1st Co-Emperors
161 Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire
- 161 Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire
Dies Solis Invicti
321 Roman Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire
Henry VIII Divorce Denied
1530 English King Henry VIII's divorce request is denied by Pope Clement VII
- 1560 Christian fleet under Gian Andrea lands at Djerba, North Africa
- 1573 Turkey & Venice sign peace treaty
- 1621 John Pieterszoon Coen's troops land on Lontor, East Indies
- 1633 Prince Frederick Henry appoints himself viceroy of Limburg
- 1644 Massachusetts establishes 1st two-chamber legislature in colonies
- 1696 English King William III departs Netherlands
Punishment for Boston Tea Party
1774 King George III charges colonists in Boston with attempting to injure British commerce, paving the way for the closing of the port to punish colonists for the Boston Tea Party
Cook Sights Oregon Coast
1778 Captain James Cook 1st sights Oregon coast at Yaquina Bay
Uniformitarianism
1785 Geologist James Hutton presents his full theory of uniformitarianism at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- 1824 Giacomo Meyerbeers opera "Il Crociati in Egitto" (The Crusader in Egypt) premieres at La Fenice in Venice with famous castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti singing
- 1827 Shrigley Abduction: Ellen Turner, a wealthy heiress in Cheshire, England, is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future politician in colonial New Zealand
- 1829 US Senate confirms John McLean as associate justice of the US Supreme Court
- 1835 HMS Beagle returns from Concepcion to Valparaiso
- 1843 1st Catholic governor in US, Edward Kavanagh of Maine, takes office
- 1847 US General Scott occupies Vera Cruz, Mexico
- 1848 In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
Compromise of 1850
1850 Daniel Webster endorses Compromise of 1850, proposed by Henry Clay to settle issues over slavery between states
- 1851 Poll tax levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia ends
- 1852 Dutch telegraph traffic regulated by law
- 1854 Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes
- 1857 Baseball decides 9 innings constitutes an official game, not 9 runs
- 1862 US Civil War: Battle of Pea Ridge (aka Elkhorn Tavern) (Arkansas), Day 2, Confederate Generals Ben McCulloch & James McIntosh killed
- 1865 -10] Battles around Kinston, North Carolina
- 1870 Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1st pro BB team, begin 8-mo tour of Midwest & East
- 1872 -8°F (-22°C) in Boston, Massachusetts
Alexander Graham Bell Patents Telephone
1876 Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for the telephone in the US
The Grand Duke
1896 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's 14th and final comic opera together "The Grand Duke" premieres at the Savoy Theatre, London
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1905 Arthur Conan Doyle publishes "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" collection in London after public pressure to revive his famous detective (Feb New York)
- 1906 Finnish Senate accepts universal suffrage, except for poor
- 1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stands before city council and announces that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles"
- 1911 US sends 20,000 troops to Mexican border
- 1911 Willis Farnsworth of Petaluma, California, patents coin-operated locker
Amundsen Reaches South Pole
1912 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen announces his team was the first to reach the South Pole (located 14 December 1911), 34 days before British explorer Robert Falcon Scott
Distinguished Service Medal
1918 President Woodrow Wilson authorizes US Army's Distinguished Service Medal
- 1918 World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany
Gardel Argentine Citizenship
1923 French-born tango singer-songwriter Carlos Gardel applies for Argentine citizenship
Bluebird Sets Land Speed Record
1935 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 276.71 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car; last record set at Daytona Beach, Florida
- 1935 Saar incorporated into Germany
Hitler Breaks Treaty of Versailles
1936 German dictator Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops into the then demilitarized Rhineland
Sauer Wrestling Champion
1940 Peter Saur, fighting as Ray Steele, beats Bronko Nagurski in St Louis, to become National Wrestling Association Heavyweight Champion
Patton in Tunisia
1943 US General George S. Patton arrives in Djebel Kouif, Tunisia
18th Academy Awards
1946 18th Academy Awards: "The Lost Weekend" Ray Milland & Joan Crawford win
Bikini Atoll is Evacuated
1946 Bikini Atoll islanders are evacuated by the US government to make way for a nuclear testing site
- 1946 Max Frisch's play "Santa Cruz" premieres in Zürich
- 1947 The Kuomintang and Communist Party of China resume full-fledged Civil War.
