- 311 Roman Emperor Galerius issues Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
- 313 Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule
- 711 Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)
- 1315 French chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the public gallows at Montfaucon after being convicted of sorcery
- 1349 Jewish community of Radolfzell, Germany, exterminated
- 1396 Crusaders & Earl of Nevers depart from Dijon
- 1483 Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503
Event of Interest
1492 Christopher Columbus is given royal commission by Spanish monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II to equip his fleet to the New World
- 1492 Spain announces it will expel all Jews
- 1506 Philip of Burgundy & England sign trade agreement
Treaty of Interest
1527 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Westminster, pledging to combine their forces against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in attempt to win War of the League of Cognac
- 1562 1st French colonists in North America: Jean Ribault & colonists arrive in Florida
- 1563 Jews are expelled from France by order of Charles VI
- 1573 The spire of Beauvais Cathedral, France, which made it the tallest human-made monument in the world at the time, collapses (never rebuilt)
- 1598 1st theater performance in America (Spanish comedy-Rio Grande)
Event of Interest
1616 King James I of England leaves Brielle
- 1650 French rebel Henri de la Tour Turenne signs treaty with Spain
- 1661 Tsjeng Tsj'eng-Kung begins siege of Dutch fort Zeelandia, Formosa
- 1671 Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
- 1695 William Congreve's Restoration comedy "Love for Love" premieres in London
- 1722 Game of Billiards is mentioned in New England Courant
Treaty of Interest
1725 Emperor Charles VI & King Philip IV of Spain sign Treaty of Vienna
- 1748 Ceasefire at Aken ends
Event of Interest
1763 Member of Parliament and journalist John Wilkes confined in the Tower of London, charged with seditious libel
President Inaugurated
1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America
Treaty of Interest
1803 Chancellor Robert Livingston and James Monroe sign Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris at a cost of 15 million dollars, doubles the size of the USA
- 1804 The New Hague Theater opens in The Hague, the Netherlands
- 1808 1st practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri
- 1812 (Eastern) Louisiana admitted as 18th US state
- 1838 Nicaragua declares independence from Central American federation
- 1852 Anton Rubinstein's opera "Dmitri Donskoi" premieres in St Petersburg
- 1857 San Jose State University forms
Historic Publication
1859 Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is first published in literary periodical "All the Year Round" (weekly installments until Nov 26)
Sports History
1859 Paul Morphy returns from 10-month chess tour of Europe, retires
- 1860 Navaho indians attack Fort Defiance (Canby)
Event of Interest
1861 US President Abraham Lincoln orders Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory (US Civil War)
- 1862 Swift Run Gap skirmishes in West Virginia
Victory in Battle
1863 -5/1] Battle of Snyder's Bluff, Virginia (part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War): General Sherman beaten by Confederate forces
Victory in Battle
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia: In a major victory General Robert E. Lee's troops defeat larger Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker, Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded
- 1863 Mexican forces attacked the French Foreign Legion in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
- 1864 Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Arkansas; General W R Scurry is killed
- 1864 New York becomes 1st state to charge a hunting license fee
- 1869 Hawaiian YMCA organized
- 1871 The Camp Grant Massacre of Apache Indians in Arizona Territory is committed by white and Mexican adventurers, 144 die
- 1885 Henry Lee Higginson starts the "Popular Music" series with the Boston Symphony, which evolves into the Boston Pops Orchestra 1900
- 1887 1st game played at Broad & Huntingdon St Park (Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia; Phillies beat Giants 19-10
- 1888 1888 Moradabad hailstorm: hail stones allegedly as big as oranges kill 246 people and some 1600 sheep and cattle in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
- 1889 1st US national holiday, on centennial of Washington's inauguration
Scientific Discovery
1897 English physicist and head of the Cavendish laboratory J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron in a lecture to the Royal Institution
Boxing Title Fight
1900 Weighing in at 170 lbs British former world heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons KOs 270 lb American Ed Dunkhost in round 2 of a lop-sided bout in Brooklyn, New York
Music Premiere
1902 Claude Debussy's only completed opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" premieres in Paris
- 1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) inaugural home opener at Hilltop Park, Manhattan; beat Washington Senators, 6-2
- 1904 Ice cream cone makes its debut at St. Louis World's Fair invented by Ernest A. Hamwi (independently of other claimant Italo Marchiony in NY)
- 1905 First official soccer game between neighbouring countries Belgium-Netherlands; Dutch win, 4-1 at Olympic Stadium, Antwerp
- 1907 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes an independent city.
