- 816 Frankish emperor Louis grants archbishop Salzburg immunity
- 1572 Beggars assault Oisterwijk Neth, drive nuns out
Event of Interest
1576 Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) abjures Catholicism at Tours
26 Martyrs of Japan Executed
1597 A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society
Event of Interest
1631 Founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams arrives in Boston from England
- 1644 1st US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
Event of Interest
1649 Prince of Wales proclaimed King Charles II of Great Britain by Covenanter Parliament of Scotland
Articles of Confederation
1778 Articles of Confederation ratified by 2nd state, South Carolina
- 1782 British garrison in Menorca (western Mediterranean) surrenders to French and Spanish fleet as part of the American Revolutionary War
- 1783 Earthquakes ravage Calabria, killing 30,000
- 1783 Sweden recognizes US independence
- 1795 Zealand, Netherlands, surrenders to French general Michaud
- 1803 English explorer George Bass and crew set sail from Sydney to Tahiti and Chile - they're never seen again
Appointment of Interest
1811 Prince George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, is appointed as Prince-Regent after his father King George III is recognized as insane due to mental illness
- 1817 1st US gas co incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights)
- 1818 Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway
- 1825 Hannah Lord Montague of NY creates 1st detachable shirt collar
- 1831 Jan van Speyk blows up his gunboat in Antwerp to avoid capture by the Belgian, killing about 30
- 1846 "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be published on the West Coast
- 1850 Adding machine employing depressible keys patented, New Paltz, NY
- 1859 Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities
- 1861 Kinematoscope patented by Coleman Sellers, Philadelphia
- 1861 Louisiana delegation except Mr Bouligny withdraws from Congress (US Civil War)
- 1864 Danish army begins its withdrawal from Danevirke to Dybbøl through driven snow, last time the Danes would occupy Danevirke, symbol of Danish identity
- 1864 Federals occupy Jackson, Mississippi
- 1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia (Armstrong's Mill, Dabney's Mill)
- 1869 World's largest alluvial gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia
- 1870 1st motion picture shown to a theater audience, Philadelphia
- 1879 Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
- 1881 Phoenix, Arizona incorporates
Event of Interest
1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal colonial possession
- 1885 News of the fall of Khartoum reaches London
Music Premiere
1887 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy, Verdi's first new opera for over 15 years
- 1887 Snow falls on San Francisco
- 1893 Alfred Naess skates world record 500m (49.4 sec)
- 1894 Female suffrage organization in Amsterdam forms
- 1897 1st showing of a motion picture in Hawaii at the Hawaiian Opera House
- 1897 Marcel Proust meets Jean Lorrain in a pistol duel
- 1900 British troops under Gen Buller occupy Vaal Krantz, Natal
- 1900 The United States and the United Kingdom sign treaty for Panama Canal
- 1901 Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescot
- 1901 Pierpont Morgan forms US Steel Corp
- 1904 American occupation of Cuba ends
Music History
1907 Arnold Schoenberg's 1st string quartet premieres in Vienna
- 1911 Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam
O Solo Mio
1916 Italian tenor Enrico Caruso records "O Solo Mio" for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey
- 1917 Congress overrides Wilson's veto, curtailing Asian immigration
- 1917 Morosco Theater opens at 217 W 45th St NYC (demolished 1982)
Event of Interest
1917 The last of the American troops commanded by General John Pershing leave Mexico; President Carranza will be assassinated within the next year
- 1918 1st US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W. Thompson
- 1918 Separation of church and state begins in USSR
Film & TV History
1919 Hollywood film studio United Artists founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith
- 1919 NL President John Heydler dismisses charges that Hal Chase bet against his team and threw games in collusion with gamblers
- 1921 Yankees purchase 20 acres in Bronx for Yankee Stadium
- 1922 Reader's Digest magazine 1st published
- 1923 General mine strike against wage cuts in Saar
- 1923 Mass arrests of socialists & communists in Italy
1st Winter Olympics
1924 1st Winter Olympic Games close at Chamonix, France
- 1924 The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".
