- 526 A possible date for the Antioch earthquake in present-day Syria (then the Byzantine Empire) which killed 200,000 people
- 799 Pope Leo III, aided by Charles the Great, returns to Rome
- 1349 Black Death Massacre: Jews of Free Imperial City of Augsburg massacred amidst accusations of them causing the Bubonic Plague; part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe
Jacobite Army
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite army moves into Manchester and occupies Carlisle
- 1760 French commandant Beletre surrenders Detroit to Major R. Rogers
- 1775 Sir James Jay invents invisible ink
- 1777 Spanish expeditionary soldier José Joaquín Moraga establishes El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (The Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe) in California
- 1781 Crew of slave ship Zong murder about 142 African slaves by dumping them into the sea, to claim insurance
- 1791 Chatham Islands sighted by HMS Chatham commanded by William Broughton
- 1803 Dessalines & Christophe declare St Domingue (Haiti) independent
- 1813 Dutch politician Elias Canneman (Lib) becomes Minister of Finance
The Barber of Seville
1825 Gioachino Rossini's comic opera "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville) become 1st opera performed in Italian in US, staged at New York City's Park Theater
- 1830 November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule beings in Poland begins
- 1845 The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour
- 1847 Cayuse Indians kill missionaries Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, and 12 others at Waiilatpu Mission in Oregon Country (near present day Walla Walla, Washington)
- 1850 The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, signed in Olomouc means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire, taking over the leadership of German Confederation
- 1863 Battle of Fort Sanders, Tennessee: Confederate troops fail to break through Union defenses with 8-900 causalities
- 1864 4th & last day of skirmishes at Waynesboro, Georgia
- 1864 Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee (Thomason's Station), Confederate attack on Union forces fails
- 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, Colorado militia kills about 150 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians including Cheyenne chief One-Eye
- 1870 Compulsory education proclaimed in England
- 1872 Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River
Edison's Phonograph
1877 US inventor Thomas Edison demonstrates his hand-cranked phonograph for the first time
- 1887 US receives rights to Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii
- 1890 1st US Army - US Navy football game, Score: Navy 24, Army 0 at West Point
- 1893 Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty of China after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.
- 1897 1st motorcycle race in Surrey, England
Kitchener Assumes Command
1900 General Horatio Kitchener assumes command of the British forces in South Africa from General Lord Roberts
- 1901 East 182nd Street in the Bronx is paved & opened
Der arme Heinrich
1902 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Der arme Heinrich" premieres in Vienna
- 1910 The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine
- 1915 Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California
- 1916 US declares martial law in Dominican Republic
- 1917 A Supreme Allied War Council meets at Versailles to define war aims
- 1918 Serbia annexes Montenegro
- 1921 Coldest day in November in Netherlands -14.0°C
- 1923 The Dawes Commission, chaired by the American Banker Charles G. Dawes, is set up to look into the German economic situation and make recommendations that the US can accept
- 1924 NHL's Montreal Forum opens
Tris Speaker
1926 Tris Speaker resigns as manager of the Cleveland Indians while facing game-fixing allegations
- 1926 W. Somerset Maughams comedic play "The Constant Wife" premieres in NYC
Sports History
1927 Russian-French player Alexander Alekhine becomes the fourth world chess champion, defeating reigning champion Cuban José Raúl Capablanca in Buenos Aires
Richard E. Byrd
1929 American aviator Richard E. Byrd sends "My calculations indicate that we have reached vicinity of South Pole"
Michael Joseph Savage
1935 Michael Joseph Savage becomes the first Labour party Prime Minister of New Zealand
Schrödinger's cat
1935 Physicist Erwin Schrödinger publishes his famous thought experiment "Schrödinger's cat", a paradox that illustrates the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics
- 1937 Dutch Prince Bernhard injured in auto accident in Netherlands
- 1938 Mayor Oud of Rotterdam forbids soccer match between Netherlands and Germany
- 1939 Cor Klint swims world record 200 m backstroke (2:38.8)
- 1939 USSR drops diplomatic relations with Finland
- 1941 Passenger ship Lurline sends radio signal of sighting Japanese war fleet
- 1942 US Office of Price Administration rations coffee for everyone, 10 pound a year
- 1943 U-86 sinks in Atlantic Ocean
- 1943 US aircraft carrier Hornet launched
- 1944 Albania liberated from Nazi control (National Day)
- 1944 Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore performs 1st open heart surgery
- 1944 The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas
The Lost Weekend
