First Council of Nicaea
325 First Council of Nicaea - 1st ecumenical council of Christian bishops at Nicaea, Asia Minor
- 685 Battle of Nechtansmere/Dun Nechtain: Picts led by Brude MacBeli beat Northumbrians led by their king Ecgfrith in Scotland
- 1217 Second Battle of Lincoln fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
- 1293 Earthquake strikes Kamakura Japan, 30,000 killed
- 1293 King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá
- 1303 Treaty of Paris restores Gascony to the English and arranges marriage of English Prince Edward to French Princess Isabella
- 1310 Shoes were made for both right & left feet
- 1347 Rienzo calls Rome for people's tribunal
Charles VIII Leaves Naples
1495 French King Charles VIII leaves Naples
Vasco da Gama Arrives in India
1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India becoming the first European to reach India by sea
- 1501 Portuguese explorer João da Nova Castell discovers the uninhabited Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean
Charter for the Thames
1514 English King Henry VIII grants a charter to the Corporation of Trinity House to regulate pilotage on the river Thames in London (still in existence) [1]
Shakespeare's Sonnets Published
1609 Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe
Westminster Bridge Defies a King and the Church
1736 Royal Approval is given by King George II to construct the original Westminster Bridge across the River Thames in London
- 1830 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper (Baltimore American)
- 1830 D Hyde patents fountain pen
- 1835 Otto is named the first modern king of Greece
- 1840 York Minster badly damaged by fire
- 1845 1st legislative assembly convenes in Hawaii
- 1845 HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
- 1861 Cornerstone of University of Washington laid in Seattle
- 1861 Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in Civil War
- 1861 North Carolina becomes 11th and last state to secede from the Union
- 1861 US Marshals, in search of secessionist evidence, seize the previous year's telegraph dispatches
Homestead Act
1862 US President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American West (80 million acres by 1900)
- 1864 Battle at Ware Bottom Church, Virginia, 1,400 killed or injured
- 1864 Spotsylvania campaign in US Civil War ends after 10,920 killed or injured
Women's Suffrage Proposal Rejected
1867 British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills' proposals on women's suffrage
Royal Albert Hall
1867 Royal Albert Hall of Arts & Sciences foundation laid by Queen Victoria in London
Blue Jeans
1873 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans with copper rivets
- 1875 International Bureau of Weights & Measures formed by the signing of the Metre Convention treaty by 17 states and prototypes of the meter and the kilogram selected
Triple Alliance Signed
1882 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy sign the Triple Alliance
- 1882 Gotthard rail tunnel between Switzerland & Italy opens
Ghosts
1882 Henrik Ibsen's play "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope
1891 1st public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women's Club
- 1892 George Sampson patents clothes dryer
- 1895 1st commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC)
- 1896 The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others
- 1899 First speeding infraction by a New York cabbie driving an electric car - 12mph down Lexington Street
- 1900 Second modern Summer Olympics (Games of the II Olympiad) opens in Paris and continues for 5 months
- 1902 United States withdraws its troops from Cuba as the first Cuban president, Tomas Estrada Palma takes power
- 1903 Britain's House of Commons begins a debate on the charges of poor administration and ill treatment of natives in Belgium's colony in the Congo Free State
Grand Funeral for Edward VII
1910 Funeral for Britain's King Edward VII held in Westminster Abbey, has one of the largest assemblages of European royalty
- 1911 Edwin Boaler Alletson hits 189 in 90 mins Notts v Sussex
- 1915 Bataafsche Petroleum Me begins oil extraction of Maracaibo
- 1916 Codell, Kansas hit by tornado (also on same date in 1917 & 1918)
- 1916 Saturday Evening Post cover features Norman Rockwell painting
- 1917 Turkish government authorizes Jews to return to Tel Aviv & Jaffa
- 1918 1st electrically propelled warship (New Mexico)
- 1920 Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, under attack by American petroleum companies, faces an armed rebellion by right-wing Sonoro triumvirate after nationalizing subsoil rights
- 1920 Policemen raid the Cubs' bleachers & arrest 24 fans for gambling
- 1922 "Egypt" sinks off Ushant after colliding with "Seine" killing 90
Ruth and Meusel Return
1922 Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel, previously suspended by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, return to the NY Yankees lineup and go hitless
- 1926 Belgian government of Jaspar takes power
- 1926 Congress passes Air Commerce Act, licensing of pilots & planes
- 1926 Railway Labor Act became law in USA
- 1926 Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies
Lindbergh Departs NY
1927 At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis in the 1st solo nonstop transatlantic flight
- 1930 1st airplane catapulted from a dirigible, Charles Nicholson, pilot
- 1930 University of California dedicates $1,500 to research on prevention & cure of athlete's foot
