Louis the Pious
833 Louis the Pious, King of the Franks, performs public act of penance at the Church of Saint Medard in Soissons
- 1565 Pope Pius IV publishes decree Professi fidei
St Paul's Cathedral
1673 Christopher Wren is appointed architect for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral in London by King Charles II [1]
Benjamin Franklin
1789 In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Benjamin Franklin writes "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes"
- 1839 1st US anti-slavery party, Liberty Party, convenes in NY
Bulls Finally Spared 700 Years of Cruelty
1839 Last bull run in Britain as the Stamford bull run ends after 700 years
- 1841 James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnosis
- 1849 Peter Burnett elected first governor of California
- 1851 1st meeting of anti-revolutionary "Netherlands & Orange"
- 1851 Telegraph connection between London-Paris linked
- 1851 The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what would become Seattle, Washington
- 1854 "New Era" sinks off New Jersey coast with loss of 300
Big Ben Chimes
1856 The Great Bell of Big Ben first chimes at the foot of the still unfinished clock tower outside the Palace of Westminster [1]
- 1861 A letter is written by Reverend Mark R. Watkinson petitioning the Treasury Department to "recognize Almighty God" on American coins; the department eventually decides on the motto "In God We Trust"
- 1864 The new Constitution of Greece adopted
- 1865 US issues 1st gold certificates
- 1868 American Philological Association organized in NY
- 1875 Harvard-Yale game is 1st college football contest with uniforms
- 1875 National Bowling Association organized in NYC
- 1887 Bloody Sunday clashes in central London
- 1900 Baltimore Orioles (now NY Yankees) enter baseball's American League
- 1901 Caister Lifeboat Disaster claims lives of nine lifeboat men off the coast of Norfolk, England
Heart of Darkness
1902 "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is first published in one volume (previously serialized) by William Blackwood in Edinburgh
- 1906 C. W. Gregory out for 383 as NSW make 763 v Queensland, in record cricket innings by an Australian
- 1907 French cyclist Paul Cornu flies 1st helicopter (twin rotor)
- 1907 The Conference of Central American States, convoked in response to the war between Honduras and Nicaragua, meets in Washington, D.C. to promote unification
- 1909 259 miners die in a fire at St Paul Mine at Cherry, Illinois
- 1909 Ben Simpson of Hamilton Tigers kicks 9 singles in 14-4 win over the Argos at Rosedale Field in Toronto
- 1909 Collier's magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields
- 1916 British offensive at Ancre, Belgium
- 1916 Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription
- 1918 Prince Friedrich, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, abdicates
- 1918 Russia cancels Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- 1918 Stahlhelm forms (anti communist/Polish/French) in Magdenburg
- 1920 Hudson River freezes at Albany
- 1921 US, France, Japan and British Empire sign a Pacific Treaty
- 1926 Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) uprising in Bantam, West Java
- 1927 New York - New Jersey Holland Tunnel, 1st twin-tube underwater auto tunnel, opens
- 1930 WA Drake's "Grand Hotel" premieres in NYC
- 1931 Hattie Caraway (D-AK) appointed first US woman senator
- 1933 First modern sit-down strike by Hormel meat packers in Austin, Minnesota
- 1935 Anti-British riots in Egypt
- 1937 NBC forms first full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio
- 1938 America's first saint, Mother Frances Cabrini, beatified
Fantasia
1940 Walt Disney's animated film "Fantasia", starring Leopold Stokowski, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mickey Mouse, and ballet dancing hippopotamuses, premieres at the Broadway Theatre, New York City
Draza Mihailovic Meets German Intelligence
1941 German military-intelligence service Abwehr meets with Yugoslav Chetnik guerilla leader Draza Mihailovic
- 1946 First artificial snow produced from a natural cloud, Mt Greylock, Massachusetts
- 1950 General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas
- 1950 US win 1st world championship bridge contest
- 1951 Janet Collins is the first 1st African-American dancer to appear at the Metropolitan Opera, in a production of Aida
Lefty O'Doul's All-Stars
1951 Lefty O'Doul's all-stars, including Joe DiMaggio and Billy Martin, lose 3-1 to Pacific League all-star team (Japan)
- 1952 False fingernails 1st sold
- 1952 KLBK TV channel 13 in Lubbock, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
Shostakovich String Quartet
1953 Dmitri Shostakovich's 4th String Quartet premieres
- 1955 1st live telecast from non-contiguous foreign country-Havana Cuba
- 1955 Argentine general Pedro Aramburu succeeds E Lonardi as president
- 1956 US Supreme court rules race separation on buses in Alabama unconstitutional
- 1958 NYC Mayor Robert Wagner announces plans to begin a new baseball league called the Continental League, to fill the void created by the city's Giants and Dodgers moving to the west coast
- 1959 The Academy of St Martin in the Fields' first professional concert takes place in London
- 1960 Fire in movie theater kills 152 children in Amude, Spain
- 1961 Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB.
