Roman Empire
51 Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth)
Election of Interest
1152 Frederick I Barbarossa elected Holy Roman Emperor
Event of Interest
1522 Anne Boleyn makes her debut at the English court at the Green Castle pageant
- 1628 King Charles I of England issues the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, formally incorporating joint-stock company for the colonization of Massachusetts Bay Colony
- 1653 Dutch commodore Johan van Galen leads a Dutch fleet to victory against an English naval force at the Battle of Leghorn (Livorno) during the Anglo Dutch wars, later dies from his wounds on March 23
Declaration of War
1665 English King Charles II declares war on Netherlands
Appointment of Interest
1675 John Flamsteed appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England
Event of Interest
1681 English Quaker William Penn receives charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory Pennsylvania
Event of Interest
1774 First sighting of Orion nebula by William Herschel
- 1776 American War of Independence: The Americans capture Dorchester Heights dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts
Constitution of the United States
1789 1st US Congress meets and declares constitution in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)
- 1789 US House of Representatives 1st full meeting, NYC, Fx. Muhlenberg 1st speaker
- 1790 France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land
- 1791 First Jewish member of US Congress, Israel Jacobs (PA), takes office
- 1791 President Washington calls the US Senate into its first special session
- 1791 Vermont admitted as 14th state (1st addition to the 13 colonies)
- 1792 Oranges introduced to Hawaii
- 1793 French troops conquer Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
- 1793 Washington's 2nd inauguration as US President, shortest speech (133 words)
President Inaugurated
1797 John Adams inaugurated as 2nd President of The United States, Thomas Jefferson 2nd Vice President
- 1798 Catholic women force to do penance for kindling sabbath fire for Jews
Thomas Jefferson Elected US President
1801 Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
- 1804 The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia), when Irish convicts (some of whom had been involved in Ireland's Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798) led the colony's only significant convict uprising.
President Inaugurated
1809 James Madison becomes 1st US President inaugurated in American-made clothes
President Inaugurated
1817 James Monroe is inaugurated as the 5th President of the United States
- 1824 The "National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck" founded in the United Kingdom, later to be renamed The Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1858.
President Inaugurated
1825 John Quincy Adams inaugurated as the 6th US President
- 1826 1st US railroad chartered, Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts
President Inaugurated
1829 Andrew Jackson inaugurated as 7th US President
- 1829 Unruly crowd mobs White House during President Andrew Jackson's inaugural ball
- 1830 Vincenzo Bellini's opera "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" premieres at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy
- 1835 HMS Beagle moves into Bay of Concepcion (Chile)
- 1837 Chicago becomes incorporated as a city
President Inaugurated
1837 Martin Van Buren inaugurated as the 8th President of the United States
- 1837 Weekly Advocate changes its name to the Colored American
Theater Premiere
1841 Dion Boucicault's stage comedy "London Assurance" opens at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London
President Inaugurated
1841 Longest US presidential inauguration speech (8,443 words) by William Henry Harrison
President Inaugurated
1845 James K. Polk inaugurated as 11th US President
President Inaugurated
1849 US President Zachary Taylor delays his swearing-in and inauguration ceremony for one day due to religious reasons, rising to the false belief by some that Senator David Atchison (President pro tempore) technically assumed the office of President for one day
President Inaugurated
1861 Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th US President
- 1861 Confederate States adopt "Stars & Bars" flag (US Civil War)
- 1861 US President Abraham Lincoln opens Government Printing Office
- 1863 Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee
- 1863 Territory of Idaho established
John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln's Inauguration
1865 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated for his 2nd term as US President. The man who would assassinate him weeks later, John Wilkes Booth, is photographed attending the inauguration.
- 1865 US Confederate congress approves final design of "official flag"
- 1868 30th Grand National: George Ede victorious aboard Irish 9/1 shot The Lamb; horse wins second GN in 1871
President Inaugurated
1869 Ulysses S. Grant inaugurated as 18th US President
Execution
1870 On command of Louis Riel, Thomas Scott is executed by a firing squad. Riel rejects all appeals and requests to intervene in an attempt to demonstrate to the Canadian government that the Métis must be taken seriously
- 1876 US Congress decides to impeach Minister of War Belknap
Music History
1877 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" has its world premiere, performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow
President Inaugurated
1881 James A. Garfield inaugurated as the 20th President of the United States of America
- 1881 Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson begin their 1st case together in "A Study in Scarlet"
Event of Interest
1881 South African politician Paul Kruger accepts ceasefire during First Boer War
- 1882 Britain's first electric trams run in East London
Event of Interest
1885 Grover Cleveland inaugrated as 1st US Democratic President since Civil War
President Inaugurated
1889 Benjamin Harrison inaugurated as 23rd US President
Event of Interest
1890 Longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge (railway) at 1,710 ft in length is opened in Scotland by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII
- 1893 Francis Dhanis' Belgian Congo Free State army attacks the Lualaba, occupies Nyangwe
- 1893 Grover Cleveland (D) inaugrated as 24th US President (2nd term)
- 1894 Great fire in Shanghai; over 1,000 buildings destroyed
Music Premiere
1895 Gustav Mahler conducts the premiere of his incomplete 2nd Symphony ("Resurrection") in Berlin, Germany, with the Berlin Philharmonic; complete version debuts in December
President Inaugurated
1897 William McKinley inaugurated as 25th US President
- 1899 Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 m wave that reaches up to 5 km inland - over 300 dead.