- 1948 The Dodecanese islands officially become part of Greece again, ending Italian rule
- 1950 Ice Pairs Championship at London won by K Kennedy & P Kennedy (USA)
- 1950 Men's Figure Skating World Championship in London won by Dick Button (USA)
Boxing Title Fight
1951 Ezzard Charles beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for 2nd time to win National Boxing Association world heavyweight title, at the Olympia in Detroit, Michigan
Autumn Garden
1951 Lillian Hellman's play "Autumn Garden" premieres on Broadway in NYC
Emmy Awards
1955 7th Emmy Awards: "Make Room for Daddy", Danny Thomas & Loretta Young win
- 1955 Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of spitter
Peter Pan
1955 Musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin broadcast live on NBC as part of "Producers' Showcase" series; attracts a then record 65 million viewers
Sports History
1959 West Indies all out 76 v Pakistan at Dacca, Fazal Mahmood 6-34
- 1960 Dutch Builders strike for CLA
- 1962 Ground-breaking report "Smoking and Health" published by the British Royal College of Physicians, first major report to warn of the dangers of smoking
- 1962 Launch of OSO 1, 1st astronomy satellite (solar flare data)
- 1962 The Beatles made their broadcasting debut on BBC radio
Music History
1963 John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman record their self-titled album "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Event of Interest
1965 Alabama state troopers and 600 black protesters clash in Selma during "Bloody Sunday", protesters, including future congressman John Lewis beaten and hospitalized
- 1965 Bruce Taylor takes 5-86 in debut innings for NZ after ton
- 1965 Christian-democrats win parliament in Chile
- 1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1967 Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa begins 8-year jail sentence for defrauding the union & jury tampering (commuted Dec 23, 1971)
- 1968 The BBC broadcasts the news for the first time in color on television
- 1969 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1970 Ice Dance Championship at Ljubljana won by Pakhomova & Gorshkov (URS)
- 1970 Ice Pairs Championship at Ljubljana won by Rodnina & Ulanov (URS)
- 1970 Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Ljubljana won by Gabriele Seyfert (GDR)
- 1970 WXOW TV channel 19 in La Crosse, WI (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1971 Egypt refuses to renew the Suez cease fire
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
1972 "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" single written by Ewan MacColl, released by Roberta Flack (Billboard Song of the Year 1972)
- 1973 Comet (Lubos) Kohoutek discovered at Hamburg Observatory
Election of Interest
1973 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League wins election in Bangladesh
- 1974 "USS Monitor", Union Ship sunk in 1862 during US Civil War, restored at Cape Hatteras
- 1974 1st general strike in Ethiopia
Mirror
1975 "Mirror", Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Margarita Terekhova and Ignat Daniltsev, is released
Young Americans
1975 RCA releases "Young Americans", David Bowie's 9th studio album, recorded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City; featuring appearances by John Lennon on two tracks, it peaks in the U.S. charts at No. 9, and No. 2 in the U.K.
Meeting of Interest
1977 Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin meets US President Jimmy Carter
Baseball Hall of Fame
1979 Warren Giles and Hack Wilson selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1981 First homicide at Disneyland, 18-year-old Mel Yorba is stabbed to death during a fight with James O'Driscoll after allegedly pinching his girlfriend’s bottom
- 1982 Jarmilla Kratochvilova run world record 400 m indoor (49.59 sec)
- 1982 NCAA Tournament Selection televised live for 1st time
- 1983 TNN (The Nashville Network) begins on Cable TV
- 1984 The United States attacks San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua.
