Events in History
- 218 BC Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal's Carthaginian army heavily defeat Roman forces on Italian soil
- 1118 Alfonso van Aragon occupies Saragossa on Almoraviden
Event of Interest
1271 Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China
Kublai Khan
- 1352 Etienne Aubert elected as Pope Innocentius VI
- 1385 Peace of Tournai (Dutch - Doornik) signed between the Burgundian Duke Philip II and the rebellious city of Ghent
- 1406 Anton of Burgundy becomes Duke of Brabant
- 1603 First fleet of the Dutch East India Company under Admiral Steven van der Haghen departs for the East-Indies
- 1621 English parliament accept unanimously, Protestation
Historic Expedition
1642 Abel Tasman's expedition sails around Farewell Spit and into Golden Bay, first sighting local Māori in New Zealand
Abel Tasman
- 1719 Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children"
Historic Expedition
1773 A skirmish at Grass Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound results in the deaths of two Māori and nine members of James Cook's expedition, New Zealand
James Cook
Event of Interest
1783 British King George III dismisses Duke of Portland's government
George III
Constitution of the United States
1787 New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the US constitution
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Event of Interest
1799 George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon
George Washington
- 1813 British take Fort Niagara in War of 1812
Event of Interest
1832 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard reaches Tierra del Fuego for the first time
Charles Darwin
Election of Interest
1852 George Hamilton-Gordon becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after the downfall of the Conservative government of Edward Smith-Stanley
George Hamilton-Gordon
Edward Smith-Stanley
- 1858 Passy, at Paris: 1st "Samedi soir" i/d villa of lovers Rossini
- 1862 Battle at Lexington, Tennessee (Forrest's Second Raid)
- 1865 1st US cattle importation law passed
- 1867 Around 49 victims of "Angola Horror" train wreck burn to death in Angola, New York
- 1869 Canada's Hamilton Football Club plays its 1st game
- 1878 French SS Byzantin sinks after collision in Dardanelles, 210 killed
- 1878 John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires, is executed in Pennsylvania
- 1888 Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado
- 1890 Lugards expedition to Meng and Kampala, Uganda
- 1898 Automobile speed record set-63 kph (39 mph)
- 1899 Field Marshal Lord Roberts appointed British supreme commander in South Africa
- 1900 The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
Event of Interest
1902 British parliament passes the Education Act, which will come to be regarded as the most important legislation of Arthur Balfour's government
Arthur Balfour
- 1905 H V Hordern takes 8-81 in 2nd innings of F-C debut (NSW v Qld)
Bare Bones of the Great Ape-Man Hoax
1912 Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is supposedly found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.
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Event of Interest
1917 The Soviet government issues a decree recognizing Finland's newly-declared independence [N.S. December 31]
Vladimir Lenin
Joseph Stalin
Prohibition is Ratified
1917 The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, authorizing prohibition of alcohol, is approved by the US congress and sent to the states for ratification
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- 1920 1st US postage stamps printed without the words United States or US
- 1923 International zone of Tangier set up in Morocco
- 1935 Edward Benes becomes president of Czechoslovakia
- 1935 The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon
- 1936 Su-Lin, 1st giant panda to come to US from China, arrives in San Francisco
- 1939 Finnish army recaptures Agläjärvi
- 1941 44 surviving crewmen of German U-434 surrender to the HMS Blankney after scuttling their wounded submarine. Two are lost.
- 1941 Japanese troops land on Hong Kong
- 1944 US Destroyers Hull, Spence & Monaghan sink in typhoon (Philippines)
- 1944 Nazi occupiers of Amsterdam destroy electricity plants
- 1945 Uruguay joins the United Nations
- 1946 TV's 1st network dramatic serial "Faraway Hill" ends 2 month run in US
- 1948 Indonesia begins its 2nd political election
- 1956 Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai
- 1956 Japan admitted to UN
- 1957 World's 1st full scale nuclear power plant for only peacetime use begins to generate electricity, at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania
- 1958 Project SCORE, world’s 1st communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral
- 1958 Niger gains autonomy within French Community (National Day)
- 1960 General Meeting of UN condemns apartheid
- 1961 India annexes Portuguese colonies of Goa, Damao & Diu
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 Clarke runs world record 10k (28:15.6)
- 1963 Muskegon, Michigan gets 3' of snow
- 1964 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
1965 Frank Borman and Jim Lovell Splash down in Atlantic after two week Gemini VII mission
Frank Borman
- 1965 Kenneth LeBel jumps 17 barrels on ice skates
- 1966 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1966 Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
- 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1969 House of Lords votes to abolish the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland 25 July 1973)
- 1969 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1970 Polish uprising fails
- 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1971 People United To Save Humanity (PUSH) formed by Jesse Jackson in Chicago
- 1971 US dollar devalued 7.9% in Holland ($1=Ÿ3,245)
- 1971 Three members of the Irish Republican Army die when the bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in King Street, Magherafelt, County Derry.