1945 "The Lost Weekend", based on Charles R. Jackson's novel, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman premieres in Los Angeles (Academy Awards Best Picture 1946)
- 1945 Yugoslavian Socialist Republic proclaimed
- 1946 Minister Drees begins emergency rule of old age facilities
- 1947 Anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo erupt after UN votes to partition Palestine, with cost of 75 lives and the disappearance of medieval manuscript the Aleppo Codex
- 1947 UN General Assembly vote to allow the partition of Palestine between Arabs & Jews
- 1948 1st opera to be televised, "Othello", broadcast from the Metropolitain Opera House in New York City
- 1948 KOB TV channel 4 in Albuquerque, NM (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1948 Puppet TV show "Kukla, Fran, & Ollie" starring Fran Allison debuts on NBC's WNBQ in Chicago, Illinois
- 1949 Nationalist regime of China leaves for Taiwan/Formosa
- 1949 Uranium mine explosions in East Germany kills 3,700
- 1950 National Council of Church of Christ in US forms
- 1951 1st underground atomic explosion at Frenchman Flat in Nevada
Eisenhower visits Korea
1952 US President-elect Eisenhower visits Korea to assess war
- 1953 American Airlines begins 1st regular commercial NY-LA air service
- 1953 WSIX TV channel 8 in Nashville, TN (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Turkish government of Menderes resigns
- 1956 Chris Brasher becomes first Briton to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field since 1936; claims 3,000m steeplechase in 8:41.2 at the Melbourne Games; initially disqualified but reversed on appeal
- 1957 NY Mayor Robert Wagner forms a committee to replace Dodgers & Giants
- 1959 2nd Grammy Awards: "Mack The Knife", Bobby Darin win
- 1960 26th Heisman Trophy Award: Joe Bellino, Navy (HB)
McCone CIA Director
1961 Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion CIA Director Allen Dulles resigns and is replaced by John McCone
- 1961 Freedom Riders attacked by white mob at bus station in Miss
- 1961 John A McCone replaces Allen W Dulles as 6th director of CIA
- 1961 Mercury-Atlas 5 carries a chimp (Enos) to orbit
- 1962 Great Britain & France decide to jointly build the Concorde supersonic airliner
- 1962 Major League Baseball decides to revert to 1 All-Star game per year, after 4 seasons in which 2 All-Star games were played
- 1963 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single released by the Beatles in the United Kingdom
- 1963 Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831: A Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes after taking-off from Dorval Airport near Montreal, Canada
Warren Commission
1963 US President LBJ sets up the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy
- 1964 Roman Catholic Church in US replaces Latin with English
- 1965 Dale Cummings does 14,118 consecutive sit-ups
- 1966 1st NBA game at Oakland Coliseum Arena - Warriors beat Bulls 108-101
- 1966 SS Daniel J Morrell sinks in a storm on Lake Huron, 28 die, 1 survivor.
- 1967 British troops withdraw from Aden and South Yemen
Robert McNamara
1967 Robert McNamara elected president of the World Bank
Two Virgins
1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release their 1st album "Two Virgins" in UK
- 1969 The Beatles' single "Something / Come Together" reaches #1
Test Cricket's Leading Run Scorer
1970 England cricket batsman Colin Cowdrey reaches 22 on Day 3 of the drawn 1st Test against Australia in Brisbane to become Test Cricket's leading run scorer; passes countryman Wally Hammond's world Test-record aggregate of 7,249 runs
Yale-Princeton Football Game
1970 Modernist composer Charles Ives' "Yale-Princeton Football Game", a two-minute piece written in 1897 premieres
- 1971 1st pro golf championship at Walt Disney World
- 1971 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Pong
1972 Co-founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell releases Pong, the 1st commercially successful video game, in Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California
Coco the Clown
1974 Coco the Clown's [Nicolai Poliakoff] special memorial service held at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England
- 1975 Kilauea Volcano erupts in Hawaii
Robert Muldoon
1975 New Zealand general election won by the National Party headed by Robert Muldoon
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
1975 US President Gerald Ford signs Education for All Handicapped Children Act requiring states provide free education for children with a disability
Reggie Jackson
1976 NY Yankees sign free agent Reggie Jackson to 5-year contract
Greg Chappell
1981 Australian cricketer Greg Chappell scores 201 v Pakistan at The Gabba (Brisbane)
- 1981 Major Iranian offensive mounted on central front
- 1982 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1984 Javed Miandad completes twin Test Cricket tons, v NZ, Hyderabad
- 1987 A Korean Air Boeing 707 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 115
- 1987 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
Joe Montana
1987 Joe Montana of SF 49ers completes NFL record of 22 consecutive passes
- 1987 New Orleans Saints win, assuring their 1st winning NFL season
- 1987 Ranger's Bob Frosse becomes 2nd goalie to score a goal (vs NY Islanders). It is later ruled that he should not be credited with goal.
