- 676 Donus begins his reign as Catholic Pope replacing Pope Adeodatus II
- 1327 King Alfonso IV of Aragon crowned
- 1355 English invasion army under King Edward lands at Calais
- 1418 Utrecht conquers Ijsselstein
- 1642 Second Battle of Breitenfeld, aka First Battle of Leipzig; victory for the Swedish army under Field Marshal Lennart Torstenson over Holy Roman Empire army under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
- 1648 12,000 Jews massacred by Chmielnicki hordes in Narol Podlia
- 1675 A combined attack by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War
- 1698 Scottish settlers make landfall in Panama, establishing the ill-fated 'Darien Venture' colony
- 1712 Suriname government gives French hijacker Jacques Cassard, ƒ682,800
- 1722 Willem KH Friso (11) appointed viceroy of Gelderland
- 1749 English Ohio Trade Company forms first trading post
- 1772 Boston: anti-English Committee of Correspondence forms
Event of Interest
1783 General George Washington, later 1st US President, bids farewell to his army after the American Revolutionary War
George Washington
- 1813 Treaty of Fulda signed in Germany after Battle of Leipzig
Event of Interest
1824 Popular presidential vote 1st recorded; Andrew Jackson beats John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
John Quincy Adams
Election of Interest
1852 Franklin Pierce elected as President of US
Franklin Pierce
- 1854 Cobblestone paving of Washington St between Dupont and Kearny starts
Murder of Interest
1859 Abolitionist John Brown found guilty of murder, conspiring slaves to revolt and treason against Virginia and sentenced to hang
John Brown
- 1861 American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
- 1867 Women's fashion magazine "Harper's Bazaar" is 1st published
- 1868 Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally
- 1875 Verney Cameroon reaches Benguela in Angola, from Africa's east coast, 1st European to cross equatorial Africa
Election of Interest
1880 James A. Garfield (R) elected 20th US President
James Garfield
- 1881 Dutch New-Malthusiaanse Union forms
- 1889 North Dakota becomes 39th & South Dakota becomes 40th state in the United States
- 1892 French poet Paul Verlaine visits Netherlands
- 1895 Belmont Stakes: Fred Taral aboard Preakness winner Belmar wins in 2:11½; race run in November as NY Jockey Club closed out its affairs
- 1895 First organised auto race in the United States is run in Chicago; 6 cars race over 52-mile lakefront course; 2 finish because of blizzard conditions
- 1898 French government of Dupuy forms
- 1898 Theodor Herzl arrives in Jerusalem
The First Official Cheerleader
1898 Cheerleading begins in the United States as Johnny Campbell leads the crowd cheering on the football team at the University of Minnesota
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Event of Interest
1907 US banker J. P. Morgan locks over 40 bankers in his library to force them to find ways to avert New York banking crisis
J. P. Morgan
- 1913 St. Louis Browns player-manager George Stovall, fired the previous summer, is the first MLB player to jump to the Federal League, signing to manage the Kansas City Packers
- 1914 Great Britain annexes Cyprus
- 1914 V Herbert & H Blossoms "Only Girl" premieres in NYC
- 1914 Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire
- 1914 Great Britain declares the entire North Sea a military area: neutral ships will transit it at their own risk
- 1915 First US election by proportional representation, Ashtabula, Ohio
- 1916 Ft Vaux, Verdun, reconquered by France
- 1917 In WWI the 1st US soldiers are killed in combat: James Gresham, Thomas Enright and Merle Hay
Event of Interest
1917 Balfour Declaration proclaims support for a Jewish state in Palestine
Arthur Balfour
- 1917 Lansing-Ishii Agreement; US recognizes Japan's privileges in China
Election of Interest
1920 Warren G. Harding is elected President of the United States, defeating Democrat candidate James M. Cox
Warren G. Harding
- 1921 Eugene O'Neill's play "Anna Christie" premieres in NYC
- 1922 Allies deliberate over German mark
- 1923 Bloody street fights in Aachen led to establishment of the ill-fated Rhenish Republic
- 1923 Stresemann's SPD-ministers in Germany, step down
- 1924 Sunday Express publishes first British crossword puzzle
Music Premiere
1928 Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st Symphony, L Stokovski premieres in Philadelphia
Dmitri Shostakovich
Event of Interest
1930 Coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen as Haile Selassie I, 225th Emperor of Ethopian Solmonic Dynasty
Haile Selassie
- 1936 At 3pm the BBC begins the world's first regular high-definition TV broadcast service from specially constructed studios at Alexandra Palace, North London
- 1936 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is established
- 1938 Boston Red Sox first baseman Jimmie Foxx is voted Most Valuable Player of the American League for the third time
- 1942 11th day of battle at El Alamein: British assault on Tel el Aqqaqir
- 1943 Jewish ghetto of Riga Latvia is destroyed
- 1944 Auschwitz begins gassing inmates
- 1944 Canadian troops occupy Knokke
- 1944 US 28th Infantry division opens assault on Schmidt Hurtgenwald
Event of Interest
