- 534 Second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus published
- 1380 French King Charles VI declares no taxes for ever
- 1491 An auto de fe, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.
- 1519 City of Havana moved to its current location to avoid mosquito infestations
Victory in Battle
1532 Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro captures Inca Emperor Atahualpa after a surprise ambush at Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes
Francisco Pizarro
Atahualpa
- 1572 Troops under Don Frederik (the Spanish General Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo) occupy and plunder Zutphen, Netherlands
Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son
1581 Tsar Ivan the Terrible attacks his son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich, with a scepter after an argument leading to the latter's death three days later
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- 1632 Battle of Lützen: Sweden beats imperial armies under Albrect von Wallenstein
Event of Interest
1669 French state funeral for Henrietta Maria, princess of France, widow of English King Charles I, at St Denis with famous oration by Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
- 1676 1st colonial prison organized in Nantucket, Massachusetts
- 1677 French troops occupy Freiburg
- 1700 Monarch of Brandenburg becomes king of Prussia
- 1763 English journalist John Wilkes injured in a duel
- 1764 Native Americans surrender to British in Indian War of Chief Pontiac
- 1771 West Indian Company & Amsterdam divide up Suriname
- 1776 1st gun salute for an American warship in a foreign port - US Andrew Doria at Fort St Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean isalnd)
- 1776 British troops capture Fort Washington during American Revolution
- 1798 Kentucky becomes first state to nullify an act of Congress
- 1801 First edition of New York Evening Post
- 1805 Battle at Schongrabern: Russian army stop French
- 1824 New York City's Fifth Avenue opens for business
Historic Publication
1835 Extracts from Letters to Henslow, a collection of letters written by Charles Darwin during his voyage on the Beagle, is published
Charles Darwin
- 1840 New Zealand officially becomes a British colony
- 1841 Life preservers made of cork are patented by Napoleon Guerin (NYC)
- 1849 Russian court sentences Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor
- 1856 Amsterdam post office at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal opens
- 1859 Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Groza" premieres in Moscow
- 1863 Battle of Campbell's Station TN, 492 casualities
- 1864 Confederate retreat at Lovejoy, Georgia
- 1870 Spanish Cortes selects King Amadeus I
- 1871 National Rifle Association is first chartered in the State of New York
- 1875 Battle of Gundet: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians
- 1875 William Bonwill, patents dental mallet to impact gold into cavities
- 1882 British gunboat HMS Flirt fires at & destroys Abari village in Niger
- 1894 6,000 Armenians massacred by Turks in Kurdistan
- 1894 French captain Henri Decoeurs troops reach Nikki, West Africa
- 1901 3 autos race on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, fastest speed achieved by Henry Fournier who drives a mile in 51 4/5 seconds
Event of Interest
1901 Booker T. Washington and his family are invited to dine at the White House with Teddy and Edith Roosevelt, prompting condemnation from the South
Booker T. Washington
Edith Roosevelt
- 1903 V Herbert & H Smith's musical "Babette" premieres in NYC
- 1905 Dutch Russian Count Witte becomes Prime Minister of Russia
- 1907 Oklahoma becomes the United States 46th state
- 1908 Arturo Toscanini begins conducting NY's Metropolitan Opera
- 1909 EVV Eindhoven soccer team forms
- 1914 Federal Reserve System formally opens
- 1914 Pope Benedict XV calls for peace
- 1916 Eugene O'Neill's "Bound East for Cardiff" premieres in NYC
- 1916 I. Berlin, V. Herbert, H. Blossoms musical premieres in NYC
- 1916 Russian La Satannaya ammunition factory explodes, killing 1,000
- 1917 British occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa
- 1918 Hungarian People's Republic declared
- 1919 Admiral Miklós Horthy, head of the Hungarian National Army, seizes Budapest and will later become regent of the restored Kingdom of Hungary
- 1920 Australia's Qantas airways founded in Winton, Queensland as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited
- 1920 1st postage stamp meter is set in Stamford Conn
- 1922 Pope Pius XI calls on Belgian people to unite
End of the Ottoman Empire
1922 Ottoman Caliph, Sultan Mehmed VI asks the British army for help
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- 1924 Cleveland Bulldogs (formerly Canton) lose to Frankford Yellowjackets, ends 31-game undefeated streak (NFL & major-league football record)
- 1925 American Association for Advancement of Atheism forms (NY)
- 1925 Philip Barry's "In a Garden" premieres in NYC
- 1926 NY Rangers 1st game, beat Montreal Maroons 1-0
Event of Interest
1933 Brazilian President Getulio Vargas declares himself dictator
Getulio Vargas
- 1933 Roosevelt establishes diplomatic relations with USSR
- 1935 Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart's musical "Jumbo" premieres in NYC
- 1936 German air force begins bombing of Madrid
- 1938 K B Regiment refuses round-table conference in East-India
- 1938 LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland
- 1939 German U-boat torpedoes tanker Sliedrecht near Ireland
- 1940 World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
- 1941 German troops conquer Kertsh (probably)
- 1942 Assault of US B-17 Flying Fortresses on airport at Sidi Ahmed
- 1943 World War II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
- 1944 US 9th division & 1st Army attacks at Geilenkirchen
- 1945 Yeshiva College (University), chartered in NY, 1st US Jewish College
- 1945 Founding of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