Rajiv Gandhi Resigns
1989 Rajiv Gandhi resigns as Prime Minister of India after losing national elections
- 1990 MLB Montreal Expos president Claude Brochu agrees to buy club from Charles Bronfman
- 1990 UN Security Council approves US-sponsored resolution authorizing the use of force in the Persian Gulf if Iraq does not withdrawal from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991
- 1991 Dust storm in California's San Joaquin Valley, results in massive vehicle accident on Interstate I-5 involving 93 cars and 11 truck. near Coalinga; 17 die and 150 injured
- 1991 Test Cricket debut of Javagal Srinath, v Australia at the Gabba
- 1991 TV show "Roc" has a gay wedding episode - Can't Help Loving that Man
My Life
1994 "My Life" second studio album by Mary J. Blige is released (Billboard Music Award Top R&B Album 1995)
- 1994 Seoul, Korea, celebrated the 600th anniversary of its founding
- 1995 "Garden District" closes at Circle in the Square Theater, NYC
- 1995 CNNfn, a financial network by Turner Enterprises is launched
Clinton Lifts Oil Ban
1995 US President Bill Clinton lifts ban on exports of oil from the Alaskan North Slope; the ban was imposed after the oil embargo by Arab oil producers in 1973
- 1997 OPEC agrees to an increase in its production ceiling. OPEC has raised the ceiling to 27.5 million barrels per day for the first half of 1998
- 1997 USAir Arena closes, hosting Wash Wizards
- 1998 In a classic all-Spanish final, Àlex Corretja puts on a stunning comeback to beat Carlos Moyá 3–6, 3–6, 7–5, 6–3, 7–5 and win his only ATP Tour World Championship tennis title in Hanover, Germany
- 2001 UN Security Council unanimously approves a resolution extending the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq for another six-month period
The Concert for George
2002 "The Concert for George", a benefit memorial to George Harrison held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, features Eric Clapton; Paul McCartney; Ringo Starr; Jeff Lynne; Tom Petty; Joe Brown; Anoushka Shankar; Billy Preston; and members of Monty Python
Mandela's AIDS Concerts
2003 The first of Nelson Mandela's 46664 AIDS benefit concerts held at Green Point Stadium, Capetown
- 2005 The new Croatian Communist Party (KPH) is founded in Vukovar.
- 2007 A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as south as Trinidad.
- 2007 The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.
Sports History
2009 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia wins his only ATP World Tour Finals tennis title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Argentine star Juan Martín del Potro in the final in London, England
- 2012 30 people are killed and 100 are wounded by bombs in Hillah and Karbala, Iraq
- 2012 Luiz Felipe Scolari takes over as Brazilian Football coach
- 2012 The UN votes to approve Palestine’s status change from an observer to an observer state
Lewis Hamilton
2015 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finishes 2nd in season-ending Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix to win his 3rd overall, and 2nd consecutive World Drivers Championship by 59 points from teammate Nico Rosberg
- 2016 Former NFL player Darren Sharper sentenced to 20 years in prison for a series of rapes
- 2017 American TV host Matt Lauer is fired from NBC's "Today" show after an allegation of sexual misconduct
- 2017 Bosnian war criminal Slobodan Praljak commits suicide by poison in court at The Hague after 20 year prison term read out
- 2018 Opera "Prism" composed by Ellen Reid with lyrics by Roxie Perkin premieres at REDCAT in Los Angeles (2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music)
- 2018 Tens of thousands Indian farmers protest the agrarian crisis at parliament in Delhi
- 2019 K-pop stars Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon sentenced to prison for gang-raping unconscious fans and distributing footage of it (Jung)
- 2019 Terrorist knife attack at Fishmongers Hall by London Bridge, kills two and injures three, attacker who was previously imprisoned for 2012 terror offence is shot dead
Jesus Manger Fragment
2019 Wood fragment believed to be from Jesus' manger returned to Bethlehem after 1400 years by Pope Francis
First Female Communications Team
2020 Joe Biden and Kamala Harris announce the first all-female Communications team for the White House
Lionel Messi's 7th
2021 FIFA Ballon d'Or: Argentina and PSG forward Lionel Messi wins his record 7th award from Robert Lewandowski; FC Barcelona attacking midfielder Alexia Putellas is Women's World Player of the Year
Jack Dorsey
2021 Jack Dorsey announces he is stepping down as CEO of Twitter, to be replaced by Parag Agrawal
- 2022 For the first time fewer than half of people in England and Wales call themselves Christian according to the 2021 Census [1]
- 2022 Malawi begins historic campaign against malaria by vaccinating children under five using the RTS,S vaccine (thought to provide 30% protection) [1]
- 2022 Singapore's parliament repeals British-era Section 377A decriminalising gay sex, but introduces amendments to protect current definition of marriage [1]
- 2022 Three stowaways rescued by Spanish coastguard after 11 days at sea balancing on a ships' rudder from Nigeria to the Canary islands [1]
Event of Interest
2023 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes national apology to people effected by the thalidomide morning sickness drug over 60 years ago [1]
- 2023 Footage of rare giant rat (Uromys vika), one of world's largest rodents, the size of a newborn baby, captured for the first time on island of Vangunu, Solomon Islands [1]
- 2023 Nepal registers its first same-sex marriage in its western Lumjung district, after becoming the second Asian country to legalize it five months earlier [1]
Music History
2023 Taylor Swift is Spotify's most-streamed global artist of the year with 26.1 billion streams, with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” the most-streamed song [1]
- 2023 US says it has foiled assassination attempt by an Indian national on a US citizen who advocates for a Sikh separatist state [1]
