- 587 Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram of Burgundy names cousin Childebert II as heir
- 1443 Albanian George Kastriotis Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania from the Ottomans and raise the Albanian flag.
Historic Event
1520 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan begins crossing the Pacific Ocean
- 1569 Duke of Alva forces bishop Nicolaas van Nieuwland of Haarlem to resign
Historic Event
1660 The Royal Society is formed at Gresham College, London, after a lecture by Christopher Wren, Gresham Professor of Astronomy
- 1670 Pierre Corneille's "Tite et Berenice" premieres in Paris
Pirate Attack
1717 Blackbeard attacks and captures a French merchant slave ship, which he renames as his flagship the "Queen Anne's Revenge"
Historic Event
1720 Anne Bonny and Mary Read are tried, found guilty of pirating, and sentenced to death in Spanish Town, Jamaica, although their discovered pregnancies win them stays of execution
Historic Event
1754 Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert is elected to the French Academy of Sciences
- 1757 Britain condemns Convention of Kloster-Zeven
- 1775 Second Continental Congress formally establishes the Continental Navy
- 1785 The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the Confederation Congress of the United States of America and the Cherokee people
- 1795 US pays $800,000 & a frigate as tribute to Algiers & Tunis
- 1813 Cossacks occupy Utrecht
- 1814 The Times of London first printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer - makes newspapers available to a mass audience
- 1821 Panama declares independence from Spain
- 1843 Ka Lahui: Hawaiian Independence Day - The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.
- 1847 Church of San Francisco dei Minori Conventuali in Bologna, Italy initiated with premier of Rossini's Tantum ergo
- 1853 Olympia forms as capital of Washington Territory
- 1854 Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo
- 1861 Confederate congress officially admits Missouri to Confederacy
- 1862 Battle at Cane Hill, Arkansas (475 casualties)
- 1862 Battle of Hooly Spring, MS
- 1864 3rd day of Battles at Waynesboro/Jones's Plantation, Georgia
- 1864 Battle of New Creek, West Virginia (Rosser's Raid, Ft Kelly)
- 1871 Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in South Carolina
- 1875 British explorer Verney Cameron reaches East Africa
Artist's 'Rocket' Shot Down in Flames
1878 Whistler v. Ruskin, the most famous trial in art history, ends with artist James McNeill Whistler awarded a token farthing in compensation after suing the writer and critic John Ruskin for libel, seeking £1,000 damages [1]
- 1879 Battle at Lydenburg South Africa: Gen Wolseley beats Sekhukhenes Pedi-Zulu
The Story of the First Country to Grant Women the Vote
1893 Women vote in a national election for the first time, in the New Zealand general election
1st Car Race in America
1895 America's 1st auto race organised by the "Chicago Times-Herald" - Chicago to Evanston and back; 6 cars, 55 miles, Frank Duryea wins averaging 7 MPH
Historic Event
1905 Arthur Griffith forms Sinn Féin in Dublin
Boxing Title Fight
1906 Canadian Tommy Burns retains his world heavyweight boxing title after being pushed to a 20-round draw by "Philadelphia" Jack O'Brien in Los Angeles, California
- 1907 In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater
- 1908 154 men die in coal mine explosion at Marianna, Pennsylvania
- 1909 Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, one of the genres most difficult, premieres at the New Theatre in New York City, with the composer as soloist and the New York Symphony Society conducted by Walter Damrosch
- 1911 Zapata proclaims Plan of Ayala Mexico
- 1912 Ismail Qemali declares Albania independent from Turkey in Vlorë
- 1914 World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
- 1914 Australasian Championships Men's Tennis, Melbourne: All-Australian final; Arthur O'Hara Wood beats Gerald Patterson 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1
- 1916 1st German air attack on London
- 1917 Sigmund Romberg's revue "Over the Top" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia & Germany abdicates
- 1918 Bucovina voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania
Election of Interest
1919 American-born Lady Nancy Astor elected as the 1st female member of the British House of Commons
- 1920 Kilmichael Ambush, Battle of the Irish War of Independence.
