Events 1 - 200 of 353
Roman Empire
305 Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor
- 1006 Supernova observed by Chinese and Egyptians in constellation Lupus
- 1048 Bishop Bernold flees St Pieterskerk for Utrecht, Netherlands
- 1328 Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton - the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
- 1394 Ekiho exorcised the Zen temple and its surroundings of an old badger
Historic Event
1486 Christopher Columbus proposes his plan to search for a western route to India in an audience with Spanish monarch, Isabella I. Full support is granted 3 years later, in 1489
Historic Event
1523 Danish King Christian III arrives in Veere
- 1544 Turkish troops occupy Hungary
Historic Event
1551 Council of Trente resumes
Appointment of Interest
1625 Prince Frederick Henry appointed viceroy of Holland
- 1682 Louis XIV & his court inaugurate Paris Observatory
- 1703 Battle at Rultusk: Swedish army beats Russians
- 1704 Boston Newsletter publishes 1st newspaper advertisement
- 1707 Acts of Union comes into force, uniting England and Scotland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain
- 1711 Archduke Karel of Austria/Hungarian rebellion sign Peace of Szatmar
- 1715 Prussia declares war on Sweden
- 1718 Spanish Catholic missionaries establish Mission San Antonio de Valero (now known as Alamo), the fist of several settlements in what is now San Antonio, Texas
- 1725 Spain and Austria sign trade treaty
Historic Publication
1753 Publication of Species Plantarum by Carolus Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
- 1756 France and Austria sign alliance
- 1757 Austria and France divide Prussia
- 1759 British fleet occupies Guadeloupe, West Indies, capturing it from France
- 1776 Adam Weishaupt founds secret society of Illuminati
- 1777 RB Sheridan's "School for Scandal" premieres in London
- 1778 American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
Music Premiere
1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "Marriage of Figaro" premieres in Vienna with Mozart himself directing
Victory in Battle
1795 Kamehameha, King of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and conquors island of Oʻahu at Battle of Nuʻuanu (approx. date)
Penny Black
1840 "Penny Black", the world's first adhesive postage stamp issued by Great Britain
- 1841 First emigrant wagon train leaves Independence, Missouri, for California
Presidential Convention
1844 Whig convention nominates Henry Clay as presidential candidate
- 1846 Ida Pfeiffer (48) begins trip around world
- 1848 The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
- 1850 John Geary becomes 1st mayor of San Francisco
- 1851 First public flushing toilets the 'Monkey Closets' unveiled by George Jennings as part of The Great Exhibition at Hyde Park, London, costing one penny
- 1851 Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace, at Hyde Park, London
- 1852 The Philippine peso is introduced into circulation
Historic Publication
1852 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first part of their German Dictionary (fully completed 1961)
Historic Event
1862 Major General Benjamin Butler's Union forces occupy New Orleans (US Civil War)
- 1863 Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled first opens its doors in New York City, oldest orthopaedic hospital in the United States
- 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, 29,000 injured or died
- 1863 Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
- 1863 Confederate "National Flag" replaces "Stars & Bars"
- 1863 Confederate congress passes resolution to kill black soldiers
- 1864 -8] Battle at Alexandria, Louisiana (Red River Campaign)
- 1864 Atlanta campaign, Georgia begins
- 1866 American Equal Rights Association forms
- 1867 Howard University chartered
- 1867 Reconstruction of South begins, black voter registration
- 1869 Folies Bergère opens in Paris
- 1873 1st US postal card issued
- 1873 Emperor Franz Joseph opens 5th World's Exposition in Vienna
- 1875 238 members of "Whiskey Ring" accused of anti-US activities
- 1875 Alexandra Palace, London, reopens after being burnt down in 1873
- 1883 Amsterdam World's Fair opens
- 1883 First National League baseball game in Philadelphia since 1876, Providence Greys beat Philadelphia Quakers, 4-3
- 1883 Bob Rogers is acknowledged as the first American pro sports trainer when he is hired by the NY Athletic Club
- 1884 Construction begins on Chicago's 1st skyscraper (10 stories)
- 1884 Catcher Moses Walker is acknowledged as the first African-American to play major league baseball joining the Toledo Blue Stockings
- 1884 Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States.
