- 1138 Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000
Historic Event
1521 Pope Leo X titles King Henry VIII of England "Defender of the Faith"
- 1531 Battle of Kappel: Swiss Roman Catholic cantons beat protestant forces of Zurich; Huldrych Zwingli Swiss reformation leader is killed
- 1540 Emperor Karel names his son Philip, Duke of Milan
- 1573 Battle of South Seas - Dutch rebels beat Spanish navy
- 1614 Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
- 1634 Burchardi flood - "the second Grote Mandrenke" kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany
- 1674 Pierre Corneille's "Surena" premieres in Paris
- 1687 Hungary accepts Habsburg sovereignty
- 1698 France, England & Netherlands ratified the First Partition Treaty, which eventually led to the War of the Spanish Succession
Historic Event
1726 Benjamin Franklin returns to Philadelphia from England
- 1737 Earthquake reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India. Now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane which claimed 3,000 of the city's estimated 20,000 residents. [1]
- 1746 Battle of Rocoux: French defeat British, Austrian and Dutch armies
- 1776 Brigadier-General Arnold's Lake Champlain fleet defeated by British during the Battle of Valcour Island (American Revolutionary War)
- 1797 Battle of Camperdown (Kamperduin): British navy defeats Dutch fleet
- 1811 The Juliana, 1st steam-powered ferryboat, begins operation
- 1852 The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
- 1861 Battle of Dumfries, VA (Quantico Creek)
- 1863 Skirmish at Rheatown/Henderson's Mill, Tennessee
- 1864 Slavery abolished in Maryland
- 1864 Campina Grande, Brazil was established as a city
Historic Event
1865 President Andrew Johnson paroles Confederate States VP Alexander H. Stephens
- 1865 Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion.
- 1873 Toronto Argonaut Football Club 1st game losing to U of Toronto
- 1881 David Houston patents roll film for cameras
- 1887 A Miles patents elevator
- 1890 First 100 yard dash under 10 seconds run by John Owen in 9.8 sec at Analostan Island, Washington, D.C.
- 1890 Daughters of American Revolution founded
Treaty of Interest
1895 Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia rejects a treaty with Italy
- 1899 South African Boers declare war on Great Britain
- 1902 US Open Men's Golf, Garden City GC: Scotsman Laurie Auchterlonie sets new 72-hole event scoring record to win his only major title, 6 strokes ahead of Stewart Gardner and amateur Walter Travis
- 1902 Commencement of 1st Test Cricket between South Africa & Australia
- 1906 White Sox Ed Walsh strikes out then record 12 in a World Series game
- 1906 San Francisco Board of Education orders segregation in separate schools of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean children sparking diplomatic crisis
- 1913 Baseball World Series: Philadelphia A's beat NY Giants, 3-1 at Brush Stadium, NYC; clinch 4-1 series win for 3rd title in 10 years
- 1914 German troops occupy Ghent
- 1915 Bulgarian anti-Serbian offensive begins
- 1918 Major tsumani shakes Caribbean
- 1922 First woman FBI "special investigator", Alaska Davidson, appointed
- 1922 Turkey & Greece sign cease fire
Sports History
1927 New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig is named American League MVP; despite hitting MLB record 60 HR's Babe Ruth as a former winner is not eligible
- 1929 Sean O'Casey's "Silver Tassle" premieres in London
Historic Event
1939 Albert Einstein informs FDR of the possibilities of an atomic bomb
- 1939 Bucky Harris signs to manage Washington again
Theater Premiere
1939 Samson Raphaelson's play "Skylark" starring Gertrude Lawrence premieres in NYC
- 1939 NAACP organized Legal Defense & Education Fund
- 1941 1st NSB-battalion departures to Eastern front
- 1942 -Oct 12] Naval battle at Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal
- 1943 Baseball World Series: NY Yankees become first team to win 10 Championships; beat St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at Sportsman's Park for 4 games to 1 series triumph
- 1944 Allies bomb sea wall at Veere
- 1944 Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva was annexed by the U.S.S.R
Film Release
1944 "Laura" directed by Otto Preminger starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews is released in NYC, New York
Historic Event
1945 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party
- 1945 JPL WAC Corporal Launch (1st Man-Made Object to escape Atmosphere)
- 1947 Brazil & Chile break diplomatic relations with USSR
- 1948 "Love Life" opens at 46th St Theater, NYC; runs for 252 performances
- 1948 Frank Loesser's musical "Where's Charley?", starring Ray Bolger, and directed by George Abbott, opens at St James Theater, NYC; runs for 792 performances and wins a Tony Award
- 1948 Baseball World Series: Cleveland Indians beat Boston Braves, 4-3 at Braves Field to clinch series, 4 games to 2; Indians second championship in team history
- 1950 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS
