Moctezuma Meets Cortés
1519 1st meeting of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II and Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés in Tenochtitlan, Mexico
- 1520 Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.
- 1575 French Roman Catholics & Huguenots signs treaty
- 1576 Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent - 17 Dutch provinces sign anti-Spanish covenant
- 1598 Spanish troops under Bernardino de Mendoza conquer Doetinchem
- 1602 The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened
- 1620 Battle of White Mountain, Prague - 1st major victory of the Catholic Habsburgs over the Protestant Alliance in The Thirty Years' War
- 1658 Battle of the Sound: Swedish fleet prevails over the Dutch fleet during the 2nd Northern War
Charter of Privileges
1701 William Penn presents Charter of Privileges, guaranteed religious freedom for the colony in Pennsylvania
First Library in North America
1731 In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin opens 1st library in the north American colonies, the Library Company of Philadelphia
Tone's Death Sentence
1798 Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone is sentenced to death by hanging for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Tone requests to be shot instead so as to die a soldier's death.
Hightstown Derailment
1833 Train derails at Hightstown, New Jersey, killing two people. Also onboard are Cornelius Vanderbilt and former President John Quincy Adams.
- 1837 Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts founded - 1st US college founded for women
Ruy Blas
1838 Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" premieres in Paris
USS San Jacinto
1861 USS San Jacinto commanded by Charles Wilkes captures two Confederate diplomats from the British mail steamer Trent, almost causing a war between the US and the UK
Lincoln's Second Term
1864 Abraham Lincoln (R) elected to his 2nd term as American President
Il mercante di Venezia
1873 Ciro Pinsuti's opera "Il mercante di Venezia", based on William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" is first performed, at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Italy
Sarah Bernhardt Debuts
1880 French actress Sarah Bernhardt makes her US debut at NY's Booth Theater
- 1883 English freighter Nisero stranded at Atjeh (crew taken hostage)
Congo Free State
1884 German government recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- 1889 Montana admitted as 41st state of the Union
Grover Cleveland
1892 Grover Cleveland (D) elected 24th US President
X-rays
1895 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produces and detects electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today known as X-rays or Röntgen rays
Beatty made Captain
1900 British naval officer David Beatty takes part in the successful relief of the naval brigade at Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion and is promoted to captain
Sister Claire
1900 Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" is published
- 1901 Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek
Roosevelt vs. Parker
1904 American President Theodore Roosevelt (R) defeats Alton B. Parker (D)
- 1904 Inventor and manufacturer Harvey Hubbell receives the first U.S. patent for a separable electric attachment plug
- 1907 In a landmark decision for Australia, the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration rules that the Sunshine Harvester Work must pay 'fair and reasonable wages'
- 1910 1st Washington State election in which women could vote
- 1910 For the first time since 1894, the US elects a Democratic Congress, including the first socialist ever to sit in Congress, Victor L Berger of Milwaukee
- 1910 William H. Frost receives the first U.S. patent for an electrical insect destroyer
- 1915 An Austrian-Hungarian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Italian liner 'Ancona' without warning, killing over 200 people
- 1917 Telephone Co runs 1st advertisement for Army operators, receives 7,000 applicants
- 1918 Pro-German supreme commander general Cutters lay-offs
Ban Johnson
1920 Baseball meeting to depose Ban Johnson is set for Nov 12th
- 1920 Rupert Bear by illustrator Mary Tourtel first appears in the Daily Express newspaper in the UK
Beer Hall Putsch
1923 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party stage "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich, Germany
- 1924 Austria chancellor Ignaz Seipel, resigns after assassination attempt
- 1924 Fortune Theatre opens in London
Oh Kay
1926 George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and P. G. Wodehouse's musical "Oh, Kay" opens at the Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs for 256 performances
Roosevelt Defeats Hoover
1932 Amidst the Great Depression, Democrat candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover
Mutiny on the Bounty
1935 "Mutiny on the Bounty" directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable premieres in New York (Best Production/Picture 1936)
- 1937 The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.
