- 539 BC King Cyrus "the Great" of Persia marches into Babylon, freeing Jewish captives and allowing them to return home
- 1268 Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the German Hohenstaufen dynasty of Kings and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed with Frederick I, Margrave of Baden by Charles I of Sicily
- 1390 First trial for witchcraft in Paris
- 1508 Gelderse troops occupies Kuinre
- 1591 Giovanni A Facchinetti elected as Pope Innocentius IX
Walter Raleigh Executed
1618 English adventurer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against King James I of England
- 1665 Battle of Mbwila [Ambuila]: Portuguese defeat forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King Antonio I of Kongo / Nvita a Nkanga
Integral Calculus
1675 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz makes the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral, helping discover integral and differential calculus
Penn Lands in Pennsylvania
1682 William Penn lands at what is now Chester, Pennsylvania
Salem Witch Trials
1692 Court of Oyer and Terminer, convened for Salem witch trials, dissolved
Don Giovanni
1787 Opera "Don Giovanni", music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte premieres at the National Theater of Bohemia in Prague
- 1792 Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
- 1794 French troops occupy Venlo (modern south east Netherlands)
- 1811 1st Ohio River steamboat leaves Pittsburgh for New Orleans
- 1814 "Demologos", 1st steam-powered warship, is launched in New York for the US Navy
- 1833 1st US college fraternity to have a fraternity house founded
- 1859 Spain declares war on Morocco
- 1863 International Committee of Red Cross forms as result Geneva held conference (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963)
- 1864 Greek parliament accepts new Constitution
- 1867 Mail packets "Rhone" & "Wye" capsize off St Thomas, Virgin Islands
- 1872 J. S. Risdon of Genoa, Illinois, patents the metal windmill
- 1881 Judge (U.S. magazine) first published
British South Africa Company
1888 Lord Salisbury grants Cecil Rhodes charter for British South Africa Company
- 1889 Queen Victoria grants Cecil Rhodes rights to Zambezia
- 1889 Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver, British Columbia
- 1894 First election of Hawaiian Republic
- 1901 In Amherst, Massachusetts, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine
- 1904 First intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
- 1905 Nama chief Hendrik Witbooi fatally injured fighting for independence against German colonists near Vaalgras (modern Namibia) [1]
- 1910 Hamilton running back / kicker Ben Simpson lands CFL record 11 singles in Tigers 14-7 win over Montreal at Montreal AAA Grounds
- 1913 Floods in El Salvador kill thousands
- 1914 Turkish warships storm Black Sea
Aristide Briand Returns
1915 Aristide Briand becomes Prime Minister of France for the 3rd time
- 1918 German sailors refuse to obey orders to fight British naval forces and lead a revolt in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven, beginning the German Revolution
- 1920 Ed Barrow appointed GM of NY Yankees
- 1921 The Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed in northern California and Oregon
Mussolini Appointed PM
1922 Italian King Victor Emmanuell III appoints Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) as Prime Minister of Italy
- 1923 Army move SPD/KPD-government to German part of Saxony
- 1923 Gibbs, Grey and Wood's revue "Runnin' Wild" (introducing "The Charleston") opens on Broadway, New York City
- 1923 Kemal Atatürk declares Turkey a republic (successor state to Ottoman Empire)
- 1923 Mustafa Kemal officially confirms Turkey as a republic (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti), now commemorated annually as the Republic Day of Turkey
- 1923 Textile strike against lower wages begins in Enschede, Netherlands
UK General Election
1924 Labour minority government loses British parliamentary election to Conservatives led by Stanley Baldwin
- 1924 Musical revue "Dixie to Broadway" opens at Broadhurst Theater
Black Tuesday
1929 "Black Tuesday" Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the "Great Depression"
- 1930 1st Eastern Canada night CF game: Oshawa vs Toronto Balmy Beach
- 1931 Lefty Grove, A's pitcher who won 31 games, is named the AL's MVP
