Galileo Discovers Jupiter’s Moons
1610 Galileo Galilei discovers the first three moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa and Ganymede
Hungarian Aristocrat Murder Torture Trial
1611 Trial of Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory for killing and torturing hundreds of young women, later sentenced to house arrest for the rest of her life
Bacon Lord Chancellor
1618 Francis Bacon becomes Lord Chancellor of England
Peter the Great to England
1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great departs Netherlands for England
- 1714 Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later)
- 1782 1st US commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens in Philadelphia
- 1784 1st US seed business established by David Landreth, Philadelphia
- 1785 1st balloon flight across English Channel by Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries
- 1790 French Revolution: A major riot breaks out in Versailles as people demand lower bread prices
- 1797 First official use of the modern Italian flag (the Tricolor) by the Cispadane Republic
- 1817 2nd Bank of US opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1822 1st printing in Hawaii of a ceremonial broadside for King Kamehameha II by Elisha Loomis
- 1822 Free American Blacks establish a settlement on Providence Island, off the coast of West Africa; later becomes the city of Monrovia, Liberia
- 1822 Liberia colonized by the American Colonization Society
- 1830 1st US Railroad Station opens in Baltimore
- 1835 HMS Beagle anchors off Chonos Archipelago
"Stabat Mater"
1842 Gioachino Rossini's cantata "Stabat Mater" premieres at the Théâtre-Italien's Salle Ventadour in Paris, France
- 1861 Florida troops takeover Fort Marion at St Augustine (US Civil War)
Jackson Marches to Romney
1862 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, West Virginia
- 1868 Arkansas constitutional convention meets in Little Rock
- 1868 Mississippi constitutional convention meets in Jackson
- 1890 African American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen
- 1892 Mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma; blacks trying to help rescue white survivors, driven away with guns
- 1893 Hermann Sudermanns' play "Heimat" premieres in Berlin
"Fred Ott's Sneeze"
1894 William K.L. Dickson captures "Fred Ott's Sneeze" as a motion picture at Thomas Edison's Black Mariah Studio, West Orange, New Jersey [1]
- 1896 Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book"
Brazil's Teatro Amazonas
1897 Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil, opens with a performance by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso
- 1899 Walter Camp publishes his 1st All-American football team in Collier's
"L'etranger"
1903 Vincent d'Indy's opera "L'etranger" premieres in Brussels
"The Truth"
1907 Clyde Fitch's play "The Truth" premieres in NYC
- 1908 England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG
- 1910 Stanley Cup, Dey's Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Galt (ON), 3-1 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series
- 1911 Dutch Scouts Organization established in Amsterdam
- 1913 William M. Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum
- 1915 World War I: Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm approves strategic bombing of Britain, but forbids bombing London, fearing his relatives in the royal family might be killed
Germany to Abide Maritime Warfare Rules
1916 In response to pressure from President Woodrow Wilson, Germany notifies the US State Department that it will abide by strict international rules of maritime warfare
Anglo-Irish Treaty Ratified
1922 The Anglo-Irish Treaty is ratified by Dail Eireann by a 64-57 vote
Fascist Organization Ustaša
1929 Croatian nationalist and fascist movement, Ustaša founded by Ante Pavelić in exile in Italy
- 1929 French inventor Robert Bureau launches the 1st radiosonde - a battery-powered telemetry instrument carried into the atmosphere to measure various parameters and transmit them by radio to a ground receiver
- 1930 Edwin Justus Mayer's "Children of Darkness" premieres in NYC
- 1930 Marguerite Perey discovers francium (Fr), the last naturally occurring element to be found
- 1931 Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
- 1932 1st game played at Orchard Lake Curling Club, Mich
- 1933 1st edition of People & Fatherland published in Netherlands
- 1934 "Flash Gordon" comic strip created and drawn by Alex Raymond debuts
Franco-Italian Agreement
1935 French Foreign minister Pierre Laval and Benito Mussolini sign the Franco-Italian Agreement
- 1935 Zoe Akins' "Old Maid" premieres in NYC
- 1936 Tennis champs Helen Moody & Howard Kinsley volley 2,001 times (1h18m)
- 1939 US labor union leader Thomas Mooney freed from prison and later pardoned based on perjured testimony; he had been jailed since 1916 on charges related to an anarchist bombing in San Francisco
- 1940 Winter War: The Finish 9th Division defeats the Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road despite being significantly outnumbered
New Fourth Army Incident
1941 New Fourth Army Incident: Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek fire on surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
Lord Haw-Haw
1945 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) reports total German victory in the Ardennes
- 1945 The last surface engagement between Allies and Japanese in the Pacific campaign, World War II
- 1946 Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union