- 1921 Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha (Baha'i festival-Qawl 6, 78)
- 1922 6 ex-ministers executed in Greece
- 1922 Captain Cyril Turner (RAF) gives 1st skywriting exhibition (NYC) Turner spelled out "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200." 47,000 called
- 1924 Pieter Jelle Troelstra leaves Dutch 2nd Chamber
Historic Event
1925 7th French government of Aristide Briand sworn-in
- 1925 Grand Ole Opry premieres as WSM Barn Dance on WSM radio Nashville, Tennessee
Sports History
1925 NHL goalie Georges Vezina collapses & dies 4 months later of TB
- 1927 J McHugh & D Fields' musical "Delmar's Revels" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
1929 Richard E. Byrd makes his 1st South Pole flight
- 1929 Chicago fullback Ernie Nevers sets NFL record for most points scored in a single game with all 40 in the Cardinals' 40–6 rout of Chicago Bears; Nevers has NFL record 6 touchdowns and 4 extra points
Music Premiere
1930 Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony "Romantic" premieres
Radio Premiere
1932 Groucho Marx performs on radio for the first time
Murder of Interest
1933 A Dallas grand jury delivers a murder indictment against Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow for the January 1933 killing of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis
Historic Event
1934 Winston Churchill tells British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin not to under estimate German air power
- 1938 4th Heisman Trophy Award: Davey O'Brien, Texas Christian (QB)
Historic Event
1939 Hans Frank, Nazi Governor-General of Poland, organizes Judenrat
Conference of Interest
1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meet at the Tehran Conference in Iran to map out strategy
- 1944 1st allied ship sails into Schelde Antwerp
- 1944 400 Rotterdammers attack coal warehouse
- 1944 Detroit Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser is named AL MVP
- 1944 In reprisal 40 Dutch men are executed by Nazis
- 1944 US 121st Infantry regiment occupies Hurtgen
- 1945 Australian Services draw second Victory Test Cricket v India at Calcutta
- 1946 French Fourth Republic government led by Georges Bidault resigns
- 1946 Dutch Nazi Anton Mussert sentenced to death
- 1948 "Hopalong Cassidy" premieres on TV
- 1949 "Texas, Li'l Darlin'" opens at Mark Hellinger NYC for 293 performances
- 1950 Walter O'Malley fires Burt Shotton as Dodgers manager
Historic Event
1951 John Van Druten's "I am a Camera" premieres in NYC
- 1951 Military coup under Col Adib el-Shishakli in Syria
- 1953 "Wish You Were Here" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 597 performances
- 1953 CFL Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 12-6
- 1954 1st pro football game in The Netherlands
- 1954 KCKT (now KSNC) TV channel 2 in Great Bend, KS (NBC) 1st broadcast
- 1955 KMVI (now WMAU) TV channel 12 in Wailuku, HI (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1955 KTHV TV channel 11 in Little Rock, AR (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 1956 NFL Draft: Gary Glick from University of Colorado A&M first pick by Pittsburgh Steelers
- 1956 Photography begins on "... & God Created Women"
- 1956 Leonid Spirin leads a Soviet Union 1-2-3 to win the men's 20 kilometre walk gold medal in 1:31:27.4 at the Melbourne Olympics; beats teammates Antanas Mikėnas and Bruno Junk
- 1956 Lee Calhoun leads an American trifecta in the men's 110m hurdles at the Melbourne Olympics; hurdles Olympic record 13.5s to beat teammates Jack Davis and Joel Shankle
- 1956 Soviet runner Vladimir Kuts wraps up the Olympic middle distance double by winning the 5,000m gold medal at the Melbourne Games; runs Olympic records in both 5k and 10,000m events
- 1956 Shirley Strickland de la Hunty of Australia retains her 80m hurdles Olympic title in OR 10.7s beating German Gisela Birkemeyer by just 0.2s at the Melbourne Games
