- 1198 Philips of Zwabia, Prince of Hohenstaufen, crowned King of Germany and King of the Romans
Battle of Tehuacingo
1519 Second Battle of Tehuacingo, Mexico: Hernán Cortés' Spanish conquistadors fight the Tlaxcaltecas
- 1550 William Cecil appoints himself English minister of foreign affairs
Siege of Paris
1590 Duke of Parma Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris
Cornelis de Houtman Taken Hostage
1596 Dutch fleet commander Cornelis de Houtman taken hostage in Java, is later ransomed
Cardinal Richelieu
1622 Bishop Richelieu appointed Cardinal under French King Louis XIII
Conquest of Sas of Gen
1644 Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange conquers Sas van Gent and absorbs it into the Dutch Republic
Arrest of Nicolas Fouquet
1661 Nicolas Fouquet, French Superintendent of Finances under Louis XIV is arrested for maladministration of state funds; he dies in 1680, never seeing freedom again.
The Great Fire of London
1666 Great Fire of London ends, leaving 13,200 houses destroyed and 8 dead
Beard Tax
1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards
- 1750 Decree issued in Paderborn, Prussia allows for annual search of all Jewish homes for stolen or "doubtful" goods
- 1774 The 1st Continental Congress, a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that later became the United States, convenes at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia
- 1774 Twelve of the thirteen American colonies adopt a trade embargo against Great Britain at the first Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1774 With the meeting of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia becomes the 1st capital of the United States
Battle That Gave Birth To The USA
1781 American Revolutionary War: French fleet of 24 ships under Comte de Grasse defeat British forces under Admiral Thomas Graves and Samuel Hood at the Battle of the Chesapeake [Battle of the Virginia Capes] and trap General Lord Charles Cornwallis
- 1786 Montplaisir Ceramic factory opens in Schaarbeek Belgium
Reign of Terror
1793 French Revolution: the "Reign of Terror" begins
- 1795 USA and Algiers sign peace treaty
- 1796 General Salicetti orders equal rights for Jews of Bologna, Italy
- 1798 New conscription law goes into effect in France
- 1800 Malta surrenders to British after they blockade French troops
- 1814 -15] Battle of Masurische Meren: Germans chase Russians out of East Prussia
Chambre Introuvable Dissolved
1816 French King Louis XVIII dissolves the unpopular parliament, Chambre introuvable (Unobtainable Chamber)
Houston Elected President
1836 Sam Houston elected President of the Republic of Texas
Lee Crosses the Potomac
1862 Confederate General Robert E. Lee crosses the Potomac and enters Maryland
- 1863 Bread revolt in Mobile, Alabama
- 1864 Achille François Bazaine becomes Marshall of France.
- 1864 British, French & Dutch fleets attack Japan in Shimonoseki Straits
- 1871 German archaeologist Carl Mauch is the first European to explore the ruins of the medieval Shona city of Great Zimbabwe, the largest archaeological site in Sub-Saharan Africa [1]
- 1877 Southern blacks led by Pap Singleton settle in Kansas
- 1879 American Arctic explorer George Washington De Long on board the Jeannette, becomes trapped with his crew in pack ice during attempt to reach the North Pole
- 1882 10,000 workers march in 1st Labor Day parade in NYC
- 1885 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana
- 1887 Gas lamp at Theatre Royal in Exeter catches fire killing about 200
- 1889 German Christine Hardt patents the first modern brassiere
- 1895 George Washington Murray elected to Congress from South Carolina
- 1900 France proclaims a protectorate over Chad
- 1901 National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, better known as Minor League Baseball is formed at the Leland Hotel in Chicago
- 1905 50 prominent men meet in Sydney's Australia Hotel to found the National Defense League fueled by fear of Japan after its victory over Russia
- 1905 Lillian Mortimer's play "No Mother to Guide Her" premieres in Detroit
Treaty of Portsmouth
1905 Treaty of Portsmouth is signed concluding the Russo-Japanese War; US President Theodore Roosevelt receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as mediator
- 1906 Saint Louis University quarterback Bradbury Robinson throws first legal forward pass in the history of American football for a TD to Jack Schneider at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin; Saint Louis wins, 22-0
Edward VII Meets Izvolski
1907 King Edward VII of Great Britain meets Russia's Foreign Minister Alexander Izvolski in an attempt to strengthen Russia's relationship with Britain
- 1908 Brooklyn Superbas pitcher Nap Rucker no-hits Boston Braves, 6-0 at Washington Park, Brooklyn
- 1910 Philadelphia Athletics' player Jack Coombs begins a record streak of 53 shutout innings
- 1913 Phillies & Braves tie record of only 1 run in a double header, Phillies win 1st game 1-0, then a scoreless tie into 10th
- 1914 French headquarters move to Chatillon-sur-Seine
- 1914 Great Britain, France, Belgium and Russia sign Pact of London
- 1914 Proclamation prohibits Canadian mint from issuing gold coins
Transatlantic Communications