- 1938 1st African American woman legislator, Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia
- 1939 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler at Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich, Germany; timebomb planted by workman Georg Elser explodes 13 minutes after Hitler's departure kills 8
- 1940 RAF bombs Munich, Adolf Hitler promises "an attack on the capital of the Nazi movement would not go unpunished"
- 1941 The Albanian Communist Party is founded
- 1942 1st WW II American expeditionary force lands in Africa on the Gold Coast
- 1942 Adolf Hitler proclaims fall of Stalingrad from Munich beer hall
Operation Torch
1942 Operation Torch; began as US and British forces under Eisenhower land in French North Africa
- 1942 Vichy-France drops diplomatic relations with US
- 1943 France arrests government of Lebanon after they abolish the French mandate
- 1944 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to Nazis for forced labor
- 1944 Last German troops at Walcheren Island, Netherlands surrender
- 1945 Riverboat sinks off Hong Kong; kills 1,550
La Putain Respecteuse
1946 Jean-Paul Sartre's "La Putain Respecteuse" premieres in Paris
All The King's Men
1949 "All The King's Men" based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer winning novel, directed by Robert Rossen and starring Broderick Crawford premieres in New York (Best Picture 1950)
- 1950 A US aircraft shoots down a North Korean jet in the Korean War, the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history
- 1950 Walt Dropo, first baseman of Boston Red Sox selected AL Rookie of Year
MVP Yogi Berra
1951 New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra wins 1st of his 3 MVP awards
The Ten Commandments
1956 Biblical drama film "The Ten Commandments", directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner premieres at the Criterion Theater in NYC
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956 NYT critic Brooks Atkinson writes of Eugene O'Neill's latest play 'With the production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' at the Helen Hayes last evening, the American theater acquires size and stature." [1]
JFK Defeats Nixon
1960 John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon who was the incumbent Vice President
- 1961 Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8, a Lockheed Constellation aircraft, crashes near Richmond, Virginia, 77 die
Whitney Wins Cy Young
1961 Whitey Ford is voted Cy Young Award winner over Warren Spahn
- 1962 Canada's government orders the nickel changed back to round shape
- 1964 IMF grants Great Britain credit of $1 billion
- 1964 KUPK TV channel 13 in Garden City, KS (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1965 British Indian Ocean Territory formed
- 1965 US soap opera "Days of Our Lives" premieres
- 1965 Vietnam War: US, Australian and New Zealand forces launch Operation Hump, a search-and-destroy operation near Bien Hoa in South Vietnam
First African American Senator
1966 Edward W. Brooke (Rep-R-Mass) becomes 1st African American popularly elected to the US Senate
Frank Robinson
1966 Frank Robinson, Baltimore Orioles outfielder, selected as AL MVP,first player to win MVP in both leagues
Reagan Elected Governor
1966 Movie actor Ronald Reagan elected Governor of California
AFL-NFL Merger
1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs anti-trust immunity to AFL-NFL merger
- 1967 Radio Leicester begins broadcasting on VHF, the 1st of 8 local British radio stations (now 40)
- 1967 Silver hits record $1.951 an ounce in London
- 1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1968 Londonderry Corporation agreed to a Nationalist request to introduce a points system in the allocation of public sector housing in Northern Ireland
- 1970 Tom Dempsey of New Orleans Saints kicks NFL record 63 yard field goal
Event of Interest
1972 Stock Exchange Tower, the new 26-story home of the London Stock Exchange opened by Queen Elizabeth II
- 1973 Nevada approves pari-mutuel betting on Jai Alai
Greatest Hits
1974 "Greatest Hits" 11th studio album by Elton John is released
The Great Lord Lucan Mystery
1974 British peer the Earl of Lucan disappears and is never seen again after his nanny is found murdered in London
- 1977 Greek Archaeologist Manolis Andronikos rediscovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina
Night & Day
1978 Tom Stoppard's play "Night & Day" premieres in London
- 1979 ABC broadcasts "Iran Crisis: American Held Hostage" with Frank Reynolds (forerunner to "Nightline")
- 1979 The Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) is formed.
