Historic Expedition
1493 Christopher Columbus embarks on his second expedition to the New World, setting sail with a fleet of 17 ships
Siege of Vienna
1529 Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman troops arrive in Vienna, beginning of the siege
- 1537 Catholic uprising in the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (now Germany) fails
- 1625 Dutch attack San Juan, Puerto Rico
- 1629 Danish Renaissance Kronborg Castle guarding Øresund Sound, is mostly destroyed in a fire (later rebuilt)
- 1629 Jacques Specx appointed governor-general of Dutch-Indies
- 1657 1st autopsy and coroner's jury verdict is recorded in Maryland
- 1664 Dutch Fort Orange (New Netherland) in present day Albany NY surrenders to the English
- 1688 France declares war on Germany
Treaty of Interest
1706 Treaty of Altranstädt: Charles XII of Sweden & August II of Saksen; Augustus renounces his claims to the Polish throne and his alliance with Russia
- 1789 US Attorney General Office is created
- 1789 US Congress establishes Post Office Department following the new constitution
- 1789 US Federal Judiciary Act passes, creating a six-person Supreme Court
- 1829 Russia & Ottoman Empire sign Peace Treaty of Adrianople
- 1838 Anti-Corn-Law League forms to repeal English Corn Law
Event of Interest
1841 British adventurer James Brooke obtains lands around the Sarawak river from the Sultan of Brunei
Sports History
1853 1st round-the-world trip by yacht (Cornelius Vanderbilt)
- 1853 France annexes New Caledonia
- 1853 Northern Daily Times, 1st provincial daily newspaper, starts in London
- 1862 Confederate Congress adopts confederacy seal
- 1869 Black Friday; Wall St panic after Gould & Fisk attempt to corner gold
- 1870 Dar Al-Kutub (National Library of and Archives of Egypt) inaugurated in Mustafa Fadel's palace, Cairo. The first national library in the Middle East. [1]
- 1872 Franz Grillparzer's "Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg" premieres in Vienna
- 1877 Battle of Shiroyama, decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion
- 1883 National black convention meets in Louisville, Kentucky
- 1884 Dixey, Rice & Gill's musical "Adonis" premieres in NYC
- 1885 Five German warships depart to Zanzibar
- 1889 Alexander Dey patents dial time recorder
- 1890 The President of the Latter-day Saints Wilford Woodruff issues a manifesto advising members that the teaching and practice of polygamy should be abandoned
Event of Interest
1903 Alfred Deakin succeeds Edmund Barton as Australian Prime Minister
- 1903 Bill Bradley becomes 1st Cleveland baseball player (Cleveland Naps) to hit for cycle
- 1906 Prince George of Greece, convinced that he can no longer serve the cause of Crete, resigns as High Commissioner
- 1906 St Louis Card Stony McGlynn no-hits Dodgers, 1-1 in 7 inning game
- 1906 Victor Herbert and Henry Blossom's operetta musical "The Red Mill" opens at the Knickerbocker Theater, NYC
- 1908 Robert B Rhoads becomes 1st Cleveland pitcher (Cleveland Naps) to toss a no-hit game, Cleveland 2, Boston 1
- 1916 Indians' Marty Kavanaugh, hits AL's 1st pinch-hit grand slam
Baseball Record
1922 St Louis Cardinals future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby sets National League HR mark at 42
Music Premiere
1928 George M. Cohan and Ring Lardner's musical play "Elmer the Great" premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
1929 Lt James Doolittle guides a Consolidated N-Y-2 Biplane over Mitchell Field in NY in 1st all-instrument flight
- 1929 New York Yankee pitcher Tom Zachary ends season 12-0, record for most pitching wins without a loss in one season
- 1930 G Kaufman & M Hart's comedy "Once in a Lifetime" premieres in NY
Theater Premiere
1930 Noël Coward's play "Private Lives" premieres in London
- 1930 Portsmouth beats Brooklyn in 1st NFL game played under floodlights
- 1931 Round-robin playoff among NYC's 3 major league teams, to raise money for unemployed, concludes with Brooklyn losing to both Giants & Yanks
Event of Interest
1932 NY Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt visits LA
- 1934 2,500 fans see Babe Ruth's farewell Yankee appearance at Yankee Stadium
- 1934 Idle Detroit wins pennant, as Red Sox beat Yankees 5-0
- 1935 Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi
- 1938 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Don Budge beats fellow American Gene Mako 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, 6-1 to become first player to win a Grand Slam
US Open Women's Tennis
1938 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: American Alice Marble wins her second US singles crown; beats Nancye Wynne Bolton of Australia 6-0, 6-3
- 1940 Jimmy Foxx hits his 500th career HR
- 1940 Luftwaffe bombs Spitfire factory in Southampton
- 1941 Bomb explosion in German headquarter in Hotel Continental in Kiev
- 1941 Nine Allied governments pledge adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter
- 1943 Soviet forces reconquer Smolensk
- 1946 Yanks set season attendance record of 2,309,029 besting 1929 Cubs
- 1948 Mildred Gillars (Axis Sally), an American broadcaster employed by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany to proliferate propaganda during World War II, pleads not guilty to eight chargs of treason in Washington, D.C.