- 1932 French liner Normandie is launched
- 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition closes (1st closure)
- 1939 NHL Babe Seibert Memorial Game: All-Stars beat Montreal 5-3
- 1940 Secretary of War Henry L Stimson draws the 1st number - #158 - in the 1st peacetime military draft in US history
- 1942 Alaska highway completed
Dodgers Appoint Rickey
1942 Branch Rickey named president and general manager of Brooklyn Dodgers
- 1942 Nazis murder 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union
- 1942 Seventh day of battle at El Alamein: Montgomery assault
- 1943 Three allied officers escape out camp Stalag Luft 3
- 1944 1st Polish Armoured Division liberates Breda, Netherlands
- 1944 Cabadese 2nd Infantry division frees Goes South-Beveland
- 1945 First ballpoint pen goes on sale, manufactured by Reynolds in the US (just beating biro)
Getulio Vargas Resigns
1945 Getulio Vargas, President of Brazil, resigns
- 1945 Happy Chandler resigns as US Senator, remains as baseball commissioner
- 1947 Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands form Benelux Union
- 1947 Trial of art forger Han van Meegeren begins in Amsterdam
- 1948 Israeli forces liberate Meron & Gush-Halev
- 1948 Safsaf massacre, Israeli defence forces attack Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee
- 1949 White Sox trade Joe Tipton to A's for Nellie Fox
- 1950 British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) Stafford Cripps resigns
- 1950 Cleveland Browns' Marion Motley sets record for highest avg gain in a game with 17.1 (10 attempts), Cleveland 45, Pittsburgh 7
- 1950 Detroit Lions Wally Triplett achieves a kickoff return yardage of 294 yards against the LA Rams, the second highest in a single-game in NFL history
- 1953 A Baltimore group purchases St Louis Browns
Egyptian History
1954 Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser disbands the Muslim Brotherhood
- 1954 Sweden begins experimental TV
- 1955 Belgium signs accord for 5 day work week (45 hours)
- 1955 Emile Zatopek runs world record 15 mile (1:14:01) & 25,000m (1:16:36)
Maria Callas Debuts
1956 Greek-American soprano Maria Callas makes her Metropolitan Opera debut, in the title role of Bellini's "Norma"
- 1956 International Xzone of Tangier returns to Kingdom of Morocco
Huntley–Brinkley Report
1956 NBC anchors Chet Huntley and David Brinkley first team up in "The Huntley–Brinkley Report"
- 1956 Suez Crisis erupts into war as Israel invades the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, to be followed by a planned airborne assault by France and Britain
Event of Interest
1957 Hand grenade thrown from balcony in Israel's Knesset (Parliament) injures Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Foreign Minister Golda Meir, and several others
Nobel Prize in Literature
1958 Boris Pasternak refuses the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 1958 Dr F Mason Sones is first doctor to perform a coronary angiogram
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Asterix
1959 "Asterix" is first published in the French magazine "Pilote" by Rene Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo
- 1959 10 nation soccer league to play all games on NY Randalls Is, announced
Sports History
1960 Cassius Clay's [Muhammad Ali] 1st professional fight; beats Tunney Hunsaker on points in 6 rounds in Louisville, Kentucky
Event of Interest
1963 Edgar Kaufmann Jr. deeds his family property Fallingwater (1935), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy [1]
- 1964 Bobby Simpson completes cricket century in each innings v Pakistan
- 1964 Star of India & other jewels are stolen in NY
- 1964 The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar renamed The United Republic of Tanzania
- 1964 Town of Karmi'el founded in Galilee
- 1965 The Who release single "My Generation" in UK
- 1965 US performs underground nuclear test at Amchitka Island Aleutians
- 1966 NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 crashes on moon: 6.7°N 162°E
Conference of Interest
1966 National Organization of Women (NOW) officially established at an organizing conference in Washington D.C.; Betty Friedan is elected as President [1]
- 1967 Danny Abramowicz begins NFL streak of 105 consecutive game receptions
- 1967 Expo 67 closes in Montreal, Canada
