Events 1 - 200 of 237
- 451 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
- 474 Magister Militum of Dalamatia Julius Nepos proclaimed Emperor in Rome - rules only until 475 as the last Western Roman Emperor
- 726 Maya official Ajpach’ Waal pays an important diplomatic visit to Waxaklajuun Ub’aah K’awiil (18 Rabbit), 13th king of Copán (modern Honduras) [1]
- 843 Vikings sail up the Loire with 67 ships and destroy Frankish-held city of Nantes
- 972 Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces; Mieszko I of Poland decisively defeated Odo I of Lusatia
- 1128 Afonso I of Portugal defeats army of his mother Theresa
- 1298 Rindfleisch Persecutions - Jews of Ifhauben, Austria massacred
- 1314 Battle of Bannockburn; Scotland regains independence from England
- 1322 Jews are expelled from France for 3rd time
- 1340 English fleet destroys the French at the battle of Sluys (the Hundred Years' War)
The Fatal Dance Manias of Medieval Europe
1374 Sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion
- 1497 Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London
Cabot Claims Eastern Canada
1497 John Cabot claims parts of North America (what is now Eastern Canada) for England believing he has found Asia in Newfoundland
Coronation of Henry VIII
1509 Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey, London
Paracelsus' Protest
1527 Paracelsus publicly burns standard medical textbooks at the University of Basel, as a protest against the current teaching and practice of medicine
Henry VIII Expels Anne of Cleves
1540 English King Henry VIII commands his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves, to leave the court
Dutch Rebellion
1572 Five clergymen of Dutch city Enkhuizen are hanged during the Dutch Rebellion against Philip II of Spain
- 1619 Tsar Michail's father Filaret becomes patriarch of Moscow
- 1648 Cossacks slaughter 2,000 Jews and 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine
- 1658 French fleet recaptures Duinkerk
- 1662 Dutch invasion of Macau repulsed (Macau Day)
- 1664 Colony of New Jersey founded when Duke of York grants Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret ownership of land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers
- 1692 Kingston, Jamaica, founded after Port Royal at mouth of the harbour destroyed by an earthquake
- 1717 1st Free Masons' grand lodge founded in London
William Allen Grand Master
1731 Freemason and Mayor of Philadelphia William Allen is appointed Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, the first and youngest Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
Kingswood School Opens
1748 The Kingswood School is opened by John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley in Bristol, England; the school later moves to Bath
- 1750 Jesuit priest hold first mass in The Little Chapel in Tadoussac, New France (built 1747, now the oldest surviving church in North America) [1]
- 1778 David Rittenhouse observes a total solar eclipse in Philadelphia
- 1793 First Republican constitution in France adopted
- 1794 Bowdoin College is founded in Maine, USA
- 1795 US and Great Britain sign Jay Treaty, 1st US extradition treaty
- 1806 British under Commodore Popham and Colonel Beresford reach Buenos Aires
- 1813 Battle of Beaver Dams - British and native forces defeat US forces (War of 1812)
- 1821 Battle of Carabobo; Bolívar defeats royalists outside Caracas
- 1829 Former slave Mary Prince is the first women to partition the UK parliament - to return to the West Indies as a free person [1]
- 1841 Fordham University (then St John's College), opens in the Bronx
- 1843 Vincenzo Soliva decrees no Jew can live outside a ghetto in Italy
- 1846 Residency tax on Jews of Hungary abolished
Gadsden Purchase
1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square-miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million (now southern Arizona and New Mexico)
Battle of Solferino
1859 Battle of Solferino, Northern Italy: French under Napoleon III and a Sardinian army under Victor Emmanuel II defeat the Austrian army led by Emperor Franz Joseph I
- 1861 Battle of Mathias Point, Virginia Union forces attack Confederate batteries
- 1861 Tennessee becomes 11th (& last) state to secede from Union
- 1863 Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crosses Potomac
- 1866 Second Battle at Custozza: the Austrian Imperial army, joined by the Venetian Army decisively defeated the Italian army, despite the Italians' strong numerical advantage
