Completion of the Reconquista
1492 Muhammad XII, the last Emir of Granada, surrenders his city to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, ending both the Reconquista and centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula
Massacre of Novgorod
1570 Tsar Ivan the Terrible's march to Novgorod begins
Grand Union Flag
1776 George Washington's army hoists the Grand Union Flag at Prospect Hill, Charlestown
Constitution of the United States
1788 Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
- 1791 Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
- 1800 Free African American community of Philadelphia petitions US Congress to abolish the slave trade
- 1811 US Sen Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the president of the US)
The Corsair
1814 Lord Byron completes "The Corsair", a long tale in verse
- 1818 Lord Byron completes the long narrative poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (4th canto)
- 1818 The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
- 1832 1st Curling club in US (Orchard Lake Curling Club) opens
- 1833 Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.
Famous Photo
1839 1st photo of the Moon, taken by French photographer Louis Daguerre
- 1842 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Penn
The Flying Dutchman
1843 Richard Wagner's opera "The Flying Dutchman" premieres in Dresden, Germany
- 1861 Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia
- 1861 South Carolina seizes inactive Ft Johnson in Charleston Harbor
- 1863 Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
- 1865 Welterweight Con Orem & heavyweight Hugh O'Neill brawl for 185 rounds before darkness ends legendary bare knuckle boxing match in Virginia City, Montana
- 1871 King Amadeus I of Spain inaugurated at 25
Cricket History
1879 Australian fast bowler Fred Spofforth dismisses 3 English batsmen with consecutive deliveries during the 3rd Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Test cricket's first "hat-trick"
- 1879 British battleship Thunder explodes in Gulf of Ismid, 9 die
- 1879 Dr Benjamin Mays, named president of Atlanta Board of Education
- 1881 Camille Saint-Saëns' 3rd Violin Concerto in B, premieres in Paris, France, with Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate as soloist and dedicatee
- 1882 Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
- 1883 Battle of Boschberg takes place in South Africa as part of the Mapoch War
- 1885 General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum
- 1890 Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer
- 1890 Record 19.2 feet alligator shot in Louisiana by American businessman Edward Avery McIlhenny
- 1893 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued (Queen Isabella, patron of Columbus)
- 1893 World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago [or 0501]
- 1896 Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
- 1900 E Verlinger begins manufacturing 7" single-sided records (Montreal)
- 1900 John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
Civil Rights History
1903 US President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
- 1905 American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms
- 1905 Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine in San Jose, California
- 1905 Japanese troops capture Port Arthur from Russia, a blow to national morale and causing further discontent within Russia
Air Conditioning
1906 Willis Carrier receives a US patent for the world's first air conditioner
- 1908 Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa
- 1909 1st official Dutch 11 city skate (Minne Hoekstra in 13:50)
- 1910 1st junior high schools in US opens (Berkeley California)
- 1912 Brookyln Superbas Baseball Club President Charles Ebbets announces purchase of 4.5 acres of land to build a new concrete-and-steel stadium to seat 23,000; Ebbets Field opens in 1913
International Lawn Tennis Challenge
1912 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Christchurch, NZ: Norman Brookes & Alfred Dunlop beat Americans Maurice McLoughlin & Beals Wright 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; Australasia unassailable 3-0 lead; win 4-0
- 1913 Australia releases its first national stamp - a kangaroo on a map of Australia
Event of Interest
1913 Mahatma Gandhi leaves the Tolstoy Farm in Transvaal, South Africa
Baseball History
1918 After repeated clashes over pay with the Brooklyn Robins owner Charlie Ebbets, star right fielder and future Baseball Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel is traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates
- 1918 Montreal Arena in Westmount, Quebec, the home rink of 4-time Stanley Cup winners the Montreal Wanderers burns down leading to the club disbanding