- 1945 Two new elements discovered by Glenn Seaborg, James, Morgan and Albert Ghiorso were are announced: americium (atomic number 95) and curium (atomic number 96)
- 1947 15,000 demonstrate in Brussels against mild sentence of nazis
Operation Magic Carpet
1948 Operation Magic Carpet begins with 1st plane from Yemen carrying Jews to Israel
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- 1950 Egyptian King Faruk demands departure of all British troops
- 1950 UN gets US government approval to issue postage stamps
- 1950 US President Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat
- 1952 Papagos' Greek Concentratie wins Greeks parliamentary election
- 1955 Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Yussuph V returns to Morocco
- 1957 "Copper & Brass" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 36 performances
NBA Record
1957 Celtic Bill Russell sets NBA record of 49 rebounds beat Philadelphia 111-89
Bill Russell
- 1957 Oklahoma Football's NCAA win streak ends at 47 after losing to Notre Dame, 7-0
All Eyes on Birthplace of British Rock 'n' Roll
1957 BBC’s 1st pop music show, the "Six-Five Special", is broadcast from the tiny 2i’s Coffee Bar in London
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Event of Interest
1961 US President JFK decides to increase military aid to South Vietnam without committing US combat troops
John F. Kennedy
- 1962 Kuwait adopts constitution (1st, Islamitic)
Event of Interest
1962 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA SF Warriors scores 73 points vs NY Knicks
Wilt Chamberlain
- 1963 Toledo, OH newspaper strike began
- 1964 Radio CJCX Sydney Nova Scotia (Canada) starts shortwave transmission
- 1964 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1965 Venera 3 launched, 1st to land on another planet (crashes into Venus)
- 1965 Walt Disney launches Epcot Center: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
- 1966 Dr Sam Sheppard freed by a jury after 9 years in jail
Event of Interest
1966 Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is named NL MVP
Roberto Clemente
- 1966 "Greatest Hits" album by The Temptations is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1967)
- 1968 The Derry Citizens Action Committee defies a ban on marches in Derry, Northern Ireland, by marching with an estimated 15,000 people
- 1969 1968 Mỹ Lai massacre of between 347 and 504 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by US soldiers is first reported
- 1969 US President Nixon becomes first president to attend a season NFL game while in office: the Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins 41-28
- 1970 Two men are shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
- 1970 South Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky defends operations in Cambodia because communist forces could overrun South Vietnam "within 24 hours" if troops operating there were withdrawn
Music Recording
1970 Elton John records a show in New York City which was later released as his 11-17-70 album
Elton John
- 1971 The Compton inquiry is published, acknowledging that there was ill-treatment of internees, but rejected claims of systematic brutality or torture (Northern Ireland)
- 1971 The US increase air activity to support the Cambodian government as fighting neared Phnom Penh
- 1972 "Dear Oscar" opens at Playhouse Theater NYC for 5 performances
Event of Interest
1972 British Prime Minister Edward Heath warns against a Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Edward Heath
Album Release
1973 John Lennon releases "Mind Games" album
John Lennon
Event of Interest
1973 US President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of the Alaskan pipeline
Richard Nixon
- 1973 Skylab 4 launched into Earth orbit
- 1974 1st intentional interstellar radio message sent, Arecibo telescope towards M 41, a cluster of stars some 25,000 light years away
- 1974 John Lennon's only solo #1 "Whatever Gets You Through the Night"
- 1974 Milwaukee Bucks lose their 11th straight NBA game (team record)
- 1974 ABBA begin their first tour of Europe - their first tour outside of Sweden
- 1976 René Levesque's Parti Québécois wins elections in Quebec
Event of Interest
1976 Rick Barry (San Francisco), ends then longest NBA free throw streak of 60
Rick Barry
Event of Interest
1979 Paul McCartney releases "Wonderful Christmas"
Paul McCartney
Event of Interest
1981 President Reagan decides on a covert plan to block the Cuban aid to Nicaragua and El Salvador
Ronald Reagan
Theater Premiere
1982 Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" premieres in London starring Felicity Kendal and Roger Rees
Tom Stoppard
Event of Interest
1984 Imran Khan makes his 1st appearance for NSW Cricket
Imran Khan
- 1984 John Lennon's 'Every Man has a Woman Who Loves Him' released posthumously
Summit of Interest
1985 President Reagan arrives in Geneva for a summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Ronald Reagan
- 1986 36th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins
- 1987 Paul McCartney releases "Once Upon a Long Ago"
- 1988 Estonia declares sovereignty in internal affairs
Event of Interest
1988 Jose Canseco is 1st unanimous AL MVP since Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson
Election of Interest
1988 Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto's PPP wins 1st free Pakistani elections in 11 years
Benazir Bhutto
Event of Interest
1988 Robin Givens sues Mike Tyson for $125 million for libel
Mike Tyson
Event of Interest
1988 President Reagan and the First Lady participate in the official state arrival ceremony, meetings and a state dinner with Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Ronald Reagan
- 1988 President Reagan meets with Jerusalem's mayor Teddy Kollek
- 1989 "Gypsy" opens at St James Theater NYC for 477 performances
- 1989 6 Jesuit priests are killed by El Salvadorian troops
Event of Interest
1989 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces scrapping of Separate Amenities Act
F. W. de Klerk
- 1989 UNESCO adopts the Seville Statement on Violence at the twenty-fifth session of its General Conference.