- 1910 Cleveland Naps Addie Joss limits St.Louis Browns to 8 hits in 2-1 victory
- 1911 Portugal approves female suffrage
- 1916 Germany ratifies bill bringing in Daylight Saving Time - first country in the world
- 1918 Orange Nassau soccer team forms in Groningen
- 1919 Phillies beat Brooklyn Dodgers 9-0 in 20 innings
- 1920 The British Government ends military conscription
- 1921 1st American Professional Football Association Championship (1920): undefeated Akron Pros awarded inaugural title
- 1921 American Professional Football Association reorganizes in Akron
Catholic Encyclical
1921 Pope Benedict XV encyclical "On Dante"
- 1922 Chicago pitcher Charlie Robertson throws a perfect game as the White Sox beat Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Navin Field
- 1925 Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million plus $50 million for charity
- 1927 Princess Juliana gets seat in Dutch Council of State
- 1928 Cherkess Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1957)
- 1929 Ernst Streeruwitz becomes Chancellor of Austria, lasts less than 5 months
- 1934 Austria gets "Austrian fascist" constitution
- 1935 World Congress for Women's Rights concludes in Istanbul
- 1937 The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative
- 1938 The first televised FA Cup Final takes place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End
Baseball Record
1939 Lou Gehrig sets a MLB record playing his 2,130th consecutive and final game for the New York Yankees.
- 1939 New York World's Fair opens
- 1939 Tropicana ballet of Havana, Cuba, forms
- 1940 Air New Zealand then known as TEAL makes its inaugural flight with a flight from Auckland to Sydney. Later becomes 1st airline in the world to boil hot water in-flight to offer customers hot tea and coffee.
- 1940 Brooklyn Dodger Tex Carleton no-hits Cincinnati Reds, 3-0
- 1942 1st submarine built on Great Lakes launched, (Peto), Manitowoc, Wisconsin
- 1943 Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews forms
- 1943 Dutch strike against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry
Theater Premiere
1943 Noël Coward's play "This Happy Breed" premieres in London
- 1944 NY Giant Phil Weintraub gets 11 RBIs
Radio Premiere
1945 "Arthur Godfrey Time" begins a 27 year run on CBS radio
Event of Interest
1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city
- 1945 Concentration camp Munchen-Allag freed
Event of Interest
1945 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) calls for crusade against the Bolsheviks
- 1945 Record 48 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month
- 1945 Red Army occupies Demmin
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag
1945 Red Army opens attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin
- 1945 Soviet Army frees Ravensbruck concentration camp
- 1945 US troops attack the Elbe
Sports History
1946 Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller's 2nd career MLB no-hitter; beats New York Yankees, 1-0
- 1947 Boulder Dam renamed in honor of Herbert Hoover
- 1948 "Inside USA" opens at Century Theater NYC for 339 performances
- 1948 Org of American States charter signed at Bogota, Colombia
- 1948 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1952 Mr Potato Head is 1st toy advertised on television
- 1953 Little-Bigger League changes its name to Babe Ruth League
Music Concert
1954 Darius Milhaud's 4th Concert for piano and orchestra premieres in Haifa, Israel
- 1955 Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado's mambo version of "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White" goes #1 for 10 weeks
- 1955 Element atomic number 101, Mendelevium, announced
- 1955 Imperial Bank of India nationalized
- 1955 West German unions protest for 40-hour work week & higher wages
Baseball Record
1958 Ted Williams is 10th major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits
- 1961 "Tossin' and Turnin'" single released by Bobby Lewis (Billboard Song of the Year, 1961)
- 1961 1st shuttle flights between Washington, D.C., Boston & NYC begin (Eastern)
- 1961 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Mickey Wright wins her 5th major title by 1 stroke from Patty Berg & Louise Suggs
Event of Interest
1961 Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize
Baseball Record
1961 SF outfielder Willie Mays becomes just the 9th player in MLB history to hit 4 homers in one game in the Giants 14-4 win against the Braves in Milwaukee
- 1962 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Mickey Wright wins her 8th major title in a playoff with Ruth Jessen
Event of Interest
1962 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker takes X-15 to 75,190 m
Ostankino Tower
1967 Ostankino Tower, the then highest free-standing structure in the world at 540m is finished in Moscow, Russia
- 1968 3 Oriole pitchers walk 14 NY Yankees in a 9 inning game
- 1969 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney records his second MLB no-hitter in 10-0 rout of Houston Astros
- 1969 WEDB TV channel 40 in Berlin, New Hampshire (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1970 Cubs Billy Williams is 1st NLer to play in 1,000 consecutive games
- 1970 US troops invade Cambodia
- 1971 25th NBA Championship: Milwaukee beat Baltimore Bullets in 4 games
- 1972 "Arthur Godfrey Time" ends a 27 year run on radio
Album Release
1973 Paul McCartney releases "Red Rose Speedway" album, including the hit single "My Love"
Event of Interest
1973 US President Nixon announces the resignation of H. R. Haldeman, Ehrlichman and others
- 1973 Women's tennis groups end disputes over sanctioning tournaments
Event of Interest
1974 US President Richard Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tape recordings
Boxing Title Fight
1976 Muhammad Ali beats Jimmy Young in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1976 Royal Canadian Mint opens a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba
- 1976 The Betsy Ross Bridge, spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey opens
Event of Interest
1977 Human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo begin protesting at the forced disappearances of thousands, under the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla, in Buenos Aires
- 1977 Revival of musical revue "A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green" closes at Little Theatre, NYC after 92 performances
- 1977 Ron Cey sets record of 29 RBIs in April
Pro Wrestling
1977 Wrestler "Superstar" Billy Graham beats Bruno Sammartino in Baltimore, to become WWF champion
- 1978 "Elvis: The Legend Lives!" closes at Palace NYC after 101 performances
- 1978 British film "The Stud" starring Joan Collins, based on the book by her sister Jackie Collins premieres in UK
- 1979 Mary Therese Friel, (New York), crowned 28th Miss USA
- 1980 "Barnum" opens at St James Theater NYC for 854 performances
- 1980 Juliana, Queen of the Netherlands, abdicates; Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard (42) becomes Queen Beatrix
- 1980 Ronald Harwood's play "The Dresser" premieres in London with Freddie Jones and Tom Courtenay
- 1980 Terrorists seize Iranian Embassy in London
- 1981 "Can-Can" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 5 performances
Academy of Country Music Awards
1981 16th Academy of Country Music Awards: Barbara Mandrell and George Jones win
- 1982 Alvaro Magana chosen to succeed Jose N Duarte as President of El Salvador
- 1982 Atlanta Braves win record 12th straight from beginning of season
- 1982 Iranian offensive in Khusistan
- 1984 1,700 skiers participate in an alpine event at Are, Sweden
- 1984 Strong winds cause a 30 min delay in Toronto Blue Jays game
- 1985 "Shoah", French documentary about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann, starring Richard Glazar and Raul Hilberg, premieres in Paris
- 1985 Dale Murphy drives in record tying 28th & 29th runs of April
- 1985 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1985 Last edition of Brink Daily Mail and Sunday Express in South Africa
- 1985 NFL Draft: Virginia Tech defensive end Bruce Smith first pick by Buffalo Bills
- 1986 Ashrita Furman performs 8,341 somersaults over 12 miles
Sports History
1986 Bill Elliott sets all-time NASCAR qualifying record, winning pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway; 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h; 44.998 seconds)
- 1986 Mariners strike out 16 times, set record of 36 in 2 consecutive games
- 1987 Lou Lamoriello is named NJ Devils President
Sports History
1987 NY Islander Mike Bossy plays his final game
Music History
1988 33rd Eurovision Song Contest: Celine Dion for Switzerland wins singing "Ne partez pas sans moi" in Dublin
- 1988 NJ Devils beat Caps 3-2 taking 7th game of Patrick Division final
- 1988 NY Knights 1st arena football game beats Cobras 60-52 (10,157 in LA)
Sports History
1988 NY Yank Dave Winfield gets his 29th RBI of April-Sets AL & ties ML Rec
- 1988 The then largest banana split ever, at 4.5 miles long, is made along Market Street in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
- 1988 World Exposition, Expo 88 opens in Brisbane Australia
- 1989 Critics Siskel & Ebert film their 500th TV movie-review show
Beatification
1989 Pope John Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar
- 1989 US beats Costa Rica 1-0, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
Event of Interest
1989 World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee
- 1990 As Met pitcher David Cone argues a call at 1st base, 2 Braves score
- 1990 US hostage Frank Reed freed after 4 years in hands of pro-Iranians
Television Finale
1992 208th & final episode of "The Cosby Show" on NBC-TV
- 1993 The World Wide Web source code is released by CERN, making the software freely available to all
- 1993 Virgin Radio broadcasts for the first time in the United Kingdom.
- 1994 39th Eurovision Song Contest: Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan for Ireland wins singing "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" in Dublin
- 1995 "Blood Brothers" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 839 performances
- 1995 "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 24 performances
- 1995 "The Rose Tattoo" opens at Circle in the Square Theater NYC for 80 performances
- 1995 After 120 years the last 15 A & S department stores close
- 1996 "Buried Child" opens at Atkinson Theater NYC for 77 performances
- 1996 Dutch Itallian Beppo-SAX launches from Cape Canaveral
- 1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Grand Rapids MI on WKLQ 94.5 FM
Event of Interest
1996 US President Clinton approves the sale of $227 million of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; US gas prices are at their highest levels in 5 years
- 1997 "London Assurance" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 72 performances
Film & TV History
1997 42 million watch Ellen DeGeneres publicly declare she is gay
- 1997 Atlanta Braves win record 19 games in April
- 1997 Big Ben stops at 12:11 PM for 54 minutes
- 1997 President Clinton's daughter Chelsea chooses to attend Stanford College
