- 763 BC Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history
- 923 Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France is killed and King Charles the Simple is arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy
- 1184 Magnus V Erlingsson, King of Norway (1156–1184), dies in the Battle of Fimreite
Magna Carta
1215 King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor, England
- 1219 King Valdemar brought victory for Denmark
Dannebrog - World's Oldest National Flag
1219 Dannebrog is the flag of Denmark and the oldest national flag in the world. According to legend, it fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia, and turned the Danes' luck
- 1246 Battle at Leitha: Hungary-Austrian
- 1246 With the death of Duke Frederick II, the Babenberg dynasty ends in Austria
- 1389 Battle of Kosovo; Turks defeat Serbs
- 1567 Battle at Carberry, Scotland: Protestant troops beat Earl Bothwell's army
- 1567 Republic of Genoa expels Jews from its whole territory
- 1580 Phillip II of Spain declares William the Silent to be an outlaw.
- 1643 Able Tasman returns to Batavia after discovering Tasmania
- 1667 1st fully documented human blood transfusion is performed by French physician, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, when a small amount of sheep blood is transfused into a 15-year old boy, who survives the procedure
- 1741 Captain Vitus Bering leaves Petropavlovsk, sailing to America
- 1762 Austria uses 1st paper currency
Appointment of Interest
1775 George Washington appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, the day after Congress establishes the force
- 1785 2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident
Historic Event
1802 Toussaint Louverture leaves Haiti, prisoner on French ship Héros
- 1804 Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution, establishing the procedure for electing the President and Vice President, ratified in Congress
- 1808 Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Spain
- 1826 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II abolishes the elite Janissary corps executing thousands for treason to make way for a more modern army
- 1834 Rioters in Safed Palestine kills many Jews
- 1836 Arkansas becomes 25th state of the Union
Historic Expedition
1842 John C. Frémont sets off from Kansas River on his first expedition of the Oregon Trail with frontierman Kit Carson as his guide
Historic Invention
1844 Charles Goodyear patents the vulcanization of rubber
- 1846 Oregon Treaty signed, setting US-British boundary at 49°N
- 1851 Jacob Fussell, Baltimore dairyman, sets up 1st ice-cream factory
- 1857 San Francisco Water Works organized
- 1859 Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers
- 1860 1st White settlement in Idaho (Franklin)
- 1861 Johnston evacuates Harpers Ferry
Historic Event
1862 Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart completes his "ride around McClellan"
Battle of Interest
1864 Battle of Petersburg begins as General Ulysses S. Grant assaults the Confederate line at the important Southern rail center of Petersburg
Historic Event
1864 Robert E. Lee's home area (Arlington, Virginia) becomes a military cemetery
- 1866 Prussia attacks Austria
- 1867 Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode gold mine located in Montana
- 1869 World's 1st plastic Celluloid is patented by John Wesley Hyatt, Albany, NY
- 1869 Mike McCoole (US) defeats Tom Allen (England) in bare-knuckle bout
- 1871 Phoebe Couzins is 1st woman graduate of a US collegiate law school
- 1876 Sara Spencer (R) is 1st woman to address a US presidential convention
- 1876 Tsunamis after earthquake floods NE coast of Japan, kills 28,000
Historic Event
1877 Henry Ossian Flipper becomes 1st African American to graduate from West Point Military Academy
First Moving Images
1878 World's first moving pictures caught on camera (used 12 cameras, each taking 1 picture) done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground
Historic Event
1888 Wilhelm II becomes Emperor of Germany
- 1888 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Bertha Townsend beats defending champion Ellen Hansell 6-3, 6-5
- 1889 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Defending champion Bertha Townsend beats Lida Voorhees 7-5, 6-2
- 1894 Phillies beat Cincinnati Reds, 21-8
- 1896 Tsunami strikes Shinto festival on beach at Sanriku, Japan; 27,000 are killed, 9,000 injured and 13,000 houses destroyed
- 1897 Liberals/social-democrats win Dutch 2nd Parliamentary election
- 1898 US House of Representatives passes resolution to annex Hawaii
- 1898 US marines attack Spanish off Guantánamo, Cuba
- 1902 Canada's Maritime Provinces switch from Eastern to Atlantic time
- 1902 Minor League's most lopsided baseball game: Corsicana 51; Texarkana 3 Justin Clark of Corsicana, Texas minors hits 8 home runs in 1 game
- 1903 The Serbian Assembly meets and elects Prince Peter Karageorgevich king
- 1904 Side-wheeler passenger paddlesteamer "General Slocum" burns in NY's East River (1,031 die)
Sports History
1906 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Scotsman James Braid successfully defends title by 4 strokes from J.H. Taylor of England; his 3rd Open victory
- 1907 The 2nd Hague Peace Conference meets in an attempt to stop the arms race; Germany resists, but conference does make important rules around the rights of neutral powers
Historic Publication
1907 Researcher George Soper publishes the results of his investigation into recent typhoid outbreaks in the New York area and announces that Mary Mallon [Typhoid Mary] is the likely source of the outbreak
- 1908 World congress for Women's rights opens in Amsterdam
- 1909 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
- 1911 Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) is incorporated.
- 1912 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia CC: Mary Browne beats Eleonora Sears 6-4, 6-2 for her first of 3 straight US singles titles
- 1913 The Battle of Bud Bagsak in the Philippine concludes
- 1915 US government mints 1st $50 gold pieces, for Panama Pacific Expo
- 1916 Boys Scouts of America forms
Historic Event
1916 Boeing Model 1 [B & W Seaplane], the 1st Boeing product, flies for the 1st time
- 1917 In order to calm troubled relations with Ireland, the British grant amnesty to the Prisoners taken during the Easter Rising of 1916
- 1918 1" of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania
- 1919 1st nonstop Atlantic flight (Alcock & Brown) lands in Ireland
- 1920 De Zweef soccer team forms in Nijverdal
- 1920 African American circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie are taken from jail and lynched by a white mob of thousands in Duluth, Minnesota
- 1921 Bessie Coleman reaches France as US 1st black pilot
- 1923 Belgium's Theunis government falls because of mine, post and railroad strike
British Golf Open
1923 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Troon GC: Englishman Arthur Havers holes a bunker shot on 72nd hole to win his only major title, 1 stroke ahead of defending champion Walter Hagen
- 1924 1st transmission of radio Bloemendaal
Historic Event
1924 J. Edgar Hoover assumes leadership of the FBI
- 1925 Philadelphia As go into bottom of 8th inning trailing 15-4, then score 13 times to defeat Cleveland 17-15
Historic Event
1926 7th French government of Aristide Briand falls
- 1929 1st time NY curb stock exchange transacts more business than NY Exch
Sports History
1931 Eddie Collins & Harry Heilmann retire from baseball
- 1931 Poland and USSR sign friendship and trade treaty
- 1934 Great Smokey Mountains National Park dedicated
- 1938 1st night game at Brooklyn Ebbets Field (Reds 6, Dodgers 0) as Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer hurls unprecedented 2nd consecutive no-hitter
- 1940 38 Italian Fiat bombers bomb Luc-en-Province
- 1940 Bread & flour rationed in Holland
- 1940 World War II: France surrenders to NAZI Germany, German troops occupy Paris
- 1940 Soviet Army occupies Lithuania
- 1943 Congress of racial Equality (CORE) forms
- 1944 US forces begin invasion of Saipan in Pacific
- 1945 Dutch political party ANJV established in Concert building, Amsterdam
US Golf Open
1947 US Open Men's Golf, St. Louis CC: Lew Worsham defeats Sam Snead by 1 stroke in an 18-hole playoff for his only major title
