Events in History
Event of Interest
1579 Francois of Anjou visits English Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I
- 1585 Antwerp surrenders after 8 months siege by Duke of Parma
- 1590 Governor of Roanoke Island colony, John White, returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]
- 1648 -20] Battle at Preston, Lancashire: Henry Ireton beats Scottish
- 1717 France, Russia & Prussia sign agreement
- 1743 Treaty of Åbo signed in Turku by Sweden and Russian Empire, ending the Russo-Swedish War (1741-1743)
- 1787 Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups
- 1788 Losantville, Ohio (now Cincinnati) founded
- 1795 Slave revolt at Knip plantation, Curacao
- 1796 British beat Batavian navy in Saldanha Bay, South Africa
Event of Interest
1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins first trip up Hudson River
Robert Fulton
Napoléon Bonaparte
Event of Interest
1834 Charles Darwin reaches the top of Campana in Chile during his voyage on the Beagle
Charles Darwin
- 1835 Solymon Merrick patents wrench
- 1836 British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages and deaths
- 1836 Charles Darwin leaves South America for the last time on HMS Beagle
- 1846 Commodore Robert F Stockton, US Navy, annexes California
- 1858 1st bank in Hawaii opens
- 1859 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana
- 1862 Confederate troops under Kirby Smith enter Kentucky
- 1863 Federal batteries & ships attacked Fort Sumter in SC
- 1870 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington, by Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump
- 1877 Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moon Phobos
- 1879 Ferdinand de Lesseps forms French Panama Canal Company
- 1891 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)
- 1891 Electric self-starter for automobile patented
- 1892 Russian and French generals, Obruchev and Boisdeffre signs Double Alliance
- 1894 Phils get 36 hits, Sam Thompson hits for cycle beating Louisville 29-4
- 1897 W B Purvis patents electric railway switch (aka points)
- 1901 The Royal Titles Act adds the words 'and the British Dominions beyond the Seas' to the monarch's style
- 1903 Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America
- 1904 George H Reid succeeds John Watson as Prime Minister of Australia
- 1905 Dutch government of De Master begins
- 1907 Bishop forbids Christian membership of Dutch Textile Union
Event of Interest
1908 Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) opens new HQ at Clay & Montgomery, San Francisco
Amadeo Giannini
- 1914 French troops under gen de Castelnau occupy Chateau Salins
- 1915 German troops over run Kovno, Lithuania
- 1915 Hurricane strikes Galveston, Texas (275 killed)
- 1915 Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Georgia, after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life
- 1916 Bulgarian offensive in Macedonia
- 1917 Italy declares war on Turkey
- 1918 British troops attack Baku, Azerbaijan
- 1918 Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000
- 1918 Turkish troops overthrow Caukasus
- 1918 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated
- 1924 French-German trade agreement signed
- 1926 Greek-Serbian, Croatian and Slavs peace treaty signed
- 1933 Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09")
- 1936 An unemployed worker, Neils B. Ruud, in Madison, Wisconsin, receives the first unemployment benefit check paid under a State law, for $15
- 1938 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Event of Interest
1940 Adolf Hitler orders a total blockade of Great Britain
Adolf Hitler
- 1941 German raider attacks Dutch SS Kota Nopan
- 1942 Task Force 17 leaves Pearl Harbor under Admiral George Murray on USS Hornet
- 1942 Transport #20 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1942 US 8th Air Force bombers stage first independent raid on Europe, attack Rouen, France
- 1943 498 British bombers attack Peenemunde (development base for the V weapons)
George S. Patton
- 1943 US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17s during attack on Schweinfurt and Regensburg
- 1944 4th Canadian Armoured division occupiers Trun, Normandy
- 1944 Canadian 2nd division conquers Falaise, Normandy
- 1944 German field marshal Walter Model replaces Günther von Kluge in Normandy
- 1944 Soviet troops arrive at Austria-Prussia border
- 1944 US 12 Army Corps occupies Orleans
- 1944 US 320th regiment infantry occupies Châteaudun
- 1945 Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel
Historic Publication
1946 George Orwell publishes "Animal Farm" in the United Kingdom
George Orwell
- 1947 The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed
- 1948 Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
- 1948 Tom Henrich hits his then record tying 4th grand slam of season