- 1967 Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado's hippie musical "Hair" opens off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, NYC, for a limited 6-week run
- 1967 London criminal Jack McVitie is murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment and downfall
- 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
Sports History
1969 Tom Seaver voted NL Cy Young Award
- 1969 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1969 US Supreme Court orders end to all school segregation "at once"
- 1969 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1970 The Electoral Reform Society calls for the introduction of Proportional Representation (PR) in elections in Northern Ireland
- 1970 WYEA (now WLTZ) TV channel 38 in Columbus, GA (NBC) 1st broadcast
200 Motels
1971 Frank Zappa's musical mockumentary "200 Motels", starring The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel, and Ringo Starr premieres in Beverly Hills, California
- 1972 Don Cockroft of Cleveland Browns kicks 57-yard field goal
Mind Games
1973 Apple Records releases John Lennon's fourth studio album, "Mind Games" in US
- 1974 Law bans discrimination of sex or marital status in credit application
Event of Interest
1975 'Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe kills his first victim, Wilma McCann
- 1975 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1977 Texas' Russell Erideben kicks his 3rd 60 yard field goal of the season
- 1977 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Sports History
1979 Billy Martin fired as Yankee manager (2nd time)
- 1982 Car maker John DeLorean indicted for drug trafficking, later acquitted
The Girl is Mine
1982 Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson release single "The Girl is Mine"; peaks at # 2 in US, and #8 in UK
- 1983 550,000 Dutch demonstrate against cruise missiles
- 1983 Notre Dame's Gil Fenerty rushes for 337 yards & 6 touchdowns
- 1984 NY Marathon won by Orlando Pizzolato (2:14:53) and Greta Weitz (2:29:30)
- 1985 Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in Liberia
- 1985 St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andújar is suspended by MLB for 10 games for bumping an umpire
'Splendid Achievement' becomes the 'Road To Hell'
1986 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the final stretch of London's Orbital Motorway, the M25. Then the world’s longest ring road at 117 miles (188.3 km).
Cricket History
1986 Pakistan cricket leg-spin bowler Abdul Qadir takes 6-16 as the West Indies dismissed for 53 in 186 run defeat in 1st Test at Faisalabad
Boxing Title Fight
1987 Thomas Hearns wins unprecedented 4th different weight boxing title
- 1988 2,000 US anti-abortion protesters arrested for blocking clinics
- 1988 China announces a herbal male contraceptive
- 1988 First scheduled Soviet shuttle launch (postponed)
- 1988 Jim Elliott (US) begins 24-hr paced outdoor race for 548.9 mi
- 1989 NYC MTA opens 63rd street extension to subway
- 1989 Ozzie Newsome ends NFL streak of 150 consecutive game receptions
- 1990 30 die in a (5.7) earthquake in Algeria
- 1991 American commercial fishing vessel (F/V) 'Andrea Gail' and crew of 6 lost at sea near Sable Island in North Atlantic Ocean; story becomes basis for book and film "The Perfect Storm"
- 1991 Buck Showalter replaces Stump Merrill as NY Yankee manager
- 1993 "The Sign" single released in Europe by Ace of Base
- 1993 Dow Jones index reaches record 3687.86
- 1994 Antonov AN-12A crashes short of runway at Ust-Ilimsk Airport (Irkutsk, Russia), possibly due to icing; all 23 on board killed
- 1994 National Museum of American Indian joins the Smithsonian Institution and moves to the George Gustav Heye Center in Lower Manhattan (NYC) [1]
- 1994 NY Lotto pays $60 million+
Music Concert
1994 Pink Floyd finishes their final concert tour with a show at Earls Court in London, England
- 1995 Sunday NY News increases price from $1.00 to $1.25
- 1997 Iraq's Revolution Command Council announces that it will no longer allow US citizens and US aircraft to serve with UN arms inspection teams
- 1998 Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
- 1998 ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of STS-95 space shuttle mission
- 1998 En route Adana to Ankara, Turkish Airlines flight with crew of 6 and 33 passengers hijacked by Kurdish militant, orders pilot fly to Switzerland. Pilot lands in Ankara tricking hijacker he was landing in Sofia to refuel.