- 1947 Australia v England at MCG drawn in 6 days, 1st cricket draw in Australia since 1882
- 1948 Thomas Mantell, a pilot for the Kentucky Air National Guard, crashes while pursuing a supposed UFO
Marshall Plan Taxes
1948 US President Harry Truman raises taxes for the Marshall Plan to assist in rebuilding Europe after WWII [1]
- 1949 1st photo of genes taken at University of Southern California by Pease & Baker
- 1950 Hank Snow's 1st appearance on "Grand Ole Opry"
- 1950 Mental health wing of Mercy Hospital burns, kills 41 in Davenport, Iowa
- 1953 US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb
- 1954 Georgetown-IBM experiment, first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held at IBM's head office in New York
Patterson vs. Troy
1955 20 year-old future world heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson scores a 5th-round TKO of Willie Troy in a non-title super middleweight bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden
First African American with Met Opera
1955 Marian Anderson becomes the 1st African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera"
- 1955 WCIQ TV channel 7 in Mt Cheaha, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Indian batsman Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy
- 1957 Algerian militant and National Liberation Front member Djamila Bouhired sets off a bomb in an Algiers cafe killing 11 civilians, precipitating the Battle of Algiers
Gibson's 'Flying V'
1958 Gibson Guitars receives US patent for their 'Flying V' electric guitar model; eventually used by Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan of T-Rex, Dave Davies of the Kinks, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
- 1958 USSR reduces army to 300,000
Gangster Lansky Flees
1959 American gangster Meyer Lansky flees Cuba for the Bahamas due to the Cuban Revolution and rise of Fidel Castro
US Recognizes Castro Government
1959 US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government
- 1961 1st NFL Playoff Bowl (runner-up bowl)-Detroit beats Cleveland 17-16
- 1961 Trucial States (now UAE) issue their 1st postage stamps
Sukarno Attempt Fails
1962 Assassination attempt fails on Indonesian President Sukarno
Model, Brown Rift Boils Over
1963 The rift between Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell and head coach Paul Brown reaches a boiling point, and Brown is fired
- 1968 "GE College Bowl" quiz show premieres on NBC TV
- 1968 1st class US postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents
- 1968 Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off
- 1969 Dance Theatre of Harlem ballet school opens in a church basement
- 1969 US Congress doubles presidential salary
- 1971 -40°F (-40°C) in Hawley Lake, Arizona (state record)
- 1972 Discovery of the first black hole Cygnus X-1 in the constellation Cygnus reported in a paper in "Nature" by Louise Webster and Paul Murdin [1]
- 1972 Iberian Airlines 'plane crashes into 800ft peak on island of Ibiza, 104 die
Event of Interest
1972 Lewis F. Powell Jr. becomes a US Supreme Court Justice
- 1972 Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Atlanta Hawks, 134-90 for their 33rd straight win, the longest winning streak in major professional sports
- 1972 William Hubbs Rehnquist sworn in as US Supreme Court Justice
- 1973 American poet James Merrill wins Bollingen Prize
- 1973 British Darts Organisation founded in North London
- 1973 Johnny Watkins bowls six overs 0-21 v Pakistan Never again
- 1973 Mark Essex's mass shooting comes to an end after he is shot by police more than 200 times on the roof of New Orlean's Holiday Inn hotel. He killed nine people, including five policeman.
- 1973 WNPB TV channel 13 in Marquette, MI (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1974 Gasoline rationing begins in the Netherlands
- 1975 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to AR Ammons (Sphere)
- 1975 Led Zeppelin fans riot before Boston concert causing $30,000 damage
- 1978 Angola revises its constitution in include a state security law
- 1979 Vietnamese forces capture Phnom Penh from Khmer Rouge
- 1980 Minnesota North Stars end Philadelphia Flyers' NHL record 35 game unbeaten streak with a 7-1 win at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota
"Pretenders"
1980 Real Records releases "Pretenders", the debut album of The Pretenders, in UK
Chrysler Bailed Out
1980 US President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation to bail out the Chrysler Corporation with a 1.5 billion dollar loan
Trottier's 10th Hat Trick
1982 Islander's Bryan Trottier's 10th career hat trick
- 1982 TV series "Fame", based on the film of the same name, starring Debbie Allen and an ensemble cast premieres on NBC TV
Guatemala Arms Embargo Ends
1983 President Reagan ends US arms embargo against Guatemala
Baseball's Brock and Wilhelm
1985 Lou Brock & Hoyt Wilhelm are elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
- 1986 Netherlands Bank issues 250 guilder notes
- 1986 STS 61-C mission scrubbed at T -9m because of weather problems
- 1986 US President Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya
- 1987 French airplanes harass Libyan positions in Duadi Doum
- 1989 Cleveland Cavaliers block 21 NY Knicks shots tying NBA regulation game record
- 1989 International Conference on Limitation of Chemical Weapons opens in Paris
- 1989 NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers then longest winning streak (11 games)
- 1990 Lynn Jennings runs world record indoor 5km indoor at 15:22.64
- 1990 Tower of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far
