- 105 BC Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.
- 68 BC Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.
- 891 Formosus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1111 Boudouin VII becomes earl of Flanders
- 1799 Battle of Castricum: Franco-Dutch army beats British-Russian army
- 1811 French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte visits Utrecht
- 1849 The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence
- 1853 4th National Women's Rights Convention opens in Cleveland Ohio
- 1854 The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead started shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.
American Chess Congress
1857 First American Chess Congress hosted by the American Chess Association in NYC, NY; won by Paul Morphy 10 November
- 1861 Naval Engagement at Charleston, South Carolina, USS Flag vs BR Alert
- 1861 Revolt of Russian student shuts down university of Petersburg
- 1863 Battle at Baxter Springs, Kansas
- 1863 Dr Charles H Sheppard opens 1st public bath, in Brooklyn
- 1866 1st train robbery in US (Reno Brothers take $13,000)
- 1871 Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a cappella ensembe from Nashville's Fisk University, begin 1st national tour of US in Cincinnati, Ohio
- 1876 American Library Association organized in Philadelphia
- 1882 1st World Series Baseball Game 1: Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA) beat Chicago White Stockings (NL), 4-0 at Bank Street Grounds, Cincinnati
- 1884 Naval War College forms in Newport, Rhode Island
- 1889 famed cabaret Moulin Rouge opens (as the Jardin de Paris) at the foot of the Montmartre hills in Paris, France
- 1889 First known ascent of the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, by German climber Hans Meyer and Austrian Ludwig Purtscheller
- 1890 General Conference of the Latter-day Saints outlaws polygamy
- 1893 Nabisco Foods invents Cream of Wheat
Arrest of Jose Rizal
1896 Filipino nationalist Jose Rizal is arrested en route to Cuba via Spain and imprisoned in Barcelona
Vienna Philharmonic
1898 Gustav Mahler conducts his first Vienna Philharmonic concert
- 1898 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity founded at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1900 Britain annexes Orange Free State (as Orange River Colony)
- 1903 The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
- 1906 The Majlis of Iran convened for the first time.
- 1908 Austria annexes Bosnia & Herzegovina
- 1908 Tigers beat White Sox, 7-0 to win AL pennant
- 1908 Yanks lose 100th game of year go 51-103 for season
- 1910 Braves beat Phillies 20-7
- 1911 Beatrix van Rijk becomes 1st licensed Dutch woman pilot
- 1912 Pirates Owen "Chief" Wilson hits record 36th triple of season
- 1914 The Russians fall back along the Eastern Front in Poland and Galicia
- 1917 Battle of Passchendaele: Canadian troops capture the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres, after 250,000 casualties on both sides
- 1918 US ship Otranto sinks between Scotland & Ireland, 425 die
- 1919 Stambuliski becomes premier of Bulgaria
- 1921 Century Theater opens at 7th Ave & 59th St NYC (demolished 1962)
- 1921 International PEN, a worldwide association of writers is founded in London
- 1922 The great powers of the first world war withdraw from Istanbul
- 1923 1st NL unassisted triple play (Ernie Padgett, Braves against Phillies)
- 1923 US Lt Al Williams fly 392.2 KPH (record)
- 1923 USSR adopts experimental calendar
- 1925 Greek premier Papanastasiou orders gen Pangulos arrested
Jazz Singer Sounds Death Knell for Silent Movies
1927 "The Jazz Singer", directed by Alan Crosland, starring Al Jolson and May McAvoy, released, 1st film with a soundtrack (Honorary Academy Award 1928)
Tito Imprisoned
1928 Yugoslav revolutionary Josip Broz Tito is convicted after police find bombs in his apartment and sentenced to 5 years in jail
Hitler's Deception
1939 WWII: Adolf Hitler speech at the Reichstag celebrates the defeat of Poland, offers peace to France and England, and mentions need for "settlement of the Jewish problem" [1]
- 1944 Allied aircraft accidentally bomb Fishing, Overijssel
- 1944 Canadians free Austria
- 1944 Royal Dutch Navy submarine Zwaardvis (Swordfish) sinks German submarine U168 in the Java Sea
- 1944 Soviet forces march into Hungary & Czechoslovakia
Polonaise
1945 Frédéric Chopin (as adapted by Bronislaw Kaper) and John LaTouche's musical "Polonaise", based on the life of Polish-American patriot Tadeusz Kościuszko, opens at the Alvin Theatre, later transferring to the Adelphi, NYC; runs for 113 performances
- 1945 Memorial for executed unveiled in Terbregge
- 1945 Tavern owner "Billy Goat" Sianis buys seat for his goat for Game 4 of Baseball World Series, is escorted out and casts goat curse on Chicago Cubs
Eisenhower Visits The Hague
1945 US General Eisenhower welcomed in The Hague (on Hitler's train)
Proconsul africanus