- 1961 WCBB TV channel 10 in Augusta, ME (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1964 Bob Petit (St Louis Hawks) becomes 1st NBAer to score 20,000 points
- 1965 "Yarmouth Castle" burns and sinks off Bahamas, killing 89
- 1965 Director Kenneth Tynan says the word "F*ck" on BBC
Flip Wilson
1966 American comedian Flip Wilson makes his debut appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"; he returns 10 times [1]
- 1967 Carl Stokes sworn-in as 1st major city black mayor (Cleveland, Ohio)
- 1967 NL owners OK AL expansion to Seattle & Kansas City
Elvin Hayes
1968 As a rookie, future Basketball Hall of Fame forward Elvin Hayes scores 54 points in San Diego Rockets' 122-120 win over Detroit Pistons, a career-high
- 1968 William Craig, Home Affairs Minister, bans all marches, with the exception of 'customary' parades, in Derry, Northern Ireland; the exception of 'customary' parades meant that Loyalist institutions could parade but civil rights marches could not
Agnew's Accusation
1969 Vice President Spiro Agnew accuses network TV news departments of bias and distortion
- 1970 US Vice President Spiro Agnew calls TV executives "impudent snobs"
- 1971 Mariner 9, 1st to orbit another planet (Mars)
Jackson AL MVP
1973 Oakland A's Reggie Jackson wins AL MVP unanimously
Garvey NL MVP
1974 Dodgers Steve Garvey wins NL MVP
NL MVP Shared
1979 Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Willie Stargell and St Louis Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez share National League MVP Award
Reagan Announces Candidacy
1979 Ronald Reagan announces his candidacy for US President in NYC
- 1980 US spacecraft Voyager 1 sends back 1st close-up pictures of Saturn during its fly-by
Wrack My Brain
1981 Ringo Starr releases single "Wrack My Brain", written and produced by George Harrison, in the UK
- 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens in Washington, D.C., featuring the names of over 58,000 US soldiers killed or missing in the Vietnam War
Sports History
1982 WBA lightweight champion Ray Mancini beats South Korean challenger Duk Koo Kim by TKO in 14th round in Las Vegas; Kim collapses, falls into a coma and dies 4 days later; as a result, WBC shortens title bouts to 12 rounds; WBA & WBO follow in 1988, and IBF in 1989
- 1984 David Levy finds his first comet
Sandberg NL MVP
1984 Ryne Sandberg wins the NL MVP Award
Gooden Cy Young Award
1985 Dwight Gooden, youngest 20 game winner, wins Cy Young award
- 1985 Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts in Colombia, killing 25,000 in the town of Armero
- 1986 NASA launches space vehicle S-199
- 1986 US President Reagan confesses weapon sales to Iran
- 1987 1st condom commercial on British TV
Sonny & Cher
1987 Sonny & Cher perform together for the final time, singing "I Got You Babe" on 'Late Night with David Letterman' (NBC)
Ayrton Senna
1988 Brazilian McLaren driver Ayrton Senna finishes 2nd in the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide to win his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins title by 3 points from Alain Prost
Figure of 8
1989 Paul McCartney releases single "Figure of 8" & "Ou Est Le Soleil"
- 1990 In the New Zealand seaside town of Aramoana, David Gray shoots dead 13 people in the Aramoana massacre
- 1990 Oakland's Bob Welch wins AL Cy Young Award
- 1990 Saudis ask US for rights to bid on SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) crude
- 1991 Bomb destroys Dutch Labour party politician Aad Kosto's house in a failed assassination attempt, he survives and in a famous image finds and cuddles his cat
Clemens AL Cy Young
1991 Boston Red Sox Roger Clemens wins AL Cy Young Award
Bowe vs. Holyfield
1992 Riddick Bowe wins the undisputed world heavyweight boxing crown with a unanimous points decision over Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas; first of their 3 meetings
Michael Schmacher
1994 Title contenders Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill famously collide on lap 35 of the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide; Schumacher wins his first F1 World Drivers Championship by 1 point from Hill
GoldenEye
1995 "GoldenEye", 17th James Bond film released, starring Pierce Brosnan for the first time, Robbie Coltrane and Judi Dench as M
Griffey AL MVP
1997 Ken Griffey Jr. unanimously wins AL MVP
- 1997 UN pulls out arms inspection teams from Iraq
Philippine Impeachment
2000 Philippine House Speaker Manuel B. Villar, Jr. passes the articles of impeachment against Philippine President Joseph Estrada
- 2000 The Beatles release their compilation album “1” (2001 Billboard Album of the Year), and launch their official website - thebeatles.com
- 2001 Doha Round: The World Trade Organization ends a four-day ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar
Strategic Petroleum Reserve
2001 US President George W. Bush orders that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be filled to capacity over the next few years
- 2001 War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
- 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441
- 2002 The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill
Mauresmo WTA Champion
2005 French tennis star Amélie Mauresmo beats countrywoman Mary Pierce 5–7, 7–6, 6–4 for the season ending WTA Tour Championship at the Staples Center, Los Angeles
- 2007 An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six