1947 Howard Hughes flies "Spruce Goose", a huge wooden airplane for the first and last time
Howard Hughes
- 1947 After just 6 games of the season, Chicago Blackhawks trade NHL scoring leader Max Bentley along with Cy Thomas to Toronto Maple Leafs for Gus Bodnar, Bud Poile, Gaye Stewart, Bob Goldham, and Ernie Dickens
Election of Interest
1948 US President Harry Truman is re-elected in an upset victory over Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey
Harry Truman
Thomas E. Dewey
- 1948 WJZ TV channel 13 in Baltimore, MD (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1949 Netherland recognizes Indonesia as a sovereign state
- 1949 NL scheme for national distribution of textiles, meat and cheese disbands
- 1950 "Barrier" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 4 performances
- 1950 The Clover Dairy Company test-market the first concentrated milk (Sealtest) in the U.S. in Wilmington, Delaware
- 1953 Pakistan becomes islamic republic
- 1954 Charles Diggs Jr is elected Michigan's 1st black congressman to the House of Representatives
- 1954 Strom Thurmond is the 1st senator elected by write-in vote (South Carolina)
Event of Interest
1954 BBC radio comedy "Hancock's Half Hour" debuts starring Tony Hancock and Sid James, written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
Tony Hancock
- 1955 Clarton-Schwerdt & Schaffer discover polio virus
Event of Interest
1955 David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government
David Ben-Gurion
- 1956 Hungary appeals for UN assistance against Soviet invasion
- 1956 Israel captures Gaza and Sheham
- 1957 1st titanium mill opened, Toronto, Ohio
- 1957 The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generates national publicity, remains one of the most impressive UFO cases in American history
- 1958 Los Angeles Rams beat Chicago Bears, 41-35 before 90,833 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum; NFL single-game attendance record
- 1959 "Girls against the Boys" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 16 performances
- 1959 Charles Van Doren confesses that TV quiz show "Twenty-One" was fixed
- 1959 The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway
- 1960 Dmitri Shostakovich's 8th String quartet premieres in Leningrad
Historic Publication
1960 Penguin Books cleared of obscenity for publishing DH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover"
D. H. Lawrence
Event of Interest
1960 New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris beats teammate Mickey Mantle for American League MVP Award, 225-222; second-closest vote ever
Roger Maris
Mickey Mantle
Coup d'état
1963 Ngô Đình Diệm, the President of South Vietnam, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup by the South Vietnamese Army
Ngô Đình Diệm
- 1964 CBS purchases 80% of Yanks for $11,200,000, later buys remaining 20%
- 1964 Columbia Broadcasting System buys 80% share in the New York Yankees Baseball Club for $11.2 million; later purchases club outright
- 1965 Craig Breedlove driving FIA-legal four-wheeler, Sonic I, breaks land speed record with a two-run average of 555.483 mph (893.963 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
- 1966 KHSD TV channel 11 in Lead, SD (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1966 The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the US
- 1968 "Her First Roman" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 17 performances
- 1968 A banned march in Derry, North Ireland, by members of the Derry Citizen's Action Committee (DCAC) is joined by thousands; due to the number of people taking part, the Royal Ulster Constabulary is unable to prevent it
- 1969 Quarterbacks Billy Kilmer of New Orleans and St Louis' Charlie Johnson each pass for 6 touchdowns for combined NFL record of 12 passing TDs in a game; Saints beat Cardinals, 51-42 at Busch Memorial Stadium
- 1969 41-year old Detroit center Gordie Howe picks up his 19th and final NHL hat trick as the Red Wings beat Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3; Howe is the oldest player to score an NHL hat-trick
- 1971 "Great Harp" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 7 performances
- 1971 Baltimore Orioles pitcher Pat Dobson no-hits the Yomiuri Giants, 2 - 0; first no-hitter in history of exhibition play between American and Japanese teams
- 1972 Construction begins on Kingdome, Seattle
- 1972 Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton is unanimously selected National League Cy Young Award winner; wins 27 games for Phillies, who as a team win only 57 games
- 1972 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1972 Government of the Republic of Ireland introduce a bill to remove the special position of the Catholic Church from the Irish Constitution
Event of Interest
1973 "Barbra Streisand ...and Other Musical Instruments" airs on CBS TV
Barbra Streisand
- 1973 OLADE (Latin American Energy Organization) forms
Event of Interest
1974 Atlanta Braves trade then MLB home run king Hank Aaron to Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Dave May
Hank Aaron
- 1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1974 78 die when the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after a club official barred the doors after the fire started.
