- 835 All Saints Day made compulsory by Pope Gregory IV throughout Frankish Kingdom
- 996 First recorded use of modern name for Austria in the 'Ostarrîchi Document'
- 1248 Earl Willem II of Holland crowned as RC German emperor
Event of Interest
1512 Michelangelo's paintings on ceiling of Sistine Chapel in the Vatican first exhibited
Michelangelo
- 1570 All Saints Flood, tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland; killing more than 1,000 people.
Event of Interest
1604 William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" first presented
William Shakespeare
- 1611 Shakespeare's romantic comedy "Tempest" first presented
- 1612 (22 October O.S.) Time of Troubles in Russia: Moscow, Kitai-gorod, is captured by Russian troops under command of Dmitry Pozharsky
- 1623 Fire at Plymouth, Massachusetts, destroys several buildings
Event of Interest
1628 French King Louis XIII occupies La Rochelle
Louis XIII
- 1683 The English crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
- 1721 Prince Eugenius of Savoye unveals statue of himself
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000 in Portugal
- 1765 Stamp Act goes into effect in British colonies
- 1776 Mission San Juan Capistrano founded in California
- 1784 Maryland grants citizenship to Lafayette and his descendants
- 1787 First free school in NYC (African Free School) opens
Event of Interest
1800 John Adams becomes the first US President to live in the White House
John Adams
- 1802 Delegates meet at Chillicothe, Ohio, to form a state constitutional convention.
Event of Interest
1814 Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars
Napoléon Bonaparte
WHSmith: a Retail Giant Born From a Widow's Might
1848 WHSmith opens its 1st railway bookstall, at Euston Station in London
Read Article
Event of Interest
1861 General George McClellan made general in chief of Union armies
George McClellan
- 1863 -8] Averell's Raid (on)to Lewisburg, West Virginia
- 1863 Fortifications built on Angel Island (San Francisco Bay) by troops
- 1865 Zutphen-Fishing Dutch railway opens
- 1869 Deli Me forms T B V tobacco in Sumatra
- 1870 US Weather Bureau begins operations (24 locations)
- 1876 King Willem III opens North Sea Canal (Amsterdam-IJmuiden)
- 1876 New Zealand's provincial government system is dissolved.
- 1877 Dutch government of Heemskerk-Van Lynden resigns
- 1878 Edward Scripps & John Sweeney found Penny Press (Cleveland Press)
- 1884 Gaelic Athletic Association is established in a meeting at Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary; Clare teacher Michael Cusack is credited as founder; objective to promote Irish sport & games
Event of Interest
1894 Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
Nicholas II
- 1896 First bare-breasted women (Zulu) to appear in National Geographic Magazine
- 1897 Italian football club Juventus F.C. is founded by students in Turin as Sport-Club Juventus
- 1901 Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male collegiate fraternity is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, VA.
- 1902 France and Italy sign an Entente under which Italy agrees to remain neutral if France is attacked; this is France's attempt to neutralize the Triple Entente
Theater Premiere
1904 George Bernard Shaw's comedy play "John Bull's Other Island" premieres in London
George Bernard Shaw
Historic Publication
1910 First issue of "Crisis" published by editor W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois
Italo-Turkish War
1911 The first aerial bomb is dropped by an Italian pilot on Turkish troops in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War
Learn More
- 1913 Notre Dame upsets Army, 35-13 in the colleges' inaugural football game; quarterback Gus Dorais (14 of 17 passes, 243 yards, 2 TDs) and receiver Knute Rockne use forward pass effectively
Event of Interest
1913 Less than a week after the US non-intervention promise, President Woodrow Wilson demands that Mexican dictator Huerta resigns
Woodrow Wilson
Event of Interest
1914 Paul von Hindenburg named marshal of the Eastern front
Paul von Hindenburg
- 1915 Parris Island is officially designated a US Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
- 1916 Paul Miliukov delivers in the Russian State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government
- 1916 Broadway theatre owner and producer Harry H. Frazee and Hugh Ward buy MLB club the Boston Red Sox for approximately $700,000 from Joseph Lannin
- 1918 102 die in a NYC BMT subway derailment at Malbone Street Brooklyn
- 1918 Yugoslav battleship Viribus Unitis sunk by Italians
Event of Interest
1919 British Admiral David Beatty becomes First Sea Lord
David Beatty
Event of Interest
1920 Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones" premieres in NYC
Eugene O'Neill
Event of Interest
1922 Queen Wilhelmina opens Dutch Historical Maritime museum in Amsterdam
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
End of the Ottoman Empire
1922 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk takes Constantinople from Mehmed VI, proclaiming the Republic of Turkey and bringing an end to the Ottoman Empire
Learn More
- 1922 In an all-American bout, Mickey Walker upsets defending champion Jack Britton in a 15-round points decision at Madison Square Garden, NYC; wins world welterweight boxing crown
- 1923 Bruno E Lucander forms Aero E/Y (Finnair)
- 1924 Boston Bruins officially join the NHL, becoming the first United States based team to enter the League; Montreal Maroons also join NHL, but only last until 1938
- 1925 VARA, Vereniging van Workers Radio Amateurs forms in Amsterdam
- 1926 US Air Commerce Act passes
- 1928 1st celebration of Authors' Day
Event of Interest
1928 Australian cricket batting prodigy Don Bradman scores 133 not out in NSW 2nd innings v Queensland in Brisbane; follows his 131 in the Blues' 1st innings
Donald Bradman
Hindenburg Disaster Ends the Age of Zeppelins
1928 Graf Zeppelin sets airship distance record of 6384 km
Read Article
Appointment of Interest
1932 Wernher von Braun named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program
Wernher von Braun
Theater Premiere
1935 T. S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral" premieres in London
T. S. Eliot
Event of Interest
1936 Benito Mussolini describes alliance between Italy and Germany as an "axis"
Benito Mussolini
- 1936 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (then Cowboys' Turtle Association) is established after disagreement with rodeo promoter W.T. Johnson, who finally gives in to cowboys' pay demands
Execution
1937 Stalinists execute by shooting Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community (including three women).