- 2008 Equity research by Deutsche Bank states that Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines should not experience a recession, despite potential harm to economic growth from falling commodity prices and possible weaker exports
- 2008 Germany's economy, Europe's largest, contracts by 0.5% in the third quarter after GDP fell 0.4% in the second quarter, putting it in recession for the first time in five years
- 2009 Germany's growth of 0.7% in the third quarter helps lead the Eurozone out of the recession after providing overall growth of 0.4% in the same period, with the whole European Union growing 0.2%, it is reported today
- 2009 The Netherlands officially exits the recession after experiencing 0.4% growth in the third quarter, but recovery for the Netherlands still remains fragile as the country is highly dependent on exports to maintain the recovery
- 2010 Australian rock band Powderfinger, perform their last concert at the Brisbane River Stage
- 2012 3 Syrian tanks enter the demilitarized zone of Golan Heights
Event of Interest
2014 Chandra Bahadur Dangi meets the world's tallest living man, Sultan Kösen, at an event in London for Guinness World Records Day
- 2014 Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout wins the MVP awards in MLB for 2014
- 2014 Indian cricket batsman Rohit Sharma sets new world ODI record of 264 runs off 173 balls against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata
- 2015 Terror attacks in Paris at bars, restaurants, the national football stadium and Bataclan music venue leave 130 dead. Isis claim responsibility.
- 2017 First Barbie doll to wear a hijab, modeled on Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad unveiled in New York
- 2017 Italy fails to qualify for 2018 Football World Cup (first time since 1958), after play-off defeat against Sweden
- 2017 World's earliest wine-making uncovered from Khramis Didi Gora, Georgia, in clay pots from 6,000BC
- 2018 Amazon announces two new corporate outposts at Queens, New York and Arlington, Virginia
- 2018 Four members of a family arrested for the Rhoden family massacre where eight people were shot, south of Columbus, Ohio in 2016
- 2018 Kristine E. Guillaume is named the first black woman to head prestigious Harvard student newspaper "The Crimson"
- 2018 Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court blocks President Maithripala Sirisena from dissolving parliament
El Chapo Trial
2018 Trial of Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán begins in New York, he is charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder
Áñez Interim President
2019 Bolivian opposition senator Jeanine Áñez assumes interim presidency of Bolivia after Evo Morales' resignation
Trump Impeachment
2019 First day of public testimony in Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry held in Washington, D.C.
- 2019 Rediscovered painting "Lucretia" by female baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi sells for $4.1 million to the Getty Museum at auction in Paris
- 2019 Venice hit by worse floods for 50 years, due to a very high tide with waves in St Mark's square, killing one resident
Harry Styles
2020 British pop singer Harry Styles becomes the first-ever solo male featured on the cover US Vogue magazine
Cumming Sacked
2020 British strategist and chief advisor to the PM Dominic Cummings is let go by Boris Johnson
- 2020 Fly-half Nicolas Sanchez scores all the Pumas points as Argentina claim their 1st ever win over New Zealand's All Blacks, winning 25-15 in a Rugby Championship game in Sydney
Kylie Minogue Record
2020 Kylie Minogue becomes the first woman to top the UK album chart over five consecutive decades with "Disco"
- 2021 Germany records its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases amid warnings its fourth wave could kill 100,000 [1]
- 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at COP26: commits countries to a phasedown" of "unabated" coal, end deforestation by 2030 and cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 [1]
- 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Women's Tennis, Glasgow, Scotland: Belinda Bencic & Jill Teichmann score singles victories to lead Switzerland to a 2-0 win over Australia; first BJKC title for Switzerland
- 2022 Bombing on Istiklal Avenue, central Istanbul, Turkey, labelled a terrorist attack, killing six people and injuring 81 [1]
- 2022 Four Idaho university students stabbed and killed in their home in Moscow, Idaho. Suspect Bryan Kohberger arrested seven weeks later. [1]
- 2022 ICC Men's Cricket T20 World Cup, Melbourne: England beats Pakistan by 5 wickets to win their WC second title; Player of the match & series: England fast bowler Sam Curran; crowd 80,462
- 2022 Joel Embiid scores a career-high 59 points in a victory over the Utah Jazz
- 2022 The Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, built in 1957 and host to JFK, The Beatles, and Frank Sinatra is imploded; closed in 2017 after an electrical fire
David Cameron Returns
2023 Former British PM David Cameron makes shock return to government as Foreign Secretary, after PM Rishi Sunak sacks Suella Braverman and appoints James Cleverly Home Secretary [1]
- 2023 Kenya holds its first national tree planting holiday, aiming to plant 100 million trees. Part of a climate change initiative to plant 15 billion trees by 2032 [1]
