Historic Event
1510 Muslim ruler of Goa, Yusuf Adil Shah and his Ottoman allies surrender to Portuguese forces led by Afonso de Albuquerque who puts the Muslim population to the sword
The Protestant Reformation
1520 Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1582 France begins use of Gregorian calendar
Victory in Battle
1652 Sea battle at Dungeness: lt-admiral Maarten Tromp beats English fleet
- 1672 New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston
Historic Event
1684 Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley
- 1690 Massachusetts Bay becomes first American colonial government to issue paper money
Historic Event
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's army reaches Manchester
- 1768 First part (number) of the Encyclopedia Britannica is published in Edinburgh, Scotland
- 1799 Metric system first adopted in France
- 1810 English bare-knuckle boxer Tom Cribb beats African-American Tom Molineaux in 33rd of 40 round bout at Copthall Common, England; first interracial boxing match
- 1816 Dutch regain Sumatra from the British
- 1817 Mississippi admitted as 20th state of the Union
- 1831 "Spirit of the Times" begins publishing in New York City, the premier sports journal of the 19th century
- 1836 Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia
Music Premiere
1854 Hector Berlioz premieres his oratorio "L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ)", conducting musicians and soloists from the Opéra-Comique, at the Salle Herz, Paris
Historic Siege
1864 General Sherman's armies reach Savannah & 12 day siege begins
- 1869 The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.
- 1869 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
Music History
1882 Johannes Brahms' choir and orchestra piece "Gesang der Parzen" (Song of the Fates) premieres in Basel
Historic Publication
1884 "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain is first published in the UK and Canada (US Feb 1885, due to printing error)
Spain Declares War Against the United States
1898 Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish–American War is signed by US President McKinley; US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam
- 1899 -15] British "Black Week" due to defeats in South Africa
- 1899 Battle at Storm Berge South Africa - Boers vs British army
- 1899 Delta Sigma Phi fraternity founded at City College of New York, to spread "the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed."
Theater Premiere
1899 Frank Wedekind's play "Der Kammersänger" premieres in Berlin
- 1901 First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy
Nobel Prize
1901 First Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays
Nobel Prize
1902 German organic chemist Emil Fischer is award the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on sugar and purine syntheses
- 1902 Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania
Nobel Prize
1903 Nobel Prize for physics awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie for their study of spontaneous radiation
- 1904 Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity in Charleston, South Carolina
Nobel Prize
1904 Ivan Pavlov awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the physiology of digestion, first Russian to win a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
1904 John William Strutt [Lord Rayleigh] and William Ramsay are presented with the Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery of Argon
- 1904 King Peter I of Serbia named nationalist regime
- 1905 Austrian pacifist and writer Bertha von Suttner becomes the 1st woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
1906 Frenchman Henri Moissan is presented with the Nobel prize for Chemistry for isolating Fluoride
Nobel Prize
1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal "in recognition of their work on the anatomy of the nervous system" [1]
Nobel Prize
1906 US President Theodore Roosevelt is the 1st American awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
1907 Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so
- 1907 The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
Nobel Prize
1909 Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
Nobel Prize
1910 Dutch Physicist Johannes van der Waals wins the Nobel Prize for physics
Nobel Prize
1911 Belgium poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck is presented in absentia with the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 1911 Calbraith Rogers completes 1st crossing of US by airplane in 84 days
- 1911 Dutch lawyer Tobias Asser receives the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
1912 Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Gustaf Dalén for inventing automatic regulators for gas accumulators for lighthouses and buoys
- 1913 Belgium head of the International Peace Bureau Henri La Fontaine becomes the first Socialist to win the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
1913 Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore becomes the first non-European to be presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature for "Gitanjali"
Nobel Prize
1919 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to US President Woodrow Wilson
Sports History
1919 NY, Boston, & Chicago, oppose AL resolution accusing Ban Johnson of overstepping his duties
Nobel Prize
1920 August Krogh is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the regulation mechanisms of capillaries in skeletal muscle
- 1922 1st National Football League Championship: undefeated Canton Bulldogs (10-0-2) named inaugural champions
Nobel Prize
1922 Nobel prizes awarded to Danish physicist Niels Bohr for his work on the structure of atoms, Francis William Aston for Chemistry and a Peace Prize to Fridtjof Nansen for his work on behalf of displaced victims of World War I at a ceremony in Copenhagen
Nobel Prize
1925 Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
- 1926 1st radio broadcast in the Sprinfield area (WCBS)
Historic Publication