1948 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil skull of Proconsul africanus, an ancestor of apes and humans on Rusinga Island, Kenya
- 1949 Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose) sentenced to 10 years & $10,000 fine
Mutual Defense Assistance Act
1949 US President Harry Truman signs Mutual Defense Assistance Act (for NATO)
Stalin's Atomic Bomb
1951 Joseph Stalin proclaims the Soviet Union has the atomic bomb
The Mousetrap
1952 Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap" opens in London (still running)
- 1953 WTVM TV channel 9 in Columbus, GA (ABC) begins broadcasting
String Quartet No. 6
1956 Dmitri Shostakovich's 6th Iron quartet premieres in Leningrad
Oral Polio Vaccine
1956 Scientist Albert Sabin announces that his oral polio vaccine is ready for testing; it would soon supplant Jonas Salk's vaccine in many parts of the world
Spartacus
1960 "Spartacus", directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, premieres in NYC
- 1961 USSR performs nuclear tests at Kapustin Yar & Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
Streisand Appears on Judy Garland
1963 Barbra Streisand appears on "The Judy Garland Show"
I Hear a Symphony
1965 The Supremes release single "I Hear a Symphony"
- 1965 William Goodhart's "Generation" premieres in NYC
- 1966 LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is first declared illegal in state of California, other states follow
- 1966 Partial meltdown at Detroits's Fermi 1 nuclear reactor
- 1967 Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco) hippies throw a funeral for "Hippie" to mark end of "the summer of love".
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1968 The Beatles promotional films (music videos) for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" first broadcast in the US on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"
- 1969 WMPB TV channel 67 in Baltimore, MD (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1972 22-car train carrying 2,000 pilgrims derails, kills 208 in Mexico
Event of Interest
1972 Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Jack Lynch closes the Sinn Féin office in Dublin
- 1973 Yom Kippur War begins as Syria & Egypt attack Israel
F1 World Champion
1974 Brazilian McLaren driver Emerson Fittipaldi finishes 4th in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen to win his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 3 points from Clay Ragazzoni
- 1976 "Gang of Four" arrested in Beijing
- 1976 Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean after two bombs, placed by terrorists with connections to the CIA, explode onboard shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados, killing all 73 people on board
- 1976 John Hathaway completes 50,600 mile bicycle tour of every continent
Event of Interest
1976 US President Gerald Ford says there is "no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe"
Event of Interest
1976 Wang Hongwen finishes his term as Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
- 1976 Yao Wenyuan is arrested for his role in the Chinese Cultural Revolution
- 1977 DL Coburns "Gin Game" premieres in NYC
- 1977 In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
- 1977 Yankees win AL pennant by rallying for 3 runs in 9th to beat KC Royals 5-3 in 5th & deciding playoff game
- 1978 "Midnight Express" film premieres directed by Alan Parker starring Brad Davis, Randy Quaid and John Hurt
- 1978 Hannah H Gray inaugurated as 1st female head of a US university (Chicago)
Event of Interest
1978 Iraq declares Ayatollah Khomeini an undesirable person
Music History
1978 Mick Jagger apologizes for racist lyrics in "Some Girls"
Baseball Record
1978 Royals' George Brett hits 3 HRs, Yanks win championship game 3, 6-5
Days of Heaven
1978 Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" film premieres starring Richard Gere
- 1979 Harry Drake set long distance footbow shot record of 2,006 yds 1'9"
Papal Visit
1979 Pope John Paul II is 1st Pope to visit The White House, meeting with President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C.
- 1980 Guyana adopts constitution
Music History
1980 John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) sentenced to 3 months imprisonment on assault charges
NHL Record
1983 NHL New York Islanders Mike Bossy's 25th career hat trick
- 1983 NY Jets announce they are leaving Shea for Meadowlands
- 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
F1 World Champion
1985 French McLaren driver Alain Prost clinches his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship with a 4th placing in the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch
- 1985 Marita Koch of E Germany sets 400m woman's record (47.6) in Australia
Sports History
1985 New York Yankees knuckleballer Phil Niekro becomes 18th pitcher to win 300 games; at 46 becomes oldest to pitch a shut-out, beating Toronto 8-0
- 1985 PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London.
