Events in History
- 612 BC Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire. Destruction of Nineveh.
- 610 In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur'an
- 654 Pope Eugene I elected to succeed Martinus I
- 843 Treaty of Verdun: Brothers Lotharius I, Louis the German & Charles the Bald divide France
- 955 Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, King of the Germans defeats the Hungarian, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of Western Europe.
- 991 Battle of Maldon: English, led by Bryhtnoth, confront a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon in Essex. The English are defeated and the story is immortalised in a well-known poem.
- 1304 -11] Battle at Zierik Sea: Dutch & French fleet beat Flemish fleet
- 1316 Second Battle of Athenry, Anglo-Norman victory over Gaelic clan alliance
- 1346 Majorcan explorer Jaume Ferrer sets sail to find the legendary 'river of gold' along the West African coast (disappears without trace)
- 1461 Alfonso ed Espina, bishop of Osma urges for an Inquisition in Spain
Event of Interest
1497 John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia"
John Cabot
- 1500 Portuguese sea captain Diego Diaz is first European to sight Madagascar
- 1511 Portuguese troops occupy parts of Malacca
- 1512 Battle of Saint-Mathieu (also called the Battle of Brest): an English fleet of 25 ships commanded by Sir Edward Howard and a Franco-Breton fleet of 22 ships commanded by René de Clermont.
- 1557 Battle of St Quentin in Picardy: Lamoraal, Count of Egmont and Philibert, Duke of Savoy (Spanish Empire) beat the Duke of Montmorency (France)
- 1566 Protestant Iconoclasm "Beeldenstorm" begins in European Low Countries
Treaty of Interest
1585 English Queen Elizabeth I signs Treaty of Nonsuch: Aid for Netherlands
Elizabeth I
Event of Interest
1675 King Charles II and John Flamsteed lay the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London
Charles II
John Flamsteed
- 1675 Portuguese-Jewish synagogue opens in Amsterdam
- 1678 Netherlands & France sign peace treaty in Nijmegen
- 1680 In New Mexico, Popé leads rebellion of Pueblo Indians against Spaniards
- 1743 Earliest recorded prize fighting rules formulated
- 1759 Carlos III crowned King of Spain
- 1774 1st Surinam newspaper (1st Wednesday Suriname) begins publishing
United States Declaration of Independence
1776 American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
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Event of Interest
1792 Papers from the Tuileries Palace, proving the Comte de Mirabeau had secret dealings with the court are revealed
Comte de Mirabeau
- 1793 Louvre palace officially opens in Paris as The Museum Central des Arts
- 1809 Area of Quinto is the first to declare itself independent of Spain in Latin America, though put down by the Spanish after 24 day (now Ecuador's National Day)
- 1821 Missouri admitted as 24th US state
- 1822 Antioch Syria, hit by Earthquake; about 20,000 die
- 1827 Race riots in Cincinnati (1,000 blacks leave for Canada)
- 1831 Hurricane hits Barbados; about 1,500 die
- 1833 Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200
- 1835 Mob of whites & oxen pulled black school to a swamp out of Canaan NH
- 1846 US Act of Congress passes establishing the Smithsonian Institution, now world's largest museum and research complex
- 1856 Hurricane washes away 2-300 revelers at Last Island, Louisiana
- 1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek [Battle of Oak Hills], fought near Springfield, Missouri, General Lyon killed, Confederate victory (US Civil War)
- 1862 Battle of Nueces River TX
- 1869 O B Brown patents moving picture projector
- 1876 1st phone call between Brantford & Paris, Canada
- 1877 Big Hole River: Col John Gibbon murders Nez-Perce indians
- 1885 Leo Daft opens America's 1st commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore
- 1887 Excursion train crashes killing 101. (Chatsworth, Illinois)
- 1889 Dan Rylands patents screw cap
- 1893 Chinese deported from San Francisco under Exclusion Act
Event of Interest