The General
1927 "The General", American silent film starring Buster Keaton and Marion Mack, co-directed by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, premieres in New York City
Sports History
1931 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 246.08 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida
Event of Interest
1933 Marinus van der Lubbe passes Dutch-German border
- 1936 "Modern Times", silent film directed by, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released
- 1936 National Wildlife Federation forms
Music History
1940 Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record "Tuxedo Junction"
- 1941 Dutch Premier De Geer returns from Lisbon to Netherlands
Woman of the Year
1942 "Woman of the Year" film directed by George Stevens, starring Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy opens at Radio City Music Hall, NYC
- 1942 Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett and Gene Moore
- 1943 Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots nazi general Seyffardt
- 1943 Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, 1st transmission
Sports History
1943 Jake LaMotta defeats future multi-weight world boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson by unanimous points decision in Detroit in the 2nd of their 6 meetings; his only win of their rivalry; Robinson’s first loss in his first 40 pro bouts
Captain American
1944 "Captain American" serial film premieres starring Dick Purcell, first appearance of a Marvel superhero outside a comic
- 1944 358 RAF bombers attack Stettin
- 1945 Big Racket becomes fastest race horse at 69t.6 kph (440 yd/20.8 s)
Battle of Interest
1945 WWII: US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manila, Philippines; month long battle ends 3 years of Japanese military occupation
- 1946 The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea
- 1947 Bolewet Beirut becomes President of Poland
- 1948 "Nature of Things" science show premieres on NBC prime time
- 1948 18 year old Dick Button becomes first American men's figure skating Olympic gold medallist at the St. Moritz Winter Games; first to complete a double axel in competition; retains title in 1952
- 1948 Gretchen Fraser becomes 1st US woman Olympic ski slalom champion
- 1949 Huaso sets official world equestrian high-jump record, 2.47 m, Chic
- 1953 "Peter Pan", animated film by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC
Emmy Awards
1953 5th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell and Helen Hayes win
- 1953 Sweet rationing imposed in WWII ends in Britain
- 1954 WCDC TV channel 19 in Adams, MA (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Finland goes 1-2 in the ski jumping at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics; Antti Hyvärinen takes gold ahead of teammate Aulis Kallakorpi
- 1956 NY Mayor Robert Wagner & Bkln Boro President Frank Cashmore sponsor a bill to create a $30M Brooklyn Sports Center Authority to build
- 1956 VII Winter Olympic Games close in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Music Concert
1957 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 2nd Piano Concert
- 1958 Clifton R Wharton confirmed as 1st US African American foreign minister (to Romania)
- 1958 Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated 1st President of United Arab Republic
- 1958 Test cricket debut of outstanding West Indian spin bowler Lance Gibbs, 2nd Test v Pakistan in Port-of-Spain
- 1958 Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit; reaches 6 km
- 1959 "Redhead" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 455 performances
- 1959 Australia regain the Ashes with a 10 wicket victory at Adelaide
- 1962 French President de Gaulle calls for Algeria's independence
- 1962 Suit to bar Englewood NJ from "racial segregated" schools, filed
- 1962 Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all within 16 degrees
- 1963 Maarten Schmidt discovers enormous red shifts in quasars
- 1963 Soviet lunar probe failure
- 1965 Beursschouwburg opens in Brussels
- 1966 BBC opens a relay radio station on Ascension Island
- 1967 "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" premieres on CBS (later ABC, NBC)
Election of Interest
1967 Anastasio Somoza Debayle elected President of Nicaragua
- 1967 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Penn Warren
- 1968 A fishing trawler from Hull sinks off the coast of Iceland
- 1968 KDTV TV channel 39 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1968 Skater Kees Verkerk wins olympic gold in the 1500m
- 1969 "Turn-On," debuts and cancelled by ABC after flopping so badly
- 1969 United States population reaches 200 million
- 1969 Vince Lombardi, becomes part owner, vice-president, general manager, and head coach of NFL Washington Redskins
- 1970 1st Test Cricket ton of Barry Richards, 126, 164 balls, 20 fours 1 six
- 1970 Test Cricket debut of John Traicos, South Africa v Australia, Durban
- 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1970 WSCV TV channel 51 in Fort Lauderdale, FL (IND) suspends broadcasting
Golden Globes
1971 28th Golden Globes: "Love Story", George C. Scott, & Ali MacGraw win
Historic Expedition
1971 Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs
- 1972 "Another Puff" by Jerry Reed peaks at #65
