- 326 Old St. Peter's Basilica consecrated in Rome (stood 4th - 16th century), later replaced by current Basilica
- 794 Japanese emperor Kammu deallocates residence of Nara to Kioto
- 1105 Maginulf elected anti-Pope Silvester I
- 1210 Pope Innocent III excommunicates Roman Catholic Emperor Otto IV
- 1302 Pope Boniface VIII issues papal bull (decree) "Unam sanctam" emphasizing the higher position of the spiritual in comparison with the secular order
- 1307 William Tell reputedly shoots apple off his son's head
- 1421 Southern sea floods 72 villages, killing estimated 10,000 in Netherlands
- 1424 Storm flood ravages Dutch coast
Historic Event
1477 First English dated printed book "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers" by William Caxton at his press in London
Historic Event
1494 French King Charles VIII occupies Florence
Historic Event
1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reaches the Cape of Good Hope
St. Peter's Basilica
1626 St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site and becoming the world's largest Christian basilica
Historic Event
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Carlisle
- 1755 Worst quake in Massachusetts Bay area strikes Boston; no deaths reported
- 1787 First Unitarian minister in US ordained, Boston
- 1803 Battle of Vertieres; Haitian population inflict final defeat on French force attempting to quell slave rebellion on colony of Saint-Dominque
- 1804 Palver Purim 1st celebrated to commemorate miraculous escape
- 1805 30 women meet at Mrs Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset, Maine, organizes Female Charitable Society, first woman's club in America
- 1820 Antarctica sighted by US Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer
- 1833 Netherlands & Belgium sign Treaty of Zonhoven
Historic Publication
1865 Mark Twain publishes "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Historic Event
1872 Suffragette Susan B. Anthony is arrested by a U.S. Deputy Marshal and charged with illegally voting
- 1874 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland
- 1883 Antonín Dvořák's "Husitska" (Hussite Overture) premieres at the gala opening of the Prague National Theater
- 1883 Four standard time zones for the Continental US introduced - Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific, replacing over 100 previous time zones
- 1889 Oahu Railway begins public service in Hawaii
- 1894 Richard Outcault's early comic strip "Origin of a New Species" published in World
- 1899 Trumper scores 208 in 185 mins (1 five 25 fours) NSW v Qld
- 1901 The USA and Great Britain sign the Second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, or Interoceanic Ship Canal Treaty
- 1902 Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michton names the teddy bear after US President Teddy Roosevelt
- 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gives US exclusive canal rights in Panama
- 1904 General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup
Theater Premiere
1905 George Bernard Shaw's play "Major Barbara" premieres in London
- 1905 Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway
- 1906 Anarchists bomb St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
- 1906 Langdon Mitchell's "New York Idea" premieres in NYC
- 1909 US invades Nicaragua, later overthrows President Zelaya
- 1911 Britain's first seaplane flies
- 1911 Ludwig Thuille's opera "Lobetanz" first American performance
- 1912 Cholera breaks out in Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire
- 1913 Lincoln Deachey becomes the first American pilot to perform an aircraft loop-the-loop in his Curtiss aeroplane near San Diego
Five Miles of Mud Costs a Million Casualties
1916 British General Douglas Haig finally calls off the 1st Battle of the Somme in World War I after more than 1 million soldiers had been killed or wounded
- 1917 Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1918 Belgian troops re-enter Brussels, lost to the German invaders on 20 August 1914
- 1918 Latvia declares independence from Russia
- 1919 H. Tierney & J. McCarthy's musical "Irene" premieres in NYC
- 1920 Apollo Theater (Academy, Bryant) opens at 221 W 42nd St NYC
- 1922 Turkish National Assembly nominates Abdul Medjid kalief
- 1926 George Bernard Shaw accepts the Nobel Prize for Literature but refuses the prize money, saying "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize"
Film & TV History
1928 Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" released, first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon
- 1929 Large earthquake in Atlantic breaks transatlantic cable in 28 places
Music Premiere
1930 Musical "Smiles" with Bob Hope and Fred Astaire premieres in NYC
- 1930 Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai, a Buddhist association later renamed Soka Gakkai, is founded by Japanese educators Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda.
- 1932 "Flowers & Trees" receives 1st Academy Award for a cartoon
Academy Awards
1932 5th Academy Awards: Fredric March and Wallace Beery in 1st ever tie for Best Actor. "Grand Hotel" and Helen Hayes also win.