- 1975 First sports event at The Summit arena in Houston - NBA's Houston Rockets beat Milwaukee Bucks, 104-89; future Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich top scores with 24 points
Election of Interest
1976 Democrat candidate Jimmy Carter is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Gerald Ford
- 1977 Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton wins his second Cy Young Award, outpointing Tommy John of the LA Dodgers; Carlton leads National League with 23 wins and posts 2.64 ERA
- 1977 Microbiologist Carl R. Woese and scientists from the University of Illinois announce the identification of methanogens, a form of microbial life (Archaea) dating back some 3.5 billion years
- 1978 Crew of Soyuz 29 returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 31
- 1978 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1978 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1978 Arnold Shapiro's TV documentary "Scared Straight", narrated by Peter Falk as a controversial and questionable deterrent to juvenile delinquency, debuts on Los Angeles' KTLA-TV
- 1978 Wayne Gretzky is sold to the Edmonton Oilers after just 8 games with the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA (scoring 6 points); scores 104 points in 72 games (both teams combined) and is named WHA rookie of the year
- 1979 Peter Shaffer's musical "Amadeus" premieres in London
- 1979 Studio 54's owners are arrested for tax evasion
- 1982 Fire in Salung tunnel, Afghanistan, 1,000+ Russians die
Event of Interest
1983 US President Ronald Reagan signs bill establishing Dr Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ronald Reagan
- 1983 Abp Hickey conducts papal investigation of Abp Hunthausen, Seattle
Music Single
1983 "Thriller" single released worldwide by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
- 1984 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1984 Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962
- 1985 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Aqueduct Racetrack; winners: Cozzene, Life's Magic, Pebbles, Precisionist, Proud Truth, Tasso, Twilight Ridge
- 1985 LA Kings score 5 goals in a span of 5:37, the fastest in NHL team history; rout Hartford Whalers, 8-1 at Hartford Civic Center
- 1985 Tulsa's Gordon Brown (214) and Steve Gage (206) set NCAA football record for combined rushing yards in one game for 2 teammates who gained more than 200 yards each in 42-26 win at Wichita State
- 1986 New York City Marathon: Grete Waitz of Norway wins her 8th NYC event in 2:28:06; Gianni Poli of Italy, men's champion in 2:11:06
- 1986 Ayako Okamoto wins Nichirei Ladies Cup US-Japan Team Golf Championship
- 1986 German tennis star Boris Becker wins his third tournament in 3 weeks in different continents; beats Sergio Casal of Spain 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 in the final of the Paris Open after victories in Japan and Australia
- 1987 Entertainer Lola Falona is diagnosed with multiple schlerosis
Event of Interest
1987 George Harrison releases "Cloud 9" & McCartney releases "All the Best"
George Harrison
Event of Interest
1988 Mexican radio station erronously reports Mike Tyson dies in car crash
Mike Tyson
- 1988 A's shortstop Walt Weiss wins AL rookie of year; 3rd straight for Oakland; Jose Canseco 1986, Mark McGwire 1987
- 1988 The Morris worm, first internet-distributed computer worm to gain mainstream media attention launched from MIT, strikes Pentagon, SDI research lab & 6 universities
- 1989 "Meet Me in St Louis" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC for 253 performances
Event of Interest
1989 "Blackadder Goes Forth" final episode "Goodbyeee" airs starring Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
- 1990 First NBA game at Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Rolando Blackman top scores with 21 points as Timberwolves beat Mavericks, 98-85
- 1990 First regular season game played outside North America by any major professional sports league the NBA's Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz, 119-96 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Japan
- 1990 Golden State Warriors register a 162-158 win over the Denver Nuggets at McNichols Arena, with the 320 total points setting an NBA record for most points scored by 2 teams in a non-overtime game
- 1991 Jermaine Jackson releases "Word to the Badd!!" anti Michael song
- 1991 Nevada makes biggest comeback in NCAA football history, overcoming a 35 point 3rd quarter deficit to rally and beat Weber State, 55-49
