Historic Event
303 1st official Roman edict for persecution of Christians issued by Emperor Diocletian at Nicomedia, ordering all churches to be closed and scriptures burnt
- 896 Pope Formosus crowned Arnulf King of Carinthia and Holy Roman Emperor
- 1071 Battle of Cassel; Robert I the Frisian defeats Arnulf III/I
- 1281 Simon de Brion elected Pope Martinus IV
- 1288 Girolamo Masci elected Pope Nicolas IV
- 1300 Pope Boniface VIII issues papal bull (decree) instating a Jubilee Year, granting forgiveness of sins and debts for those who fulfill various conditions
- 1349 Jews are expelled from Zurich, Switzerland
Historic Event
1495 French King Charles VIII enters Naples to claim crown
- 1561 William of Orange appointed viceroy of Burgundy and Charolais
Historic Event
1633 St. Peter's Baldachin, the cathedral's sculptural centerpiece, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is inaugurated by Pope Urban VIII in Rome
- 1656 New Amsterdam granted a Jewish burial site
- 1744 Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié: British vs. French & Spanish fleet
- 1746 French troops conquer Brussels
- 1746 Jacobite troops vacate Aberdeen
- 1774 British House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright
- 1775 1st US joint stock company (to make cloth) offers shares at 10 cents
- 1775 Jews expelled from outskirts of Warsaw, Poland
- 1784 1st US ship to trade with China, "Empress of China", sails from NY
Last Invasion of Britain
1797 The Last Invasion of Britain, launched by the French during the Revolutionary Wars, begins near Fishguard, Wales
- 1819 The Adams–Onís Treaty between Spain and the United States is signed, ceding Florida to the US and defining the boundary between the US and New Spain
- 1825 Russia & Britain establish Alaska-Canada boundary
- 1828 Russia & Persia sign Peace of Turkmantsjai
- 1836 Dutch garrison evacuates fort Du Bus New Guinea
- 1847 Battle of Buena Vista: US troops beat Mexican army
- 1854 1st meeting of Republican Party (Michigan)
- 1856 1st national meeting of Republican Party (Pittsburgh)
Theater Premiere
1858 Dion Boucicault's play "Jessie Brown" premieres in NYC
- 1860 Organized baseball played in San Francisco for 1st time between the Eagles and the Red Rovers
- 1860 Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
- 1861 On a bet Edward Weston leaves Boston to walk to Lincoln's inauguration
- 1864 -27] Battle at Dalton Georgia
- 1864 2nd and last day of Battle of Okolona, Mississippi
- 1864 Skirmish at Calfkiller Creek (Battle of Dug Hill), Tennessee
- 1865 Battle of Wilmington, NC (Fort Anderson) occupied by Federals
- 1865 Tennessee adopts a new constitution abolishing slavery
- 1872 1st national convention of Prohibition Party (Columbus Ohio)
- 1876 Johns Hopkins University opens
- 1878 Greenback Labor Party forms (Toledo, Ohio)
Music Premiere
1878 Peter Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony in F premieres at a Russian Musical Society concert in Moscow [February 10 O.S.]
- 1879 1st 5 cent & 10 cent store opened by Frank W. Woolworth in Utica, New York (failed almost immediately)
- 1882 The Serbian kingdom is refounded.