- 1950 Indonesia gains independence from Netherlands
- 1951 Hurricane winds drive 6 ships ashore, Kingston, Jamaica
- 1952 "Fallout" 1st used (NY Times)
- 1953 Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
- 1955 Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage
- 1956 Federal Constitutional Court bans the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in West Germany
- 1956 One of the largest demonstrations in South Africa's history, 20,000 women marched to Pretoria's Union Buildings to present petition against carrying of passes by women to the Prime Minister
- 1958 World's 1st Moon probe, US's Thor-Able, explodes at T +77 sec
- 1959 7.1 quake strikes Yellowstone National Park
- 1959 USSR & Iraq signs contract for building Iraqi nuclear reactor
- 1960 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
- 1960 Gabon gains independence from France (National Day)
- 1960 Indonesia drops diplomatic relations with Netherlands
- 1961 Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress
- 1962 East German border guards shot and kill Peter Fechter, 18, attempting to cross Berlin Wall into western sector
- 1963 Oriole's Dick Hall retires his 28th consecutive player in relief
- 1966 NASA satellite Pioneer 7 launched into solar orbit
- 1968 Dick Beyers (Dr X) beats Verne Gagne, to become NWA champ
- 1969 Hurricane Camille strikes US coastline and kills 259 people (mainly in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
- 1970 Venera 7 (US), 1st softlanding on Venus, launched
- 1973 Lee Trevino's 1st hole-in-one
- 1976 An earthquake & tsunami in the Philippines kills up to 8,000
Birthdays in History
- 1473 Richard, Duke of York (d. 1483?)
- 1578 Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1586 Johann V Andreae, German vicar/writer (Christenburg)
- 1607 Pierre de Fermat, mathematician who needed wider margins (Fermat's Last Theorem) [or 1608]
- 1629 King John [Jan] III Sobieski of Poland. Victor over the Turks in 1683 (d. 1696)
- 1720 Charles D J Eisen, French engraver/painter (Contes de La Fontaine)
- 1753 Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)
- 1768 Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
Davy Crockett
1786 Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, adventurer and politician, born in Greene County, Tennessee (d. 1836)
Davy Crockett
- 1786 Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
- 1794 Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)
- 1811 Johannes H Scholten, Dutch theologist (Free Will)
- 1817 Joseph baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, Belgian Internal minister (1870-71)
- 1819 James Henry Van Alen, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Kinderhook, New York (d. 1886)
- 1828 Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
- 1838 Laura de Force Gordon, California lawyer, a prominent suffragette, and 1st woman to run a daily newspaper in the US (Stockton Daily Leader, 1874), born in North East, Pennsylvania (d. 1907)
- 1839 Thijs [Matthijs] Maris, Dutch painter/etcher
- 1840 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, England, writer (Irish Land League)
- 1841 Luis NF Varela, Brazilian romantic poet
Menelik II
1844 Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (1889-1913) and Negus/King of Shewa (1866–89), born in Angolalla, Ethiopia (d. 1913)
Menelik II
- 1851 Henry Drummond, Scottish geologist and evangelist
- 1856 Violet Paget, [Vernon Lee], British author (Satan the master)
- 1863 Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and naturalist (d. 1924)
- 1866 Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
- 1870 Frederick Russell, developed 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine
- 1873 John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
- 1876 Eric Drummond, 1st Secretary-General of League of Nations (1919-33)
- 1876 Henri G Winkelman, Dutch general/supreme commander/navy 1940
- 1885 Clara [G Meijer-]Wichmann, German anarchists/feminist (Wife & society)
- 1885 Kurt Hiller, German writer, born in Berlin (d. 1972)
- 1887 Charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary (1916-18)
Marcus Garvey
1887 Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born black nationalist who began the back-to-Africa movement among US African Americans, born in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica (d. 1940)
Marcus Garvey
Leslie Groves
1896 Leslie Groves, American army engineer who directed the Manhattan Project and construction of the Pentagon, born in Albany, New York (d. 1970)
Leslie Groves
- 1898 Gerard Schmook, Flemish librarian/historian/custodian
- 1904 Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)
- 1905 John Hay Whitney, publisher (NY Herald Trib 1961-67)
- 1906 Hazel Bishop, chemist/cosmetics manufacturer
