Events in History
- 30 Scholars' estimate for Jesus' crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem [or April 3]
- 451 Attila's Huns plunder Metz
Event of Interest
529 First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (fundamental work in jurisprudence) issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
- 1118 Pope Gelasius II excommunicated by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1348 Prague University, first university in central Europe, formed by Charles IV
- 1456 Louis van Burbon becomes prince-bishop of Luik
- 1498 Crowd storms Savonarola's convent San Marco Florence, Italy
- 1509 France declares war on Venice
- 1521 Inquisitor-general Adrian Boeyens bans Lutheran books
Event of Interest
1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan's fleet reaches Cebu
Ferdinand Magellan
Event of Interest
1625 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed German supreme commander
Albrecht von Wallenstein
- 1645 Michael Cardozo becomes 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil
- 1655 Fabio Chigi replaces Pope Innocent X as Alexander VII
- 1712 Slave revolt in New York kills 6 white men, 21 African Americans executed
- 1739 Dick Turpin executed in England for horse stealing
- 1776 Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward
- 1788 1st settlement in Ohio, at Marietta
Event of Interest
1794 English chemist and theologian Joseph Priestley departs England for America on board Sansom at Gravesend
Joseph Priestley
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre
- 1798 Mississippi Territory organized
Historic Expedition
1805 Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves Fort Mandan (on the Missouri River near what is now Washburn, North Dakota), beginning their journey to the Pacific Ocean
William Clark
Sacagawea
Meriwether Lewis
Victory in Battle
1818 General Andrew Jackson conquers St Marks, Florida from Seminole indians
Andrew Jackson
- 1827 English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches
- 1831 Dom Pedro abdicates to son, Dom Pedro II crowned emperor of Brazil
- 1860 Grand duke Frederik I liberalizes laws in Bathe
- 1862 Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tenn, Island #10 falls
- 1863 Battle of Charleston, South Carolina failed Federal fleet attack on Fort Sumter
- 1865 Battle of Farmville, Virginia
- 1868 Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and only federal politician
- 1890 Completion of the first Lake Biwa Canal, Japan
- 1891 Nebraska introduces 8 hour work day
Historic Expedition
1895 Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen reaches record 86°13.6′N latitude north, expedition closest to the North pole
Fridtjof Nansen
- 1901 SDAP demands general voting right, abolishing First Chamber
- 1902 Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms
- 1906 Act of Algeciras drawn between Moroccan police & banking business
- 1917 De Falla's ballet "El Sombrero de tres Picos" premieres in Madrid
- 1917 J.M. Barrie's play "Old Lady Shows Her" premieres in London
- 1919 1st parcel of land is purchased for Cleveland Metroparks
Election of Interest
1921 Revolutionary leader, Sun Yat-sen is elected President of China at Canton, though China remains divided into north and south and subject to rivalries of warlords
Sun Yat-sen
Event of Interest
1922 Warren G. Harding's Interior Secretary, Albert B. Fall, leases the Teapot Dome oil reserves to Harry Sinclair, setting in motion the Teapot Dome scandals
Harry Ford Sinclair
Warren G. Harding
Albert B. Fall
Event of Interest
1926 Mussolini is shot at 3 times by Violet Gibson in Rome, she only hits him once in the nose
Benito Mussolini
- 1927 Using phone lines TV is sent from Washington, D.C. to NYC
- 1931 Seals Stadium opens in San Francisco
- 1933 1st 2 NAZI anti-Jewish laws, bars Jews from legal & public service
- 1933 'National Beer Day" Cullen-Harrison act comes into effect legalising sale of low alcohol beer
- 1933 University Bridge, Seattle opens for traffic
Event of Interest
1934 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspends his campaign of civil disobedience
Mahatma Gandhi
- 1939 Italy invades Albania
Event of Interest
1940 US Post Office issues first postage stamp of African American educator Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
- 1941 British generals O'Connor & Neame captured in North Africa
Conference of Interest
1943 Adolf Hitler & Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg
Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini
D-Day
1944 World War II: General Montgomery speaks to generals at St. Paul's School about his vision for the upcoming D-Day landings
Learn More
- 1945 Kuniaki Koiso resigns as Prime Minister of Japan after the US invasion of Okinawa; he is replaced by Kantaro Suzuki
- 1945 Battle of Okinawa: Massive kamikaze attack of around 110 Japanese aircraft damages three US battleships off Okinawa island
- 1945 Sonderkommando Elbe, special Luftwaffe units designed to destroy Allied planes by ramming them mid-air, are sent on their first and only mission of World War II
- 1945 Battle of Okinawa: US planes intercept Japanese fleet heading for Okinawa on a suicide mission, super battleship Yamato and four destroyers are sunk
- 1946 Part of East Prussia incorporated into Russian SFSR
- 1946 Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
- 1948 World Health Organization formed by the United Nations
- 1948 A Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai, China, leaving twenty monks dead
- 1951 American Bowling Congress begins 1st masters tournament
- 1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1953 1st west-to-east jet transatlantic nonstop flight
Election of Interest
1953 UN General Assembly begins session that will elect Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden as Secretary-General
Dag Hammarskjöld
- 1954 German government refuses to recognize DDR
Conference of Interest
1954 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in news conference is first to voice fear of a "domino-effect" of communism in Indo-China
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
1962 Yugoslav ex-president Milovan Djilas returns to jail
Milovan Djilas
- 1963 Yugoslavia proclaimed a Socialistic republic
- 1964 IBM announces the System/360.