1893 Rudolf Diesel's prime model internal combustion engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany
Rudolf Diesel
Event of Interest
1904 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (future Pope John XXIII) becomes a priest
John XXIII
- 1904 Dutch newspaper Volk fires gay journalist Jacob de Cock
- 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea: Japanese fleet prevented Russians breaking out of Port Arthur
- 1906 Pope Pius X bans Associations cults
- 1907 Prince Scipone Borchesi wins Beijing to Paris, 7,500 mile auto rally
- 1911 Parliament Act reduces power of UK's House of Lords
- 1911 The UK House of Commons votes on a salary - of £400 annually - for its members
- 1913 2nd Balkan War ends, Treaty of Bucharest, Bulgaria loses
- 1914 At Liege, German 12"/16.5" guns reach Belgian boundary
- 1914 German battle cruiser Goeben reaches Dardanellen/Turkey joins Germany
- 1914 German troops reconquer Mulhouse in Elzas
- 1914 WWI: French fall back at Alsace
- 1916 Turks annex Persian city Hamadan from Russia
- 1919 Ukrainian National Army massacres 25 Jews in Podolia Ukraine
- 1920 Allies recognize Poland, Czechoslovakia & Romania
- 1920 Treaty of Sèvres (Allies & Turkey)
- 1920 Turkish government renounces its claim to Israel, recognizes British mandate
Polio
1921 FDR stricken with a paralytic illness at summer home on Canadian island of Campobello. At the time it was thought to be polio, but could possibly have been Guillain–Barré syndrome
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- 1925 Hurricane strikes Borculo, 4 die
- 1926 Italian-Spanish peace treaty signed
- 1929 Grover Alexander beats Phils 7-1 for his 373rd & last NL win
- 1932 A 5.1-kg (11.2-pound) chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least seven pieces and lands near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
- 1936 114°F (46°C) at Plain Dealing, Louisiana (state record)
- 1936 120°F (49°C) at Ozark, Arkansas (state record)
- 1938 119°F (48°C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record)
- 1939 2nd Dutch De Geer government forms (1st with Social Democrats)
- 1940 Dutch Prince Bernhard Fund forms
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1942 200 Jews escape Mir Ghetto in Poland
Event of Interest
1942 General Bernard Montgomery appointed commander British 8th Army in North Africa
Bernard Montgomery
- 1943 Dutch submarine attacks Hertenbeest Island, NW Bali
Event of Interest
1943 US General George S. Patton calls injured soldier "cowardly"
George S. Patton
Event of Interest
1943 Adolf Hitler watches lynching of allied pilots
Adolf Hitler
- 1949 US National Military Establishment renamed Depertment of Defense
- 1954 Dutch Indonesian Union breaks up
- 1954 At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway is held.
- 1956 23rd NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 26, All-Stars 0 (75,000)
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1960 Discoverer 13 launched into orbit; returned 1st object from space
- 1960 Nicolaas Jouwe forms PANA in New Guinea
Birthdays in History
- 1267 King James II of Aragon (d. 1327)
- 1296 John the Blind, King of Bohemia/Count of Luxembourg
- 1360 Francesco Zabarella, Italian jurist (d. 1417)
- 1397 Albert II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1439)
- 1489 Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer (d. 1553)
- 1520 Madeleine of Valois, French princess who briefly became Queen of Scotland after marrying James V, born in the St. Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France (d. 1537)
- 1602 Gilles de Roberval, French mathematician (d. 1675)
- 1645 Eusebio Kino, Italian Catholic missionary (d. 1711)
- 1652 Peterus I Scheemaeckers, Flemish sculptor (tomb stones)
- 1654 Bernard Nieuwentyt, Dutch physician/theologist
- 1657 Cornelis Chastelein, Dutch colonial director
- 1708 John Stinstra, baptist vicar
William Howe
1729 William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, British Military Leader (commander of British forces in the American Revolutionary War), born in England (d. 1814)
William Howe
Charles Napier