Joseph Stalin
- 1938 German colonel-general Gerd von Runstedt retires
Event of Interest
1938 NL batting champion Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds is named National League MVP; first catcher to win award; Boston Red Sox 1st baseman Jimmie Foxx takes AL award
Jimmie Foxx
- 1938 Seabiscuit, with George Woolf aboard, beats 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral by 3 lengths in Pimlico track record time to win $15,000 in what is regarded as one of the greatest match races in horse racing history
- 1939 First animal conceived by artificial insemination (rabbit) displayed
- 1939 First jet plane, Heinkel He 178, demonstrated to German Air Ministry
Josip Broz Tito
Attack on Pearl Harbor
1941 Japanese naval staff offiicers Suzuki & Maejima arrive at Pearl Harbor
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Famous Photo
1941 Ansel Adams shoots 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico', one of his most famous photographs
Ansel Adams
- 1942 10th day of battle at El Alamein
- 1942 John H Johnson publishes 1st issue of Negro Digest
- 1943 Dim-out ban lifted in San Francisco Bay area
- 1943 US troops land on Bougainville Island on Solomon Island
- 1944 Mary Coyle Chase's "Harvey" premieres in NYC
- 1944 Zeeuws & Flanders liberated
- 1944 World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.
- 1945 First issue of Ebony magazine published by John H Johnson
- 1946 Charles S Johnson becomes 1st black president of Fisk University
- 1946 First Basketball Association of America game; New York Knicks beat Toronto Huskies, 68-66 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
- 1946 WABC becomes WCBS radio in NYC
- 1946 WEAF radio changes call letters to WNBC (NYC)
- 1946 West German state of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) created
- 1946 Karol Wojtyla is ordained to Catholic priesthood
- 1947 "Medium & The Telephone" closes at Barrymore NYC after 211 performances
- 1947 First Aloha Week Parade held in Hawaii
- 1947 UN trusteeship for Nauru granted to Australia, NZ & UK
- 1948 Mao's Red army conquers Mukden, Manchuria
- 1950 82°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in Nov
Event of Interest
1950 Puerto Rican nationalists try to kill US President Harry Truman at Blair House
Harry Truman
Event of Interest
1951 Johnny Mercer's "Top Banana" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 356 performances
Johnny Mercer
- 1951 US performs 1st atomic explosion witnessed by troops, Nevada Test Site, New Mexico
Event of Interest
1951 Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella wins first of his 3 National League MVP awards
Roy Campanella
- 1951 Jet magazine founded by John H Johnson
Event of Interest
1952 "Ivy Mike", the first thermonuclear weapon to utilize the H-bomb design of Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam, is detonated in the Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean
Edward Teller
- 1953 Czech long distance runner Emile Zatopek sets world 10,000m record 29:01.6 & 6 mile mark 28:08.4 in Stara Boleslav, Czech Republic
- 1953 KCEN TV channel 6 in Temple-Waco, TX (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 KMGH TV channel 7 in Denver, CO (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1953 WHEC TV channel 10 in Rochester, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1953 Herb Thomas, driving his own No. 92 Hudson Hornet wraps up the NASCAR Grand National Championship with 14th-place in 100-mile finale at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway; Thomas first repeat champion of the series
Election of Interest
1954 General Fulgencio Batista elected President of Cuba
Fulgencio Batista
Event of Interest
1954 US Senate admonishes Joseph McCarthy because of his slander campaigns
Joseph McCarthy
- 1954 The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence against France.