- 1920 Responding to global fear of communism caused by the Russian Revolution, US Attorney General Palmer authorizes raids across the country on unionists and socialists
- 1921 1st religious service radio broadcast in US, KDKA-Pittsburgh
- 1921 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens
- 1923 Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood Florida, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
- 1925 Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region established (now in Tadzhik SSR)
- 1926 Melody Maker, British popular music magazine, publishes 1st issue
- 1929 US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
- 1932 Young gang shoot dead 6 police in Springfield Missouri
Cricket History
1933 Don Bradman holds off England's hostile pace bowling to score an unbeaten 103 leading Australia to a 111 run victory in the 2nd 'Bodyline' Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
- 1933 Ijmuider fishing strike begins (till July 11th)
- 1933 US troops leave Nicaragua
- 1934 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
Murder of Interest
1935 Bruno Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby
- 1936 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis, Missouri
- 1936 Australian master batsman Don Bradman scores 357 (424 minutes, 40 fours) for South Australia v Victoria in a Sheffield Shield match in Melbourne; his 5th 300+ score in first-class cricket
- 1938 Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
- 1939 Master batsman Don Bradman scores 107 for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria for his 4th consecutive century in first-class cricket
- 1941 World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales
- 1941 World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
- 1942 German troops in Bardia surrender
- 1942 Japanese troops occupy Manila, Philippines
- 1942 The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey
- 1942 World War II: the 28 nations at war with Axis powers pledge to make no separate peace deals
- 1943 University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team begins 129 home game winning streak that only ends in 1955; incorporates NCAA titles in 1948, 1949 and 1951
- 1944 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
- 1945 Allied air raid on Nuremberg
- 1945 Radio Orange ends cooperation at Liese-Aktion
- 1947 Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East Bengal
- 1948 WNDT (now WNET) TV channel 13 in New York-Newark, NY (PBS) begins
- 1949 KDKA TV channel 2 in Pittsburgh, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1949 Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico
- 1951 Philip Barry's "Second Threshold," premieres in NYC
- 1952 Revival of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Pal Joey", starring Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal, opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC; runs for 540 performances, and wins 3 Tony Awards
- 1953 NBA Baltimore Bullets begin a record 32 game road losing streak (12 games in 1952-53; 20 games in 1953-54) with a 73-66 defeat at the Indianapolis Olympians
- 1955 1st "Bob Cummings Show" premieres on NBC (later on CBS)
- 1955 Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
- 1956 Poujadists/communists win French parliamentary elections
Boxing Title Fight
1957 In the first of 4 meetings between the fighters, Gene Fullmer wins the world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Sugar Ray Robinson at New York’s Madison Square Garden
Music Concert
1958 Dmitri Shostakovich' 2nd Piano concert, premieres in NY
Lunar 1 (Mechta)
1959 USSR launches the Luna 1 spacecraft (Mechta), the 1st to leave Earth's gravity, reach the vicinity of the Moon and to be placed in heliocentric orbit
- 1960 1st redshank old world shore bird reported in North America (Halifax)
- 1960 John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
- 1960 Roger Sessions' 4th Symphony, in honor of the Minnesota Centennial, premieres by the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti
Event of Interest
1960 Senator John F. Kennedy, announces his candidacy for the US Presidency
Assassination Attempt
1964 Failed assassination attempt on President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
- 1965 Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
Event of Interest
1965 Martin Luther King Jr. begins a drive to register black voters
Contract of Interest
1965 New York Jets sign future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath to a $427,000 contract over three years (pro football record at the time)
- 1965 Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict present-day