- 1901 1st advanced copy of inaugural speech (Jefferson-National Intelligencer)
- 1901 Term of George H. White, last of post-Reconstruction US congressmen, ends
- 1901 William McKinley inaugurated for 2nd term as US president; Theodore Roosevelt serves as Vice President
- 1902 American Automobile Association (AAA) founded in Chicago
- 1903 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal HC beats Winnipeg Victorias, 4-1 for a 2-1 challenge series victory
Theater Premiere
1905 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Elga" premieres in Berlin
Event of Interest
1909 William Howard Taft inaugrated as 27th US President during 10" snowstorm
- 1911 Victor Berger (Wisc) becomes 1st socialist congressman in US
- 1913 1st US law regulating the shooting of migratory birds passed
- 1913 Gabriel Faure's opera "Pénélope", based on Homer's "The Odyssey", premieres at the Salle Garnie, in Monte Carlo, Monaco
- 1913 NY Yankees are 1st to train outside US (Bermuda)
- 1913 US Department of Commerce & Labor split into separate departments
President Inaugurated
1913 Woodrow Wilson inaugurated as 28th US President
- 1918 Terek Autonomous Republic established in RSFSR (until 1921)
The 1918 Flu Pandemic
1918 US Army mess cook Private Albert Gitchell of Fort Riley, Kansas becomes the first documented military case of Spanish flu; start of worldwide pandemic killing 50-100 million [some sources cite date as March 11]
President Inaugurated
1921 Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as the 29th President of the United States
Film Premiere
1922 1st vampire film "Nosferatu", an un-authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, premieres at the Berlin Zoological Garden, Germany
Event of Interest
1923 Vladimir Lenin's last article in Pravda (about Soviet bureaucracy)
- 1928 "Bunion Run" race from LA to NYC begins; It is won by Andy Payne
President Inaugurated
1929 Herbert Hoover inaugurated as the 31st US President
- 1929 National Revolutionary Party founded in Mexico by Plutarco Elías Calles (will go on to hold power until 2000)
Event of Interest
1929 Republican Charles Curtis becomes the 1st Native American to be Vice President of the United States
- 1930 Coolidge Dam in Arizona dedicated
- 1930 Emma Fahning bowls 1st sanctioned 300 game by a woman
- 1930 Terrible floods ransack Languedoc and the surrounds in south-west France, resulting in twelve departments being submerged by water and causing the death of over 700 people.
Cricket History
1931 Don Bradman is bowled for a rare first ball duck by Herman Griffith (4-50) on the last day of 5th cricket Test vs West Indies in Sydney; Windies win by 31 runs but lose series to Australia, 4-1
- 1931 West Indies beat Australia for the 1st time, by 30 runs at SCG
- 1933 Chancellor Dollfuss dissolves Austrian parliament
- 1933 Frances Perkins becomes Secretary of Labor, 1st female member of the US Cabinet
President Inaugurated
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd US President, pledges to pull US out of the Depression, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"
- 1933 Henderson, DeSylva & Brown's "Strike Me Pink" premieres in NYC
- 1933 Noordwijk soccer team forms
- 1934 Easter Cross on Mt. Davidson (San Francisco) dedicated
Hindenburg Disaster
1936 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany
Academy Awards
1937 9th Academy Awards: "The Great Ziegfeld", Paul Muni & Luise Rainer wins
- 1941 18 Geuzen resistance fighters sentenced to death in The Hague
- 1941 Chicago Black Hawks goaltender Sam LoPresti faces NHL record 83 shots in a 3-2 loss to the Bruins in Boston
Event of Interest
1941 Serbian Prince Paul visits Adolf Hitler
- 1941 The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.