- 1991 "Nia Peeples Party Machine" premieres on TV
Hussein Prepares Troops
1991 Saddam Hussein prepares his troops for what he says will be a long violent war against the US
- 1992 AT&T releases video-telephone ($1,499)
Imran Khan's Last Test Day
1992 Last day of Test cricket for Pakistan's Imran Khan
Baseball Hall of Fame
1992 Tom Seaver & Rollie Fingers elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
- 1993 Bosnian War: Bosnian Army launches a surprise attack on Kravica, a village in Srebrenica
- 1993 The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President
- 1994 South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs
- 1994 United Express commuter plane crashes in Ohio, killing 5
- 1995 Larry Brown posts his 500th career NBA coaching victory, following the Indiana Pacers' 88-83 road win at the Houston Rockets
- 1996 16th United Negro College Fund raises $12,600,000
Gingrich Re-elected Speaker
1997 Newt Gingrich narrowly re-elected speaker of the US House of Representatives
Lewinsky Denies Affair
1998 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton
Shaq's New Block Total
1998 Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal blocks 3 shots in a 114-102 win over Milwaukee to bring his career total to 1,002
- 1999 NBA Board of Governors unanimously ratifies a new 6-year collective bargaining agreement between the league and the National Basketball Players Association
Clinton Impeachment Trial
1999 President Bill Clinton's Impeachment trial begins in the US Senate after the House voted to impeach him for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky
- 2000 Former UK Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken released from prison after 9 months of a 18-month sentence
- 2007 Danish TV drama "The Killing" created by Søren Sveistrup and starring Sofie Gråbøl premieres on DR1
Phil Jackson Wins #900
2007 Phil Jackson wins his 900th game as a head coach, becoming the fastest coach to reach 900 career wins
- 2010 Muslim gunmen in Egypt kill nine people after opening fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians
"The King's Speech"
2011 "The King's Speech", starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, is released in the UK
- 2012 Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11
Messi Wins Record Fourth
2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi wins award for a record 4th consecutive year; US forward Abby Wambach wins women's award
Election of Interest
2014 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wins re-election in Bangladesh general election
- 2015 A car bomb explodes in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, killing 38 people and injuring more than 63
Charlie Hebdo Terror Attack
2015 Terrorist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris kills 12 (including Jean Cabut and Stéphane Charbonnier), injures 11
- 2018 It snows in the Sahara desert - 15 inches reported in Aïn Séfra, Northwest Algeria
- 2018 Sydney, Australia has its hottest day for 80 years as Penrith reaches 47.3 degrees
- 2019 Amazon overtakes Microsoft to become the world's most valuable listed company for the first time, worth $797 billion
- 2019 Attempted coup in Gabon fails after rebel soldiers overtake national radio station in Libreville
- 2019 Rain ruins last 2 days of 4th cricket Test in Sydney as India wins series 2-1; become first Asian side to win a Test series in Australia, 71 years after the first Indian touring team in 1947-48
- 2019 Tennessee woman Cyntoia Brown, convicted for murdering a man aged 16, granted clemency by Governor Bill Haslam
- 2020 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Puerto Rico, island's largest in a century, followed by many aftershocks kill 1 person and destroy 800 homes
- 2021 Arizona called the COVID-19 "hotspot of the world" by local health officials as state suffers an average of 118.3 new cases per 100,000 people
Musk Richest Person
2021 Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla, becomes the world's richest person, worth $186 billion, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Facebook Blocks Trump
2021 Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg blocks President Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram till January 20, following suspension of his other social media accounts the previous day
- 2021 WHO warns Europe needs to do more to "flatten the steep vertical line" of COVID-19 cases and control the spread of the new variant, with 230 million already living under lockdown
- 2022 First successful transplant of a pig's heart into a human when genetically modified pig's heart inserted into a 53-year-old man in Baltimore, Maryland [1]
- 2022 Three men convicted of murdering black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Feb 2020, sentenced to life in prison in a Georgia court
McCarthy US House Speaker
2023 Republican Kevin McCarthy finally elected Speaker of the US House of representatives after 15 ballots, the most rounds of voting since 1860 [1]
- 2023 Vaccine for bees against American Foulbrood bacteria approved in the US - first vaccine in the US for any insect [1]
Golden Globes
2024 80th Golden Globes: Best Film "Oppenheimer" (drama), "Poor Things" (comedy/musical), Best TV Series "Succession", Best Director Christopher Nolan, Acting: Cillian Murphy, Lily Gladstone [1]
- 2024 Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wins her fourth term in office amid controversial election marred by opposition boycotts with over 10,000 activists arrested [1]