1926 2nd part of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf published
- 1927 "Grand Ole Opry" first named as such during Barn Dance radio broadcast, in Nashville, Tennessee
Nobel Prize
1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine jointly awarded to Christiaan Eijkman and Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins for the discovery of vitamins
Nobel Prize
1930 German chemist Hans Fischer is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on haemin
Nobel Prize
1930 Indian Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman is presented with the Nobel Prize for Physics for work on light scattering - first Asian and non-white to win a Science Nobel
Nobel Prize
1931 Jane Addams named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize; 1st American woman Nobel laureate [1]
Election of Interest
1931 Manuel Azaña becomes Prime Minister of Spain with Niceto Zamora as President
- 1932 King Rama VII (Prajadhipok) grants Thailand a constitution
- 1932 The "Great Emu War" ends: Emu's surprising resilience to bullets led to Emu victory over Australian military in Campion district, Western Australia
Nobel Prize
1933 Nobel Prize for Physics is presented to Paul Dirac and Erwin Schrödinger "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory"
- 1934 Fascist dictator of Latvia Ulmanis begins building concentration camp
- 1934 NFL adopts player waiver rule; applies after 6th game of season
- 1934 Saint-Adelbert cooperation formed by Catholic elite
Nobel Prize
1935 James Chadwick is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the neutron
Nobel Prize
1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Irene Joliot-Curie (daughter of Marie Curie) and her husband Frédéric Joliot for the discovery of artificial radioactivity
Contract of Interest
1935 Philadelphia Athletics sell infielder Jimmie Foxx's contract to Boston Red Sox for $150,000 (about $2.8M in 2020 dollars)
- 1935 White Sox sell Al Simmons to the Tigers for $75,000
Historic Event
1936 Britain replaces King Edward VIII stamp series with King George VI
King Abdicates for Love of Wallis Simpson
1936 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson
Nobel Prize
1936 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas for mediating end to Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, 1st Latin American to win
- 1936 Stockholm: physicist PBJ Debije receives Nobel prize for chemistry
- 1938 CFL Grey Cup: In repeat of last year, Toronto Argonauts defeat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 30-7 to retain Championship
Nobel Prize
1938 Italian scientist Enrico Fermi receives the Nobel Prize for Physics (work on reduced radioactivity)
- 1938 Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen teacher, Rinzai line, enters Zen priesthood
- 1939 KNVB celebrates 50th anniversary
NFL Championship
1939 National Football League Championship, Dairy Bowl, West Allis, Wisconsin: Green Bay Packers beat New York Giants, 27-0; Packers 5th title
Sports History
1940 1941 NFL Draft: Tom Harmon from University of Michigan first pick by Chicago Bears
- 1940 British anti-offensive in Libya (Sidi Barrani)
- 1941 British battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse (Force Z) sunk following Japanese aerial attacks off Malaya. 840 men die
- 1941 Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines
- 1941 Japanese troops overrun Guam
- 1942 Adolf Hitler names Anton Mussert "leader of the Dutch people"
Historic Event
1942 An early report the Holocaust prepared by the Polish government-in-exile, using information obtained by Witold Pilecki, is addressed to UN member states
- 1942 North Africa: 5th German panzer army forms under col-gen von Arnim
- 1943 British 8th Army (1st Canadian Infantry Division) occupies Orsogna/Ortona Italy
- 1944 9 Dutch citizens hanged by Nazis
- 1944 German counter attack at Dillingen bridgehead on the Saar
- 1945 Aust Services lose 3rd Victory Test Cricket to India by 6 wkts
- 1945 Preston Tucker reveals plan to produce the Torpedo, a new 150 MPH car
Nobel Prize
1946 German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"
Nobel Prize
1947 American physiologists Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Gasser presented with Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm (awarded 1944), for research into nerve function
- 1947 USSR & Czechoslovakia sign trade agreement
Historic Event
1948 UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Nobel Prize
1950 Ralph Bunche (1st black American) presented the Nobel Peace Prize for mediation in Israel
Music Premiere
1953 Musical revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac", starring Harry Belafonte, Hermione Gingold, and Orson Bean, opens at Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs for 229 performances, with Belafonte earning a Tony Award
- 1953 WSTV (now WTOV) TV channel 9 in Steubenville-Wheeling, OH (CBS) begins
- 1954 Albert Schweitzer receives Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
1954 Linus Pauling wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its applications
- 1954 Philadelphia Phillies purchase Connie Mack Stadium
- 1954 USAF Lt Col John Stapp travels at 632 mph in a rocket sled at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico
- 1956 Establishment of The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA (from Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola), left-wing party that has ruled since independence from Portugal
- 1957 Chinese physicists Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on parity laws, which created a major breakthrough in particle research
- 1958 1st domestic (NY-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111
- 1958 U of Pitts agrees to buy Forbes Field from the Pirates
Historic Event
1959 Novel Prize for Literature awarded to Sicilian writer Salvatore Quasimodo for his lyrical poetry
- 1960 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded to Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Peter Medawar for work on tissue grafting
