2001 A report reveals that doctor and former GP Harold Shipman has potentially killed hundreds of patients
Kinks Member Shot in Mugging
2004 "Kinks" singer-songwriter Ray Davies (59) shot in the leg while chasing a 25-year old mugger in New Orleans, Louisiana
- 2005 Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
Coach Cowher Resigns
2007 Bill Cowher resigns as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers
Shanahan Introduced as Coach
2010 Mike Shanahan is formally introduced as head coach of the Washington Redskins
- 2016 First batsman to ever score 1000 runs in a single innings in cricket - 15 year-old Mumbai schoolboy Pranav Dhanawade is 1009 not out
- 2018 "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff is published by Henry Holt and Company
- 2018 Kitwe in Zambia bans shaking hands and the sale of fresh food in attempt to prevent a cholera outbreak
- 2018 North Korea accepts South Korean invitation for high-level talks
- 2019 Chinese government report predicts China's population will peak at 1.44 billion in 2029 before declining
Warriors, Sacramento's Record Game
2019 Golden State and Sacramento combine for 41 3-pointers in Warriors' 127-123 win; set new NBA record for 3s in a game; Stephen Curry hits 10 triples while Buddy Hield leads Kings with 8, Justin Jackson adds 5
- 2019 Orthodox Church of Ukraine granted independence from the Russian Orthodox Church by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
- 2020 Chinese professor Zhang Yongzhen publishes the first SARS-CoV-2 genome map online, allowing health professionals worldwide to identify COVID-19
- 2020 Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment
- 2021 86th Heisman Trophy Award: DeVonta Smith, Alabama (WR)
- 2021 Daily new cases of COVID-19 top 60,000 in the UK as data reveals one in fifty in England had COVID-19 within the last week
- 2021 In Georgia Senate run-off elections Raphael Warnock (D) defeats Kelly Loeffler (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) defeats David Perdue (R) to give Democrats control of the US Senate
- 2021 Six Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, sign an agreement to ease the blockage with Qatar, in place since 2017
- 2022 Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards pardons Homer Plessy for buying whites-only train ticket in 1892 (resulted in U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson 1896) [1]
- 2022 State of emergency declared across Kazakhstan amid unrest and protests against fuel price rises, 164 killed in three days
Funeral of Benedict XVI
2023 Funeral for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome [1]
Edward Norton Related to Pocahontas
2023 Pocahontas revealed as the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton on PBS's "Finding Your Roots" [1]
- 2024 An Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 makes emergency landing in Portland after a fuselage section blows out midair, with US regulator then grounding hundreds of planes [1]
- 2024 Nigerian film "A Tribe Called Judah", created by Funke Akindele, becomes the first Nollywood film to earn more than $1bn naira ($1.1m) domestically [1]