Theater Premiere
1957 "Look Homeward, Angel" play based on the book by Thomas Wolfe adapted by Ketti Frings and starring Anthony Perkins premieres in NYC
Sports History
1957 Warren Spahn of the Braves wins Cy Young Award
- 1958 AL announces Opening Day in 1959 will be earliest ever, April 9
- 1958 Chad becomes an autonomous republic within French community
- 1958 Congo & Mauritania become autonomous members of French Community
- 1958 George "Punch" Imlach becomes coach of NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs
- 1958 KCOO (now KABY) TV channel 9 in Aberdeen, SD (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1958 Test Cricket debut for Wes Hall, v India at Bombay
- 1958 US reports 1st full-range firing of an Intercontinental ballistic missile
- 1959 CFL Grey Cup, CNE Stadium, Toronto: Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton Tiger-Cats (21-7) for a second straight year
- 1959 KOMC (now KSNK) TV channel 8 in McCook - Oberlin, NB (NBC) begins
Catholic Encyclical
1959 Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Princeps Pastorum
- 1960 CBS radio expands hourly news coverage from 5 to 10 minutes
- 1960 Mauritania gains independence from France (National Day)
- 1961 General Meeting of UN debates New Guinea
- 1961 Martin Walser's "Der Abstecher" premieres in Munich
- 1962 Telegraph between Netherlands & Indonesia restored
- 1963 The Beatles "She Loves You" unusually, returns to #1 in UK record chart and reaches 1 million copies sold
- 1963 Crusher beats Verne Gagne in St Paul, to become NWA champ
- 1963 WHNT TV channel 19 in Huntsville, AL (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1964 CFL Grey Cup, CNE Stadium, Toronto: BC Lions defeat Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 34-24; BC's Bill Munsey scores 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter, one on offence and another on defence
- 1964 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
- 1964 Mariner 4 launched; 1st probe to fly by Mars
- 1964 1965 NFL Draft: Tucker Frederickson from Auburn University first pick by New York Giants
- 1965 Browns' Leroy Kelly sets club record for most punt return yds (109)
- 1965 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Kathy Whitworth wins by 10 shots from Peggy Wilson for her first major title
- 1966 Coup in Burundi overthrows monarchy; a republic is declared
- 1966 Dominican Republic adopts constitution
- 1967 33rd Heisman Trophy Award: Gary Beban, UCLA (QB)
Radio Premiere
1967 1st radio pulsars detected by British postgraduate Jocelyn Bell Burnell and her supervisor Antony Hewish at Cambridge University
Music History
1968 John Lennon is fined £150 for unauthorized drug possession
- 1969 Ted Sizemore becomes 7th Dodger to win NL Rookie of Year
- 1970 CFL Grey Cup, CNE Stadium, Toronto: Montreal Alouettes defeat Calgary Stampeders, 23-10; game marred by woeful field conditions
- 1971 "Me Nobody Knows" closes at Helen Hayes Theater, NYC, after 587 performances
- 1971 CFL Grey Cup, Empire Stadium, Vancouver: Calgary Stampeders beat Toronto Argonauts, 14-11 on a slick, rain-covered field
- 1972 "Via Galactica" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 7 performances
Sports History
1972 LA Dodgers trade Frank Robinson to California Angels
Sports History
1974 Bowie Kuhn suspends George Steinbrenner for 2 years
- 1974 John Lennon's last concert appearance, as a guest of Elton John, Madison Square Garden, New York City NYC; they perform "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"; "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"; and "I Saw Her Standing There"
- 1975 Democratic Republic of East-Timor proclaimed
- 1975 Test Cricket debut of Michael Anthony Holding, WI v Australia Brisbane
- 1975 Wings release single "Venus & Mars/Rock Show" medley
- 1975 "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night", the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.