Historic Event
1936 Germany & Italy recognize Spanish government of Francisco Franco
- 1936 Main span of Golden Gate Bridge joined
- 1938 Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- 1939 Dutch KNSM passenger ship Simón Bolívar hits German mine, 86 die
- 1939 The Irish Republican Army explodes three bombs in Piccadilly Circus
- 1940 George Matesky, New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
- 1941 British troops open attack on Tobruk, North Africa
- 1941 Jerome Chodorov/Joseph Fields' "Junior Miss" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
1942 Thornton Wilder's "Skin of our Teeth" premieres in NYC
- 1943 444 British bombers attack Berlin
- 1943 First US ambassador to Canada, Ray Atherton, nominated
- 1943 U-211 sinks in Atlantic Ocean
Music History
1945 Arnold Schoenberg's Prelude for orchestra & mixed choir, premieres
Sports History
1949 NL batting leader (.342) Jackie Robinson wins NL MVP
- 1949 The U.S. Air Force grounds B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days
Historic Event
1950 South Korean President Syngman Rhee forced to end mass executions
- 1951 "See it Now" premieres on TV
- 1951 British troops occupy Ismailiya, Egypt
- 1951 Former Cubs 1st baseman & future TV star of Rifleman Chuck Connors is 1st player to oppose the major league draft
- 1953 Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) accept female suffrage
- 1955 Bell X-2 rocket plane taken up for 1st powered flight
- 1956 Morocco gains independence
Historic Event
1956 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev says the phrase "we will bury you!" to Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow
Film Premiere
1959 "Ben-Hur" directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston premieres in New York City (Academy Awards Best Picture 1960)
- 1959 Wash Senator Bob Allison wins AL Rookie of Year
- 1960 Charlie Finley makes a bid to purchase expansion LA Angels
- 1960 Copyright office issues its 10 millionth registration
- 1961 "Gay Life" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 113 performances
- 1961 "Kwamina" closes at 54th St Theater NYC after 32 performances
Sports History
1964 Baltimore Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson wins American League MVP
Historic Event
1964 J. Edgar Hoover describes Martin Luther King Jr. as a "most notorious liar"
- 1965 Twins SS Zoilo Versalles is named AL MVP
Sports History
1966 Sandy Koufax announces his retirement due to arthritic left elbow
- 1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1966 US Roman Catholic bishops ends rules against eating meat on Fridays
- 1967 British government devalues pound from US equivalent of $2.80 to $2.40
- 1968 Soviets recover the Zond 6 spacecraft after a flight around the moon
- 1969 Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi assigned to the Tate and LaBianca murders, will eventually convict Charles Mason for orchestrating the killings
Boxing Title Fight
1970 Joe Frazier KOs Bob Foster in 2 for heavyweight boxing title
Sports History
1970 Johnny Bench wins NL MVP
Historic Event
1970 Linus Pauling declares large doses of Vitamin C could ward off colds
- 1970 Netherlands & Albania form diplomatic relations
- 1970 Russia lands self propelled rover on Moon
- 1971 A British soldier is shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast
- 1971 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1973 Arab oil ministers cancel the scheduled 5 percent cut in production for EEC
- 1973 Greek regime calls emergency crisis due to mass protests
Music History
1974 "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by English progressive rock band Genesis is released, their last to feature original frontman Peter Gabriel
- 1975 "Rufus featuring Chaka Khan" 4th studio album by Rufus is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1976)
- 1975 Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver returns to US
- 1975 Calvin Murphy (Houston) ends NBA free throw streak of 58 games
- 1976 Spain's parliament establishes democracy after 37 yrs of dictatorship
- 1976 Yanks sign free agent Don Gullett
- 1978 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1978 Leo J Ryan, American politician, and 4 others, killed in Jonestown, Guyana by members of Peoples Temple, followed by ritual mass suicide of 914 members of the religious cult
Sports History
1979 29th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Richard Petty wins
Historic Event
1979 Ayatollah Khomeini charges US ambassador and embassy with espionage
Film Premiere
1980 "Heaven's Gate" film directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken premieres - one of the biggest box office bombs ever
Sports History
1980 Despite missing 45 games, George Brett wins AL MVP
Sports History
1981 Phillies 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt wins his 2nd consecutive NL MVP
- 1982 Mariasela Alvarez of Dominican Republic, crowned 32nd Miss World
- 1982 South Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim dies from injuries sustained during a 14-round beating by Ray Mancini in Las Vegas; WBC shortens title bouts to 12 rounds; WBA and WBO follow in 1988, and IBF in 1989
- 1983 Argentina announces its ability to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons
- 1984 "3 Musketeers" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 9 performances
- 1984 34th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Terry Labonte wins
- 1984 Browns set team records for most sacks (11)