- 1954 "On Your Toes" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 64 performances
Historic Event
1955 All Peron feast days disposed of in Argentina
- 1955 Persia signs Pact of Baghdad
- 1956 1st Pakistan v Australia Test 95 runs scored on 1st day
- 1956 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
- 1956 AL President Will Harridge bars Washington Senators move to West Coast, unless unanimously approved by the other AL owners
- 1958 "Goldilocks" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 161 performances
- 1958 2nd US Moon probe, Pioneer 1, reaches 113,810 km, falls back
- 1959 KTHI TV channel 11 in Fargo-Grand Forks, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1960 Hurricane ravages East-Pakistan (6,000 die)
- 1960 Radio/TV executive John Fetzer buys a controlling interest of Detroit Tigers
- 1961 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 66,100m
- 1961 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1962 1st appearance of a Gabor sister on Merv Griffin Show
Historic Event
1962 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII
Film & TV History
1963 William Shatner stars in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of CBS anthology series "The Twilight Zone"
Baseball Record
1967 World Series record 3 consecutive HRs hit by Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli as Boston Red Sox beat St Louis Cardinals, 8-4 in Game 6 at Fenway Park
Music History
1967 "Yoko Plus Me" art exhibit opens in London (the "Me" is John Lennon)
- 1968 Apollo 7 (Schirra, Eisele & Cunningham) made 163 orbits in 260 hours
Sports History
1968 MLB star Billy Martin named manager of the Minnesota Twins
Music History
1969 American blues musician Muddy Waters involved in a car crash that kills 3
Baseball Record
1971 Baltimore 3B Brooks Robinson sets Baseball World Series record; reaches base 5 straight times in Orioles 11-3 win over Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 2 at Memorial Stadium
- 1971 Frank McGee becomes news anchor of Today Show
- 1971 Switzerland recognizes North Vietnam
- 1972 World Hockey Association officially debuts as the Alberta Oilers defeat the Ottawa Nationals, 7-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre
- 1972 Panama adopts constitution
- 1972 Prison uprising at Washington, D.C. jail
- 1972 MLB National League Championship: Cincinnati Reds beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3 games to 2
- 1973 Oakland beats Baltimore 3 games to 2 to win AL pennant
- 1973 Héctor José Cámpora is elected President of Argentina
- 1973 MLB American League Championship: Oakland Athletics beat Baltimore Orioles, 3 games to 2
NHL Record
1975 Islander's Bryan Trottier's 1st career hat trick
Television Premiere
1975 "Saturday Night Live" created by Lorne Michaels premieres on NBC with George Carlin as host
- 1976 10th Country Music Association Award: Mel Tillis wins
Historic Event
1976 Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing and the "Gang of Four" are arrested and charged with plotting a coup
- 1977 Soyuz 25 returns to Earth
Historic Invention
1977 American inventor Gordon Gould issued his first US patent for a optically pumped laser amplifier, 20 years after first claiming to have invented the laser
Baseball Record
1978 Dodgers Bob Welch dramatically strikes out Reggie Jackson in 9th
- 1979 "Most Happy Fella" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 53 performances
- 1979 German DR frees dissidents Rudolf Bahro & Nico Hubner
- 1979 Allan McLeod Cormack & Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield win Nobel Prize for medicine for developing CAT scan
- 1980 Cosmonauts Popov & Ryumin set space endurance record of 184 days
- 1980 Dallas Mavericks open debut NBA season with a 103-92 victory against interstate rival San Antonio Spurs at Reunion Arena
- 1980 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1981 LeRoy Irvin sets yards gained on punt returns record (207 yds)
Music History
1981 Then unknown musician Prince Rogers Nelson opens for The Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Coliseum
- 1981 Yanks beat Brewers 7-3 & win only Eastern Championship Series
Music Awards
1982 16th Country Music Association Award: Willie Nelson & Ricky Skagg
Album Release
1983 "Can't Slow Down" second studio album by Lionel Richie is released
- 1984 1st space walk by US woman (Dr Kathryn D Sullivan)
Historic Event
1984 August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" premieres in NYC
- 1984 NASA launches space vehicle S-208
Historic Event
1984 US Vice Presidential candidates' debate - Geraldine Ferraro (D) and George H. W. Bush (R), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1985 Atlantis (51-J) returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
Historic Event
1985 President Reagan bans import of South African Krugerrands to the USA
- 1985 US intercepts Egyptian Boeing with Achille Lauro terrorists
Reagan and Gorbachev
1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland
- 1987 200,000 march for gay and lesbian civil rights in Washington, D.C.