- 1882 With 120 miles James Saunders wins NYC's 24 hour race & $100 prize
- 1887 Union Labor Party organized in Cincinnati
- 1888 “Father of American Golf” John Reid first demonstrates golf on a Yonkers cow pasture to friends
- 1889 US President Cleveland signs bill to admit Dakotas, Montana & Washington state to the union
Historic Event
1892 "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde premieres at St James Theatre, London
- 1892 Manitoba Rugby Football Union forms
- 1893 1st Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 32-22 in Birmingham
- 1898 Black postmaster lynched, his wife & 3 daughters shot in Lake City, South Carolina
- 1900 Battle at Wynne's Hill, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
- 1903 Due to drought the US side of Niagara Falls runs short of water
- 1904 The Hague Tribunal gives its decision in claims against Venezuela; it sets the sum to be paid by Venezuela and gives preferential treatment to the three powers that initiated the block - Britain, Germany, and Italy
- 1904 The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
- 1906 Black evangelist William J Seymour arrives in Los Angeles, California
- 1907 1st cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London
- 1907 Leonid Andreyev's "Zhizn Cheloveka" premieres in St Petersburg
Great White Fleet
1909 Great White Fleet, 1st US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Virginia
- 1911 The Canadian Parliament resolves to maintain union with the British Empire, while controlling domestic fiscal affairs
- 1912 J Vedrines makes 1st airplane flight over 100 mph-161.29 kph
- 1915 Germany begins "unrestricted" submarine war
- 1916 The House-Grey Memorandum, drafted by US and Britain, states: 'Should the Allies accept [the American idea of a conference to end the war] and should Germany refuse it, the United States would "probably" enter the war against Germany'
- 1917 German Navy torpedoes 7 Dutch ships
- 1918 Germany claims Baltic states, Finland & Ukraine from Russia
- 1920 1st artificial rabbit used at a dog race track (Emeryville, California)
- 1922 Congress authorizes Grant Memorial $1 gold coin
- 1922 London issues a unilateral declaration of Egyptian independence
- 1923 1st successful chinchilla farm in US (Los Angeles California)
- 1923 Transcontinental airmail service begins
- 1927 ARC soccer team forms in Alphen on the Rhine
- 1927 Baruch Spinosa's house of mourning opened as a museum
- 1928 1st solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin, 15 ½ days after take off, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler
- 1932 Purple Heart (the Badge of Military Merit) award reinstituted
- 1933 Hungarian scholar and the founder of Tibetan studies Alexander Csoma de Kőrös declared a Bodhisattva (Buddhist saint) in Japan
- 1933 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 272.46 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida
Film Release
1934 "It Happened One Night" directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert opens at NY's Radio City Music Hall (Academy Awards Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay 1935)
Historic Event
1934 André Malraux and Édouard Corniglion-Molinier set out to find the lost capital of the Queen of Sheba, as mentioned in the Old Testament
Film Premiere
1935 "The Little Colonel" premieres starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, featuring famous stair dance with Hollywood's first interracial dance couple
- 1935 Airplanes are no longer permitted to fly over the White House
- 1936 Construction on Ypenburg Neth airport begins
Olympic Gold
1936 Sonja Henie of Norway follows up her Winter Olympics victory with an incredible 10th consecutive women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal in Paris, France
Historic Event
1939 Netherlands recognizes Franco regime in Spain
- 1940 Finnish troops vacate Koivisto island
- 1940 German air force sinks 2 German destroyers, killing 578
- 1941 Arthur "Bomber" Harris becomes British Air Marshal
- 1941 German assault on El Agheila Libya
- 1941 IG Farben decides building Buna-Werke in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
- 1941 Nazi police raid Amsterdam and round up 429 young Jews for deportation to be sent to Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps
- 1941 Paul Creston's 1st Symphony premieres
- 1941 Roy Harris' "Ballad of a Railroad Man" premieres
'I Shall Return'
1942 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse
- 1943 Members of White Rose student resistance group are executed in Nazi Germany
Plane Crash
1943 Plane crash in the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal kills 23 with 15 survivors including singer Jane Froman
- 1944 World War II: US Army Air Forces accidentally bomb Dutch town of Nijmegen, around 800 civilians die
- 1945 Arab League forms (Cairo)
- 1945 British troops take Ramree Island, Burma
- 1945 Canadian 3rd Division occupies Moyland
- 1948 Arabs bomb attack in Jerusalem, 50 die
- 1950 Brockway & Weinstock publish "Men of Music" (rev ed)