Amelia Earhart Departs Newfoundland
1932 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her journey to become the 1st woman to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic
- 1932 Engelbert Dollfuss becomes chancellor of Austria
- 1939 "3 Little Fishies" by Kay Kyser swam to #1
- 1939 1st regular transatlantic airmail (Pan Am: NY to Marsseille France)
- 1940 German General Guderian's tanks reach the English Channel (British expeditionary army)
- 1940 Soccer team HZVV forms in Hoogeveen
- 1940 Trailing 7-1 in 9th to Pitts, Phils win 8-7
- 1941 Archer's "Christian Calendar & Gregorian Reform" published
- 1941 Former Dutch PM Hendrikus Colijn says Dutch Indies not ready for independence
- 1941 Germany begins airborne invasion of Crete
- 1941 White Sox Taft Wright sets AL record of RBIs in 13 consecutive games
- 1942 US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve
- 1943 French, British and US victory parade in Tunis, Tunisia
- 1944 US Communist Party dissolves
Cricket History
1945 Keith Miller scores 105 in the 1st Victory Test Cricket at Lord's
Chiang Kai-shek President
1954 Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of Nationalist China
- 1955 Argentine parliament accepts separation of church and state
- 1956 Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane at Bikini Atoll
- 1956 Jordan government of Samir resigns
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
- 1959 Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon"
- 1959 Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship
Event of Interest
1959 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visits Netherlands
- 1959 Yanks sink to last place, 1st time since May 25, 1940
Cannes Film Festival
1960 13th Cannes Film Festival: "The Sweet Life" directed by Federico Fellini wins the Palme d'Or
- 1960 Baseball game in Milwaukee postponed due to dense fog
- 1961 Henzes opera "Elegy for Young Lovers," premieres in Schwetzingen
- 1961 Mauritania adopts constitution
- 1961 White mob attacks "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1964 Buster Mathis beats future world heavyweight champion Joe Frazer on points at trials in Flushing, NY to qualify for US Olympic boxing team; Mathis injures thumb, replaced by Frazier who wins gold medal
- 1965 Pakistani Boeing 720-B crashes at Cairo Egypt, killing 121
- 1965 Yorkshire all out for 23 v Hampshire at Middlesbrough
- 1966 19th Cannes Film Festival: "A Man and a Woman" directed by Claude Lelouch and "The Birds, the Bees and the Italians" directed by Pietro Germi jointly awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
- 1967 10,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam
- 1967 BBC bans the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" because of drug references
Event of Interest
1968 Terence O'Neill, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister, is showered with eggs, flour and stones after a meeting of the Woodvale Unionist Association, a loyalist vigilante group
- 1969 US troop capture Hill 937/Hamburger Hill in Vietnam
- 1970 100,000 march in NY supporting US policies in Vietnam
- 1970 2 die and 70 injured when 2 NYC subway trains crash in Queens
- 1970 The Beatles' "Let it Be" documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, premieres at the Liverpool Gaumont Cinema and the London Pavilion; none of the group attend
- 1971 Pentagon reports blacks constitute 11% of US soldiers in SE Asia
- 1972 Republic of Cameroon declared as its constitution is ratified
- 1973 2 motorcycle racers killed and a dozen injured in a crash during the 1973 Nations Grand Prix in Monza,Italy
Emmy Awards
1973 25th Emmy Awards: The Waltons, All in the Family & Mary Tyler Moore win
- 1976 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
- 1977 Long-distance train service the Orient Express departs Paris on its last trip to Istanbul (began 1883)
- 1978 3 PFLP members kill a police officer near El Al airlines in Orly Airport, Paris
- 1978 US launches Pioneer Venus 1; produces 1st global radar map of Venus
Music History
1979 Elton John is the 1st western pop star to tour USSR
- 1980 710 families in Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, New York are evacuated due to linger effects of prior use as chemical waste disposal site [1]
- 1980 Drummer Peter Criss quits rock band Kiss
- 1980 Fire in nursing home in Kingston Jamaica, kills 157
- 1980 In a referendum, 59.5% of Quebec voters reject separatism
- 1983 "Every Breath You Take" single released by The Police (Billboard Song of the Year, 1983)
Boxing Title Fight
1983 American heavyweight boxer Larry Holmes beats countryman Tim Witherspoon by split decision to retain his WBC title at the Dunes Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
Boxing Title Fight
1983 Michael Dokes & Mike Weaver fight to a draw in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
Sports History
1983 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton passes W Johnson with 2nd most strike outs
Sports History
1984 Boston's Roger Clemens beats Twins, 5-4, for his 1st victory
- 1985 38th Cannes Film Festival: "When Father Was Away on Business" directed by Emir Kusturica wins the Palme d'Or
- 1985 Dow Jones industrial avg closes above 1,300 for 1st time
- 1985 FBI arrests John A Walker Jr, convicted of spying for USSR
- 1985 Indians-Brewers game at Cleveland Stadium is 1st rain-out of 1985, ends record string of 458 ML games since Opening Day without a rain-out