- 1885 Maria "Goeie Mie" Swanenburg sentence to life for killing 27 in Netherlands
- 1886 US general strike for 8-hour working day begins
- 1889 2nd International Congress calls for 1st International Workers Day 1st May 1890 to mark protests in Chicago in 1886
Historic Event
1896 Seven days after parliament was dissolved, Charles Tupper is sworn in as the 6th Prime Minister of Canada
Historic Event
1898 US Admiral George Dewey commands "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley" as US rout Spanish fleet at Manila
Historic Event
1901 Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York (runs till 2 November)
Historic Event
1903 King Edward VII of Great Britain visits Paris, where he is feted in a first step toward improving Anglo-French relations, culminating in the signing of the Entente Cordiale on 8 April, 1904
- 1906 Philadelphia Athletics pitcher John Lush no-hits the Brooklyn Superbas, 6-0
- 1907 Belgium government of De Trooz forms
- 1907 Indian Mine Laws passes (concessions from Neth-Indies)
- 1908 World's most intense shower (2.47" in 3 minutes) at Portobelo, Panama
- 1909 Netherlands begins unity with Belgium
- 1912 Beverly Hills Hotel opens
- 1913 Longacre Theater opens at 220 W 48th St NYC
Historic Event
1914 China's 1st president Yuan Shikai wins dictatorial qualification
Historic Event
1915 British liner Lusitania leaves NY for Liverpool
Historic Event
1919 "L'Ordine Nuovo" Italian socialist weekly newspaper established in Turin by Antonio Gramsci, Angelo Tasca and Palmiro Togliatti
Historic Event
1919 British naval officer David Beatty is promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
- 1920 Roermond Football Club (1936 KNVB Cup) is established in Netherlands
Historic Event
1923 Adolf Hitler and Ernst Rohm attempt to break up socialist May Day demonstrates, inviting Nazis from as far away as Nuremberg to take part in the violence
- 1924 Admiral Paul Koundouriotis becomes President of Greece
Historic Event
1924 German automobile manufacturers Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie begin their first joint venture (later merge into Mercedes-Benz)
Sports History
1925 Future Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Jimmie Foxx makes his MLB debut at 17 for Philadelphia A's; pinch-hits a single in 9-4 loss v Washington
Hall of Fame
1926 Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige (19) debuts in the Negro Southern League for Chattanooga
- 1927 1st British airliner to serve cooked meals (Imperial Airways)
- 1928 6 children die and 10 injured by hailstones in Klausenburg, Romania
- 1928 Drunken fascist Erich Wichman attacks VARA-radio transmitter
- 1928 Lei Day begun (a Hawaiian celebration)
- 1928 Pitcairn Airlines (later Eastern) begins service
- 1928 Rotterdam soccer club Black White '28 is established (2000 Women's KNVB Cup); declared bankrupt 2004
- 1929 Farm workers strike begins in East-Groningen
- 1929 Police kill 19 Mayday demonstrators in Berlin
- 1930 The planet Pluto is officially named by 11 year-old Venetia Burney
- 1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City
- 1931 Norway claims Peter I Island
- 1931 Singer Kate Smith begins her long-running association with CBS radio, various programs continue until 1945
- 1932 1st Suriname union congress at Paramaribo
- 1934 Austria signs pact with Vatican
- 1934 Philippine legislature accepts US proposal for independence
- 1934 Water state kingdom dismisses NSB-leader Anton Mussert
- 1935 Canada's 1st silver dollar is circulated
Historic Event
1936 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie leaves Ethiopia as Italy invades
Historic Event
1936 FBI's J. Edgar Hoover arrests gangster Alvin "Creepy" Karpis
Historic Event
1937 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships and imposes an arms embargo on warring nations
Batman Appears!