- 1948 First night game at Briggs Stadium, Detroit: Tigers beat Philadelphia A's, 4-1
- 1953 Browns end Yankees win streak at 18 & Browns 14-game losing streak
- 1953 NY Yankees first baseman Johnny Mize is 93rd MLB player to get 2,000 hits
- 1953 NYC Transit Authority forms
- 1953 WLFI TV channel 18 in Lafayette, IN (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1954 Great Britain's 2 biggest steel factories nationalized
- 1954 UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland
- 1955 Australia score 8-758 v West Indies at Kingston, their best ever
Historic Event
1955 The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack
- 1955 The International Olympic Committee votes to award Rome the rights to host the 1960 Summer Olympic Games
- 1957 "Ziegfeld Follies of 1957" closes at Winter Garden NYC after 123 performances
- 1957 42.01 cm (16.54") of rainfall, East St Louis, Ill (state record)
- 1957 US Open Men's Golf, Inverness Club: Dick Mayer defeats defending champion Cary Middlecoff by 7 strokes in an 18-hole playoff to win his only major title
- 1957 89th Belmont: Bill Shoemaker aboard Gallant Man wins in 2:26.6
Sports History
1957 Yanks trade Billy Martin & Ralph Terry for Ryne Duran
Sports History
1960 Ángel Cordero Jr. wins his 1st of over 7,000 horse races
'The Banality of Evil'
1960 Argentina complains to UN about Israeli illicit transfer of Eichmann
Film Premiere
1960 "The Apartment" directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1961)
- 1961 Expansion Washington Senators are 30-30, latest date an expansion team will be at .500, Washington will lose their next 10 games
- 1962 Phillies score 10 runs in an inning against Reds en route to 13-8 win
- 1962 South Africa passes a bill setting death penalty for many crimes
- 1962 WWUP TV channel 10 in Sault Ste Marie, MI (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1962 Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement
Musical Finale
1963 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "The Sound of Music", closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater, NYC, after 1443 performances
Historic Event
1963 Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigns
- 1963 SF Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal no-hits Houston Colt .45s, 1-0
- 1964 Last French troops leave Algeria
Baseball Record
1965 Detroit pitcher Denny McLain in relief strikes out first 7 batters faced & record 14 in 6 2/3 innings in Tigers 6-5 win over Boston Red Sox; Bill Freehan ties catcher record of 19 putouts
- 1965 South Africa begins economic boycott of Dutch products
Film Release
1967 "The Dirty Dozen", based on E. M. Nathanson's novel, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson is released in the US
- 1968 "How Now, Dow Jones" closes at Lunt Fontanne, NYC, after 220 performances
- 1968 "I Do! I Do!" closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 561 performances
- 1968 "New Faces of 1965" closes at Booth Theater, NYC, after 52 performances
- 1968 15th Curtis Cup: US wins 10½-7½ at Royal County Down Golf Club (Newcastle, Northern Ireland)
Music History
1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono plant two acorns for peace, at Coventry Cathedral, Conventry, England
- 1968 "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" by Ohio Express hits #4
- 1969 "Hee Haw" with Roy Clark & Buck Owens premieres on CBS TV
- 1969 US Open Golf, Champions GC: Orville Moody wins only major title by 1 stroke from Al Geiberger, Bob Rosberg & Dean Beman
- 1969 Mets help their power needs by adding 1st baseman Donn Clendenon
- 1969 The Campaign for Social Justice publish a second edition of 'Northern Ireland The Plain Truth' which set out the allegations of discrimination against Catholics by Unionists in the region
LPGA Championship
1970 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Pleasant Valley CC: Shirley Englehorn wins her only major title; beats 1967 champion Kathy Whitworth by 4 strokes in an 18-hole playoff
- 1971 Vernon E Jordan Jr, appointed exec director of National Urban League