- 1980 Voyager 1 space probe discovers 15th moon of Saturn
- 1981 Christian Democrats looses Belgium parliamentary election
- 1983 Martha Layne Collins (D) elected 1st female governor of Kentucky
- 1983 STS-9 vehicle again moves to launch pad
- 1983 Wilson Goode (D) elected 1st black mayor of Philadelphia
- 1984 14th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Discovery (STS 51-A) launches
- 1984 NASA astronaut Anna Lee Fisher becomes 1st "mom" to go into orbit aboard STS 51-A
- 1985 Atlantis moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 61-B mission
- 1987 11 are killed in an IRA bomb attack in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland
- 1988 900 die as earthquake hits China
- 1988 Arco Arena in Sacramento, California, opens, Sac Kings lose to Seattle, 97-75
Election of Interest
1988 Joe Lieberman is elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, defeating incumbent Lowell Weicker
- 1988 Rafael Fernandez Colón re-elected Governor of Puerto Rico
Bush vs. Dukakis
1988 Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected President of the United States, defeating Democrat candidate Michael Dukakis
- 1989 "Byker Grove" begins broadcasting on the BBC
- 1989 Cubs Jerome Walton wins the NL Rookie of Year
- 1989 Douglas Wilder wins election for Governor of Virginia, 1st African-American elected to the office in any state
- 1989 Hong Kong's MTR Lam Tin Station comes into service
- 1990 100,000 additional US troops are sent to Persian gulf
Darryl Strawberry
1990 Darryl Strawberry signs 5-year contract with LA Dodgers
Wicked Game
1990 Musician Chris Isaak releases single "Wicked Game"
- 1990 Saddam fires his army chief & threatens to destroy Arabian peninsula
- 1990 Unconfirmed rumors emerge that Bush might announce an airlift of supplies to US embassy in Kuwait, which could ultimately trigger a military clash
Paul Coffey
1991 Paul Coffey sets NHL defenseman scoring mark with 311th goal
- 1992 300,000 demonstrate against racism in Berlin
Nigel Mansell
1992 Nigel Mansell in a Williams crashes during the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide but wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 52 points; Mansell won record 9 GPs during the season
The Buddha of Suburbia
1993 Arista Records releases David Bowie's 19th studio "The Buddha of Suburbia", based on the novel of the same name by Hanif Kureishi, in the UK and Europe only; it is not released in US until nearly 2 years later
- 1994 Cleveland Cavaliers 1st game at Gund Arena, lose to Hous Rockets, 100-98
- 1994 Haitian government of Smarck Michel forms
- 1994 Joe Lieberman is re-elected to the United States Senate with 67% of the vote
- 1994 Republican Party nominee Tom Ridge wins Pennsylvania Gubernatorial election with 45% of the vote
Sonny Bono
1994 Voters in California elect entertainer Sonny Bono to US Congress
- 1997 Tampa Bay Devil Rays name their 1st manager Larry Rothschild
The World is Not Enough
1999 "The World is Not Enough" 19th James Bond film premieres in Los Angeles, starring Pierce Brosnan, Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane, and Denise Richards
Sacred Arias
1999 Tenor Andrea Bocelli releases his "Sacred Arias" album, the world's best-selling classical album by a single artist
Resolution 1441
2002 Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council under Resolution 1441 unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences"
- 2002 The Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum inaugurated in Lambayeque, Peru, displaying the treasure-filled tombs from the Moche culture discovered by Walter Alva [1]
Greatest Hits
2004 Mercury Nashville Records releases "Greatest Hits" album by Shania Twain (Billboard Album of the Year, 2005)
- 2004 War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
2005 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia, the first woman to lead an African country
Key Defeats Clark
2008 John Key leads the National Party to victory in New Zealand's general election, defeating Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Labour-led coalition after nine years government
- 2011 The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passed 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.