1914 US President Woodrow Wilson orders US Navy to make its wireless stations accessible for any transatlantic communications - even to German diplomats sending coded messages; leads to interception of the Zimmermann telegram, helping bring the US into the war
- 1915 Anti-war conference in Zimmerwald, Switzerland
Nicholas II Takes Command
1915 Tsar Nicholas II, distressed by increasing Russian losses, assumes personal command of his nation's military forces; clearly a symbolic act and devastating for his leadership
Intolerance
1916 "Intolerance", silent film directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Vera Lewis and Ralph Lewis, is released
Baseball Record
1921 Walter Johnson sets MLB strikeout mark at 2,287
- 1923 Flyweights Gene LaRue & Kid Pancho KO each other simultaneously
- 1925 112 F (44°C), Centerville, Alabama (state record)
- 1925 29th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Bobby Jones
United States of Europe
1929 French premier Aristide Briand requests a United States of Europe
- 1932 The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger
Jet Stream Discovered
1934 American pilot Wiley Post discovers the jet stream while flying at high altitude near Chicago
- 1937 Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls
J. B. M. Hertzog Resigns
1939 J. B. M. Hertzog resigns as South African Prime Minister after losing a vote in parliament on neutrality in WWII
Where She Goes, We Go
1939 New Zealand Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage declares New Zealand's support for Britain in the war with Germany; Savage famously told the nation 'where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand'
- 1942 American sailor Charles J. French (22) swims for over six hours in waters near Guadalcanal while towing a life raft with fifteen survivors from his US Navy ship which was sunk by Japanese gunfire [1]
- 1942 Battle at Alam Halfa ends
- 1942 British & US bomb Le Havre & Bremen
- 1943 US airland at Nadzab, New Guinea
- 1944 "Mad Tuesday" 65,000 Dutch nazi collaborators flee to Germany
- 1944 5 resistance fighter executed in Terneuzen, Netherlands
- 1944 Allies liberate Brussels
- 1944 Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands sign customs Unity treaty
- 1944 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels to Scotland
- 1944 Dutch Armed Forces forms, under prince Bernhard
- 1946 Joe Garagiola plays his 1st major league baseball game, in his hometown of St. Louis; 2 RBI's in Cardinals' win over Chicago Cubs
- 1948 In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
Intimations of Immortality
1950 1st performance of Gerald Finzi's setting of William Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" at Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester (England) Cathedral; Eric Greene as solo tenor with Herbert Sumsion conducting orchestra and choir
- 1950 38.7 inches (98.3 cm) rainfall - over several days - at Yankeetown, Florida (state record)
- 1952 General Carlos Ibáñez elected president of Chile
- 1953 1st privately operated atomic reactor in Raleigh, North Carolina
- 1953 US give Persian premier Fazlollah Zahedi $45 million aid
- 1954 Dutch Super Constellation crashes at Shannon, 28 die
- 1955 Dodger Don Newcombe hits NL pitcher record 7th HR of season
- 1955 Dutch magician Fred Kaps wins his 2nd FISM World Championship
- 1955 WKRG TV channel 5 in Mobile, AL (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 WTTW TV channel 11 in Chicago, IL (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 20 die in a train crash in Springer, New Mexico
On the Road
1957 "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac is published by Viking Press in New York
Naval Mutiny at Cienfuegos
1957 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista bombs an uprising in Cienfuegos
Event of Interest
1957 Yugoslavia bans Milovan Djilas' book "new class marine officers"
Doctor Zhivago
1958 "Doctor Zhivago" novel by Boris Pasternak published in US
The Huckleberry Hound Show
1958 "The Huckleberry Hound Show" by Hanna-Barbera featuring Yogi Bear premieres on US TV
- 1958 1st color video recording on magnetic tape presented, Charlotte, North Carolina
- 1958 WKPC TV channel 15 in Louisville, Kentucky (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1959 Washington Senator's player Jim Lemon is 7th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (3rd)
Sports History
1960 A. J. Foyt wins the first of 67 Indy car victories at Du Quoin, Illinois. State Fairgrounds
Olympic Gold
1960 Cassius Clay [Muhammad Ali] beats 3-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland by unanimous points decision to win Olympic light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Games
Olympic Gold
1960 Future world middleweight boxing champion Nino Benvenuti of Italy beats Yuri Radonyak of the Soviet Union to win welterweight gold medal at the Rome Olympics
Election of Interest
1960 Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the 1st President of Senegal
Event of Interest
1960 President of Congo Joseph Kasa-Vubu fires Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
Event of Interest
1961 America begins underground nuclear testing
Telethon
1966 Jerry Lewis' 1st Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day telethon raises $1 million