- 1966 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
- 1966 National Football League Championship, Lambeau Field, Green Bay: Green Bay Packers beat Cleveland Browns, 23-12; first NFL title game televised in colour; last one played before Super Bowl era
- 1968 "Zizi" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 49 performances
Appointment of Interest
1968 Cecil Day-Lewis is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II
Event of Interest
1968 Christiaan Barnard performs the world's second heart transplant on Philip Blaiberg
- 1968 KBHK TV channel 44 in San Francisco, California (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1969 Allan Sherman and Albert Hague's musical "The Fig Leaves Are Falling", starring Dorothy Loudon, Barry Nelson, and David Cassidy, opens at Broadhurst Theater, NYC; runs for 4 performances
Event of Interest
1969 Australian Rupert Murdoch gains control of the 'News of the World'
- 1969 Luis Ferré becomes the first statehooder Governor of Puerto Rico
- 1969 Once influential daily sports newspaper, 'Soviet Sport' declares Czech super-star distance runner Emil Zatopek a "public enemy" after he supports democratic wing of the Communist Party at start of the Prague Spring
- 1969 Operation Barrier Reef begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
- 1969 Robert B. Nemiroff's stage drama "To Be Young, Gifted & Black" adaptated from the writings of his late wife of Lorraine Hansberry, starring Ruby Dee, premieres in NYC
- 1969 The Beatles begin rehearsals, while being filmed, for the Let It Be project at Twickenham Film Studios, London
- 1970 Dutch premiere of musical "Hair" in Amsterdam
- 1970 US population is 293,200,000; African American population: 22,600,000 (11.1%)
- 1971 Spectator crush at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland as Rangers supporters leave the ground with home team 0-1 behind to Old Firm rivals Celtic; 66 deaths and more than 200 injuries; Rangers score late for 1-1
- 1972 "Rothschilds" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 performances
- 1972 AFC Championship, Miami Orange Bowl: Miami Dolphins beat Baltimore Colts, 21-0
- 1972 An anti-internment rally is held in Belfast, North Ireland
Australian Open Women's Tennis
1972 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Virginia Wade of England wins her first Grand Slam title; beats home favourite Evonne Goolagong 6-4, 6-4
- 1972 Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
- 1972 NFC Championship, Texas Stadium, Irving: Dallas Cowboys beat San Francisco 49ers, 14-3
- 1973 Japanese boxer Masao Ohba retains his WBA flyweight title with a 12th-round knockout of Chartchai Chionoi of Thailand in Tokyo; Ohba dies three weeks later in a car accident
Event of Interest
1974 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon
- 1974 Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
- 1975 US Department of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
Sports History
1977 MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner for one year due to tampering charges in Gary Matthews free-agency signing
Murder of Interest
1979 British punk rocker Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen begins
Australian Men's Tennis Open
1980 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Guillermo Vilas retains title for 4th and last Grand Slam win; beats American John Sadri 7-6, 6-3, 6-2
- 1980 British Steel workers go on a national strike
- 1982 "Camelot" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 48 performances
- 1982 "The Epic in Miami", in 85 degree heat (Fahrenheit), the San Diego Chargers defeat the Miami Dolphins 41-38 in overtime in the AFC Divisional Playoff Game, a game that set numerous playoff scoring records
Australian Open Women's Tennis
1982 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Martina Navratilova wins her 1st of 3 Australian singles crowns; beats Chris Evert-Lloyd 6-7, 6-4, 7-5
- 1982 New York Islanders beat Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to start 23 NHL game undefeated home streak (21-0-2), 14 straight wins
- 1983 "Annie" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 2,377 performances
Musical Finale
1983 Duke Ellington's musical "Sophisticated Ladies" closes at Lunt-Fontanne, NYC after 767 performances
- 1983 Gary Trudeau takes a 20-month break from writing "Doonesbury"
- 1983 In a 35-27 win over the Houston Oilers, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson completes 20 consecutive passes and finishes the season winning his second consecutive passing title with an NFL record 70.55% completion percentage
- 1983 Several African National Congress (ANC) members detained in Swaziland decide to leave the country voluntarily for Mozambique.