1782 Charles Napier, British soldier and Major General of the Bombay Army who conquered Sindh and became its Governor (1843-47), born in Whitehall Palace, London (d. 1853)
Charles Napier
- 1794 Leopold Zunz, German Jewish scholar (Science of Judaism), born in Detmold (d. 1886)
- 1801 Robert Woodward Barnwell, MC (Confederacy), (d. 1882)
- 1810 Camilio Benso di Cavour, Turin Italy, PM
- 1810 Cornelis Outshoorn, Dutch architect
- 1814 John Clifford Pemberton, Lt Gen (Confederate Army), (d. 1881)
- 1814 William Lowndes Yancey, MC (Confederacy), (d. 1863)
Henri Nestlé
1814 Henri Nestlé, German-Swiss industrialist (founder of Nestlé), born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1890)
Henri Nestlé
- 1821 Jay Cooke, American financier (d. 1905)
- 1823 Charles Keene, Hornsey, artist
- 1823 Charles Thomas Campbell, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in St. Thomas Township, Pennsylvania (d. 1895)
- 1823 Hugh Stowell Brown, Manx preacher (d. 1886)
- 1839 Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (d. 1896)
- 1848 William Harnett, Irish-American painter (Old Violin), born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland (d. 1892)
- 1854 J Scott Lidgett, theologist, born in London, England
Edward L. Doheny
1856 Edward L. Doheny, American oil tycoon, born in Fond du lac, Wisconsin
Edward L. Doheny
Hugo Eckener
1868 Hugo Eckener, German inventor and commander of the famous Graf Zeppelin during its record-setting flights, born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1954)
Hugo Eckener
- 1869 Lawrence Binyon, poet (Symbolic Wounds), born in Vienna, Austria
Herbert Hoover
1874 Herbert Hoover, 31st US President (R: 1929-1933), born in West Branch, Iowa (d. 1964)
Herbert Hoover
- 1877 Rudolf Hilferding, German economist/SPD-minister of Finance
- 1878 Alfred Döblin, German writer (d. 1957)
- 1880 Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist, and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1964)
- 1881 Albrecht M Sprenger, landbuilder
- 1884 Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (d. 1935)
- 1889 Charles Darrow, American businessman who modified and popularized Monopoly game, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1967)
- 1890 Angus L. MacDonald, Canadian politician (d. 1954)
- 1893 Viscount Dunrossil, Scotland, Gov Gen of Australia (1959-61)
- 1893 Voranc Prezikov [Lovro Kuhar], Slovenian author (Samorastniki)
- 1894 V.V. [Varahagiri Venkata] Giri, Fourth President of India (1969-74), born in Berhampur, British India (d. 1980)
- 1895 Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian author and satirist, born in Saint Petersburg (d. 1958)
- 1897 Piet[er O] Bakker, Dutch novelist (Ciske the Rat)
- 1897 John Galbreath, American businessman (d. 1988)
- 1902 Curt Siodmak, German-born author (d. 2000)
- 1902 Arne Tiselius, Swedish chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)
- 1905 Bernard Benjamin Gillis, British judge
- 1905 Richard F Kahn, baron of Hampstead/British economist
- 1905 Era Bell Thompson, American magazine editor (Ebony), born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1986)
- 1909 George W Crockett Jr, (Rep-D-MI, 1980- )
- 1909 Julio A Abraham, president (Democratic Party Bonaire)
- 1909 Mohammed V ibn Yusuf, King of Morocco (1953, 1955-61)
- 1910 Angus Campbell, American psychologist (Elections & Political Order)
- 1911 A. N. Sherwin-White, English historian (d. 1993)
- 1912 Izaak Samkalden, Dutch Minister of Justice (PvdA)/mayor of Amsterdam
- 1912 Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (O Pais do Carnaval)
- 1918 Eugene Wilkinson, naval officer (first nuclear sub commander), born in Long Beach, California (d. 2013)
- 1919 Elizabeth Thomas, literary consultant
- 1921 Leonard Lickorish, dir-gen (British Tourist Authority)
- 1923 Gillian Brown, diplomat
- 1925 Alastair Webster Mackie, poet/teacher
- 1925 George Cooper, general
- 1925 Lawrence Byford, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary
- 1926 Benjamin Ward, 1st African American NYC Police Commissioner (1984-89), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2002)