Sports History
1978 Reds fire manager Sparky Anderson after 9 years
Papal Visit
1979 Pope John Paul II's first papal visit to Turkey, almost 1 1/2 years before Turkish native Mehmet Ali Agca attempts to kill him
Election of Interest
1981 New Zealand general election won by ruling National party and Prime Minister Robert Muldoon
Sports History
1982 Germany's Sylvia Hanika stages remarkable comeback to upset tennis icon Martina Navratilova 1–6, 6–3, 6–4 and win her only WTA Tour Championship in NYC
- 1983 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-is launched
Historic Event
1984 Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States
Contract of Interest
1989 Rickey Henderson signs record $3,000,000 per year Oak A's contract
Album Release
1989 Queen Latifah releases her debut hip hop album "All Hail the Queen" featuring single "Ladies First"
Historic Event
1990 Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew resigns, ending his term as Singapore's longest-serving Prime Minister
Historic Event
1990 Conservative Party chooses John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher as leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1993 "Gray's Anatomy" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 13 performances
- 1993 "Mixed Emotions" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 48 performances
- 1993 CFL Grey Cup, McMahon Stadium, Calgary: Edmonton Eskimos defeat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 33-23; Sean Fleming lands record equalling 6 field goals
- 1993 Carlos Reina wins Honduras presidential election
- 1994 Norway votes against joining European Union
Historic Event
1994 Convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium in Portage, Wisconsin
- 1995 James Brady, former white house press secretary, suffers a heart attack
- 1997 Final episode of "Beavis & Butt-head" on MTV
- 1997 First public appearance of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group that fought for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia.
- 1998 The people of Albania vote for their new Constitution in a referendum.
- 1999 CFL Grey Cup, BC Place, Vancouver: Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat Calgary Stampeders, 32-21; reverse previous year's result
Sports History
1999 In an all-American final, Pete Sampras beats Andre Agassi 6–1, 7–5, 6–4 to win his 5th and final ATP Tour World Championship tennis title in Hanover, Germany
- 2000 Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz begins the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze
- 2004 Male Poʻo-uli dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct
- 2004 Federation Cup Women's Tennis, Moscow, Russia: Anastasia Myskina & Vera Zvonareva beat French pair Marion Bartoli & Émilie Loit 7-6, 7-5 to clinch Russia's first title, 3-2
Football Awards
2005 Ballon d'Or: FC Barcelona's Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho is named best football player in Europe ahead of Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard
- 2008 Sweden technically enters the recession after experiencing contraction of 0.1% in the second and third quarter
- 2010 CFL Grey Cup, Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton: Montreal Alouettes retain Championship with 21-18 win over Saskatchewan Roughriders; Alouettes' quarterback Anthony Calvillo's 3rd title
- 2010 24th Soul Train Music Awards: Ron Isley, Anita Baker win
Sports History
2010 In a classic matchup, Roger Federer wins his 5th season-ending ATP World Tour Finals tennis title with a 6–3, 3–6, 6–1 victory over Rafael Nadal of Spain in the final in London, England
- 2012 54 people are killed and 120 are injured by two car bombs in Damascus, Syria
Film Premiere
2012 "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" 1st of the Hobbit film series, directed by Peter Jackson, starring Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen, premieres in Wellington, New Zealand
- 2015 British boxer Tyson Fury beats Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision to win WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO, The Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight titles in Düsseldorf, Germany; ends Klitschko's 9 year reign as champion
- 2015 Jamie Vardy scores for Leicester City in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United at the King Power Stadium; EPL record 11th consecutive game in which Vardy scores
- 2016 Plane carrying Brazilian Chapecoense football team crashes near Medellin, Colombia killing 71 players and journalists
- 2016 "Hamilton" sets new record for most money earned in a week on Broadway - $3.3 million
Historic Event
2017 Uhuru Kenyatta sworn in for a second term as president of Kenya