Event of Interest
1990 Manuel Noriega claims US denied him a fair trial
Manuel Noriega
- 1993 "Any Given Day" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 32 performances
Vladimir Lenin
- 1995 US Attorney General Janet Reno announces she has Parkinson's disease
Event of Interest
1995 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother undergoes hip surgery
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
- 1996 "Into the Whirlwind" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC for 2 performances
- 1996 18th ACE Cable Awards: Lifetime wins the Golden CableACE for "Lifetime Applauds: The Fight Against Breast Cancer"
- 1997 "1776" closes at Criterion Theater NYC
- 1997 CFL Grey Cup, Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton: heavily favoured defending champion Toronto Argonauts beat Saskatchawan Roughriders, 47-23
- 1997 After nearly 18 years of incarceration, the People's Republic of China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons.
- 1997 47th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jeff Gordon wins
Event of Interest
1997 American tennis great Pete Sampras wins back-to-back ATP Tour World Championship titles with a 6–3, 6–2, 6–2 over Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Hanover, Germany
Pete Sampras
Event of Interest
1998 Monica Lewinsky signs a deal for the North American rights to a book about her affair with US President Clinton
Monica Lewinsky
Bill Clinton
Event of Interest
2000 Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. President to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War
Bill Clinton
Event of Interest
2002 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says that he had to accept UN Resolution 1441 because the United States and Israel had shown their "claws and teeth" and declared unitlateral war on the Iraqi people
Saddam Hussein
- 2003 CFL Grey Cup, Taylor Field, Regina: Edmonton Eskimos reverse previous year result; beat Montreal Alouettes, 34-22 for 12th title
Event of Interest
2003 Lionel Messi makes his official debut for FC Barcelona in a friendly against Porto
Lionel Messi
- 2003 55th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Matt Kenseth wins
Event of Interest
2003 Roger Federer of Switzerland wins his first of 6 season-ending Tennis Masters Cup titles with a 6–3, 6–0, 6–4 victory over American Andre Agassi in the final in Houston, Texas
Roger Federer
Andre Agassi
Event of Interest
2008 Novak Đoković of Serbia wins his first career season-ending Tennis Masters Cup title beating Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 7-5 in the final in Shanghai, China
Novak Đoković
Film Premier
2009 "The Twilight Saga: New Moon", based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, directed by Chris Weitz, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, premieres in Los Angeles
Event of Interest
2010 In University Park, Texas, the groundbreaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Center takes place
George W. Bush
Engagement of Interest
2010 Engagement announced between Prince William and Catherine [Kate] Middleton at Clarence House, London
Kate Middleton
Prince William
- 2012 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' grosses $500 million in 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time
Event of Interest
2013 Sachin Tendulkar plays his very last cricket match before retiring in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium against the West Indies
Sachin Tendulkar
- 2014 Klaus Iohannis wins the Romanian Presidential election
- 2014 Kevin Harvick driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, wins Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Florida to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series by 1 point from Ryan Newman
- 2014 Novak Đoković claims 3 straight ATP World Tour Finals tennis titles after Roger Federer is forced to withdraw from the final in London through injury
Event of Interest
2015 French President François Hollande declares the country at war with ISIS in an address to parliament
François Hollande
- 2015 Largest diamond discovered in more than a century, a 1,111 carat stone found in the Karowe mine, Botswana
- 2017 19 countries pledge to phase out coal at UN Climate Summit in Bonn, Germany
- 2017 Cambodian court rules to dissolve the country's main opposition party Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP)
- 2017 US senator Al Franken accused of groping and forcibly kissing a woman
Event of Interest
2018 CIA concludes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Khashoggi
Mohammed bin Salman
- 2018 The kilogram is refined by abstract constants replacing the Le Grand K, along with the ampere (electrical current) and kelvin (temperature) at a conference in Paris
- 2018 Elevator falls down 84 floors when hoist rope breaks, all six people survive unharmed at John Hancock Center, Chicago
- 2019 Britain's Prince Andrew refutes claims he had sex with 17 year-old connected to sex offender and friend Jeffery Epstein in BBC interview
- 2019 Sri Lankan Presidential election, won by former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa
- 2019 Samoa declares state of emergency over measles epidemic closing all schools after six deaths
- 2019 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, Cuba