- 1986 Russian nuclear sub K291 sinks in Atlantic Ocean
Faith
1987 "Faith" single released by George Michael (Billboard Song of the Year 1988)
Event of Interest
1987 Military coup leader Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka declares Fiji a republic
- 1987 US Senate Judiciary Committee votes 9-5 to send nomination of Robert Bork for a seat on the Supreme Court to full senate with an unfavorable recommendation
- 1988 Oakland A's sweep Boston Red Sox in 4 games for AL pennant
- 1990 Solar Polar Orbiter 'Ulysses' launched
- 1990 US 67th manned space mission STS 41 (Discovery 11) launches into orbit
Baseball Record
1991 NY Met David Cone ties NL record by striking out 19 Phillies
- 1991 Orioles' last game at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium (vs Det Tigers)
Sports History
1993 After 9 seasons & 3 Championships with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan announces his retirement from the NBA; returns on March 18, 1995 and leads Bulls to another 3 NBA titles
- 1993 Sydney Australia Stock Market index above 2000, for 1st time
- 1994 -9] European Campaign against Racism confers in Austria
- 1994 Ben Mokoena becomes 1st black mayor of Middelburg, South Africa
- 1995 51 Pegasi discovered as the first major star, apart from the Sun, to have a planet orbiting around it
- 1995 BPAA US Women's Open won by Cheryl Daniels
- 1995 Colorodo Avalanche (former Que Nordiques) 1st NHL game, beat Detroit
Event of Interest
1996 Bob Dole and President Bill Clinton meet in their 1st debate
- 1996 Lois & Clark (fictional characters) wed
- 1996 NY Jet Nick Lowrey ties Jan Stenerud with 373 NFL field goals
Event of Interest
2000 President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević resigns
- 2000 Swedish comedy drama "Songs from the Second Floor" written and directed by Roy Andersson is released in Sweden
Event of Interest
2001 UK talent show "Pop Idol" debuts, created by Simon Fuller with judges Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman. Start of a worldwide Idol franchise.
- 2002 Pope John Paul II canonizes Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá as a Catholic saint
- 2002 The French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.
- 2007 Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
- 2008 MESSENGER spacecraft performs a second Mercury flyby
The List
2009 Manhattan Records releases "The List", the twelfth studio album by singer Rosanne Cash, with song selections culled from a list of 100 titles that her father compiled and gave her when she decided to pursue a career in music.; the album features guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, and Rufus Wainwright
Instagram Launched
2010 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launch social media app Instagram
- 2010 Phillies ace Roy Halladay pitches only the 2nd postseason no-hitter in MLB history in Game 1 NLDS, 4-0 v Cincinnati Reds, at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Sports History
2012 New Zealand wins inaugural Rugby Championship with a 32-16 win over South Africa in Johannesburg; undefeated All Blacks score 4 tries to 1 with Dan Carter booting 3 conversions, a penalty & dropped goal
Event of Interest
2012 Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI's butler, is found guilty of leaking confidential documents and is sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
- 2012 The Leeds Rhinos defeat the Warrington Wolves 26-18 to win the 2012 Super League grand final
- 2013 53 people are killed in political clashes in Egypt
- 2014 John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser win the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 2015 Nobel prize for Physics awarded to Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur McDonald (Canada) for work on neutrinos
- 2017 British writer Kazuo Ishiguro is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
- 2017 Storm Nate kills at least 22 people passing through Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras
- 2017 Vegas Golden Knights make their NHL debut in Dallas, winning 2-1 over the Stars
- 2018 Australia records the biggest comeback in Rugby Championship history in beating Argentina 45-34 in Salta; Wallabies trial 31-7 at halftime but score 5 second half tries to none to overwhelm Pumas
Event of Interest
2018 Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed and sworn onto the US Supreme Court amid protests and after an FBI investigation
Sports History
2018 Khabib Nurmagomedov of Dagestan beats Irishman Conor McGregor by 4th round submission in UFC lightweight title fight in Las Vegas; instantly marred by ugly post-fight brawling incident; belt withheld pending investigation
- 2018 New Zealand claims 6th overall, and 3rd straight Rugby Championship with 32-20 win over South Africa in Pretoria; All Blacks outscore Springboks 4 tries to 3
- 2018 Oil tanker collision with a car leaves at least 50 people dead and one hundred with serious burns near Kisantu, Democratic Republic of Congo
- 2019 99 Iraqis have died and 4,000 injured in protests over 5 days against living conditions, unemployment and corruption according to human rights group
- 2019 Tens of thousands of Hong Kong protesters march in defiance of a new ban on face masks
- 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea M. Ghez for work on black holes
- 2021 Carnegie Hall in NYC re-opens after 18 month pandemic shutdown with a concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin
- 2021 Los Angeles votes in some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, requiring vaccinations before people can enter indoor businesses and events
- 2021 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for development of asymmetric organocatalysis (tool for building molecules)
Event of Interest
2021 WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recommends world's first Malaria vaccine (Mosquirix) for children after a pilot program was effective in Africa [1]
Most Decorated Gymnast of All-Time
2023 American Simone Biles wins all-round gold at the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, - becoming the most decorated gymnast ever with 34 world and Olympic medals [1]
- 2023 Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting the oppression of women in Iran [1]
- 2023 New research confirms fossil footprints 23,000-21,000 years old at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, probably the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas [1]