1939 Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27
Film Premiere
1941 "Citizen Kane", directed by Orson Welles and starring himself, Joseph Cotten and Dorothy Corningore, premieres at the Palace Theater in New York City
- 1941 General Mills introduces CheeriOats (renamed Cheerios in 1945) an oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal
- 1941 German assault on Tobruk
- 1941 US savings bonds go on sale to help finance the war effort
- 1942 Radio Orange calls to defy order to wear "Jewish star"
- 1943 1st edition of illegal "The Free Artist" appears in Amsterdam
- 1943 69th Kentucky Derby: Johnny Longden wins aboard heavy favourite Count Fleet in the 'street car Derby'
- 1943 Food rationing begins in the United States during World War II
- 1943 German Wehrmacht deployed in order to break Dutch strikes
- 1943 German plane sinks the British ship SS Erinpura in the Mediterranean with the loss of 799 lives
- 1943 SS General Hanns Albin Rauter announces that all Jews will be 'removed' from the occupied Netherlands
- 1944 Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight
- 1944 Pulitzer prize awarded to American Martin Flavin for his novel "Journey in the Dark"
- 1944 Surprise attack on Weteringschans Amsterdam, fails
- 1945 About 1,000 citizens of Demmin in Germany, commit suicide provoked by occupation by Soviet Red Army
- 1945 Admiral Karl Doenitz forms German government
- 1945 Australian & Dutch troops land on Tarakan
- 1945 General Belgian Labor Union (ABVV) party forms
- 1945 Radio Budapest, Hungary re-enters shortwave broadcasting after WW II
- 1945 Seys-Inquart flees to Flensburg
- 1945 Soviet army reaches Rostock
Appointment of Interest
1946 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery appointed British supreme commander
- 1946 Mrs Emma Clarissa Clement named "American Mother of Year"
- 1946 Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
- 1946 The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy
- 1947 Cleveland Indians abandon League Park (venue for weekday games) to play all MLB games at Municipal Stadium
- 1947 Lt General Hoyt S Vandenberg, USA, ends term as 2nd head of CIA
- 1947 Radar for commercial & private planes 1st demonstrated
- 1947 Rear Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter, USN, becomes 3th director of CIA
Sports History
1948 74th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro wins aboard Citation to become first 4-time Derby winning jockey
- 1948 North Korea proclaims itself Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- 1948 Glenn Taylor, Idaho Senator, arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes"
- 1949 A's Elmer Valo is 1st AL'er to hit 2 bases-loaded triples in a game
- 1949 Gerard Kuiper discovers Nereid, (2nd satellite of Neptune)
- 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks is 1st African American awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
- 1950 Mayor of Brussels reluctantly bans May Day parade
- 1950 New marriage laws enforced in People's Republic of China
- 1950 Pulitzer prize awarded to Rodgers & Hammerstein for musical "South Pacific"
- 1950 WJIM (now WLNS) TV channel 6 in Lansing, MI (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1951 600,000 march for peace & freedom in Germany
- 1951 Dutch Reformed Church introduces new church choir
Baseball Record
1951 Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Mickey Mantle hits first career home run in 8-3 win v White Sox in Chicago; Minnie Minoso homers in Sox debut
- 1952 US Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada
- 1952 Mr Potato Head introduced
- 1952 TWA introduces tourist class
- 1954 80th Kentucky Derby: Raymond York wins aboard Determine, his only Derby success
- 1954 Bishops publish Mandement (member socialist org forbidden)
- 1954 HSA-UWC Forms (Unification Church) (Moonies)
- 1954 WAPA TV channel 4 in San Juan, PR (NBC/SFN) begins broadcasting
- 1954 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation [1]
- 1954 Preston North End defender Joe Marston becomes the first Australian to play in an FA Cup Final, a 3-2 loss to WBA
Golf Tournament
1955 American golfer Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina, her final victory before her death the following year
Sports History
1955 Future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller tosses his record 12th 1-hitter in Indians' 2-0 win v Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Stadium
Miss Atomic Pageant
1955 Showgirl Linda Lawson is crowned "Miss-Cue" in the Atomic Pageant, after the Operation Cue test is repeatedly delayed by high winds
Radio Premiere
1957 Larry King's 1st radio broadcast
Boxing Title Fight
1959 Floyd Patterson scores 11th round KO of Englishman Brian London in Indianapolis; his 4th World Heavyweight Boxing title defence
Historic Event
1960 Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk
Historic Event
1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba
Historic Event
1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird"