- 534 Second and final revision of the Justinian Code published, a codified set of imperial and classical laws begun initially in 528
- 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
How 200 Conquistadors Conquered an Empire of 10 Million
1532 Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro captures Inca Emperor Atahualpa after a surprise ambush at Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes
- 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
Victory in Battle
1632 Battle of Lützen: Significant battle of Thirty Years' War - Swedish and Saxon forces defeat the Holy Roman Empire, at cost of the death of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus
Historic Event
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
Historic Event
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 American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian troops take Fort Washington, New York marking one of biggest losses by US forces
- 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
- 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 play "Groza" (The Storm) premieres in Moscow
- 1863 Battle of Campbell's Station TN, 492 causalities
- 1864 Confederate retreat at Lovejoy, Georgia
- 1870 Spanish Parliament, "the Cortes" formally elects Italian Prince Amedeo Ferdinando Maria as King Amadeo I of Spain
- 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
- 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
Music History
1908 Arturo Toscanini begins conducting NY's Metropolitan Opera
Historic Event
1914 Pope Benedict XV calls for peace
Historic Event
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 1st postage stamp meter is set in Stamford Conn
- 1920 Australia's Qantas airways founded in Winton, Queensland as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited
End of the Ottoman Empire
1922 Ottoman Caliph, Sultan Mehmed VI asks the British army for help
- 1924 Cleveland Bulldogs lose, 12-7 to Frankford Yellow Jackets at Dunn Field; ends 31-game undefeated streak; NFL and major-league football record
- 1925 American Association for Advancement of Atheism forms (NY)
- 1925 Philip Barry's "In a Garden" premieres in NYC
- 1926 New York Rangers ice hockey club first game; beat Montreal Maroons, 1-0 at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Historic Event
1933 Brazilian President Getulio Vargas declares himself dictator
- 1933 Roosevelt establishes diplomatic relations with USSR
- 1933 Swiss physicist Fritz Zwicky publishes the first evidence for the existence of dark matter in his seminal article "The Redshift of Extragalactic Nebulae" [1]
Musical Finale
1935 Cole Porter's musical "Anything Goes" closes at 46th Street Theatre, NYC, after 420 performances
Music Premiere
1935 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Jumbo" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
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 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)
- 1945 Yeshiva College (University), chartered in NY, 1st US Jewish College
- 1947 15,000 demonstrate in Brussels against mild sentence of Nazis
- 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
- 1956 Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor, named Musical Director of La Scala, Milan
- 1957 "Copper & Brass" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 36 performances
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
NBA Record
1957 Boson Celtics' center Bill Russell sets NBA record of 49 rebounds as Boston beats Philadelphia Warriors, 111-89 at Boston Gardens
- 1957 University of Oklahoma Football NCAA win streak ends at 47 after losing 7-0 to Notre Dame at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
- 1959 "The Sound of Music" musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater, NYC; runs for 1443 performances
- 1959 Boston business executive Billy Sullivan is awarded eighth and final franchise of developing American Football League (AFL); later branded Boston Patriots
- 1960 NL batting champion Dick Groat wins MVP
Judge With a Passion For Civil Rights
1960 U.S. marshals escort four six-year-old African-American girls to previously all-white public schools in New Orleans, in response to death threats against the girls and race riots
- 1961 United Kingdom limits immigration from Commonwealth countries
- 1962 Kuwait adopts constitution (1st, Islamitic)
Sports History
1962 SF Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 73 points in 127-111 win over NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden
- 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 "Greatest Hits" album by The Temptations is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1967)
- 1966 Dr Sam Sheppard freed by a jury after 9 years in jail
Sports History
1966 Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is named NL MVP
- 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 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
- 1970 Two men are shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
- 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
Historic Event
1972 British Prime Minister Edward Heath warns against a Unilateral Declaration of Independence
- 1972 Elektra Records releases "No Secrets', the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon; her commercial breakthrough spends 5 weeks at top of US charts and contains the hit singles "You're So Vain" and "The Right Thing to Do"
Album Release
1973 Apple Records releases John Lennon's fourth studio album, "Mind Games" in UK
- 1973 Skylab 4 launched into Earth orbit
Historic Event
1973 US President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of the Alaskan pipeline
- 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)
- 1976 René Levesque's Parti Québécois wins elections in Quebec
Sports History
1976 Rick Barry (San Francisco), ends then longest NBA free throw streak of 60
- 1978 Major Indoor Soccer League holds its 1st draft
Music History
1979 Paul McCartney releases "Wonderful Christmas"
- 1980 Tampa Bay Buccaneer QB Doug Williams throws for 486 yards
- 1981 "Merrily We Roll Along" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 16 performances
- 1981 Dennis Lillee kicks Javed Miandad after he had waved his bat at Dennis
Historic Event
1981 President Reagan decides on a covert plan to block the Cuban aid to Nicaragua and El Salvador
- 1982 5th NASA Space Shuttle Mission Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base after 5 days in space, completing its 1st operational flight
- 1982 Agreement reached ending 57 day football strike
Theater Premiere
1982 Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" premieres in London starring Felicity Kendal and Roger Rees
- 1984 14th Shuttle Mission (51A) -Discovery 2- lands at Kennedy Space Center (Florida)
- 1984 Houston blocks 20 Denver shots tying NBA regulation game record
Cricket History
1984 Imran Khan makes his 1st appearance for NSW Cricket
- 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
Sports History
1986 36th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins
- 1987 Paul McCartney releases single "Once Upon a Long Ago"
- 1988 Estonia declares sovereignty in internal affairs
Sports History
1988 Jose Canseco is 1st unanimous AL MVP since Reggie Jackson
Election of Interest
1988 Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto's PPP wins 1st free Pakistani elections in 11 years
Historic Event
1988 President Reagan and the First Lady participate in the official state arrival ceremony, meetings and a state dinner with Margaret Thatcher
- 1988 President Reagan meets with Jerusalem's mayor Teddy Kollek
Sports History
1988 Robin Givens sues Mike Tyson for $125 million for libel
- 1989 "Gypsy" opens at St James Theater NYC for 477 performances
- 1989 Six Jesuit priests including Ignacio Ellacuría and two others are assassinated killed by Salvadoran army - one of the most notorious acts of the Salvadoran civil war
Historic Event
1989 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces scrapping of Separate Amenities Act
- 1989 UNESCO adopts the Seville Statement on Violence at the twenty-fifth session of its General Conference.
Historic Event
1990 Manuel Noriega claims US denied him a fair trial
- 1993 "Any Given Day" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 32 performances
Historic Event
1995 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother undergoes hip surgery
- 1995 US Attorney General Janet Reno announces she has Parkinson's disease
- 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 47th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jeff Gordon wins
- 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.
Sports History
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
- 1997 CFL Grey Cup, Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton: heavily favoured defending champion Toronto Argonauts beat Saskatchewan Roughriders, 47-23
Historic Event
1998 Monica Lewinsky signs a deal for the North American rights to a book about her affair with US President Clinton
Historic Event
2000 Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. President to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War
Film Premiere
2001 "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", 1st film adaptation of the book series by J. K. Rowling starring Daniel Radcliffe, premieres in US (Titled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's's Stone" in some markets)
Historic Event
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
SARS Outbreak
2002 The first case of SARS is recorded in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China, though is not identified until much later. First patient is thought to be a farmer in the city.
Sports History
2003 16-year old Lionel Messi makes his official debut for FC Barcelona when he comes on as a substitute in a friendly against Porto
American Music Awards
2003 31st American Music Awards: Kid Rock, Jennifer Lopez & Luther Vandross win
- 2003 55th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Matt Kenseth wins
- 2003 CFL Grey Cup, Taylor Field, Regina: Edmonton Eskimos reverse previous year result; beat Montreal Alouettes, 34-22 for 12th title
Sports History
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
Sports History
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
Film Premiere
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
- 2010 Engagement announced between British Prince William and Catherine "Kate" Middleton at Clarence House, London
Historic Event
2010 In University Park, Texas, the groundbreaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Center takes place
- 2012 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' grosses $500 million in 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time
Cricket History
2013 Sachin Tendulkar plays his very last cricket match before retiring in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium against the West Indies
- 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 Klaus Iohannis wins the Romanian Presidential election
- 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
Historic Event
2015 French President François Hollande declares the country at war with ISIS in an address to parliament
- 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
Historic Event
2018 CIA concludes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
- 2018 Elevator falls down 84 floors when hoist rope breaks, all six people survive unharmed at John Hancock Center, Chicago
- 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
- 2019 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, Cuba
- 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 Samoa declares state of emergency over measles epidemic closing all schools after six deaths
- 2019 Sri Lankan Presidential election, won by former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa
- 2020 Hurricane Iota makes landfall in Nicaragua as a category four storm, just 15 km south of Hurricane Eta 13 days ago
- 2020 Peru's Congress votes in its third interim President in a week, Francisco Sagasti after violent protests
