- 1305 Consecration of the Scrovegni Chapel (Arena Chapel) in Padua, Italy, with fresco masterpiece by Florentine painter Giotto
Royal Coronation
1306 Robert the Bruce crowned Robert I, King of Scots, having killed his rival John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch
- 1409 Council of Pisa opens - elects Antipope Alexander V
Historic Event
1436 Florentine Cathedral Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore with then the largest dome in the world by Filippo Brunelleschi with support from Cosimo de' Medici, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV (begun 1296)
- 1571 Catholic Italian businessman Roberto Ridolfi leaves England
Historic Invention
1584 English explorer Walter Raleigh renews Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America
- 1593 Recantation of Loos, Dutch scholar Coinelius Loos recants his earlier written protest against witchcraft persecution in Trier, Germany before officials in Brussels
Historic Event
1598 Cornelis de Houtman's fleet departs Amsterdam for the East-Indies (Indonesia) on his second voyage
Historic Event
1609 Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for Dutch East India Company to find a passage to Asia
Scientific Discovery
1655 Astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn's largest moon, Titan
- 1669 Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000
Historic Event
1740 Construction begins on evangelist George Whitefield's Bethesda Orphanage in Georgia
Historic Event
1776 Continental Congress authorizes a medal for George Washington
- 1802 Great Britain and the French Republic sign the Treaty of Amiens
Britain Abolishes the Slave Trade
1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains
- 1807 First fare-paying, passenger railway service in the world established on the Oystermouth Railway in Swansea, Wales
Historic Event
1807 George Canning becomes British Foreign Secretary
- 1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism
- 1813 1st US flag flown in battle on the Pacific by the frigate Essex
- 1814 Netherlands Bank established
- 1817 Tsar Alexander I recommends formation of Society of Israeli Christians
- 1821 The Greek revolution against the Ottoman Turks is officially declared, with hostilities having started two months earlier
Historic Expedition
1846 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Sydney to a hero's welcome after completing his exploration of Australia's Northern Territory
- 1847 Pope Pius issues IX encyclical "On aid for Ireland"
- 1851 Yosemite Valley discovery made public by Major James D. Savage and Captain John Boling after being shown by Indian guides in California
- 1852 Friedrich Hebbel's tragedy "Agnes Bernauer" premieres in Munich
- 1856 A E Burnside patents Burnside carbine
- 1857 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville receives a patent for his phonautograph, a device which created visual images of sound
- 1857 Frederick Laggenheim takes 1st photo of a solar eclipse
Historic Event
1863 1st US Army Medal of Honor awarded to six army soldiers by US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Washington
- 1863 Skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee
- 1864 Battle of Paducah, Kentucky (Forrest's raid)
- 1865 Battle of Bluff Spring, Florida
- 1865 Battle of Mobile, Alabama (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)
- 1865 Battle of Petersburg: In an unsuccessful counter attack, Confederate forces attack Fort Stedman
- 1865 SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras catches fire & sinks, killing 400
- 1876 Glasgow 1st soccer match Scotland defeat Wales (4-0)
- 1881 43rd Grand National: Irish jockey Tommy Beasley wins his second consecutive GN aboard 11/2 co-favourite Woodbrook
- 1882 1st demonstration of pancake making, held at a department store in NYC
- 1887 49th Grand National: Bill Daniels aboard 20/1 chance Gamecock wins by 3 lengths from Savoyard
- 1888 Socialist leader Domela Nieuwenhuis elected to Dutch 2nd chamber
- 1889 1st Test Cricket match played at Newlands, Cape Town v England
- 1894 Coxey's Army of the unemployed sets out from Massillon, Ohio, for Washington, D.C.
- 1895 Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
- 1898 60th Grand National: John Gourley wins aboard 25/1 shot Drogheda
- 1898 Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association formed in NYC
- 1898 Swami Vivekananda initiates Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) into vow of Brahmacharya, first western woman received into Indian monastic order
The Story of Writer O. Henry’s Short Life
1898 Writer O. Henry sentenced to 5 years in prison for embezzling $854 from a bank reportedly to pay for his sick wife's medical bills. Goes on to write many classics while in jail including "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking".
- 1900 US Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis
- 1901 55 die as Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, Iowa
- 1902 In Russia, 567 students are tried for rioting and 'political disaffection' are found guilty; 95 are banished to Siberia
- 1902 Irving W. Colburn patents sheet glass drawing machine
- 1903 Racing Club de Avellaneda, one of the big five of Argentina, is founded.