- 1984 16 year old future South African Test cricket batsman Darryl Cullinan scores his 1st first-class century (106 no) for Border against Natal B in East London
Coup d'état
1984 Major-General Muhammadu Buhari is declared Head of State in Nigeria, following a military coup
- 1984 Riot in Tunis kills over 100
- 1984 Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Philadelphia's 1st black mayor
Event of Interest
1985 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reappoints Coptic pope Shenuda III
- 1985 Leg-spin bowler Bob "Dutchy" Holland takes 4/90 for match figures of 10/144 as Australia beats the West Indies by innings in 5th Test in Sydney; Windies take series, 3-1
- 1985 Nevada Las Vegas basketball gives coach Jerry Tarkanian his 600th career victory with a 142-140 win over Utah State in triple overtime; total of 282 points breaks NCAA men's record of 275 set in 1976
- 1986 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
NHL Record
1986 Islanders right wing Mike Bossy scores his 499th and 500th career goals in the final 2:22 to lift the New York to a 7-5 victory over the Boston Bruins; 11th player in NHL history to score 500 goals
- 1987 Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 116-106 to give coach Jack Ramsay his 800th NBA victory; at the time Ramsey is one of only 2 coaches (with Red Auerbach) to reach milestone
Victory in Battle
1987 Troops of Chadian President Hissène Habré conquer the Fada oasis
- 1988 Ashland Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Penn
- 1988 Right-wing guerrillas ambush a train near Mozambique's western border, killing at least 22 people and injuring 71.
- 1989 "Superwoman" single released by Karyn White (Billboard Song of the Year 1989)
- 1989 UCLA beats Arkansas Razorbacks, 17-3 to win the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas; record 7th consecutive football bowl game victory for the Bruins
- 1990 Dow Jones hits record 2,800 (2,810.15)
- 1991 University of Colorado, Boulder, coached by Bill McCartney wins its first Associated Press National Championship of College Football poll
Cricket Debut
1992 Australian cricket spin bowling great Shane Warne (145 Tests, 708 wickets; 194 ODIs) makes Test debut v India in 3rd Test at Sydney Cricket Ground
- 1993 "Gypsy Passion" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 55 performances
- 1993 Opposing factions in the Bosnian conflict hold meetings with the aim of ending the nine month conflict
- 1994 "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" closes at Beaumont NYC after 40 performances
- 1994 "Shakespeare after My Father" closes at Helen Hayes NYC after 266 performances
- 1994 Battles between army & rebellious indians in South Mexico, kill 57
- 1995 Bus crashes in Luzon Philippines, 29 killed
- 1995 Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away)
- 1996 The US deploys troops in Northern Bosnia with the intention of maintaining order and peace between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims
- 1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Columbus OH on WBZX 99.7 FM
Film & TV History
1998 Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates and cocaine
- 1999 A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C); 68 deaths are reported.
- 2000 19,600 fans watch the Miami Heat beat the Orlando Magic, 111-103 in the first NBA game at the Heat's new American Airlines Arena in Miami
- 2001 Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico.
- 2002 Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
- 2004 Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later
- 2011 Fela! based on music and lyrics by Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, closes on Broadway after 463 performances and 3 Tony awards [1]
- 2012 Englishman Adrian Lewis retains his PDC World Darts Championship with a 7-3 win over Andy Hamilton at the Alexandra Palace, London
- 2014 30 people are killed after a bus plunges off a cliff and falls 400 ft in Malshej Ghat, India
Event of Interest
2014 Raúl Castro gives a speech commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Cuban revolution and warns of "neo-liberal and neo-colonial thinking" entering the country
Event of Interest
2015 The Economist lists Daniel Kahneman as the 7th most influential economist in the world
- 2016 Saudi Arabia executes 47 alleged terrorists, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr
- 2017 Michael van Gerwen of the Netherlands wins his 2nd PDC World Darts Championship beating defending champion Gary Anderson, 7-3 at the Alexandra Palace, London
- 2017 US House Republicans vote to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, a public uproar forces them to back down the next day
- 2018 Bus crash in Pasamayo, Peru, kills 51 on notorious "Devil's Curve" road
- 2018 Storm Eleanor forms near Ireland then sweeps across the UK and Western Europe in next few days
- 2018 US senator Al Franken resigns
- 2018 WHO reveals it will classify gaming addiction as mental health condition in its next Classification of Diseases
- 2019 Two women become the first to ever enter India's Sabarimala shrine in Kerala State, after law change, prompting protests
