- 612 BC Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire. Destruction of Nineveh.
- 610 In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur'an
- 654 Pope Eugene I elected to succeed Martinus I
- 843 Treaty of Verdun: Brothers Lotharius I, Louis the German & Charles the Bald divide France
- 955 Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, King of the Germans defeats the Hungarian, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of Western Europe.
- 991 Battle of Maldon: English, led by Bryhtnoth, confront a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon in Essex. The English are defeated and the story is immortalised in a well-known poem.
- 1304 -11] Battle at Zierik Sea: Dutch & French fleet beat Flemish fleet
- 1316 Second Battle of Athenry, Anglo-Norman victory over Gaelic clan alliance
- 1461 Alfonso ed Espina, bishop of Osma urges for an Inquisition in Spain
Event of Interest
1497 John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia"
John Cabot
- 1500 Portuguese sea captain Diego Diaz is first European to sight Madagascar
- 1511 Portuguese troops occupy parts of Malacca
- 1512 Battle of Saint-Mathieu (also called the Battle of Brest): an English fleet of 25 ships commanded by Sir Edward Howard and a Franco-Breton fleet of 22 ships commanded by René de Clermont.
- 1557 Battle of St Quentin in Picardy: Lamoraal, Count of Egmont and Philibert, Duke of Savoy (Spanish Empire) beat the Duke of Montmorency (France)
- 1566 Protestant Iconoclasm "Beeldenstorm" begins in European Low Countries
Treaty of Interest
1585 English Queen Elizabeth I signs Treaty of Nonsuch: Aid for Netherlands
Elizabeth I
Event of Interest
1675 King Charles II and John Flamsteed lay the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London
Charles II
John Flamsteed
- 1675 Portuguese-Jewish synagogue opens in Amsterdam
- 1678 Netherlands & France sign peace treaty in Nijmegen
- 1680 In New Mexico, Popé leads rebellion of Pueblo Indians against Spaniards
- 1743 Earliest recorded prize fighting rules formulated
- 1759 Carlos III crowned King of Spain
- 1774 1st Surinam newspaper (1st Wednesday Suriname) begins publishing
United States Declaration of Independence
1776 American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
Learn More
Event of Interest
1787 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his chamber piece "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A Little Serenade)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Event of Interest
1792 Papers from the Tuileries Palace, proving the Comte de Mirabeau had secret dealings with the court are revealed
Comte de Mirabeau
- 1793 Louvre palace officially opens in Paris as The Museum Central des Arts
- 1809 Ecuador declares independence from Spain (National Day)
- 1821 Missouri admitted as 24th US state
- 1822 Antioch Syria, hit by Earthquake; about 20,000 die
- 1827 Race riots in Cincinnati (1,000 blacks leave for Canada)
- 1831 Hurricane hits Barbados; about 1,500 die
- 1833 Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200
- 1835 Mob of whites & oxen pulled black school to a swamp out of Canaan NH
- 1846 US Act of Congress passes establishing the Smithsonian Institution, now world's largest museum and research complex
- 1856 Hurricane washes away 2-300 revelers at Last Island, Louisiana
- 1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek [Battle of Oak Hills], fought near Springfield, Missouri, General Lyon killed, Confederate victory (US Civil War)
- 1862 Battle of Nueces River TX
- 1869 O B Brown patents moving picture projector
- 1876 1st phone call between Brantford & Paris, Canada
- 1877 Big Hole River: Col John Gibbon murders Nez-Perce indians
- 1885 Leo Daft opens America's 1st commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore
- 1887 Excursion train crashes killing 101. (Chatsworth, Illinois)
Event of Interest
1893 Rudolf Diesel's prime model internal combustion engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany
Rudolf Diesel
- 1895 1st Queen's Hall Promenade Concerto (Wagner's "Rienzi")
- 1897 German chemist Felix Hoffman first synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, which would later be patened by his company Bayer under the name "aspirin"
- 1897 Automobile Club of Great Britain established (now: Royal Automobile Club)
- 1901 Chicago White Sox Frank Isbell strands record 11 teammate base runners
Event of Interest
1904 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (future Pope John XXIII) becomes a priest
John XXIII
- 1904 Dutch newspaper Volk fires gay journalist Jacob de Cock
- 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea: Japanese fleet prevented Russians breaking out of Port Arthur
- 1904 Higlanders Jack Chesbro ends string of 30 consecutive complete games
- 1906 Pope Pius X bans Associations cults
- 1907 Prince Scipone Borchesi wins Beijing to Paris, 7,500 mile auto rally
- 1911 Parliament Act reduces power of UK's House of Lords
- 1911 The UK House of Commons votes on a salary - of £400 annually - for its members
- 1913 2nd Balkan War ends, Treaty of Bucharest, Bulgaria loses