- 1880 First performance of "O Canada," the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français
- 1881 200 drown as train runs off bridge near Cuautla, Mexico
- 1882 National League expels umpire Richard Higham from baseball for dishonesty after his links with gambling on games are confirmed
- 1884 John Lynch is 1st black elected chairman of Republican convention
- 1884 The East Cleveland Street Railway Company begins the first U.S. commercial electric streetcar line in Cleveland, Ohio, on the Bentley-Knight system
- 1885 British government of Salisbury forms
- 1885 Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st US black bishop
- 1894 Marie François Sadi Carnot is assassinated in Lyon by Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio
- 1897 Hail injures 26 in Topeka, Kansas
- 1898 American troops drive Spanish forces from La Guasimas, Cuba
- 1900 Dutch Social-Democratic Workers' party & Socialistenbond merge
Picasso's 1st Exhibition
1901 First exhibition by Pablo Picasso, aged 19, opens in Paris
- 1901 Jewish National Fund starts
Coronation of Edward VII Delayed
1902 British King Edward VII develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation
Target Corporation Founded
1902 Target Corporation is founded by American businessman George Dayton as Goodfellow Dry Goods in Minneapolis
- 1903 Russia prohibits meetings dealing with Zionism
Fashion's First Signature Scent
1911 French couturier Paul Poiret holds his infamous 'The 1002nd Night' costume ball to launch his “Parfums de Rosine", 1st signature scent linked to a design house
- 1914 King Peter I of Serbia names son Alexander the Prince-regent
Pickford's Million Dollar Contract
1916 Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract
Hitler Starts Prison Sentence
1922 Adolf Hitler begins a month long prison sentence for paramilitary operations; he rails against the 'Jewish sell-out' of Germany to the Bolsheviks
- 1922 American Professional Football Association renamed the National Football League
Chicago Bears Renamed
1922 Charter NFL club Chicago Staleys renamed Chicago Bears by team founder, owner and head coach George Halas
- 1928 With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada
- 1930 First detection of an airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
- 1930 Ground is broken for construction of Cleveland Stadium, home of MLB Indians, 1932 to 1993, and NFL Browns, 1946-95
- 1931 USSR & Afghanistan sign neutrality treaty
- 1932 Coup ends absolute monarchy in Thailand
- 1936 Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro Affairs in National Youth Adm
DiMaggio Ties Records
1936 Rookie outfielder Joe DiMaggio ties 3 MLB records in New York's 10-run 5th inning against the White Sox, hitting 2 home runs for 8 total bases; Yankees beat Chicago, 18-4
- 1938 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1939 Pan Am's 1st US to England flight
- 1940 France signs an armistice with Italy during WW II
- 1941 Entire Jewish male population of Gorzhdy, Lithuania, exterminated
- 1941 Germans advance into Russia and take Vilna, Brest-Litovsk and Kaunas
- 1942 German Africa Korps invades Egypt
- 1942 US Admiral Ernest King orders Tulagi (Solomon Island) reconquered
Nazis Destroy Ležáky
1942 Village of Ležáky, Czechoslovakia destroyed by Nazis after Gestapo finds a radio transmitter believed to have been involved coordinating the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, 33 adults were executed by firing squad on site, and children were sent to concentration camp gas chambers, and the village was burned down and plowed under
Jackie Robinson's First Steal
1947 Future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Jackie Robinson steals home for first of 19 times in his career as the Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2
Thomas E. Dewey Nominated
1948 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia nominates Governor of NY Thomas E. Dewey
The Berlin Candy Bombers
1948 Soviet Union blockades West Berlin by stopping access by road, rail and water
LPGA Western Open
1950 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Cherry Hills CC: Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins her 4th Western Open; beats Peggy Kirk, 5 & 3
Baseball History
1955 Harmon Killebrew hits his 1st HR (off Billy Hoeff)
Music History
1956 "Steve Allen Show" returns on NBC-TV
Event of Interest
1960 Patrice Lumumba as head of the MNC party forms a government in the Congo and becomes independent Congo's first Prime Minister