Academy Awards
1943 15th Academy Awards: "Mrs. Miniver", James Cagney & Greer Garson win
Event of Interest
1945 United Kingdom's Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the British Auxiliary Transport Service as a driver
- 1947 WWJ (now WDIV) TV channel 4 in Detroit, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1949 Piet Van de Pol (Neth) becomes world champion billiard player
- 1949 Security Council of UN recommends membership for Israel
- 1954 James E. Wilkins appointed 1st black US sub-cabinet member
- 1954 Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful kidney transplant
- 1955 1st radio facsimile transmission sent across the continent
- 1957 Gold Coast officially changes its name to Ghana ahead of its independence
- 1957 The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
- 1959 US Pioneer IV misses Moon & becomes 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet
- 1960 French freighter "La Coubre" explodes in Havana Cuba, killing 100
- 1961 8th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: Wake Forest beats Duke, 96-81
- 1961 Paul-Henri Spaak resigns as Secretary-General of NATO
- 1962 AEC announces 1st atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation
- 1964 Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa convicted of jury tampering
Film & TV History
1965 David Attenborough becomes the new controller of BBC2
- 1966 Canadian Pacific airliner explodes on landing at Tokyo, 64 die
Music History
1966 John Lennon says "We (the Beatles) are more popular than Jesus"
- 1966 North Sea Gas 1st pumped ashore by BP
- 1967 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna won by Towler & Ford (GRB)
- 1967 Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Belousova & Protopopov (USSR)
- 1967 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Emmerich Danzer (AUT)
Sports History
1967 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champion in Vienna won by Peggy Fleming (US)
Academy of Country Music Awards
1968 3rd Academy of Country Music Awards: Glen Campbell and Lynn Anderson win
Sports History
1968 Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti regains world middleweight title with a 15-round points decision over American champion Emile Griffith at Madison Square Garden, NY; last of famous trilogy of fights
Boxing Title Fight
1968 Joe Frazier takes his record to 20-0 and captures vacant world heavyweight boxing title; stops Buster Mathis in 11th round TKO at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Event of Interest
1968 Martin Luther King Jr. announces plans for Poor People's Campaign
- 1968 Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 launched
- 1969 London East End gang bosses twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are found guilty of murder. Both will die in captivity.
- 1970 French submarine "Eurydice" explodes off Cape Camarat in the Mediterranean, all 57 crew lost
- 1970 Jacksonville is 1st college basketball team to avg 100+ pts per game
- 1970 NY Rangers set then NHL record of 126 games without being shut-out
- 1971 "City Command" kidnaps 4 US military men at Ankara, Turkey
- 1972 Abercorn Restaurant bombing: a bomb explodes in a crowded restaurant in Belfast, killing two civilians and wounding 130
- 1972 Erhard Keller (Germany) skates world record 1000m (1:18.5)
- 1972 Last train run between Penrith to Keswick, UK
- 1972 Libya & USSR signs cooperation treaty
- 1973 15th Grammy Awards: 1st Time Ever I Saw Your Face, America
- 1974 David Hares' "Knuckle" premieres in London
- 1974 Educational series "The Letter People" debuts on KETC-TV (PBS) in St. Louis, Missouri
Event of Interest
1974 Harold Wilson replaces resigning Edward Heath as British premier
People's Choice Awards
1976 2nd People's Choice Awards: John Wayne & Katharine Hepburn win (Motion Picture) and Telly Savalas & Carol Burnett win (TV)
- 1976 John Pezzin bowls 33 consecutive strikes at Toledo, Ohio
- 1976 MLB's San Francisco Giants are bought for $8 million by Bob Lurie and Bud Herseth
- 1977 1st CRAY 1 supercomputer shipped, to Los Alamos Laboratories, New Mexico
- 1977 Earthquake in Romania kills 1,541
- 1977 Roger Sessions' 6th Symphony premieres (in fully completed form) in New York City with José Serebrier conducting the Juilliard Orchestra
- 1977 West Indian cricket fast bowler Colin Croft takes 8-29 against Pakistan in 2nd Test win at Port-of-Spain; best Test figures by a pace bowler from the West Indies
- 1978 25th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: Duke beats Wake Forest, 85-77
- 1978 Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes last issue
- 1979 "Grand Tour" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 61 performances
Television Premiere
1979 "The Ordeal of Patty Hearst", television movie directed by Paul Wendkos, premieres on CBS
- 1979 200th episode of "All in the Family"
Catholic Encyclical
1979 Pope John Paul II publishes his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis"
- 1979 US Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings
Sports History
1980 40th hat trick in Islander history-Mike Bossy
Election of Interest
1980 Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) comes to power, winning the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe, making Mugabe Zimbabwe's first black prime minister