- 1954 Lee Petty with 32 top-10 finishes from 34 races wins NASCAR Grand National Championship by 283 points from Herb Thomas; Petty fails to finish season ending Wilkes 160
- 1955 Time bomb aboard United DC-6 kills 44 above Longmont, Colorado
- 1956 Karnataka (then known as Mysore State) is formed from the merge of Kannada-speaking regions in India
- 1956 Delhi becomes a union territory of India
- 1956 Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is formed
- 1956 Indian states of Punjab, Patiala and most of the East Punjab States Union merge as the Punjab State
- 1956 Nagy government of Hungary withdraws from Warsaw Pact
Nobel Prize
1956 Nobel for physics awarded to William Shockley, Walter H. Brattain and John Bardeen
Walter Houser Brattain
William Shockley
John Bardeen
- 1956 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Laetamur admodum
- 1956 Kerala state is formed in India
- 1957 KVII TV channel 7 in Amarillo, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1957 KXGN TV channel 5 in Glendive, MT (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1957 WICZ TV channel 40 in Binghamton, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1957 Mackinac Straits Bridge, Michigan, world longest suspension bridge between anchorages opens
- 1958 USSR performs nuclear test
Event of Interest
1959 Montreal Canadiens’ goal tender Jacques Plante becomes first NHL net-minder to wear a fibreglass protective face mask
Jacques Plante
- 1959 Patrice Lumumba arrested in Belgian Congo
- 1959 WOV-AM in NYC changes call letters to WADO
- 1960 Benelux treaty goes into effect
- 1962 Greece enters European Common Market
- 1962 KYVE TV channel 47 in Yakima, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- 1962 USSR launches Mars 1; radio contact lost before arrival at Mars
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1962 WNYC TV channel 31 in New York, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1962 WZZM TV channel 13 in Grand Rapids, MI (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1964 Houston Oilers quarterback George Blanda attempts an AFL record 68 passes (37 completions) in 24-10 loss v Buffalo Bills at War Memorial Stadium
- 1964 Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson passes for 435 yards and 6 TDs in 49-39 win over Denver Broncos at Municipal Stadium
- 1964 Vietcong-assault on airport Bien Hoa at Saigon
- 1964 Cleveland running back Jim Brown runs for 149 yards in Browns' 30-17 win at Pittsburgh to become the first NFL player to exceed 10,000 yards career rushing
- 1965 1st concert at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
- 1965 Ernie Terrell retains WBA heavyweight boxing title; beats Canadian George Chuvalo in 15 round points decision in Toronto
- 1965 Trackless trolley plunged into Nile River drowning 74 (Cairo Egypt)
- 1966 Indian Haryana state created from Punjab; Chandigarh terr created
- 1966 NFL awards a franchise to New Orleans; name "Saints" alludes to November 1, All Saints Day in Catholic faith
Event of Interest
1966 LA Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax becomes first 3-time winner of Cy Young Award; unanimous winner for 2nd straight year; final year only 1 award given for pitchers in both major leagues
Sandy Koufax
- 1966 William Dana in X-15 reaches 93 km
Film Release
1967 "Cool Hand Luke", starring Paul Newman, George Kennedy, and Strother Martin, is released
Strother Martin
Paul Newman
Event of Interest
1968 Noël Coward's "Sweet Potato" opens at Booth Theater NYC for 36 performances
Noël Coward
Event of Interest
1968 Detroit pitcher Denny McLain is named unanimous AL Cy Young Award winner after finishing MLB season, 31-6 for World Series winning Tigers
Denny McLain
- 1969 The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album goes #1 in US & stays #1 for 11 weeks
- 1970 First NFL regular season New York Giants-Jets game; Giants win 22-10 at Shea Stadium
- 1970 Fire at Club Cinq-Sept Discotheque in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146, as all emergency exits were padlocked
- 1970 KGTF TV channel 12 in Agana, GU (PBS) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
1971 Eisenhower dollar put into circulation
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- 1972 1st gay theme TV movie - "That Certain Summer"
- 1972 Germaoin Gagnon scores 1st Islander hat trick
- 1973 "Molly" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 68 performances
- 1973 Indian state of Mysore is renamed Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu
- 1974 Fire kills 189 in less than 25 min (Sao Paulo Brazil)
- 1974 UN affirms independence of Cyprus
- 1976 "Don't Step on My Olive Branch" opens at Playhouse NYC for 16 performances
- 1976 Britain gives Gilbert Island (Kiribati) self rule
- 1976 W German Generals Krupinski and Franke admit to having been Nazis
Event of Interest
1977 US President Jimmy Carter raises the minimum wage from $2.30 to $3.35 an hour, effective from 1st Jan 1981
Jimmy Carter
- 1977 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1979 Bolivia military coup under General Busch, President Guevara flees
- 1979 US Federal government proposes making a $1.5 billion loan to Chrysler
- 1979 Tanker Burmah Agate off Galveston Bay, Texas, spills 10.7 m gallons of oil, in US's worst oil spill disaster
- 1980 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1981 1st Class US Mail raised from 18 cents to 20 cents
- 1981 Antigua & Barbuda gains independence from Britain (National Day)
Event of Interest
1981 Darrell Waltrip wins his 4th straight NASCAR Cup race, the American 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway; ties Richard Petty record 1967; 12th win of season; goes on to win Winston Cup crown
Richard Petty
- 1982 Andrew "Dice" Clay & George Wendt appear in "Trick or Treatment"
Appointment of Interest
1982 MLB owners vote not to renew Commissioner Bowie Kuhn's contract; AL owners vote for Kuhn, 11-3, and NL, 7-5, 2 shy of 3/4 majority required for re-election; eventually replaced by Peter Ueberroth
Peter Ueberroth
- 1982 Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of their factory in Marysville, Ohio. The Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