- 1914 At Liege, German 12"/16.5" guns reach Belgian boundary
- 1914 German battle cruiser Goeben reaches Dardanellen/Turkey joins Germany
- 1914 German troops reconquer Mulhouse in Elzas
- 1914 WWI: French fall back at Alsace
- 1916 Turks annex Persian city Hamadan from Russia
- 1919 Ukrainian National Army massacres 25 Jews in Podolia Ukraine
- 1920 Allies recognize Poland, Czechoslovakia & Romania
- 1920 Treaty of Sèvres (Allies & Turkey)
- 1920 Turkish government renounces its claim to Israel, recognizes British mandate
- 1920 Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds record “Crazy Blues” for Okeh Records, first significant Blues hit by African American artist
Polio
1921 FDR stricken with a paralytic illness at summer home on Canadian island of Campobello. At the time it was thought to be polio, but could possibly have been Guillain–Barré syndrome
Learn More
US Open Women's Tennis
1933 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Defending champion Helen Jacobs beats Helen Wills Moody 8-6, 3-6, 3-0, ret
Helen Wills Moody
- 1935 3rd Venice Film Festival opens
- 1936 114°F (46°C) at Plain Dealing, Louisiana (state record)
- 1936 120°F (49°C) at Ozark, Arkansas (state record)
- 1936 4th Venice Film Festival opens
- 1936 First time the Olympic cycling road race is conducted as a mass start event with Frenchmen Robert Charpentier and Guy Lapébie taking gold and silver, and France winning the teams gold medal
- 1937 5th Venice Film Festival opens
- 1938 119°F (48°C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record)
- 1939 2nd Dutch De Geer government forms (1st with Social Democrats)
- 1940 Prince Bernhard Fund forms
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1942 200 Jews escape Mir Ghetto in Poland
Event of Interest
1942 General Bernard Montgomery appointed commander British 8th Army in North Africa
Bernard Montgomery
- 1943 Dutch submarine attacks Hertenbeest Island, NW Bali
Event of Interest
1943 US General George S. Patton calls injured soldier "cowardly"
George S. Patton
Event of Interest
1943 Adolf Hitler watches lynching of allied pilots
Adolf Hitler
Donald Bradman
Boxing Title Fight
1949 Ezzard Charles TKOs Gus Lesnevich in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
Ezzard Charles
- 1949 US National Military Establishment renamed Depertment of Defense
Film Premier
1950 "Sunset Boulevard", American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in NYC
- 1954 Dutch Indonesian Union breaks up
- 1954 Sir Gordon Richards retires as a jockey with record 4,870 wins
- 1954 At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway is held.
- 1956 23rd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 26, All-Stars 0 (75,000)
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1960 Discoverer 13 launched into orbit; returned 1st object from space
- 1960 Nicolaas Jouwe forms PANA in New Guinea
Film Premier
1960 Los Angeles premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh
- 1961 UK applies for membership of the European Common Market
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1964 WJSP TV channel 28 in Columbus, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1965 Joe Engle in X-15 reaches 82 km
- 1966 NASA launches Lunar Orbiter 1 to the Moon to photograph the lunar surface
- 1966 Daylight meteor seen from Utah to Canada. Only known case of a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere & leaving it again
- 1968 Race riot in Miami, Chicago & Little Rock
- 1969 Don Sutton breaks his 13-game losing streak to Cubs with a 4-2 win
Jim Morrison's Trial
1970 Jim Morrison's trial for "lewd and lascivious behavior" begins in Miami
Learn More
Baseball Record
1971 Twins' Harmon Killebrew is 10th to amass 500 HRs, & adds his 501st
Harmon Killebrew
Event of Interest
1972 Paul & Linda McCartney are arrested in Sweden on drug possession
Linda McCartney
PGA Championship
1975 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Firestone CC: Jack Nicklaus wins his 4th PGA crown by 2 shots from Australian Bruce Crampton
Jack Nicklaus
- 1975 David Frost purchases exclusive rights to interview Nixon
- 1976 Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer shot dead by the British Army as he drove in Belfast; his car out of control and kills 3 children, sparking "peace rallies" throughout the month by the 'Peace People'
- 1977 Phillies & Expos play a doubleheader that ends at 3:23 AM
- 1977 US & Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord
- 1977 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
- 1977 Postal employee David Berkowitz arrested in Yonkers NY, accused of being "Son of Sam" 44 caliber killer
- 1977 About 100 white sympathisers joined evicted black squatters in a protest against the demolition of shanty dwellings outside Cape Town, South Africa
- 1978 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya
- 1979 Ecuador adopts its 17th constitution, extending citizenship and suffrage to all Ecuadorians over 18
- 1979 Wings release "Getting Closer" & "Baby's Request"
Album Release