- 1930 Barry Unsworth, novelist (Pascali's Island), (d. 2012)
- 1933 Alan Hardcastle, chairman (Lloyds Regulatory Board)
- 1933 Butler-Sloss, British Lady Justice
- 1933 David Rowland, chairman (Lloyd's)
- 1933 Doyle Brunson, American poker player
- 1933 Keith Duckworth, English mechanical engineer (Cosworth; d. 2005)
- 1935 Jerrie Anthony Hulme, British major-general
- 1936 Leendert-John Schalm, Dutch banker on Curacao
- 1937 Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician
- 1939 Charles Rose, (Rep-D-North Carolina, 1973- )
- 1940 Barbara Mills, QC, British Director of Public Prosecutions
- 1940 Richard Wells, Chief Constable (South Yorkshire)
- 1942 Betsy Johnson, fashion designer (1971 Winnie Award)
- 1945 Harry Thomas, Dutch founder (Schlager Festival Gay Party)
- 1945 Larry Larden, rocker (Every Mother's Son)
- 1945 Harriet Miers, White House counsel
- 1947 Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian politician and founder of the People's Justice Party (PKR), born in Bukit Mertajam, Malaya
- 1950 A L Harris, clinicaloncologist
- 1951 Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian politician, President of Colombia (2010-present) and Nobel laureate (2016), born in Bogotá, Colombia
- 1952 Nikolai Alekseyevich Pushenko, Russian lt-colonel/cosmonaut
- 1952 Pepsi Nunes, marine biologist
- 1953 Mark Doty, American poet and prose writer
- 1958 Rami Hamdallah, Palestinian politician, academic and Prime Minister of Palestine (2014-present), born in Anabta, West Bank
- 1959 Mark Price, bass/vocals (All About Eve, Tin Huey-Contents Dislodged)
- 1960 Todd David Hess, First USAF Member inducted into Army's Order of Military Medical Merit.
- 1963 Andrew Sullivan, English-born journalist
- 1963 Phoolan Devi, Indian bandit and revolutionary (d. 2001)
- 1971 Kevin Randleman, American mixed martial artist
- 1980 Kaysar Ridha, Iraqi-American reality TV contestant
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1848 Inventor Samuel Morse (57) weds Sarah Elizabeth Griswold in Utica, New York
Samuel Morse
Wedding of Interest
1912 British literary figure (author of "To the Lighthouse") Virginia Woolf [nee Stephen] (30) weds political theorist Leonard Woolf (31)
Virginia Woolf
- 1946 Author and founder of the Scientology cult L. Ron Hubbard (35) weds Sara Northrup Hollister
Wedding of Interest
1969 Economist Robert F. Engle (26) weds psychologist Marianne Eger
Robert F. Engle
- 2003 Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space, marrying Ekaterina Dmitriev (on earth)
Deaths in History
- 612 BC Sinsharishkun, Assyrian king
- 258 Saint Lawrence, Christian martyr, burned to death
- 794 Fastrada, 3rd wife of French King Charles the Great, dies at 30
- 955 Conrad the Red, Duke of Lotharingen, dies in battle
- 1002 Al-Mansur, Arabic general strategist/regent of Cordoba, dies
- 1250 Erik IV Plovpenning, king of Denmark, murdered
- 1535 Ippolito de' Medici, ruler of Florence (poisoned) (b. 1509)
- 1589 Maarten Schenck Nideggen, Dutch army leader, drowned at about 49
- 1628 Hans Jonsson, Swedish fleet commander, drowned
- 1637 Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran leader (b. 1582)
- 1653 Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral, dies in battle at 55
- 1655 Louis de Vadder, Flemish painter, dies at 50
- 1717 Nicolaas Witsen, Dutch statesman and mayor of Amsterdam, dies at 76
- 1723 Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman, dies at 66
- 1759 Ferdinand VI, the wise, king of Spain, dies at 46
- 1784 Allan Ramsay, Scottish painter, dies at 70
- 1802 Franz Aepinus, German physician and physicist, dies at 77
- 1839 John St Aubyn, British fossil collector, dies at 81
- 1842 Captain William Hobson, first British Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi, dies of a stroke at 49
- 1843 Jakob F. Fries, German philosopher, dies at 69
- 1844 Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia, youngest daughter and fourth child of Tsar Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, and his wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, dies at 19