- 1904 66th Grand National: Arthur Birch wins aboard 25/1 New Zealand bred Moifaa; horse survives shipwreck off Ireland a year earlier
- 1905 Confederate battle flags captured during the American Civil War are returned to South
- 1907 Stanley Cup, Winnipeg Auditorium, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Montreal Wanderers lose to Kenora Thistles, 6-5 but win on 2 game aggregate, 12-8
- 1908 Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- 1910 Chalmers Auto Co offers a new car to each leagues' batting champ
- 1911 L. D. Swamikannu publishes "Manual of Indian Chronology" in Bombay
- 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory catches fire 145 die, all but 13 girls in Greenwich Village, New York
- 1913 Great Dayton Flood: winter rains cause Great Miami River to flood, Ohio's greatest natural disaster
- 1913 Home of vaudeville, Palace Theatre, opens (NYC) starring Ed Wynn
- 1915 1st submarine disaster; a US F-4 sinks off Hawaii, killing 21
- 1915 German U boat torpedoes Netherlands merchant ship Medea
- 1916 Jess Willard fights Frank Moran to no decision in 10 for heavyweight boxing title in NYC
Historic Event
1917 Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop claims his first victory, shooting down and mortally wounding German Leutnant Theiller
- 1918 Belarusian People's Republic is established
Conference of Interest
1919 Woodrow Wilson's dream of a League of Nations becomes a reality after the League Covenant is adopted at the Paris Peace Conference
- 1920 Greek Independence Day
- 1923 British government grants Trans-Jordan autonomy
- 1924 Greek parliament selects admiral Paul Koundouriotis as premier
- 1924 Stanley Cup Final, Ottawa Auditorium, Ottawa, ON: Montreal Canadiens (NHL) beat Calgary Tigers (WCHL), 3-0 for a 2-0 series sweep
- 1927 86th Grand National: 8/1 favourite Sprig wins; ridden by jockey Ted Leader, trained by his father Tom Leader
- 1931 Hal Kemp & his orchestra record Whistles, with Skinnay Ennis
- 1931 Scottsboro Boys arrested in Alabama, accused of raping a white woman
US Masters Golf
1934 1st Augusta National Invitation Tournament (Masters) Golf: Horton Smith wins with 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole, 1 stroke ahead of Craig Wood
- 1937 Italy & Yugoslavia sign non-aggression treaty (Pact of Belgrade)
- 1937 Lionel Conacher misses on 1st Stanley Cup penalty shot
- 1937 Washington Daily News is 1st US newspaper with perfumed advertising page
- 1938 97th Grand National: 17 year old jockey Bruce Hobbs wins aboard 40/1 Battleship; first US bred and owned winner; only horse to win GN and American Grand National (1934)
- 1939 Billboard Magazine introduces hillbilly (country) music chart
- 1941 Carolina Paprika Mills in Dillon, South Carolina, incorporated
- 1942 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov district reach the Bełżec Concentration camp
- 1943 97% of all Dutch physicians strike against Nazi registration
Radio Premiere
1943 Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore premiere on radio
Music Premiere
1946 1st performance of Igor Stravinsky's "Ebony Concerto", by Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd, at Carnegie Hall, New York City
- 1947 9th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Holy Cross beats Oklahoma, 58-47; Crusaders' first victory in first title game
- 1947 Agreement of Linggadjati ratified in Batavia
- 1947 Coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois kills 111
- 1947 Last day of Test cricket for Walter Hammond (v NZ, Christchurch)
- 1949 The Soviet Union begins Operation Pribioi, the mass deportation of 90,000 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to inhospitable areas in the Soviet Union
- 1950 104th Grand National: Jimmy Power wins aboard 10/1 Irish co-favourite Freebooter; estimated 500,00 in attendance including Royal Family
- 1950 Wales outclasses France, 21-0 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch the Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam and Triple Crown
- 1951 5th Tony Awards: "Guys & Dolls" (musical) and "The Rose Tattoo" (play) win
- 1951 E Purcell & EM Ewen detect 21-cm radiation at Harvard physics lab
Academy Awards
1954 26th Academy Awards: "From Here to Eternity" best film, William Holden & Audrey Hepburn best actor, actress
- 1954 RCA manufactures 1st color TV set (12½" screen at $1,000)
- 1955 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power, USSR
Historic Event
1955 United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
- 1957 NBA modifies the free-throw rule
- 1957 Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic Community (Common Market)
Sports History
1958 Sugar Ray Robinson is 1st boxing champ to win 5 times
Historic Event
1960 DH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" ruled not obscene (NYC)
- 1960 Ford Frick voids Indians-Red Sox deal as Sam White retires
- 1960 Italian government Tambroni forms
- 1961 "13 Daughters" closes at 54th St Theater, NYC, after 28 performances
- 1961 "Gypsy" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 702 performances
- 1961 115th Grand National: Bobby Beasley wins aboard Nicolaus Silver, 5 lengths ahead of defending champion Merryman II; first grey winner for 90 years
Sports History
1961 23rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Cincinnati beats Ohio State, 70-65 (OT); Buckeyes' future Hall of Fame forward Jerry Lucas is MOP for 2nd straight year