- 1965 Bevan Congdon makes a stumping as 12th man NZ v Pakistan
- 1966 US recovers a lost hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean sea floor (whoops)
- 1967 Israeli Syrian border fights
- 1967 Tom Donahue, San Francisco DJ begins new radio format - Progressive (KMPX-FM)
Martin Luther King Assassination Riots
1968 Riots continue in over 100 US cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Learn More
Event of Interest
1971 US President Richard Nixon orders lt Calley (Mi Lai) free
Richard Nixon
- 1972 Three members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) die in a premature bomb explosion in Belfast
- 1973 Cleveland sets day-game & opening-game attendance records of 74,420
- 1974 Herb Gardner's "Thieves" premieres in NYC
- 1975 Preliminary meeting in Paris on world economic crisis between oil-exporting, oil-importing, and non-oil Third World countries
Event of Interest
1976 Chinese Politburo fires vice-premier Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Event of Interest
1978 US President Jimmy Carter defers production of neutron bomb
Jimmy Carter
- 1979 Henri La Mothe dives 28' into 12 3/8" of water
- 1980 Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis
Birthdays in History
- 1506 Francis Xavier, saint/Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan
- 1534 Jose de Anchieta, Spanish jesuit/missionary (Brazilian Tupi-Indians)
- 1613 Gerard Dou, Dutch painter (Night School) (d. 1675)
- 1622 Louise Hollandine, daughter of King Frederik V & Elizabeth Stuart
- 1629 Juan Jose, of Austria, Spanish general/governor of Netherlands
- 1644 François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi, French soldier (d. 1730)
- 1648 Ferdinand van Kessel, Flemish painter
- 1648 John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (d. 1721)
- 1652 Clement XII [Lorenzo Corsini], Italian Pope (1730-40) who despite ill health and total blindness (1732) unsuccessfully stemmed decline of papal influence, born in Florence (d. 1740)
- 1718 Hugh Blair, Scottish preacher and man of letters (d. 1800)
- 1727 Michel Adanson, French botanist (d. 1806)
Haym Salomon
1740 Haym Salomon, Polish-born American broker who helped finance the American Revolution, born in Leszno, Poland (d. 1785)
Haym Salomon
- 1756 Charles Felix, King of Sardina (1821-31)
William Wordsworth
1770 William Wordsworth, English poet laureate (The Prelude), born in Cockermouth, Cumberland (d. 1850)
- 1772 F M Charles Fourier, French socialist
- 1775 Francis C Lowell, founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill
- 1780 William Ellery Channing, American Unitarian clergyman
- 1786 William Rufus DeVane King, American politician, 13th US Vice President (1853), born in Sampson County, North Carolina (d. 1853)
- 1801 Henry Eagle, Commander (Union Navy), (d. 1882)
- 1803 Flora Tristan, French writer and social activist, born in Paris (d. 1844)
- 1803 James Curtiss, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1859)
- 1805 Francis Wilkinson Pickens, (Gov-SC, Confederacy), (d. 1869)
- 1822 Gershom Mott, American Major General (Union Army), born in Lamberton, New Jersey (d. 1884)
- 1841 Alfred Cogniaux, Belgian botanicus
- 1841 Jozef Neuhuys [Joseph Hendrikus Neuhuys], Dutch painter, born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1889)
- 1847 J. P. [Jens Peter] Jacobsen, Danish writer (Niels Lyhne), born in Thisted, Jutland (d. 1885)
- 1848 Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1930)
- 1858 Adrien H Gerhard, Dutch socialist politician (SDAP)
- 1860 Will Keith Kellogg, American cereal manufacturer (Kellogg's cereal brand), born in Battle Creek, Michigan (d. 1951)
- 1869 David Grandison Fairchild, American botanist/explorer, brought plants to US
- 1870 Gustav Landauer, German socialist
- 1872 William Monroe Trotter, American newspaper editor and activist for African-Americans civil rights, born near Chillicothe, Ohio (d. 1934)
- 1878 Jozef C Bittremieux, Flemish theologist (Virgin & Mother of God)
- 1882 Kurt von Schleiger, German chancellor (12/2/32-1/28/33)
- 1883 Gino Severini, Italian painter (d. 1966)
- 1884 Charles Dodd, English new testament authority
- 1884 Louis H N Bosch van Rosenthal, Dutch politician/resistance fighter
- 1890 Marjory Stoneman Douglas, environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades)
- 1891 Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish inventor (founded LEGO), born in Filskov, Denmark (d. 1958)
- 1893 Allen Dulles, American Central Intelligence Agency director (1953-1961), born in Watertown, New York (d. 1969)
- 1894 Gerald Brenan, English writer
- 1895 Lewis B Combs, American civil engineer and US Navy officer (1917-45), founding member and commander of the "Seabees", born in Manchester Center, Vermont (d. 1996)