- 1948 MLB NY Yankees, Boston Red Sox & Cleveland Indians are all tied for 1st place in AL (91-56)
- 1948 The Honda Motor Company is founded in Hamamatsu-city, Japan
Operation Magic Carpet
1950 Operation Magic Carpet concludes after having transported 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel
- 1951 Industrial estate opens at Harlow New Town, England
- 1951 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1952 Dutch Minister of Justice Donker decides war criminal Willy Lages will not be executed but sentenced to life
- 1952 Underwater volcano explodes under research vessel Kaiyo-maru-5
- 1953 "Take a Giant Step" opens on Broadway
Boxing Title Fight
1953 Rocky Marciano TKOs home town favourite Roland LaStarza in 11 at NYC's Polo Grounds to retain his world heavyweight boxing title
Music History
1955 "The Judy Garland Special" kicks off the anthology performance series "Ford Star Jubilee" on CBS-TV
Event of Interest
1955 US President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver
- 1955 Washington Senators lose their 99th & 100th games of season
Jailhouse Rock Premieres
1957 "Jailhouse Rock" single released by Elvis Presley (Billboard Song of the Year 1957)
- 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers play last game at Ebbets Field, defeat Pirates 2-0
- 1957 Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, is opened in Barcelona
- 1958 1st welded aluminum girder highway bridge completed, Urbandale, Iowa
- 1958 Donna Reed Show premieres on ABC
- 1960 International Development Association (UN agency) comes into existence
- 1960 USS Enterprise, 1st nuclear power aircraft carrier, launched
- 1962 KWSU TV channel 10 in Pullman, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1962 US Circuit Court of Appeals orders Meredith admitted to University of Mississippi
- 1963 Idle Dodgers clinch their 2nd LA pennant as Cubs beat Cards
- 1963 US Senate ratifies treaty with Britain & USSR limiting nuclear testing
- 1964 "The Munsters" premieres on TV
- 1964 1st Minuteman II ICBM was tested
Music History
1964 Ringo Starr forms Brikley Building Company Ltd
- 1964 Willi Stoph succeeds Otto Great as premier of German DR
- 1965 Belgium Victor Leemans elected chairman of European Parliament
- 1965 Saudi Arabian & Egyptian accord over Yemen
- 1965 Stefan Stefanopoulos forms Greek government
- 1966 -30] Hurricane Inez, kills 293 in the Caribbean, Florida & Mexico
- 1966 France performs nuclear test at Fangataufa Island
- 1967 NFL St. Loius Cardinals' Jim Bakken kicks 7 field goals at Pittsburgh Steelers, setting NFL record at the time
Television Premiere
1968 "60 Minutes" premieres on CBS-TV
- 1968 "That's Life" premieres - A Broadway musical type TV show
Sports History
1968 NY Met manager Gil Hodges suffers a heart attack
- 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1969 1st Elvis convention, 2500 fans attend in Cincinnati
- 1969 NY Mets clinch NL East pennant
- 1969 Ton Duc Thang elected president of North Vietnam
- 1969 Trial of "Chicago 8" (protesters at Dem National Conv) begins
- 1970 Soviet space probe Luna 16 lands on earth after 1st unmanned round trip to moon
- 1971 90 Russian diplomats expelled from Britain for spying
- 1971 Eyskens-Cools disbands Belgium parliament
- 1971 Houston Astros beat San Diego Padres, 2-1, in 21 innings
- 1972 Antique F86 Sabrejet fails to takeoff at air show, kills 22
- 1972 Jack Tatum, Oakland, sets NFL record with 104-yard fumble return, in a 20-14 win over Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, Green Bay Wisconsin; record tied by Aeneas Williams of the Arizona Cardinals in 2000
Sports History
1972 NY Jet Joe Namath passes for 6 touchdowns vs Baltimore Colts (44-34)
- 1973 Guinea-Bissau declares independence from Portugal
- 1974 Clarence Jones of Kintetsu Buffaloes hits his 38th HR, 1st American to win a Japanese HR title
- 1975 OPEC announces a 15% increase in government per barrel revenues
Oh! Calcutta! - The Bare Facts
1976 "Oh! Calcutta!" revival opens at Edison Theater, NYC; runs for 5,959 performances, Broadway’s longest-running musical revue
Event of Interest
1976 American newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst sentenced to 7 years for her part in a 1974 bank robbery; released after 22 months by US President Jimmy Carter and pardoned by US President Bill Clinton in 2001
Sports History
1978 Ron Guidry beats Cleveland 4-0, raising his record to 23-3 ERA 1.74
- 1979 Russian ice skaters Protopopov & Beloussova ask for asylum in Switzerland
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1980 Braves join every NL team with 1,000,000+ attendance for this season
- 1980 Iraqi troops cross Iran's border, encircling Abadan
- 1981 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1982 US, Italian & French peacekeeping troops begin arriving in Lebanon
- 1983 Braves Dale Murphy is 6th to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases in season
- 1983 Test cricket debut of Shoaib Mohammad, son of champion Pakistan batsman Hanif Mohammad; scores 6 in drawn 2nd Test v India in Jullundur; goes on to play 45 Tests