- 1906 Marcello Caetano, last Portuguese prime minister of the Estado Novo regime (1968-1974), born in Graça, Lisbon, Portugal (d. 1980)
- 1907 Roger Peyrefitte, French writer (Special Friendships), born in Castres, Tarn (d. 2000)
- 1910 J A Manusama, Moluccan politician
- 1911 Frederik de Merode, Belgian prince (d. 1958)
- 1911 Jan Lode Cantens, Flemish dramatist (God's Murderer)
- 1912 Edgar Fernhout, Dutch painter/son of Charley Toorop
- 1913 W. Mark Felt, American FBI official and Watergate secret informant known as "Deep Throat"
- 1914 Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr, son of FDR/(Rep-D-NY, 1949-55)
- 1916 John de Young, resistance fighter
- 1917 Safa Khulusi, Iraqi writer and historian, born in Baghdad (d. 1995)
- 1920 Georgia Gibbs, singer (Ballin the Jack, Kiss of Fire), born in Worcester, Massachusetts
- 1921 Geoffery Rudolph Elton, historiographer
- 1922 Paul Wiens, German writer, born in Königsberg, East Prussia (d. 1982)
- 1923 Larry Rivers, [Grossberg], American painter (Wash crossing Delaware-1953), born in NYC, New York
- 1923 Chaleo Yoovidhya, Thai co-creator of Red Bull energy drink, born in Phichit, Thailand (d. 2012)
- 1924 Helen Wallis, cartographer/librarian
- 1924 John A Emmens, art historian/poet (Kunst & Vliegwerk)
- 1924 Evan Connell, American author (The Patriot), born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 2013)
- 1925 John Hawkes, American writer (2nd Skin)
- 1925 John Howard Purnell, Welsh chemist (Royal Society of Chemistry), born in Rhondda, South Wales (d. 1996)
Jiang Zemin
1926 Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (1989-2002) and President of the People's Republic of China (1993-2003), born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu
Jiang Zemin
Ted Hughes
1930 Ted Hughes, Poet (British Poet Laureate 1984-98), born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire (d. 1998)
Ted Hughes
V. S. Naipaul
1932 V.S. Naipaul, British novelist (Middle Passage), born in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2018)
V. S. Naipaul
- 1933 Eugene F. Kranz, American NASA executive
- 1937 Yevgeni Aleksandrovich Illyin, Russian cosmonaut
- 1938 Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Muslim cleric
- 1938 Theodoros Pangalos, Greek politician
- 1940 David E Price, (Rep-D-North Carolina)
- 1941 Ibrahim Babangida, Nigerian Head of State (1985–1993), born in Northern Region, British Nigeria
Larry Ellison
1944 Larry Ellison, American businessman (billionaire founder of Oracle Corporation), born in Manhattan, New York
Larry Ellison
- 1946 Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago politician, Prime Minister (1991-95, 2001-10), born in San Fernando (d. 2016)
- 1947 Francine Hughes Wilson, American domestic abuse victim "The Burning Bed" who changed pubic perceptions, born in Stockbridge, Michigan (d. 2017)
- 1949 Norm Coleman, American politician
- 1952 Kathryn C Thornton, PhD/astronaut (STS 33, 49, 61, 73), born in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1952 Thomas J Hennen, astronaut (STS 44), born in Albany, Georgia
- 1952 Dr. Mario Theissen, German F1 team principal (BMW Sauber)
- 1953 Robert Brent Thirsk, BC Canada, astronaut (STS 78)
- 1953 Judith Regan, American book publisher
- 1955 Richard Hilton, American heir
- 1959 David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
- 1959 Jonathan Franzen, American author
- 1971 Shaun Rehn, Australian Rules footballer
- 1974 Nicola Kraus, American novelist
- 1984 Garrett Wolfe, American professional footbal player
Weddings in History
- 1498 Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander IV, 1st man to resign the cardinalate marries Charlotte d'Albret of Navarre
Wedding of Interest
1996 Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (72) weds Grace Marufu (31) at Kutama College in Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe
Deaths in History
- 754 Karloman, abbot of Monte Cassino, dies at 39
- 1153 Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England (b. 1130)
- 1304 Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
- 1464 Nikolaus von Cusa, German theologist/mathematician/philosopher, dies
- 1510 Edmund Dudley, English treasurer, beheaded for teason
- 1510 Richard Empson, English treasurer, beheaded
- 1536 Pietersz, book publisher (Kersten Knight - on Index), dies
- 1553 Charles III, Duke of Savoy (1504-53), dies at 66
- 1635 Francisco de Moncada, Spanish earl of Osuna, dies at 48
- 1673 Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist, dies of possible suicide at 32
- 1676 Grimmelshausen, writer, dies
- 1681 Nikon [Nikita Minin], patriarch of Russian-orthodox church, dies at 76
- 1720 Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)
- 1723 Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
- 1768 Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)