- 1897 Erich Loewenhardt, German flying ace of World War I, born in Province of Silesia, Poland (d. 1918)
- 1908 Le Duan, Vietnamese politician
- 1909 Robert Charroux, French writer (d. 1978)
- 1911 Kenneth Oakley, Amersham Buckinghamshire, English Anthropologist, Palaeontologist, and Geologist whose method for the relative dating of fossils using fluorine content was instrumental in exposing the Piltdown Man hoax
- 1912 John Adrian Hope, politician/businessman
- 1913 Charles Vanik, American politician (d. 2007)
- 1914 Sydney Thompson, rock climber
- 1915 Henry Kuttner, American sci-fi author (Dark World, As You Were)
- 1920 Terence Armstrong, British polar geographer (d. 1996)
- 1924 Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer
- 1926 Johannes Rood, Dutch immunologist (Eurotransplant)
- 1928 Alan J Pakula, director (All the President's Men, Klute)
- 1928 James White, UK, sci-fi author (Star Surgeon, Star Healer)
- 1929 Bob Denard, French mercenary (d. 2007)
- 1931 Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot
- 1931 Donald Barthelme, American writer (Snow White, Sadness), born in Philadelphia, Pa (d. 1989)
- 1934 Swami Shantananda, Hindu Saint, Philosopher, Disciple of Swami Sivananda, Founder of Temple of Fine Arts
- 1935 Hodding Carter III, American White House press secretary (Jimmy Carter)
- 1935 Yvonne Fedderson, co-founder (Childhelp USA)
- 1936 Jean-Pierre Changeux, French neuroscientist
- 1936 Tariq Aziz, Iraqi politician and close adviser to Saddam Hussein, born in Tel Keppe, Iraq (d. 2015)
Jerry Brown
1938 Jerry Brown, American politician and Governor of California (Democratic: 1975-83, 2011-19), born in San Francisco, California
Jerry Brown
- 1939 Donald L Holmquest, astronaut, born in Dallas, Texas
- 1944 Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
- 1945 Martin Lewis, British newsreader
- 1945 Joël Robuchon, French chef, world record for Michelin stars (32), born in Poitiers, France (d. 2018)
- 1946 Robert Metcalfe, American electrical engineer (invented Ethernet, 3Com), born in Brooklyn, New York
- 1947 Eliseo Soriano, Filipino televangelist, born in Pasay, Philippines
- 1955 Andrea Fisher, American artist, born in New York (d. 1997)
- 1956 Annika Billström, Swedish politician
- 1956 Christopher Darden, American O.J. Simpson prosecutor
- 1960 Sandy Powell, English costume designer (3 Academy Awards), born in London, England
- 1963 Jaime de Marichalar, duke of Lugo, Spanish royalty
- 1965 Alison Lapper, British artist
- 1973 Carole Montillet, French skier
- 1986 Brooke Brodack, American internet celebrity
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1921 French army captain, and future president, Charles de Gaulle (30) weds Yvonne Vendroux (20) in the Notre-Dame de Calais church
Charles de Gaulle
Wedding of Interest
1940 Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (21) weds Natalya Reshetovskaya
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Deaths in History
Charles VIII
1498 Charles VIII, King of France (1483-98) who invaded Italy, dies after hitting his head on a door lintel at 27
Charles VIII
- 1503 [Zoe] Sophia Palaiologina, Byzantine princess, wife of Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow, dies (b. 1449)
- 1524 Philip of Burgundy, bishop of Utrecht, dies
- 1614 El Greco, Greek-born artist working in Spain (b. 1541)
- 1638 Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese ruler of Satsuma, dies at 61
- 1651 Lennart Torstenson, Swedish soldier and engineer (b. 1603)
- 1658 Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Spanish mystic (b. 1595)
- 1661 William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English soldier and politician, dies at 56
- 1663 Francis Cooke, Mayflower Pilgrim, dies at approximately 80
- 1668 William Davenant, English poet (b. 1606)
- 1719 Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, French priest and saint of the Catholic Church, dies at 67
- 1739 Dick Turpin, English highwayman (hanged) (b. 1706)
- 1747 Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal, dies at 70
- 1766 Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch classicist, dies at 81
- 1782 Taksin, King of Siam (1767-82), dies at 47
- 1789 Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist and anthropologist who studied comparative anatomy, paleontology and the facial angle, dies at 66
- 1789 Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)
- 1801 Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer, dies at 76
Toussaint Louverture
1803 Toussaint Louverture, Haitian general, revolutionary and most famous of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, dies while in prison in France at about 59
Toussaint Louverture