- 1966 WRLK TV channel 35 in Columbia, SC (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1967 -23] Hurricane Beuleah, kills 54 in the Caribbean, Mexico and Texas
- 1967 KMEG TV channel 14 in Sioux City, IA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1967 WEBA TV channel 14 in Allendale, SC (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1969 Frente Obrero wins Dutch Antilles national elections
- 1970 Estimated 15 cm (6") of rainfall, Bug Point, Utah (state record)
- 1971 Astros pitcher J R Richard debut, strikes out 15 Giants in a 5-3 win
- 1971 NY Mets Don Hahn hits 1st inside the park homer at Phillies Vet
- 1972 11 Israeli athletes taken hostage and later killed by Palestinian Black September group at the Munich Olympics
- 1972 Chemical spill with fog sickens hundreds in Meuse Valley Belgium
- 1973 1st one-day Cricket international for West Indies (vs England) - lose by 1 wicket
- 1973 Conference of less developed countries approves forming "producers' associations" and calls for withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Arab lands
Assassination Attempt
1975 First assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in Sacramento, California
- 1975 Portugal Prime Minister Vasco Gonçalves dismissed
- 1975 Wings release single "Letting Go"
The Muppet Show
1976 Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show" premieres on television with Mia Farrow as the guest star
- 1977 Cleveland Indians stage 1st "I hate the Yankee Hanky Night", inspired by local radio personality Pete Franklin; home team sweeps a doubleheader over New York at Cleveland Municipal Stadium
- 1977 Jerry Lewis' 12th Muscular Dystrophy telethon
- 1977 NASA launches Voyager 1 on a mission to initially just fly-by Jupiter and Saturn, later Uranus and Neptune also (2012 becomes the first human-made object to leave the solar system)
- 1977 Red Army Faction kidnaps and subsequently murders West German business executive Hanns Martin Schleyer
Conference of Interest
1978 Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter begin Egypt-Isreal peace conference at Camp David
- 1979 Canada puts its first gold bullion coin on sale
Event of Interest
1979 Earl of Mountbatten's Ceremonial Funeral held in Westminster Abbey, London
- 1979 Iranian army occupies Piranshahr
- 1979 Oakland A's pitcher Matt Keough beats Milwaukee Brewers, 6-1 for first win after 14 straight losses, ended 1978 with 18 defeats (1 shy of the MLB record 19)
Satyagraha
1980 Philip Glass and Constance DeJong's opera "Satyagraha", loosely based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, premieres the Schouwburg, in Rotterdam, Netherlands
- 1980 Poland party leader Edward Gierek resigns
- 1980 World's longest road tunnel, St Gotthard in Swiss Alps, opens
- 1982 Eddie Hill sets propeller-driven boat water speed record of 229 mph
- 1982 US Men's Amateur Golf Championship, The Country Club: Jay Sigel wins 8 & 7 over David Tolley
- 1983 8th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Challenger 3-lands at Edwards AFB
- 1983 Elmer Trettr sets record for highest terminal velocity at 201.34 mph
- 1983 Jerry Lewis' 18th Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $30,691,627
- 1984 12th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41D): Discovery 1 lands at Edwards AFB
- 1986 Hijacking of aircraft Pan Am 73 at Karachi airport, Pakistan, 20 passengers killed
- 1986 NASA awards study contracts to 5 aerospace firms
- 1986 NASA launches DoD-1 (classified Department of Defense satellite)
- 1987 Carlton Fisk clubs his 300th career HR off Danny Jackson
- 1988 CFL's Earl Winfield (Ham) scores TDs on 101-yd punt return, 100-yd kickoff return & 58-yd pass reception
- 1988 Jerry Lewis' 23rd Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $41,132,113
Tennis Open
1989 Chris Evert's final US Open tennis match; defeated by Zina Garrison 7-6, 6-2 in the quarter finals
The Joan Rivers Show
1989 Daytime talk show "The Joan Rivers Show" hosted by Joan Rivers premieres on US TV
- 1989 Deborah Norville becomes news anchor of Today Show
Event of Interest
1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urges Arabs to rise against the West
Event of Interest
1991 Nelson Mandela chosen as president of African National Congress
- 1992 Dan O'Brien sets world record decathlon (8891 pts)
Film & TV History
1993 F. Murray Abraham released from hospital after car accident
- 1993 Noureddine Morceli runs world record mile (3:44,39)
- 1994 Jerry Lewis' 29th Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $47,100,000
- 1994 Jingyi Le swims world record 100m women's freestyle (54.01 sec)
NFL Record
1994 SF wide receiver Jerry Rice catches 2 touchdown passes and runs for another score in 49ers' 44-14 rout of the Raiders; surpasses Jim Brown as NFL's career TD leader with 127
Baseball Record
1995 Cal Ripken Jr ties Gehrig's record of playing in 2,130 straight games
- 1996 Following US cruise missile strikes on Iraq, crude oil prices rise as the market speculates when Iraq will begin exporting oil under UN Resolution 986
- 1997 Athens in Greece, selected to host 2004 Olympics
- 1997 Orioles beat Yankes 13-9 in longest 9 inning game
- 2000 The Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry makes its maiden voyage.