- 1857 John Wilson Croker, politician
- 1859 George Staunton, English writer and traveller to China, dies at 68
- 1861 Nathaniel Lyon, American Brigadier-General (Union Army), 1st Union General to die in battle at 43
- 1862 Hon'inbō Shūsaku, Japanese professional Go player, dies at 33
- 1875 Karl (Theodor) Andree, German journalist (Globus), dies at 66
- 1876 Edward William Lane, British lexicographer and translator (One Thousand & One Nights), dies at 74
- 1896 Otto Lilienthal, German aircraft pioneer, dies
- 1904 Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French politician (29th Prime Minister of France), dies at 57
- 1905 Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale, E African prophet/rebel leader, hanged
- 1915 Henry Moseley, English physicist (b. 1887)
- 1918 Erich Lowenhardt, Germany flying ace of World War I (b. 1897)
- 1920 Ádám Politzer, Hungarian-Austrian physician, dies at 84
- 1921 John M Martin, last confederate congress member, dies
- 1929 Aletta Henriette Jacobs, 1st Dutch female doctor and feminist, dies at 75
- 1929 Pierre Fatou, French mathematician (b. 1878)
- 1934 John Kane, Scottish-American primitivist painter (Self-Portrait), dies at 73
- 1943 C Bergsma, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- 1943 J Janzen, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- 1943 J Posthuma, Dutch resistance fighter (Waalsdorpervlakte), dies
- 1944 Berthold Schenk von Stauffenberg, German aristocrat, attempted to assassinate Hitler, executed by Nazi regime at 39
Robert H. Goddard
1945 Robert H. Goddard, American Rocket Pioneer (invented and built the first liquid-fueled rocket), dies of throat cancer at 62
Robert H. Goddard
- 1948 Emmy Hennings-Ball [Emma Cordsen], German poet and performer dies at 63
- 1948 Kan'ichi Asakawa, Japanese historian, writer, and peace activist, dies at 74
- 1948 Andrew Brown, Scottish football coach (b. 1870)
- 1948 Montague Summers, English clergyman and writer (Malleus Maleficarum), dies at 68
- 1960 Emil Strauss, German writer (Vaterland), dies
- 1960 Oswald Veblin, mathematician
- 1963 Estes Kefauver, American politician (Sen-D-Tn), dies at 60
- 1963 Patrick Kennedy, son of US President JFK, dies at only 3 days
- 1963 Ernst Wetter, Member of the Swiss Federal Council, dies at 85
- 1966 Felix Andries Vening Meinesz, Dutch geophysicist (black force), dies at 79
- 1966 Jacobus C Bloem, poet (Cinders), dies
- 1969 Leno LaBianca, American businessman (murdered) (b. 1925)
- 1969 Rosemary LaBianca, American housewife (murdered) (b. 1930)
- 1970 Alexander Gode, German-American linguist, dies at 63
- 1979 Walther Gerlach, German physicist who, with Otto Stern, co-discovered spin quantization in a magnetic field (Stern–Gerlach effect) dies at 90
- 1987 I W Able, CEO (United Steel Workers of America, 1965-77), dies at 87
- 1988 Adela Rogers St John, journalist (Free Soul, Honeycomb), dies at 94
- 1988 Arias Arnulfo, 3 time president of Panama (1940-41, 49-51, 68), dies at 86
- 1990 Richard Haines, director (Splatter University), dies
- 1991 Josef Lipski, Polish politician, dies
- 1992 Aribert Heim, Austrian SS physician (served at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, known as Dr. Death), dies at 78
- 1994 Leendert-John Schalm, Dutch banker on Curacao, murdered at 58
- 1995 Fay Honey Knopp, American activist (founded a Quaker ministry for men and women in prisons), dies of complications from ovarian cancer at 76
- 1996 Adriano Mandarino Hypolito, priest, dies at 78
- 1999 Padma Bhushan Acharya Baldev Upadhyaya, Eminent Sanskrit Scholar in India (b. 1899)
- 2002 Kristen Nygaard, Norwegian computer scientist, dies at 75
- 2007 Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler, American member of Tuskegee Airmen and civil rights activist (b. 1925)
- 2007 James E. Faust, Second Councilor of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (b. 1920)
- 2012 Carlo Rambaldi, Italian Special effects artist, dies at 86
- 2017 Kim Wall, Swedish journalist killed investigating Danish inventor Peter Madsen, dies at 30 [or 11th Aug]