If You Love Me Baby
1961 Tony Sheridan, backed by the Beatles, records "If You Love Me Baby" (aka "Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby") in Hamburg, Germany
- 1962 Outfielder Jack Reed hits his only MLB home run in the 22nd-inning as NY Yankees edge Detroit Tigers, 9-7 in slowest extra-inning game in league history; 7:00 hours
- 1963 1st demonstration of home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London
- 1963 Levi Eshkol forms 11th Israeli government
- 1963 Zanzibar granted internal self-government by Britain
- 1964 FTC rules health warnings must appear on all cigarette packages
- 1964 In South Africa, the 90-Days Act commences, providing for any person to be detained, without trial, for 90 days; further, the person could be re-arrested under the same law for another 90 days
- 1966 Period of relative peace following WW II exceeds that following WW I
- 1967 Zaire adopts constitution
- 1968 Australia all out for 78 v England at Lord's
- 1968 Deadline for redeeming silver certificate dollars for silver bullion
- 1968 Jim Northrup hits 2 grand-slammers to help Tigers beat Cleve 14-3
Boxing Title Fight
1968 Joe Frazier stops Mexican challenger Manuel Ramos in 2nd round TKO at NYC's Madison Square Garden in his first heavyweight boxing title defense
- 1968 Resurrection City in Washington, D.C. closed permanently
- 1970 "Catch 22" opens in movie theaters
- 1970 Bobby Murcer ties record of 4 consecutive HRs
- 1970 Reds play final game at Cincinnati's Crosley Field, beat Giants 5-4
- 1970 US Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
1971 Warner Bros. releases "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", a western film by Robert Altman, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, with songs by Leonard Cohen
- 1972 Single "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" by Jimmy Castor Bunch peaks at #6
- 1972 South African runner Danie Malan sets a new 1,000m world record 2:16.0 in Munich, Germany
- 1972 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) kill 3 British Army soldiers in a land mine attack near Dungiven, County Derry
- 1972 Wake Island becomes unincorporated territory of US (US Air Force)
- 1972 Yvonne Brathwaite Burke becomes 1st black chair of a Democratic convention
- 1973 Marlene Raymond (15), limboes under a flaming bar at 6 1/8"
- 1974 India is dismissed for 42 in 17 overs in 2nd Test defeat to England at Lord's; lowest total in country's Test cricket history; Chris Old 5-21, Geoff Arnold 4-19
- 1974 Kansas City pitcher Steve Busby retires first 9 White Sox to set AL record with 33 consecutive batsmen retired; Royals still lose, 3-1 to Chicago
- 1975 Eastern 727 crashes at JFK Airport NY, kills 113
- 1975 Moon tremor perceived (hit by Taurid meteors)
- 1976 1975 movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" released in Germany
- 1976 A Principal's office in Hlengisi Primary, Nyanga, outside Cape Town, South Africa, is burnt down; part of the broader resistance against the oppressive new Bantu Education policy of Afrikaans as a teaching medium in their schools
We Must Believe in Magic
1977 Crystal Gayle releases best-selling album "We Must Believe in Magic" featuring worldwide hit "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (1st platinum album by a female country music artist)
Event of Interest
1977 IRS reveals US President Jimmy Carter paid no taxes in 1976
- 1977 Josiah Mutabuzi Isaya Kibira is the first African to be elected president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Baseball Record
1979 Rickey Henderson debuts for Oakland & steals his 1st base
- 1980 Affirmed wins $500,000 Hollywood Cup, 1st horse to win $2 million
For Your Eyes Only
1981 "For Your Eyes Only", 12th James Bond, starring Roger Moore and 1st drected by John Glen premieres in London
- 1982 1st spacionaut Jean-Loup Chrétien and 2 Soviet cosmonauts, lift off aboard Soyuz T-16
Event of Interest
1982 Equal Rights Amendment goes down to defeat
- 1982 Soyuz T-6 Launch (USSR)
- 1982 US Supreme Court rules president can't be sued for actions in office
- 1983 7th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Challenger 2 lands at Edwards AFB
Baseball Record
1983 Don Sutton becomes 8th pitcher to strikeout 3,000 batters
Baseball Record
1984 Joe Morgan sets career HR mark for 2nd basemen with #265
Senior Players Championship
1984 Senior Tournament Players Championship Men's Golf, Canterbury GC: Arnold Palmer wins 2nd straight Champions Tour major by 3 strokes ahead of Peter Thomson of Australia