- 1951 4th British Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs): "All About Eve" Best Film
- 1952 German husband and wife team Ria and Paul Falk win the mixed pairs gold medal at the Oslo Winter Olympics; defeat American siblings, Karol and Peter Kennedy
- 1952 Germany takes the Olympic bobsleigh double with gold in the 4-man event at the Oslo Winter Games; Adreas Ostler and Lorenz Niebert score their 2nd gold medals after winning the 2-man a week earlier
- 1955 British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sets sail
- 1956 1st English soccer match at Kunstlicht: Portsmouth vs Newcastle United
- 1957 Jockey Ted Atkinson, 3,500th win
- 1957 Walter O'Malley says Dodgers may play 10 exhibitions in California in 1958
- 1958 "Portotino" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 3 performances
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 15th Golden Globes: "The Bridge on the River Kwai", Alec Guinness, & Joanne Woodward win
- 1958 Australian swimmer Jon Konrads sets 6 world records in 2 days
- 1958 Egypt & Syria form United Arab Republic (UAR)
- 1958 Indonesian air force bombs Padang, Sumatra and Menado, Celebes
- 1959 Inaugural Daytona 500: Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp cross finish line side by side; Beauchamp declared unofficial winner; ruling overturned after 3 days by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr
- 1960 German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first non-Nordic athlete to win the Nordic combined event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
NBA Record
1962 Philadelphia center Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA record with 34 free-throw attempts (converts 19) in Warriors 139-121 win over St. Louis Hawks at Philadelphia Civic Center
- 1963 Beatles begin their own music publishing company (Northern Songs)
- 1964 Beatles arrive back in England after their 1st US visit
- 1965 Rodgers & Hammerstein's television musical "Cinderella", starring Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon, with Pat Carroll and Celeste Holm, premieres on CBS-TV
- 1965 USSR launches Kosmos 57 into earth orbit (Voskhod Test)
- 1966 Soviets launch Kosmos 110 with Veterok & Ugolek, 1st 2-dog crew
- 1967 25,000 US and South Vietnamese troops launch Operation Junction City against the Viet Cong. Largest US airborne assault since WWII.
- 1967 Barbara Garson's "MacBird" premieres in NYC
- 1967 Sling-shot goal post & 6' wide border around field are standard in NFL
Daytona 500
1970 12th Daytona 500: Pete Hamilton wins by just 3 car lengths over David Pearson, after passing him with 9 laps to go
- 1972 Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani becomes Emir & Prime Minister of Qatar
- 1972 The Official IRA bombs Aldershot military barracks, the headquarters of the British Parachute Regiment, killing seven people; thought to be in retaliation for Bloody Sunday.
Meeting of Interest
1972 US President Richard Nixon, meets with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing
- 1973 "Turkish Delight" Holland's most successful film, directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Rutger Hauer is released
- 1973 US & China agree to establish liaison offices in Beijing & Washington, D.C.
- 1974 Ethiopian police shoot at demonstrators
- 1978 2 tankers with propane gas explode killing 15 at Waverly, Tenn
- 1978 28th Berlin International Film Festival: "Las truchas" and "What Max Said" win the Golden Bear (tie)
Sports History
1979 Billy Martin named manager of Oakland A's
- 1979 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's Primate & Cat Building is dedicated (Cleveland, Ohio)
- 1979 St Lucia gains independence from Britain
Olympic Gold
1980 "Miracle on Ice": US ice hockey team beats heavily favoured Soviet Union, 4-3 at Lake Placid in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history; Americans go on to win gold medal
- 1980 Afghanistan declares martial law
- 1980 Aleksandr Tikhonov of the Soviet Union earns his 4th straight gold medal as part of the 4 x 7.5k biathlon relay team at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics
- 1980 Soviet biathlete Anatoly Alyabyev wins his 2nd gold medal of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics as part of the 4 x 7.5k relay team; also wins individual gold
- 1980 Swedish World Cup and World champion Ingemar Stenmark wins his 2nd gold medal of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, taking out the slalom; follows-on from giant slalom success
Sports History
1981 Slovak brothers Anton & Peter Šťastný score NHL rookie record 8 points each in Quebec Nordiques, 11-7 win over Washington Capitals at Capital Centre
- 1982 NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for NY governor (unsuccessful)
Historic Event
1983 Harold Washington wins Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary
World Record
1988 Bonnie Blair skates world record 500m (39.10 sec)
- 1989 1st Spanish commercial on network TV (Pepsi-Cola-CBS Grammy Award)