- 1990 "Miser" opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC for 93 performances
- 1990 Center for Urban archaeology opens in NYC South Street Seaport Museum
- 1990 Mexican writer Octavio Paz is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature
- 1990 Oil hits a record $40.42 per barrel
- 1990 Libya's Qadhafi says Israel must be eliminated
- 1990 UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd says force would be used if Iraq does not withdraw from Kuwait
Historic Event
1991 Law Professor Anita Hill testifies Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her
Historic Event
1992 1st three-way US presidential debate (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot)
Sports History
1992 Deion Sanders, plays for Atlanta Falcons (NFL) & Braves (Baseball)
- 1995 John Bobbitt has plastic surgery to increase his penis 3 inches
TV Show Appearance
1995 O.J. Simpson cancels a TV appearance on Dateline
- 1996 Ford buys rights to name Detroit domed stadium for $40 million
Sports History
1997 Dennis Rodman returns from second longest NBA suspension (11 games)
- 1998 A Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people.
- 2000 The 100th Space Shuttle mission (STS-92) is flown.
- 2000 South African Cricket Board issues former captain Hansie Cronje with a life ban as a result of match-fixing allegations
- 2001 The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
Nobel Prize
2001 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences awarded to George Akerlof, Joseph E. Stiglitz and A. Michael Spence for "their analyses of markets with asymmetric information"
- 2002 A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
Television Premiere
2006 US sitcom "30 Rock" created by and starring Tina Fey alongside Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan first premieres on NBC in the US
- 2009 Presidents Cup Golf, Harding Park GC: US down International team, 19½–14½; their 2nd consecutive win by that score and 3rd straight overall
- 2012 A further 83 people are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian army
- 2012 A US appeal court overturns a district court ruling banning the sale of Samsung
- 2013 10 people are killed and a hospital fire in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan
- 2013 27 people are killed after a migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily
- 2013 The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons wins the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize
- 2015 Nepal's parliament elects Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, leader of the Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist party, as Prime Minister
President's Cup
2015 Presidents Cup Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC Korea: Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson go undefeated as US wins for the 6th successive time with a 15½–14½ victory over the International team
- 2016 South Korean firm Samsung announces it will permanently stop production of Note 7 phones after complaints devices caught fire
- 2017 TripAdvisor customer poll names The Black Swan in Oldstead, North Yorkshire, world's best restaurant
- 2018 World's new longest flight flies from Singapore to Newark Airport, New Jersey takes 17 hours 52 mins
- 2018 Russian Soyuz spacecraft makes emergency landing when rocket fails two minutes after liftoff, with American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut aboard
- 2018 Swedish dramatic soprano Nina Stemme is awarded the fourth $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize
Nobel Prize
2019 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for the peace deal with Eritrea
Sports History
2019 Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli scores career-best 254 not out to move past 7,000 Test runs on day 2 of the 2nd Test against South Africa in Mumbai; India wins by an innings and 137 runs
French Open Men's Tennis
2020 French Open Men's Tennis: Rafael Nadal beats Novak Đoković 6-0, 6-2, 7-5; 20th Grand Slam singles title; record 13th French singles title
- 2020 India records more than 7 million cases of COVID-19
NBA Finals
2020 NBA Finals: LA Lakers beat Miami Heat 106-93 in Game 6 to win record equalling 17th title; MVP: LeBron James; first to win the award with 3 different teams
- 2020 Women's PGA Championship, Aronimink GC: Sei Young KIm wins her first major title by 5 strokes from fellow South Korean Inbee Park; shoots tournament record total 266
Sports History
2020 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins Eifel Grand Prix at Germany's Nürburgring to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 91 Formula 1 victories
- 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for their work on "natural experiments" [1]
- 2021 Australia's largest city Sydney ends its 107-day lockdown, with restrictions easing for fully vaccinated people
- 2021 Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden steps down after The NY Times details emails in which he made homophobic and misogynistic remarks; earlier reports alleged racist statements about a union leader