- 1961 3rd place game is one of the wildest contests in NCAA Tournament history as St Joseph's defeats Utah, 127-120 in quadruple overtime
Music History
1961 Elvis Presley performs live on the USS Arizona
- 1961 Explorer 10 launched into elongated Earth orbit (177/181,000 km)
- 1961 Sputnik 10 carries a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered
- 1962 "Family Affair" closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 65 performances
- 1962 French OAS-leader ex-general Jouhaud arrested
- 1963 KWHY TV channel 22 in Los Angeles, CA (IND) begins broadcasting
Historic Event
1964 Britain sets memorial for the late President John F. Kennedy
- 1964 Egypt ends state of siege (1952-64)
Historic Event
1965 Martin Luther King Jr. leads 25,000 to state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1965 West German Bondsdag extends war crimes retribution
- 1966 Beatles pose for photographer Robert Whitaker with mutilated dolls and butchered meat for album cover of "Yesterday & Today", it is later pulled from circulation and replaced with a different photo
- 1966 US Supreme court rules "poll tax" unconstitutional
Sports History
1967 29th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Dayton, 79-64; Bruins center Lew Alcindor (later named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) tournament MOP
- 1967 The Turtle's "Happy Together" goes #1
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1967 Who & Cream make US debut at Murray the K's Easter Show
- 1968 KLVX TV channel 10 in Las Vegas, NV (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1968 Members of the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) disrupt a meeting of Londonderry Corporation to protest at the lack of housing provision in the city, Northern Ireland
- 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1969 Andes Pact signed in Peru
Historic Event
1969 Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting, loyalists in Northern Ireland are jailed for organising an illegal counter demonstration in Armagh on 30 November 1968
Music History
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono stage their 1st bed-in for peace (Amsterdam)
Historic Event
1971 James Callaghan speaks at a rally of the Northern Ireland labour movement, but rejects calls for the Labour Party to open membership to those living in N. Ireland
- 1972 "Selling of the President" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 5 performances
- 1972 17th Eurovision Song Contest: Vicky Leandros for Luxembourg wins singing "Apres toi" in Edinburgh
Sports History
1972 34th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Florida, 81-76; 6th straight title for Bruins; future Hall of Fame center Bill Walton tournament MOP
- 1972 America's LP "America" goes #1
Sports History
1972 Chicago Black Hawks Bobby Hull becomes the 2nd NHLer to score 600 goals, with a goal in Boston assisted by his brother Dennis
- 1972 UCLA wins its 6th consecutive national basketball title
- 1973 27th Tony Awards: "That Championship Season" and "Little Night Music" win
- 1973 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beats Queens College, 59-52, Immaculata 1st undefeated team in New York
Academy of Country Music Awards
1974 9th Academy of Country Music Awards: Charlie Rich and Loretta Lynn win
Music Recording
1974 Barbra Streisand records the album "Butterfly"
Music Single
1975 Linda Ronstadt releases cover of the Everly Brothers' 1960 song "When Will I Be Loved" as a single; climbs to No. 2 in the charts
- 1976 "My Fair Lady" opens at St James Theater NYC for 384 performances
- 1976 "Rex" opens at Lunt-Fontaine Theater NYC for 48 performances
- 1976 Argentine military junta bans leftist political parties
- 1978 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, UCLA beat Maryland 90-74 in Los Angeles
- 1979 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Louisiana Tech 75-65 in Greensboro
Sports History
1979 Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova retains her WTA Tour Championship with a 6–3, 3–6, 6–2 win over American teenager Tracey Austin in NYC
- 1979 Major riot at Bourda prevents day's play in WSC Supertest
PGA Players Championship
1979 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Lanny Wadkins wins in windy conditions, 5 strokes ahead of runner-up Tom Watson
- 1979 Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Kennedy Space Centre to prepare for its first launch, which would eventually happen in 1981
- 1982 1st broadcast of "Cagney & Lacey" starring Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly on CBS-TV
Sports History
1982 Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st NHL to score 200 points in a season
- 1983 Christa Rothenburger skates world record 500 m ladies (39.69 sec)
- 1983 Pavel Pegov skates world record 1000m (1:12.58)
Academy Awards
1985 57th Academy Awards: "Amadeus", F. Murray Abraham & Sally Field win
Historic Event
1985 Edwin Meese III takes office as US Attorney General
Sports History
1986 Canadian Kurt Browning becomes the 1st figure skater to land a quadruple jump
Sports History
1986 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Geneva won by Brian Boitano (USA)
Film Release
1988 "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas is released
- 1988 NASA launches space vehicle S-206
Sports History
1988 Robin Givens demands full access to husband Mike Tyson's money
Academy Awards
1991 63rd Academy Awards: "Dances with Wolves", Kathy Bates & Jeremy Irons win
Sports History
1991 Allan Border takes 5-68 v WI at Bourda (!), Georgetown