1979 "Off the Wall" 5th studio album by Michael Jackson is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1980)
Michael Jackson
- 1980 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Oak Hill CC: Jack Nicklaus wins 5th and final PGA C'ship by a convincing 7 strokes from Andy Bean
Golf Tournament
1980 Canadian Open Women's Golf (Peter Jackson Classic), Richelieu Valley GC: Pat Bradley wins by 1 from JoAnn Carner for her first of 6 major titles
Pat Bradley
Event of Interest
1981 Pete Rose, 3,631 career hit, breaks Stan Musial's NL hit record
Pete Rose
Stan Musial
- 1981 Richard Nixon Museum in San Clemente closes
Event of Interest
1983 1st World Championships in Athletics: Carl Lewis wins gold in Men's Long Jump
Carl Lewis
- 1984 Famous Mary Decker-Zola Budd collision during 3,000m at the LA Olympics; Decker falls, Budd finishes 7th; Maricica Puică of Romania wins
Olympic Gold
1984 The US beats Spain 96-65 to win the men's basketball gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics; future 'dream team' members Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin feature
Michael Jordan
Patrick Ewing
- 1984 Ian Ferguson of New Zealand wins 2 canoeing gold medals in the one day taking the K-1 500 and K-2 500 (with Paul MacDonald) at the LA Olympics; wins K-4 1000 the next day
- 1984 Sweden's Agneta Andersson takes out the women's canoeing 500m double at the Los Angeles Olympics with wins in the K-1 and K-2 (with Anna Olsson) events
- 1985 Oakland A's Dave Kingman is 21st to hit 400 HRs (off Matt Young at Seattle)
- 1985 Michael Jackson buys ATV Music (every Beatle song) for $47 million
- 1985 Uno Lindstron of Sweden juggles a soccer ball 13.11 miles
- 1986 "Me & My Girl" opens at Marquis Theater NYC for 1420 performances
- 1986 Billy Martin Day, his uniform number 1 retired
- 1986 Marquis Theater opens at 1535 Broadway NYC
- 1986 Pitcher Bob Forsch grand slams to lead Cards to a 5-4 win over Pirates
- 1987 Flight Readiness Firing of Discovery's main engines is successfully
- 1987 Kevin Gross is 2nd pitcher in 8 days to be ejected for scuffing ball
- 1988 Matt Biondi swims world record 100m free style (48.42 sec)
- 1988 Rodrigo Borja installed as president of Ecuador
- 1988 UN estimates Asia's population hits 3 billion
- 1989 A's bat out of order against White Sox in 3rd inning
- 1989 Australia 0-301 at end of day one, 5th Test Cricket at Trent Bridge
- 1990 NASA's Magellan spacecraft lands on Venus
- 1990 The Massacre of more than 127 Muslims in North East Sri Lanka by paramilitaries.
- 1991 "A Little Night Music" closes at New York State NYC after 7 performances
- 1991 NFL sportscaster Paul Maquire suffers a heart attack at 53
- 1992 Satellite TOPEX/Poseidon launched
- 1992 Soyuz TM-15 lands
Event of Interest
1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg sworn in as a US Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- 1993 Charlotte Anne Lopez, 16, of Vermont, crowned 11th Miss Teen USA
- 1993 Earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale hits the South Island of New Zealand
- 1994 Last British troops leave Hong Kong (been there since Sept 1841)
- 1995 Dodgers leading 2-1 in 9th forfeit game to Cards, fans become unruly
- 1996 Dare & Go ends Cigars record tying victory streak at 16
- 1996 Parlisha Williams (Louisiana) crowned Ms Black USA Metroplex
- 1996 Yanks lose ending 3rd best home series victory streak at 24
- 1996 New Zealand beats South Africa, 29-18 in Cape Town to win the inaugural Tri Nations Rugby Series with an unbeaten record; All Blacks flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens lands 5 penalties and 2 conversions
- 1997 36th Walker Cup: US, 18-6
- 1997 Anaheim Angels Tony Phillips arrested for purchasing cocaine
Event of Interest
1997 Atlanta Braves sign Greg Maddux to record 5 year, $575 Million deal
Greg Maddux
- 1998 The Royal Proclamation of HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah as the Crown Prince of Brunei.
Event of Interest
2001 US and UK reject a proposal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to permit the Iraqi government to use $1 billion per year to fund infrastructure improvements and to increase oil production capacity
Kofi Annan
- 2002 New Zealand beats South Africa, 30-23 in Durban to win their fourth Tri Nations Rugby Series; All Blacks score 4 tries to 2
- 2003 The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - 38.5°C (101.3°F) in Kent . It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 2006 Scotland Yard disrupts major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States. All toiletries are banned from commercial aircraft.
- 2008 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Oakland Hills CC: Irishman Pádraig Harrington wins his second straight major by 2 shots from Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis
- 2008 British cyclist Nicole Cooke wins the road race at the Beijing Olympics; Great Britain's 200th gold in the modern Olympics
World Record
2008 American super-star swimmer Michael Phelps wins the 400m individual medley at the Beijing Olympics in world record 4:03.84
Michael Phelps