- 2001 John Cage's musical composition "As Slow as Possible", to be played for 639 years, begins at St. Burchardi Church, Halberstadt, Germany
- 2005 Mandala Airlines Flight 91 crashes into a heavily-populated residential area, seconds after taking off from Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 100 people on board and 49 people on the ground
- 2007 Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations.
- 2009 Denmark celebrates the first national flagday, in memory of the fallen Danes in international operations since 1948.
- 2009 The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest Anglo-Saxon metalwork hoard ever found with over 4,600 items, is discovered on farmland near Hammerwich, England [1]
- 2012 25 are killed and 4 wounded after an ammunition store exploded in Afyon, Turkey
- 2012 54 people are killed and 50 injured after a firecracker factory explodes in Nadu
- 2012 Austerity measure requires Greece to increase its maximum working days to six per week
- 2014 World Health Organization estimates 1,900 people have died from the Ebola virus out of 3,500 infected in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone
- 2015 US health officials confirm a salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers from Mexico is responsible for 1 death and for making hundreds sick
- 2017 Barry Callebaut announce a 4th type of chocolate, "Ruby", made from the Ruby cocoa bean
- 2017 Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, becomes the first woman President of the UK Supreme Court
Hurricane Irma
2017 Hurricane Irma becomes the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin region with winds of 185mph (280km/h)
- 2017 Togo's government shuts down the internet for a week to quell government opposition
- 2018 Anonymous senior White house official opinion piece "I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration" published by the New York Times
Event of Interest
2018 UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirms in parliament two Russian military intelligence officers undertook novichok nerve agent attack, prompts international condemnation
- 2019 Erramatti Mangamma becomes the world's oldest living mother after giving birth to twins, aged 74 in Hyderabad, India
- 2019 New theory the Loss Ness monster may be a giant eel after DNA study reveals no plesiosaur or sturgeon DNA found
- 2019 South African women march on parliament to protest violence against women after a month when 30 were killed by their spouses
- 2020 More than 50 arrested as Portland, Oregon, marks 100 days of protests against racism and police brutality
- 2021 Coup by soldiers in Guinea headed by Colonel Doumbouya deposes President Alpha Condé and his government, claiming rampant corruption
Electric Saint
2021 Stewart Copeland's opera "Electric Saint" about the life of Nikola Tesla, with libretto by Jonathan Moore, premieres at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar, Germany
Music History
2022 Ringo Starr resumes his All-Starr Band tour after two musicians recover from COVID
Event of Interest
2022 UK's ruling Conservative party appoints Liz Truss as their next leader and Prime Minister, replacing scandal-ridden Boris Johnson [1]
- 2023 American singer Joe Jonas (34) files for divorce from English actress Sophie Turner (27) in Miami, Florida, after 4 years of marriage [1]
- 2023 An extratropical cyclone in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande Sul claims at least 31 lives, as extensive flooding affects 60 cities [1]
- 2023 Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, effectively declares itself bankrupt, after stopping all nonessential spending [1]
- 2023 Former Proud Boys chairman, Enrique Tarrio sentenced to 22 years in prison - the longest so far - for seditious conspiracy in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol [1]