- 2013 11 people are killed in a car park bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia
- 2013 At least 6,000 people are killed after Typhoon Haiyan, tied with Typhoon Meranti as being the strongest storm ever recorded at landfall, hits the Philippines
Gorbachev's Warning
2014 Mikhail Gorbachev warns that tensions between America and Russia over Ukraine have put the world on the brink of a new Cold War
- 2014 Protests across New Zealand against the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations
Event of Interest
2014 US President Barack Obama nominates Loretta Lynch for the position of US Attorney General
Obama Doubles US Troops in Iraq
2014 US President Obama authorises deployment of 1,500 additional troops to help train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants
Demonetization
2016 Indian PM Narendra Modi announces the demonetization of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes during an unscheduled live televised address, canceling 86% of the notes in circulation in a battle against corruption
Trump Defeats Clinton
2016 Republican Donald Trump is elected 45th President of the United States of America, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton, with an Electoral College victory of 304- 227; Clinton received just under 2.9 million more popular votes [1]
- 2017 Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa breaks the world record for surfing the biggest-ever wave at 24.4m at Nazaré, Portugal
- 2017 In unprecedented move, Indian officials close all Delhi schools for rest of the week due to smog
- 2017 Louvre Abu Dhabi is inaugurated, largest art museum on Arabian peninsula
- 2017 UK Minister Priti Patel resigns after secret meetings revealed with Israeli officials
- 2018 Authorities report more than 150 people have been killed in week-long assault by government forces on port of Hudaydah in Yemen
- 2018 Azerbaijan woman who spent £16m in Harrods granted bail in UK after being arrested for suspested embezzlement under new laws
- 2018 China's state news agency is the first to introduce a virtual newsreader, developed by Chinese search engine Sogou [1]
- 2018 CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's White House clearance revoked after continuing to question President Donald Trump while an intern tried to wrestle the microphone off him
- 2018 Deadliest fire in Californian history, the Camp Fire starts at Plumas National Forest spreads in Butte County destroying town of Paradise, more than 13,000 buildings and killing at least 88
- 2018 Mass grave of 200 people discovered on border of Somali and Oromia regions, Ethiopia, in investigation into atrocities by former regional president Abdi Mohammed
- 2018 Qatar delivers $15 million in cash to pay civil servants in Gaza after earlier sending fuel to increase electricity from 4 to 8 hours a day
- 2018 Woolsey Fire starts near Thousand Oaks, California with Malibu and Calabasas evacuated, kills three
Virgin Hyperloop
2020 First test of a high-speed levitating pod system to carry people and cargo, by Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop in Las Vegas, Nevada
- 2020 Global recorded cases of COVID-19 pass 50 million, with the known death toll at 1,245,240 (Johns Hopkins data)
- 2020 More than 50 people beheaded in latest attack by Islamist militants in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique [1]
- 2021 US reopens its borders to vaccinated non US citizens after more than 18 months, lifting restrictions imposed because of COVID-19
Sexiest Man Alive
2022 Actor Chris Evans named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, says “My mom will be so happy” [1]
- 2022 Archaeologists announce the most significant find of Etruscan and Roman bronze statues for 50 years excavating an ancient spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy [1]
1st Elected Female Governor of NY
2022 Kathy Hochul becomes the first elected female Governor of New York, continuing in the role she held since replacing Andrew Cuomo mid-term
- 2022 Uganda extends its three week Ebola lockdown for another two weeks, closing schools, after the death toll reaches 53, with 135 infected [1]
- 2023 European Space Telescope Euclid releases its first images - first telescope able to capture an entire galaxy in one single exposure, also built to explore dark matter and dark energy [1]
- 2023 Landmark Australian High Court ruling says a stateless Rohingya man held in detention illegally, overturning 20-year precedent allowing some asylum seekers to be held indefinitely [1]