- 1972 Bob Douglas is 1st African American elected to Basketball Hall of Fame
- 1972 German speed skater Erhard Keller wins his 2nd consecutive Olympic 500m gold medal at the Sapporo Winter Games after taking out the event in Grenoble (1968)
- 1972 Two IRA members are killed when a bomb they were planting exploded prematurely
- 1972 US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers & baggage
- 1973 Funeral held for US Army Lt. Col. William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam War
- 1973 Juan Corona sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for 25 murders
- 1974 British miners begin their strike in reaction to the three-day week
- 1974 John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the United States Congress
- 1974 Mats Wermelin, Sweden, scores all points in 272-0 basketball win
- 1974 Maximum speed on Autobahn reduced to 100 kph
- 1974 US Mariner 10 returns 1st close-up photos of Venus' cloud structure
- 1976 Australia complete 5-1 series drubbing of West Indies
- 1976 Last day of Test cricket for West Indian spin bowler Lance Gibbs & Australian opening batsman Ian Redpath, 6th Test in Melbourne
- 1977 "CB Savage" by Rod Hart peaks at #67
- 1977 "Dis-Gorilla (part 1)" by Rick Dees peaks at #56
Music History
1977 "In The Mood" by Henhouse 5 Plus Too (Ray Stevens) peaks at #40
- 1977 "Turn Loose On My Leg" by Jim Stafford peaks at #98
- 1977 Comedy album "Up Your Nose" by Gabriel Kaplan peaks at #91
Sports History
1977 Future 5-division world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard makes his professional debut with a 6-round unanimous decision over Luis Vega at Baltimore’s Civic Center
- 1977 General Mills Adventure Theater premieres on CBS radio
- 1977 US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
- 1977 US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
- 1978 28th NBA All-Star Game, Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, Ga: East beats West, 133-125; MVP: Randy Smith, SD Clippers, G
- 1978 Blizzard forms in US North East, 100 people killed in New England and New York over 3 days
- 1978 Fred Newman makes 88 consecutive basketball free throws blindfolded
- 1979 Costliest single periodical ad, $3.2 million, Gulf + Western in Time
- 1979 Sears Radio Theater premieres on CBS
- 1980 32nd NHL All-Star Game, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Wales Conference beats Campbell Conference, 6-3; MVP: Reggie Leach, Philadelphia Flyers, RW
- 1980 Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
- 1981 "Piaf" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 165 performances
Hall of Fame
1981 Joni Mitchell inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame
- 1981 Largest Jell-O made (9,246 gallons of watermelon-flavor) in Brisbane
- 1981 Military jury in North Carolina convicts Robert Garwood of collaborating with the enemy during the Vietnam War
- 1982 British airline Laker Airways collapses owing 270M pounds ($351M)
- 1982 DEA announces seizure of 3,192 tons of marijuana, 495 people
- 1982 President of Suriname Hendrick Chin A Sen resigns and flees to the Netherlands
Event of Interest
1983 Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to trial
- 1984 NZ beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
Film & TV History
1986 Corazon Aquino & Ferdinand Marcos appear on "Nightline"
- 1987 Dow Jones avg closes above 2,200 for 1st time
- 1987 Soyuz TM-2 launches
Pro Wrestling
1988 1st prime-time wrestling match in 30 yrs, André the Giant defeats Hulk Hogan
Event of Interest
1991 A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides
- 1991 All American Bowl ends after 14 years
- 1991 Big East Football conference forms
Sports History
1991 Howard Stern kisses NY Giant Leonard Marshall's ass over bet, Stern lost claiming the Giants would lose the Super Bowl
- 1991 LA King Dave Taylor becomes 29th NHler to score 1000 points
Rodney King Riots
1992 Jury selection begins in the trial of Los Angeles police charged with beating Rodney King
- 1992 Last day of Test Cricket cricket for Dilip Vengsarkar
- 1992 Mike Whitney career-best 7-27 at WACA in Test Cricket win v India
- 1993 Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 and injuring 160
- 1993 R James Woolsey, becomes 16th director of CIA
- 1994 "Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego," debuts on Fox TV
- 1994 68 killed and 200 wounded after a mortar bomb is set off in Sarajevo
Murder of Interest
1994 Medgar Evers' murderer Byron de la Beckwith sentenced to life, in Jackson, Mississippi, 30 years after the crime
- 1995 Japan's Shinshinto Party wins local elections
- 1995 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: AFC beats NFC, 41-13; MVP: Marshall Faulk, Indianapolis Colts, RB, HI
- 1995 Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3, for string orchestra, premieres with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, in Künzelsau, Germany
- 1996 British supermarket chains stock genetically modified tomato puree - the first GM food to be sold in the country
- 1997 Brook Lee from Hawaii, crowned 46th Miss USA (en route to Miss Universe)
- 1997 Japan's Ministry of Finance announces plans to cut import tariffs on crude oil and most petroleum products
- 1998 Alberto Acciarito convicted of harassing his ex-wife Ingrid Rossellini