- 1985 Larry Holmes beats Carl Williams in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1985 US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti
- 1986 Flintstones 25th Anniversary Celebration airs on CBS-tv
- 1988 Howard Stern fans disrupt rival radio station WMMR's & DJ John DeBella's "Louie Louie" parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sports History
1988 Philadelphia Phillies Mike Schmidt hits his 535th HR, moving into 8th place
- 1989 China declares martial law in Beijing
Field of Dreams
1989 Premiere of sports fantasy drama film "Field of Dreams", based on W. P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster in his final film role
Film & TV History
1989 Toonces The Cat takes the wheel on "Saturday Night Live"
Sports History
1991 Chicago Bull Michael Jordan, named NBA's MVP
- 1991 Jeff Reardon gains his 300th career save
- 1991 Soviet parliament approves law allowing citizens to travel abroad
- 1992 American rapper Tung Twista raps 597 syllables in under 60 seconds
Event of Interest
1992 At height of "Black May' political crisis in Thailand TV interview broadcast of King Bhumibol Adulyadej demanding Generals Suchinda and Chamlong work together
- 1992 India launches its 1st satellite independently
- 1993 10m meteor comes within 150,000 km of Earth (1993KA)
- 1993 274th & final "Cheers" episode airs on NBC
- 1994 Bobcat Goldthwait charged with misdemeanors for fire on The Tonight Show
- 1994 Sony Theaters & Cineplex (NYC) hike movie ticket prices to $8.00
- 1995 CBS News fires co-anchor Connie Chung
- 1996 49th Cannes Film Festival: "Secrets & Lies" directed by Mike Leigh wins the Palme d'Or
- 1996 UN and Iraq agree to Resolution 986, which provides Iraq with the opportunity to sell $1 billion of oil for 90 days for a 180-day trial period; proceeds from the sale would be used for humanitarian purposes
- 1997 Cosmos Zenit-2 Launch (Russia), Failed
- 1997 Thor-2A Delta 2 Launch (Norway/USA), Successful
Event of Interest
1997 US President Clinton signs an executive order barring new US investment in Burma (also known as Myanmar), effective May 21 and renewable annually
- 1997 White Sox Frank Thomas reaches base safely for 15th straight time
- 2002 The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself was the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976)
Laureus Awards
2003 Laureus World Sports Awards, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco: Sportsman: Lance Armstrong (rescinded); Sportswoman: Serena Williams; Team: Brazil Men's National Football team
America's Next Top Model
2003 Reality TV series "America's Next Top Model", created by Tyra Banks, debuts on UPN
- 2009 Mexico is the first Latin American country to officially enter recession
Inglourious Basterds
2009 Quentin Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds" premieres at the Cannes Film Festival with an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger
- 2012 6.0 magnitude earthquake kills 6 and injures dozens in northern Italy
- 2012 Tomislav Nikolić elected president of Serbia
- 2013 133 people are killed and 283 are injured in a continued wave of insurgency in Iraq
- 2013 2 people are killed and 20 are injured after a hot air balloon crashes in Cappadocia, Turkey
- 2013 The Church of Scotland votes to allow openly gay men and women to be ministers
- 2013 Yahoo purchases Tumbler for $1.1 Billion
- 2015 5 major world banks (JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, RBS and UBS) fined US$5.7bn for manipulating currency markets - some of the largest ever fines
Film & TV History
2015 David Letterman hosts the "Late Show with David Letterman" for the last time, ending 33 years in late night television
- 2015 Journal Nature publishes findings of the oldest human-made tools from Kenya’s Turkana basin - 3.3 million years, 1st found to pre-date the Homo genus
- 2015 NASCAR 2016 Hall of Fame inductees: Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte and Jerry Cook
Trump's First Foreign Trip
2017 US President Donald Trump begins his 1st foreign trip arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Election of Interest
2018 President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela wins a second term in an election marked by boycotts and accusations of vote rigging
- 2018 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Greystone G &CC: Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez wins by 3 from American trio Joe Durant, Steve Stricker & Gene Sauers
- 2018 Two cyclists attacked by a cougar, 1 dies, in North Bend, Washington State
- 2019 Bangladesh imposes a 65-day ban on coastal fishing to conserve fish stocks
- 2019 Google stops support for Huawei's Android system in an escalation of the tech war between US and China
- 2020 Cyclone Amphan comes ashore in West Bengal, East India and Bangladesh, with winds of 185 km per hour (115 mph) killing at least 84 people
- 2020 WHO reports most new cases in a single day - 106,000 worldwide of COVID-19
- 2021 Israel and Hamas agree to a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza after nearly two weeks of fighting, amid international diplomatic efforts
- 2021 One of Sri Lanka's worst ecological disasters as cargo ship MS X-Press Pearl, carrying toxic chemicals, catches fire off the country's coast and begins spilling debris
- 2023 English ITV This Morning TV presenter Phillip Schofield resigns after 20 years in the role. It later emerges he was having an affair with a younger colleague and lied about it.