- 1984 CFL Grey Cup, Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton: Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 47-17; Winnipeg scores final 44 points of the game
- 1984 Flyers' Ron Sutter fails on 11th penalty shot against Islanders
- 1984 NBC premiere of the first part of fact based crime mystery "Fatal Vision", based on Joe McGinnis' novel about Jefferey MacDonald and the 1970 murders of his then-pregnant wife and two children
- 1984 NJ Devils shutout NY Rangers 6-0
- 1984 The Soviet Union helps deliver American wheat during the Ethiopian famine
Sports History
1985 Dwight Gooden (NL) & Bret Saberhagen (AL) win Cy Young
- 1985 Enterprise (OV-101) flies from Kennedy Space Center to Dulles Airport
- 1985 Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC (WXRK 92.3 FM-afternoons)
Music Single
1985 Paul McCartney releases film theme single "Spies Like Us"
Sports History
1986 Roger Clemens wins AL MVP
- 1987 31 people die in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest tube station
- 1987 Congressional committee reports on Iran-Contra affair
Sports History
1987 Cubs Andre Dawson is 1st player from a last-place club to win an MVP
Solheim Cup
1990 1st Solheim Cup Women's Golf, Lake Nona G & CC: US beats Europe 11½-4½ in inaugural event; Kathy Whitworth US captain; Mickey Walker Europe skipper
Sports History
1990 40th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins
Sports History
1990 Andre Agassi claims his first and only season-ending ATP Tour World Championship tennis title with a 5–7, 7–6, 7–5, 6–2 win over defending champion Stefan Edberg in Frankfurt, Germany
- 1990 NFL NY Giants beat Det Lions 20-0, to run 1990 record to 10-0
Sports History
1990 Yugoslavian tennis star Monica Seles beats Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina 6–4, 5–7, 3–6, 6–4, 6–2 to win her first of 3 straight WTA Tour Championships in NYC; first 5-set women's final since 1901
- 1991 Auburn men's basketball team placed on 2 yr probation for recruiting violations and not eligible for post-season play 1991-92
- 1991 France deports Marlon's daughter Cheyenne Brando to Tahiti
- 1991 Muslim Shi'ites release hostages Terry Waite & Thomas Sutherland
Victory in Battle
1991 The Croatian city of Vukovar surrenders to Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces after an 87-day siege
Film Release
1992 "Malcolm X" film directed by Spike Lee starring Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett is released in the US
- 1992 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Las Vegas NV on KXTE 107.5 FM
- 1993 27 killed at prison in Morazan, El Salvador
- 1993 Black and white leaders in South Africa approve new democratic constitution
- 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes US House of Representatives
- 1993 North-Siberia record cold for November (-55°C)
Music History
1993 Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder arrested for public drunkiness
- 1993 WWF boss Vince McMahon charged with steroid distribution
Film Premiere
1994 "Star Trek: Generations" film directed by David Carson and starring Patrick Stewart premieres
- 1995 Jacqueline Aguilera Marcano (19), of Venezuela, crowned 45th Miss World
- 1996 "Star Trek: First Contact" film directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes premieres
- 1996 Eappens hire Louise Woodward as nanny, later she's charged with murder
- 1997 "Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture" album is released by Sony Music Soundtrax
Music History
1997 70s glam-rock star Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) arrested by British police in child porn probe
- 1997 Arizona Diamondbacks & Tampa Bay Devil Rays expansion draft
- 1997 FBI says no evidence of foul play in 1996 TWA 800 crash
- 1997 Mavericks' A C Green ties Randy Smith's NBA record of 906 cons games
- 1997 Rare black pearl necklace auctioned for record $902,000
Album Release
1997 Warner Bros. Records releases "Songs from The Capeman'", the ninth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon; it contains Simon's own performances of songs from his Broadway musical flop
- 1997 Willem de Kooning painting "Two Standing Women" sold for $4,182,500
- 1999 In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapses.
- 2001 Home crowd favourite Leyton Hewitt wins his first of 2 season-ending Tennis Masters Cup titles with a 6–3, 6–3, 6–4 victory over Frenchman Sébastien Grosjean in Sydney, Australia
- 2001 Phillips Petroleum and Conoco merge into a new company as 'ConocoPhillips', the third-largest oil and natural gas company in the US
Album Release
2002 Dark Horse/EMI posthumously releases "Brainwashed", George Harrison's 12th and final studio album
- 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
Album Release
2002 Mercury Nashville Records releases "Up!", the 4th studio album by Shania Twain (Billboard Album of the Year, 2003)
- 2003 In England, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective
- 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules the state's ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional
- 2003 The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).
- 2004 Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol
American Music Awards
2007 35th American Music Awards: Fergie, Justin Timberlake & Carrie Underwood win
- 2007 59th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jimmie Johnson wins
Sports History
2007 Roger Federer scores back-to-back season-ending Tennis Masters Cup titles beating Spaniard David Ferrer 6–2, 6–3, 6–2 in the final in Shanghai, China