- 1998 Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, made landfall in Honduras.
Scientific Discovery
1998 Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.
- 1999 Deadliest Indian Ocean tropical super cyclone hits Odisha, India, death toll 9,885, wind speed of 300 mph
- 2001 ExxonMobil announces that a consortium it leads will spend $4 billion over 5 years to develop large offshore oil and natural gas fields in Russia's far eastern Sakhalin region
- 2002 Ho Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, a fire destroys a luxurious department store with 1,500 people shopping. Over 60 people died and over 100 are missing. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime.
Event of Interest
2004 Arabic news network, Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election
- 2004 In Rome, 25 European heads of state sign a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
- 2005 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings kill more than 60.
Election of Interest
2006 Lula da Silva is elected President of Brazil defeating Geraldo Alckmin in the second round
- 2007 Argentina elects its first female president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
Quantum of Solace
2008 "Quantum of Solace" 22nd James Bond film starring Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko, premieres in London
Event of Interest
2008 10th century Archimedes Palimpsest, featuring lost works of Archimedes, made freely available on the web, 10 years after bought by unknown tech figure
- 2008 Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to 5.
- 2011 Record-breaking snowstorm in the northeastern United States leaves nearly 2 million residents without power for more than 36 hours.
- 2012 Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in New Jersey resulting in 110 deaths and $50 billion in damage and forces the New York stock exchange to close
- 2012 Publishing companies Penguin and Random House merge to form the world's largest publisher
- 2015 China announces the end of their one-child policy after 35 years
- 2015 Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) is elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives, succeeding John Boehner (R-Ohio)
F1 World Champion
2017 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finishes a distant 9th in Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez; good enough to clinch his 4th F1 World Drivers Championship
Sports History
2017 Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki beats American Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 to win the WTA Finals title decider in Kallang, Singapore
Election of Interest
2018 Far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil's presidential election defeating Fernando Haddad
Event of Interest
2018 German Chancellor Angela Merkel announces she will not seek re-election in 2021 and step down as party leader
NBA Record
2018 Golden State shooting guard Klay Thompson breaks NBA record previously held by teammate Stephen Curry for most 3-pointers in a game with 14 in Warriors' 149-124 win over the Bulls in Chicago
- 2018 Japanese Princess Ayako of Japan marries commoner Kei Moriya at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, giving up her royal status
- 2018 Lion Air flight JT 610 crashes into the sea just after takeoff near Jakarta, Indonesia, with the loss of all 189 on board
- 2018 New research says cacao tree first used in Ecuador by Mayo Chinchipe culture, 5000 years ago, not in central America as previously thought
- 2018 Storms in Italy kill at least 11 with 75% of Venice flooded and two tornadoes striking Terracina
- 2018 World Scrabble Championship won for the fourth time by New Zealand Malaysian Nigel Richards with the word "groutier" (bad-tempered)
- 2019 1.5 million people without power in California as utility company turns power off to try and avoid sparking more wildfires
- 2019 Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigns after two weeks of nationwide protests and an economic crisis
- 2019 Rising seas could endanger 150 million people worldwide, three times more than previously thought, according study by Climate Central published in "Nature Communications"
- 2020 Former leader Jeremy Corbyn is suspended from the British Labour Party after saying a report into antisemitism in the party was "overstated"
- 2020 India records more than 8 million COVID-19 cases, the second country after the US, with a death toll of 120,527
- 2020 South Australian government axes the Adelaide 500 from 2021 Supercars Championship due to COVID-19 and falling revenue
- 2020 Three people stabbed to death in church in Nice, France, in an terrorist attack, after similar attack and President Macron's defense of right to publish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
- 2022 Crowd surge at Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea, leaves 155 people dead [1]
- 2022 Misuzulu ka Zwelithini crowned Zulu King in Duban, South Africa in the first coronation since 1994 democratic elections [1]
- 2022 Twin car bombs by a jihadist group in Mogadishu, Somalia, kill 120 people
- 2023 Turkey celebrates 100 years since the founding of its Republic [1]