- 1972 Rock fall inside Vierzy Tunnel (France) causes 2 train crash; 107 die
- 1972 West German police arrested RAF leader Ulrike Meinhof
- 1972 The Social Democratic and Labour Party meet Secretary of State for Northern Ireland W Whitelaw, to present the IRA's conditions for a meeting
Music Single
1973 “Let’s Get It On” single released by Marvin Gaye (Billboard R&B Song of the Year, 1973; No. 4 overall)
- 1974 Novelty song "The Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1 on UK pop chart
French Open Women's Tennis
1974 French Open Women's Tennis: American teenager Chris Evert beats Olga Morozova of Russia 6-1, 6-2 for first of a record 7 French singles titles
Historic Publication
1974 "All the President's Men" by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward detailing their Watergate investigation is published by Simon and Schuster in the US
Album Release
1974 "Back Home Again" 8th studio album by John Denver is released (Billboard Album of the Year, 1975)
French Open Men's Tennis
1975 French Open Men's Tennis: Sweden's Björn Borg retains title; beats Guillermo Vilas of Argentina 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
- 1976 In a blockbuster MLB trade, NY Yankees send May, Martinez, Pagan, MacGregor & Demsey to Baltimore Orioles for Holtzman, Alexander, Grant Jackson, Elrod Henrick & Jim Freeman
- 1976 Rain out! Astrodome cancels game heavy rains make it difficult for visiting team and umpires to get through flooded streets to the stadium
Sports History
1977 NY Mets trade Tom Seaver to Reds for Pat Zachry
- 1977 Spain's 1st free elections since 1936 (41 years)
- 1977 Wim Polak becomes mayor of Amsterdam
- 1978 Belgian government resigns
- 1978 Italy's pres Leone resigns due to Lockheed affair
- 1978 Soyuz 29 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6; they stay 139 days
- 1979 1st space shuttle SRB qualification test firing; 122 seconds
- 1980 "Fearless Frank" opens at Princess Theater NYC for 12 performances
- 1980 US Open Men's Golf, Baltusrol GC: Jack Nicklaus sets new tournament scoring record 272 (-8) to win his 4th Open title, 2 strokes ahead of Isao Aoki of Japan
- 1980 Jorge Orta of Cleveland gets 6 hits in a baseball game
- 1982 Riots in Argentina after Falklands/Malvinas defeat
- 1982 Supreme Court rules all children, regardless of citizenship, are entitled to a public education
Sports History
1983 Cards trade Keith Hernandez to Mets for Neil Allen & Rick Ownbey
- 1983 Supreme Court struck down state and local restrictions on abortion
Television Premiere
1983 "Black Adder" TV comedy premieres starring Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson and written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson on BBC1
- 1984 "Thicke Of The Night" TV Talk Show last airs in syndication
Sports History
1984 American boxer Thomas Hearns retains WBC light middleweight title with 2 round KO of Roberto Durán of Panama at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas; marks first time in his illustrious career Durán knocked out
Boxing Title Fight
1985 Pinklon Thomas KOs Mike Weaver in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
Music Concert
1986 Amnesty International "Conspiracy of Hope" tour concludes with megaconcert at Giants Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey; participants include: U2; Sting; Bryan Adams; Peter Gabriel; Lou Reed; Neville Brothers; Joan Baez; Joan Armatrading; Joni Mitchell; The Police; Jackson Browne; Yoko Ono; Miles Davis; Peter, Paul & AMry; and The Hooters
- 1986 US Open Men's Golf, Shinnecock Hills GC: Raymond Floyd wins his 4th and final major, 2 strokes ahead of Chip Beck and Lanny Wadkins
Pripyat: Nuclear Wasteland
1986 Pravda announces high-level Chernobyl staff fired for stupidity
- 1987 Bettino Craxi's Socialist Party wins election in Italy
- 1987 Michael Spinks TKOs Gerry Cooney in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1988 NASA launches space vehicle S-213
- 1988 Turkish premier Özal meets Greek premier Papandreou in Athens
- 1989 Baltimore Orioles pull their 9th triple play (vs Yankees)
Film & TV History
1990 "Dick Tracy" with Warren Beatty & Madonna premieres