- 1810 Pieter L. van de Kasteele, Dutch politician and patriot, dies at 61
- 1811 Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian diplomat and politician, dies at 53
- 1816 Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, Empress of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, dies at 28
- 1823 Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles, French inventor and balloonist who (with Nicholas Robert) was the first to take flight in a hydrogen balloon, dies at 76
- 1836 William Godwin, English political writer (b. 1756)
- 1842 Henrik Anker Bjerregaard, Norwegian writer and poet (Fjeldeventyret), dies at 50
- 1850 William Lisle Bowles, English poet (14 Sonnets), dies at 87
- 1868 Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and Father of Confederation, dies at 42
- 1871 Alexander, grandson of English queen Victoria, dies at 1 day old
- 1871 Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff, Aus adm (Helgoland/Lissa), dies at 43
- 1871 Alexander Lloyd, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805)
- 1875 Georg Herwegh, writer, dies at 57
- 1880 Isaac M. St. John, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 52
- 1881 Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsican representative of the people, dies at 65
- 1884 Maria van Ackere-Doolaeghe, Flemish poet (Daisies, Avondlamp), dies at 80
- 1885 Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (b. 1804)
P. T. Barnum
1891 P. T. [Phineas Taylor] Barnum, American circus promoter and showman (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 80
P. T. Barnum
- 1900 Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School), dies at 73
- 1920 Karl Binding, German jurist (b. 1841)
- 1925 Saint Tikhon of Moscow [Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin], 11th Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia, dies at 60
- 1928 Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher, dies at 54
- 1932 Erv A Kelley, US policeman, shot to death by Pretty Boy Floyd
- 1933 Jan Erik/Eric Jan Hanussen, Berlin astrologist/illusionist, murdered
- 1934 William Monroe Trotter, American newspaper editor and activist for African-Americans civil rights, dies in a fall from his roof on his 62nd birthday
- 1939 Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia (1932-39), dies at 59
- 1943 Jovan Ducic, Serbian poet (Blue Legends), dies at 72
- 1943 Alexandre Millerand, President of France (b. 1859)
Henry Ford
1947 Henry Ford, American industrialist & auto maker (Ford Model T), dies at 83
Henry Ford
- 1972 Abeid Karume, Tanzanian sheik/president, murdered
- 1977 Siegfried Buback, German Federal Prosecutor, assassinated by far-leftist militant group Red Army Faction, at 57
- 1977 Jim Thompson, American author (The Killer Inside Me), dies at 70
- 1979 Bruno Apitz, German writer, dies at 78
- 1984 Frank Church, American lawyer and politician (United States Senator from Idaho), dies at 59
- 1984 Samuel C Engel, poet, dies of heart failure at 79
- 1992 Alix Talton, former Miss Georgia, dies of lung cancer at 72
- 1992 Clovis Ruffin, American fashion designer (T shirt dress), dies of AIDS at 46
- 1994 Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda (1993-94) and one of the 1st female political figures in Africa, assassinated by the presidential guard in the opening stages of the Rwandan Genocide at 40
- 1994 Golo Mann, German-American historian (Antisemitism), dies at 85
- 1994 Evert Hartman, Dutch writer (War Without Friends), dies at 56
- 1994 Francois de Grossouvre, French politician and adviser to President Mitterrand, commits suicide at 76
- 1995 Philip Vincent Belloc Jebb, architect, dies at 68
- 1996 Ian Spurling, ballet designer, dies at 59
- 1996 John Evan "Jasper" Weston-Davies [pen name Berkley Mather], English writer, dies at 87
- 1997 Georgy Shonin, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 6), dies of a heart attack at 61
- 1998 Nick Auf der Maur, Canadian journalist and politician, dies at 55
- 2003 Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (b. 1903)
- 2003 David Greene, British television director (b. 1921)
- 2007 Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (B.C., Wizard of Id), dies at 76
- 2009 Dave Arneson, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (b. 1947)
- 2011 Duke of Grafton, 11th Duke of Grafton, British peer, dies at 92
- 2013 John St Aubyn, 4th Baron St Levan, English peer (St Michael's Mount), dies at 94
- 2014 Peaches Geldof, English columnist and daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, dies of a heroin overdose at 25
- 2015 Kardam, Prince of Turnovo, eldest son of King Simeon II of Bulgaria and his wife Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela, dies at 52