- 1983 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1984 Chicago Cubs clinch NL East title
Music Single
1984 Paul McCartney releases single "No More Lonely Nights"
- 1985 Apollo Computer Inc lays off 300 employees
- 1985 Fastest English Channel crossing by a relay team set (15h 30m)
Baseball Record
1985 Montreal Expo Andre Dawson is 9th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (5th), and joins Willey McCovey to hit 2 HRs in an inn twice
- 1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
World Record
1988 American heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee sets new world record 7,291 points to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics; East Germans Sabine John & Anke Behmer take the minor medals
- 1988 American swimmer Matt Biondi sets world record 22.14 to win the 50m freestyle gold medal at the Seoul Olympics; his 4th of 5 gold medals for the Games
- 1988 Barbara C. Harris of Mass, elected 1st woman Episcopal bishop
- 1988 Canada's Ben Johnson runs drug-assisted 100m in 9.79 sec
World Record
1988 Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson breaks his own 100m world record with a time of 9.79 at the Seoul Olympics; disqualified 3 days later for use of drug stanozolol; Carl Lewis awarded gold and world record 9.92
- 1988 Carl Lewis runs world record 100m (9.92 sec)
- 1988 Dave Stieb has no-hitter broken up with 2 outs in the 9th
- 1988 East German cyclist Christa Luding-Rothenburger wins silver medal in the women's track sprint at the Seoul Olympics; first athlete to win medals at Summer & Winter Games in same year; won speed skating gold in Calgary
- 1988 Soviet gymnast Vladimir Artemov shares horizontal bar gold medal with teammate Valeri Liukin at the Seoul Olympics; also wins the parallel bars event to take his gold medal haul to 4 for the Games
- 1988 Swimmer Silke Hörner wins her second gold medal of the Seoul Olympics as part of the victorious East German 4 x 100m medley relay team
- 1988 West German swimmer Michael Gross wins 200m butterfly in Olympic record 1:56.94 at the Seoul Games; third career gold medal
- 1989 ABC's premiere of "The Preppie Murder", based on 1986 murder in New York City of Jennifer Levin by ex prep school student Robert Chambers
- 1989 Ryder Cup: US & Europe draw, 14-14 at The Belfry, England
- 1990 East Germany leaves Warsaw Pact
Event of Interest
1990 Iraq invades the French and Dutch missions in Kuwait; French President François Mitterrand calls the action a violation of international law; US warship boards an Iraqi-flagged tanker bound for the port of Basrah
- 1990 Periodic Great White Spot observed on Saturn
Event of Interest
1990 Saddam Hussein states his willingness to strike first and his intention to damage oil fields in the region if Iraq does strike
Meeting of Interest
1990 South African President F. W. de Klerk meets US President George H. W. Bush in Washington, D.C.
- 1990 Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market
- 1990 West German President Richard von Weizsaecker signs reunification treaty
- 1991 "Good & Evil" & "Sibs" premieres on ABC TV
- 1991 After 3 year reign as AL champs, A's are eliminated from AL West
Sports History
1991 Deion Sanders, left Braves July 31 to report to NFL Falcons, returns
- 1991 Robin Yount is 37th to hit 2,000 singles
- 1992 John Jaha ties record of 11 teammates to steal 10 bases (Brewers)
- 1992 Scott Stevens is named 5th Captain in NJ Devils history
Sports History
1992 Toronto's Dave Winfield, 40, is oldest player to reach 100-RBI
- 1993 1st Israeli killed by Islamics after PLO signs peace accord
Event of Interest
1993 Norodom Sihanouk again installed as King of Cambodia
Event of Interest
1994 National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar
- 1994 Parliamentary election in Ukraine
Music History
1995 Emillio & Gloria Estefan's boat hits & kills a jet skier
- 1995 Ryder Cup Golf, Oak Hill CC: Europe wins 14½-13½; unheralded Irish rookie Philip Walton secures victory for Europe beating Jay Haas 1 up
Television Debut
1995 TV adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth debuts on BBC One
- 1995 Volcano Mount Ruapehu (North Island, NZ) erupts
Treaty of Interest
1996 US President Bill Clinton signs the "Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty" at the United Nations
Country Music Association Awards
1997 31st Country Music Association Award: Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood & George Strait win
- 1997 Drug kingpin Ramon Arellano Felix placed on FBI's 10 most-wanted list
- 2001 Crude oil and petroleum products futures fall to their lowest levels in nearly two years amid fears that a recession will reduce energy demand
- 2005 Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana.
- 2006 Ryder Cup Golf, K Club, Ireland: Europe, captained by Ian Woosnam wins convincingly 18½-9½ for 3rd consecutive Cup victory
Television Premiere
2007 "The Big Bang Theory" created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and starring Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco premieres on CBS