- 1991 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Churchill Downs; winners: Arazi, Black Tie Affair, Dance Smartly (leading female thoroughbred money-earner, with $3,083,456), Miss Alleged, Opening Verse, Pleasant Stage, Sheikh Albadou
- 1991 Bartholomew I becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
- 1991 Rugby World Cup Final: Australia beat England 12-6 at Twickenham with Wallabies fly half Michael Lynagh landing 2 penalties and a conversion
- 1992 First test flight of Airbus A330
- 1993 First commemorative bricks are laid at Bob Feller Memorial
Event of Interest
1993 Actor Roger Moore (James Bond) has his enlarged prostate removed
Roger Moore
Election of Interest
1993 Rudy Giuliani wins the New York mayoral election, becomes 1st Republican mayor since 1965
Rudy Giuliani
- 1994 Benzine explosion in Dronka Egypt, 400+ killed
- 1994 NFL announces the expansion Carolina Panthers would play in the NFC West, while the Jacksonville Jaguars is assigned to the AFC Central
- 1995 "Busker Alley" premieres at St James Theatre, NY
- 1995 "Sacrilege" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 21 performances
- 1995 Spanish Broadcasting System buys NY radio station WPAT-FM for $83.5M
- 1996 "Hughie" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC
- 1996 Miami Heat’s Pat Riley becomes eighth coach to win 800 games in 97-95 win at Indiana; milestone accomplished 2 weeks shy of his 15th coaching anniversary, faster than any coach in NBA history
- 1997 "Barrymore" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 240 performances
- 1997 New York City Marathon: John Kagwe of Kenya wins men's race in 2:08:12; Franziska Rochat-Moser of Switzerland women's champion in 2:28:43
- 1997 Typhoon Linda kills at least 208 in southern Vietnam
- 1997 USA beats Japan 23-13 at LPGA Nichirei International
- 1997 Eric Metcalf of the San Diego Chargers returns punts for touchdowns of 85 & 67 yards in 38-31 loss at Cincinnati; joins Hall of Famer Jack Christiansen as only players in NFL history to return punts for TDs twice in a game
- 2000 The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
- 2002 Mark Messier plays his 1,616th NHL game, a 3-2 Rangers loss against the St. Blues, to move into 2nd place on the all-time games played list; passes Larry Murphy and ends career with 1,756 games, just 11 shy of Gordie Howe
- 2003 New York City Marathon: Margaret Okayo of Kenya wins in 2:22:31 to break her own record; her countryman Martin Lel wins men's race in 2:10:30
Election of Interest
2004 George W. Bush is re-elected as President of the United States, defeating Democrat candidate John Kerry
George W. Bush
John Kerry
Event of Interest
2008 British McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton finishes 4th in season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix at Autódromo José Carlos Pace to clinch his first World F1 Drivers title by 1 point from Felipe Massa
Lewis Hamilton
- 2012 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Santa Anita Racetrack; Day 1 winners: Hightail, Calidoscopio, Flotilla, Beholder, Zagora, Royal Delta
Event of Interest
2013 Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina claims ASP World Junior Title by beating Ramzi Boukhiam of Morocco in a high-scoring final at Joaquina Beach in Florianopolis, Brazil
Gabriel Medina
- 2013 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Santa Anita Racetrack; Day 2 winners: Ria Antonia, Dank, Groupie Doll, Mizdirection, New Year's Day, Magician, Secret Circle, Wise Dan, Mucho Macho Man
- 2013 Masahiro Tanaka's record streak of 30 consecutive starts without a loss ends when the Rakuten Golden Eagles' ace is beaten, 4-2, by the Yomiuri Giants in Game 6 of the Japan Baseball Series
- 2014 60 people were killed and 110 injured by a suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan
- 2015 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull scraps Knights and Dames from Australia's honours system
Film Premier
2015 "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2" directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth premieres in Berlin
Elizabeth Banks
- 2016 Chicago Cubs beat Cleveland Indians, 8-7 in Game 7 at Progressive Field, Cleveland; first Cubs' Baseball World Series win in 108 years
Event of Interest
2017 Jerome Powell nominated by US President Trump to be next Chair of the Federal Reserve
Donald Trump
- 2018 Tiger thought to have killed 13 people shot dead after month-long hunt near Pandharkawada, central India