- 1985 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.1 (update) released
- 1986 South-Africa emergency crisis in Brabant & Limburg ends
NHL Record
1986 Wayne Gretzky breaks own NHL season record with 136th assist
- 1987 Gavaskar becomes 1st cricket batsman to score 10,000 Test runs
Boxing Title Fight
1987 Mike Tyson beats James 'Bonecrusher' Smith by unanimous decision in 12 rounds in Las Vegas for WBC / WBA heavyweight boxing titles
- 1988 Colombia becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
Film & TV History
1988 Howard Stern's 1st pay-per-view "Underpants & Negligee Party"
- 1988 Jim Abbott, 1-handed pitcher, wins 58th James E Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the US, becoming 1st baseball player to win the award
Sports History
1989 Dino Ciccarelli is traded by the Minnesota North Stars to the Washington Capitals
Event of Interest
1989 Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses"
- 1989 Partial eclipse of the Sun (Hawaii, NW North America, Greenland)
- 1990 3 passengers killed & 162 injured as subway train derails (Philadelphia)
- 1990 Wayne Huizenga buys ½ of Joe Robbie Stadium and 15% of Dolphins for $30m
- 1991 Iraq continues to explode oil fields in Kuwait
- 1992 Nicole Stevenson swims world record 200m backstroke (2:06.78)
- 1993 Diff'rent Strokes actor Todd Bridges arrested for stabbing a tenant
Event of Interest
1994 ANC chief Nelson Mandela rejects demand by white right-wingers for separate homeland in South Africa
Event of Interest
1994 Charles Taylor resigns as President of Liberia
- 1994 The United States Supreme Court rules in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use
- 1994 US Navy issues 1st permanent order assigning women on combat ship
- 1995 NY becomes 38th state to have the death penalty
- 1995 US dollar worth record 1.5330 Dutch guilders
- 1996 1st surface photos of Pluto (photographed by Hubble Space Telescope)
- 1996 British Steel in Workington wins Lithuanian multi-million pound order
Sports History
1996 Magic Johnson is 2nd NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists
- 1996 The first democratically elected Palestinian parliament formed
- 1997 5 sue Japanese PM Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life
- 1997 Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome & Stockholm are finalists for 2004 Olympics site
- 2004 New Democracy wins the national elections in Greece.
- 2005 Mass protest outside the National Assembly of Kuwait building for women's voting rights in Kuwait
- 2007 British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected
Academy Awards
2010 82nd Academy Awards: "The Hurt Locker", Jeff Bridges & Sandra Bullock win
- 2011 "Crazy Girl" single released by Eli Young Band (ACM Awards Song of the Year 2012, Billboard Song of the Year 2011)
Film & TV History
2011 Charlie Sheen is fired from the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men"
- 2013 Hilary Mantel is awarded the 2013 David Cohen Prize for literature
- 2013 UN Security Council approves further North Korean sanctions for its nuclear testing
- 2015 54 people are killed & 143 are wounded by 5 Boko Haram suicide bombings in Maiduguri city, Nigeria
- 2015 Chris Sharma completes the first ascent of El Bon Combat in Cova de l'Ocell, Spain, initially considered close to 9b+ (5.15c)
Sports History
2016 Peyton Manning announces his retirement from the Denver Broncos and the NFL
Sports History
2016 Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova reveals failed drug test for meldonium at Australian Open in January, subsequently suspended for 15 months
- 2017 19 girls killed in a fire at a government-run care center in San José Pinula, Guatemala
- 2017 Malta's famous landmark the Azure Window collapses into the sea after a storm
- 2019 Chinese telecommunications company Huawei sues the US government over a federal ban on its products
- 2019 Power and communications blackout begins in Venezuela
Elizabeth II's First Instagram Post
2019 Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain shares her first Instagram post, a letter between mathematician Charles Babbage and Prince Albert
Event of Interest
2021 NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says "no way I resign' amid accusations of sexual assault and his office concealing nursing home deaths
Film & TV History
2021 Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex broadcast on CBS, alleges Meaghan was made suicidal and subject to racist treatment by the palace
- 2022 Global death toll from Covid-19 passes 6 million according to Johns Hopkins figures, with 57% of the world's population fully vaccinated [1]
- 2022 UN refugee agency says Russian invasion of Ukraine has now led to 1.7 million people fleeing the country, civilian deaths recorded at 406 with 801 injured [1]
- 2023 1.28 million people protest in nationwide demonstrations throughout France against government plans tp raise the pension age from 62 to 64 [1]
- 2023 British architect David Chipperfield is awarded Architecture's Pritzker Prize [1]
- 2023 China and America are heading toward inevitable "confrontation and conflict", unless America changes course warns Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang [1]
Gender Equality Slips Away
2023 Gender equality now "300 years away” and "vanishing before our eyes" for reasons including maternal mortality and early marriage, according to UN Secretary General António Guterres in speech for International Woman's Day [1]