Nobel Prize
1960 Willard Libby wins the Nobel prize in Chemistry for his work developing carbon-14 dating (radiocarbon dating).
Sports History
1961 Houston Oilers utility back Billy Cannon gains AFL record 373 yards combined rushing/receiving in 48-21 win over NY Titans at the Polo Grounds, NYC
Nobel Prize
1961 Robert Hofstadter and Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer win the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleon
- 1961 US performs nuclear test at Carlsbad New Mexico (underground)
- 1961 USSR & Albania break diplomatic relations
Film Premiere
1962 David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia", based on life of T. E. Lawrence and starring Peter O'Toole, premieres at Odeon Leicester Square (Academy Awards Best Picture 1963)
- 1962 Hunters Point (San Francisco) jitney ends service after 50 years
Music History
1963 6-year old Donny Osmond's singing debut on Andy Williams Show
Nobel Prize
1963 Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta receive the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the technology of high polymers
Music Premiere
1963 Leonard Bernstein premieres his Third Symphony "Kaddish" with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in Tel Aviv, Israel
- 1963 Zanzibar gains independenence from Great Britain
Nobel Prize
1964 Dorothy Hodgkin is the first British woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on penicillin and vitamin B12
Nobel Prize
1964 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo, Norway
- 1965 Dutch ends economic boycott of Rhodesia
- 1965 Michael Leonard and Herbert Martin's musical "The Yearling" opens at Alvin Theater, NYC; runs for 3 performances
- 1965 Test Cricket debut of Doug Walters v England at the Gabba
- 1966 Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins Nobel Prize for literature
- 1966 Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to Robert S. Mulliken
Film & TV History
1967 CBS officially renames CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York (built in 1927 as Hammerstein's Theatre), as "The Ed Sullivan Theater" in celebration of the 20th anniversary of his program
Nobel Prize
1967 Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm
Nobel Prize
1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for discoveries about the make-up of the eye
- 1968 Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.
Boxing Title Fight
1968 Joe Frazier beats Oscar Bonavena in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1970 North American Soccer League awards NY & Toronto franchises
Nobel Prize
1970 Soviet novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn chooses not to claim his Nobel Prize in Literature for fear that the USSR would prevent his return afterwards. Accepts in 1974 after he was deported.
Film & TV History
1971 Lucasfilm Ltd. is founded as a film and television production company by George Lucas in San Francisco, California
Nobel Prize
1971 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt receives the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1971 William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice
- 1972 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Pro Wrestling
1973 Bruno Sammartino beats Stan Stasiak, to become WWWF champ for 2nd time
Sports History
1973 First time since 1885, tennis has 2 top male players - Americans Stan Smith and Jimmy Connors
- 1974 European Economic Community calls for a European Parliament
- 1974 Helios 1 launched by US and Germany; later makes closest flyby of the Sun
Nobel Prize
1974 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Irishman Seán MacBride for his human rights work and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satō for signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nobel Prize
1975 Andrei Sakharov's wife Yelena Bonner, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
- 1975 Terry Funk beats Jack Brisco in Miami Beach, to become NWA champ
Nobel Prize
1976 Samuel C. C. Ting is the first person to deliver a Nobel Prize lecture in Mandarin, during the ceremony to award him and Burton Richter the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the J/ψ particle
- 1976 Wings release triple album "Wings Over America"
- 1977 Soyuz 26 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
- 1978 67th Davis Cup: USA beats Great Britain in Rancho Mirage (4-1)
- 1978 Gary William Friedman and Will Holt's musical "Platinum" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater, NYC, after 33 performances
- 1978 Islanders ends 15 game undefeated streak (12-0-3) to Canadians
Nobel Prize
1978 Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo
Film Premiere
1978 Superman: The Movie, directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder premieres at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.
- 1979 Piet Dankert appointed as chairman of European Parliament
- 1980 Soyuz T-3 returns to Earth
- 1980 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1981 -13] El Salvador army kills 900
- 1981 Jules Feiffer's "Grownups" premieres in NYC
- 1981 The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan's proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
- 1982 CDC report on a transfusion recipient who developed AIDS symptoms
Boxing Title Fight
1982 Heavyweight Michael Doakes KOs Mike Weaver in 1:03 in Las Vegas
- 1982 Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth, 211 days after take-off
Australian Open Women's Tennis
1983 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Martina Navratilova wins 8th career Grand Slam singles event; beats Kathy Jordan of the US 6-2, 7-6
Nobel Prize
1983 Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Wałęsa, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
- 1983 Last NFL game at Shea Stadium; Steelers beat NY Jets 34-7
- 1983 Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina's 1st civilian president
- 1984 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
Nobel Prize
1984 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is presented with his Nobel Peace Prize
- 1984 WNSY-AM in Newport News VA returns from WGH
Film Premiere
1985 "Out of Africa", based on the book by Isak Dinesen, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1986)
- 1985 Bill to balance the federal budget passed by US Congress
- 1986 Atlanta Hawk Dominique Wilkins scores 57 points vs Chicago Bulls
- 1986 France performs nuclear test
Nobel Prize
1986 Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
Sports History
1986 Ivan Lendl repeats previous year's result with a 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 win over Boris Becker to claim back-to-back season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix tennis titles at Madison Square Garden, NYC