Grammy Awards
1989 31st Grammy Awards: "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin; "Faith"by George Michael; and Tracy Chapman win
- 1989 Finish ministry of Public health installs sex vacation to thwart stress
- 1989 NY Lotto pays $26.9 million to one winner (#s are 1-5-12-19-44-50)
Film & TV History
1989 UK physicist Stephen Hawking calls the proposed missile defense system known as Star Wars a "deliberate fraud"
Cricket Debut
1991 Test Cricket debut of Sanath Jayasuriya, vs NZ at Hamilton
- 1992 "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard" closes at Music Box NYC
Music History
1992 Barbra Streisand surprises cast members in a cameo appearance at the end of a "Coffee Talk" sketch on "Saturday Night Live"
- 1992 Barry Diller resigns as CEO of Fox
- 1993 Vinod Kambli scores 224 v England at Bombay, 411 balls, 23 fours
- 1994 "Les Miserables" opens at Chunichi Theatre, Nagoya
- 1995 Algiers police kill at least 99 prison rioters
- 1995 Steve Fossett completes 1st air balloon over Pacific Ocean (9600 km)
- 1996 "Bus Stop" opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC for 29 performances
- 1996 STS 75 (Columbia 19), launches into orbit
Historic Event
1997 Dolly the Sheep, world's first cloned mammal (from an adult cell) is announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland
- 1998 "King & I" closes at Neil Simon Theater NYC after 781 performances
- 1998 Petr Svoboda scores the winner as the Czech Republic claims its first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal with a 1-0 victory over Russia in Nagano, Japan
- 1998 XVIII Winter Olympic Games close in Nagano Japan
- 2002 Angolan revolutionary politician and military leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush in the province of Moxico
- 2003 Pakistani pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar bowls the fastest ball recorded in cricket history at 100.2 mph (161.3 km/h)
- 2005 19th Soap Opera Digest Awards - "General Hospital" wins
- 2006 At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or 78€ million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent
Academy Awards
2009 81st Academy Awards: "Slumdog Millionaire", Sean Penn & Kate Winslet win
Academy Awards
2009 Heath Ledger posthumously wins Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor, for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight"
- 2010 Taiwan's economy exits from the recession with 9.22% growth in the last quarter of 2009 after increased demand from China and other key markets in the region
- 2011 An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude strikes Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 181 people
- 2012 Train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 50 and injures hundreds
- 2013 13 Chadian soldiers and 65 Muslim insurgents are killed in conflict in Northern Mali
- 2013 29 people are killed and 150 are injured by 3 Syrian army missiles in Aleppo
- 2013 The European Commission forecast for 2013 expects growth of 0.1% across the 27 members of the EU but a contraction of 0.3% in the Eurozone economy
- 2013 The UK's AAA credit rating is downgraded by Moody's Investors Service to AA+; the agency expects growth to "remain sluggish over the next few years"
Film & TV History
2014 45th NAACP Image Awards: "12 Years a Slave" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- 2014 After winning the men's parallel giant slalom at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russian snowboarder Vic Wild wins his 2nd gold in the parallel slalom
- 2014 At age 34, Mario Matt of Austria becomes the oldest champion in Olympic alpine skiing history with the slalom gold medal at Sochi
- 2014 Dutch speed skaters Jorien ter Mors (1,500m champion) and Ireen Wüst (3,000m winner) each claim their 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics as part of the women's pursuit team
- 2014 Matteo Renzi becomes Prime Minister of Italy
- 2014 Norway sweeps the medals in the women's 30k cross country skiing at the Sochi Winter Olympics; Marit Bjørgen wins her 6th career gold ahead of teammates Therese Johaug and Kristin Størmer Steira
- 2014 Snowboard Olympic parallel special slalom event debuts and is run for the only time at the Sochi Winter Games; Russian Vic Wild and Julia Dujmovits of Canada win unique gold medals
Historic Event
2014 Viktor Yanukovych is ousted as President of Ukraine by the parliament following the Euromaidan revolution
- 2015 57th Daytona 500: Joey Logano wins event for 2nd time after taking lead with 10 laps to go; is ahead of Kevin Harvick before caution flag on last lap ends race in his favour
Academy Awards
2015 87th Academy Awards: "Best Picture - "Birdman", Best Director, and Best Screenplay - Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Birdman:"), Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne – ("The Theory of Everything"), Best Actress - Julianne Moore ("Still Alice")
Historic Event
2017 US President Donald Trump overturns Obama directive on Transgender rights to use toilets