- 1785 Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman, dies at 74
Frederick the Great
1786 Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740-86), dies at 74
Frederick the Great
José de San Martín
1850 Jose de San Martin, South American revolutionary hero and general, dies at 72
José de San Martín
- 1861 Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806)
- 1865 Mosby Munroe Parsons, United States officer in the Mexican–American War and brigadier general of the Confederate States Army, dies in battle at 42
- 1875 Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (Father of Bantu Philology), dies at 48
- 1878 Richard Upjohn, US architect, died
- 1886 Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 61
- 1886 Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (discoverer of hexamine (1859)), dies at 57
- 1888 James Jameson, British nature investigator (Congo), dies
- 1893 Aleksey Apukhtin, Russian poet (Stichotvorenia), dies at 52 [NS=8/29]
- 1896 Bridget Driscoll, 1st person in Great Britain to die in an auto-accident
- 1914 James Grierson, British general
- 1915 Leo Frank, American convict, hanged in 1915 by a lynch mob in Georgia at 31
- 1924 Pavel S "Paul" Urysohn, Russian mathematician, drowns at 26
- 1925 Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (b. 1848)
- 1927 Horace Alderman, American murderer, hanged
- 1935 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist, writer and lecturer for social reform, dies at 75
- 1940 Billy Fiske, US RAF-pilot/2nd lieutenant and 1st American serviceman killed in action in World War II, dies at 29
- 1945 Pater Bleijs, [Louis], resistance fighter, dies in car accident
- 1948 Nico J. Polak, Dutch economist, dies at 60
- 1949 Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist (48th Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court) and politician, dies at 57
- 1953 Johannes B Tielrooy, literature (French Living Lesson), dies at 66
- 1953 Bannister Fletcher, English architect and architectural historian (A History of Architecture), dies at 87
- 1962 Peter Fechter trying to cross the Berlin Wall (b. 1944)
- 1966 Michael Garrison, producer (Crowded Sky), dies after a fall at 43
- 1969 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect (November Group), dies at 83
- 1969 Philip Blaiberg, after 19 days with artificial heart, dies
- 1971 Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)
- 1972 Raymond Brulez, Flemish author (Schoone slaapster), dies at 76
- 1972 Wampilow, writer, dies
- 1973 Conrad Aiken, American poet (Pulitzer), dies at 74
- 1974 Aldo Palazzeschi, [Giurlani], Italian writer, dies at 89
- 1982 Ruth Voorst, South African (A World Apart), killed by letter bomb
- 1984 Holly Roffey, youngest heart transplant, dies at 4 weeks
- 1987 Charles Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (Claro Enigma), dies at 84
Rudolf Hess
1987 Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941, sentenced to life in Spandau Prison), commits suicide at 93
Rudolf Hess
- 1988 Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr, (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), dies on 74th birthday
- 1988 Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (1978-88), dies in plane crash at 64
- 1991 Leo Geerts, [Marcel van der Linden], Belgian writer/critic, dies
- 1991 Mervyn Nelson, director (Some of My Best Friends Are...), dies at 76
- 1992 Andre de Villiers, South African, murdered
- 1992 Barbara Morgan, photographer (Martha Graham), dies at 92
- 1992 Tommy Nutter, fashion designer (bell bottom pants), dies of AIDs at 49
- 1993 Max de Metz, Dutch publisher/translator, dies at 72
- 1993 Robert C Maynard, CEO (Oakland Tribune), dies at 56
- 1993 Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (b. 1920)
- 1994 Elias Canetti, buried next to James Joyce
- 1995 Marjorie Sykes, peace campaigner, dies at 90
- 1995 Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer, dies at 62
- 1996 Edward Digby Baltzell, Ivy League sociologist, dies at 80
- 1996 Eric Evans, English dean of St Paul's, dies at 68
- 2004 Thea Astley, Australian novelist and short-story writer, dies at 78
- 2005 John Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
- 2007 Bill Deedes, British journalist and politician (b. 1913)
- 2008 Franco Sensi, Italian oil tycoon and president of A.S. Roma
- 2010 Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician and 8th President of the Italian Republic (1985-92), dies at 82
- 2010 Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet (At Eighty), dies at 90
- 2012 Patrick Ricard, French businessman and CEO of Pernod Ricard, dies from cardiac arrest at 67
- 2013 John Hollander, American poet and literary critic, dies at 83
- 2016 Arthur Hiller, Canadian director (Love Story), dies at 92