Meeting of Interest
1986 In Britain, Foreign Office Minister Lynda Chalker, meets Oliver Tambo, president of the African National Congress to discuss means of ending Apartheid without violence
- 1986 US Senate approves "tax reform"
- 1987 CFL's Montreal Alouettes team folds
- 1987 Minor League Salt Lake City Trappers begin pro baseball record 29 consecutive win streak
- 1988 Cleveland pitcher Doug Jones sets record of 14 consecutive saves
- 1988 Red Sox begin AL record 23rd consecutive home win streak
- 1989 Cards Vince Coleman steals record 39th & 40th consecutive bases
Appointment of Interest
1989 Jiang Zemin appointed the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
- 1991 NHL adopts instant-replay and tenth of second clock in final minute
Music History
1992 Billy Joel (43) gets diploma from Hicksville (New York) High School, 25 years after leaving with a missing English credit; he submitted samples of his writing to earn his degree
- 1992 Eddie Antar, American CEO (Crazy Eddies), facing $74M stock fraud charges, caught in Israel
Murder of Interest
1992 Mafia boss John Gotti begins life sentence in jail for murder and other crimes
- 1992 MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent permanently bans pitcher Steve Howe from baseball for repeated substance abuse violations; later overturned on appeal
Sports History
1992 NBA Draft: LSU center Shaquille O'Neal first pick by Orlando Magic
- 1993 Arab terrorist group planning bombing of Holland and Lincoln Tunnels caught
- 1993 Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber
- 1994 1st French "all news" TV (LCI) begins broadcasting
Rugby World Cup
1995 3rd Rugby World Cup, Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Springboks fly-half Joel Stransky lands the winning drop goal in extra time as South Africa beats New Zealand, 15-12
- 1995 Stanley Cup Final, Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, NJ: New Jersey Devils beat Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 for a 4-0 series sweep; Devils' first Stanley Cup finals appearance
- 1995 Wrapped Reichstag art installation completed by artists Christo and Jeanne Claude; German parliament building completely wrapped by polypropylene fabric [1]
Baseball Record
1997 Despite an AL record 19-strikeout performance by Randy Johnson, A's first baseman Mark McGwire hits a massive 538 foot home run in Oakland's 4-1 defeat of Seattle Mariners
- 1997 Melissa Drexler, 18, charged with killing her baby during her prom
- 1997 USAF reports Roswell 'space aliens' were dummies
- 1998 NBA Draft: Pacific center Michael Olowokandi first pick by Los Angeles Clippers
Music History
1999 Christie’s Auction House in New York City conducts sale of 100 of Eric Clapton’s guitars to benefit Crossroads Centre at Antigua, a drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation facility he co-founded in 1997, raising nearly $4.5M; "Brownie", a 1956 Fender Stratocaster used on the original recording of "Layla" sells for a then record $450,000
- 2002 The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history
- 2004 Capital punishment is declared unconstitutional in New York
- 2004 Christie’s Auction House in New York City conducts sale of 80 of Eric Clapton and friends' guitars to benefit Crossroads Centre at Antigua, a drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation facility he co-founded in 1997, raising over $5M; "Blackie", a 1956-57 composite Fender Stratocaster used as his primary instrument form the mid 70s until 1985 sells for a then record $959,500
- 2004 NBA Draft: Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy power forward Dwight Howard first pick by Orlando Magic
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
2006 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres at Disneyland - becomes fastest film to gross over 1 billion
- 2007 The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours
Film Release
2009 Michael Bay's film "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is released, grossing over $832 million worldwide
Coach Babcock
2009 Mike Babcock is named head coach of Team Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics (they would win the gold medal)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
2010 "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, directed by David Slade, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, premieres in Los Angeles