- 1972 US launches Operation Linebacker II, its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam, as negotiations to end the Vietnam War collapse
- 1973 Soyuz 13 launched into Earth orbit for 8 days
- 1974 San Francisco Visitors Center at City Hall opens
- 1976 Soviet dissident Viktor Bukovskiexchanged for Chile CP-leader Corvalan
- 1977 Dutch Antilles: premier Boy Rozendal points independence off
- 1978 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1978 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1979 Stanley Barrett 1st to exceed land sonic speed (739.666 MPH)
- 1980 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts minister Van Agts abortion laws
- 1980 IRA's Sean McKenna becomes critically ill, ends hunger strike
- 1980 Vietnam adopts constitution
- 1982 Flight readiness firing of Challenger's main engines; 20 seconds
- 1985 UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"
- 1987 Ivan F Boesky sentenced to 3 years for insider trading
- 1989 "I Love Lucy" Christmas episode, shown for 1st time in over 30 years
- 1989 Athol Fugard's "My Children, My Africa" premieres in NYC
- 1990 NL announces Buffalo, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa-St Petersburg, & Washington, D.C. as 6 finalist for 1993 expansion (Miami & Denver win)
- 1990 Bush reiterates his "no concessions" stance against Iraq
- 1991 General Motors announces closing of 21 plants
- 1992 FCC vote 4-1 to allow Infinity to purchase Cook Inlet stations
- 1993 Kevin Scott skates world record 1K (1:12.54)
Birthdays in History
- 1418 Albert VI, Archduke of Austria, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1463)
- 1507 Ōuchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (d. 1551)
- 1602 Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (d. 1650)
- 1610 Charles Du Fresne Du Cange, French scholar/philologist
- 1620 Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)
- 1633 Adriaen Melar, Flemish engraver, baptised
- 1633 Willem van de Velde the Young, Dutch seascape painter, baptised
- 1635 Antonius Matthaeus, Dutch lawyer/historian
- 1661 Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
- 1662 James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)
- 1707 Charles Wesley, co-founder (Methodist movement)
- 1725 Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (d. 1791)
- 1760 Knud L Rahbek, Danish literary (Om sku skuespillerkunsten)
Joseph Grimaldi
1778 Joseph Grimaldi, English pantomimist and the "greatest clown in history", born in London (d. 1837)
Joseph Grimaldi
- 1803 William Allen, (Rep/Gov-Oh)
- 1811 Alexander Sandor Asboth, Hungarian-American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Keszthely, Hungary (d. 1868)
- 1816 Alfred Elzey Jones, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1871)
- 1819 Yakov Petrovich Polonsky, Russian poet (Stichotvorenija)
- 1825 Charles Griffin, American Major General (Union Army), born in Granville, Ohio (d. 1867)
- 1826 Charles-A Chatrian [Erckmann-C], French writer (L'ami Fritz)
- 1826 Mercer Brooke John, (Confederate Navy), (d. 1906)
- 1835 George Dashiell Bayard, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Seneca Falls, New York (d. 1862)
- 1835 Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
- 1837 A Adolf Daens, Belgian priest/Dutch party founder (CVP)
- 1844 Lujo [Ludwig J von] Brentano, German economist
- 1851 Graciano Lopez Jaena, Filipino hero, orator and satirist (d. 1896)
J. J. Thomson
1856 J. J. Thomson, English physicist who discovered the electron (Nobel 1906), born in Manchester, England (d. 1940)
J. J. Thomson
Franz Ferdinand
1863 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria whose assassination in 1914 led to declarations of war in WWI, born in Graz, Austria (d. 1914)
Franz Ferdinand
Joseph Stalin
1878 Joseph Stalin, Dictator and General Secretary of the Soviet Union (1922-53), born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1953)
Joseph Stalin
- 1879 Paul Klee, Münchenbuchsee Switzerland, Swiss/German abstract painter (Twittering Machine)
- 1884 Philippe van Isacker, Belgian minister
- 1888 Robert Moses, power broker (built Long Island & NYC parks & roads)
- 1890 Edwin Howard Armstrong, American radio pioneer inventor (FM), born in NYC, New York (d. 1954)
- 1897 Fernand J Collin, Belgian economist/banker
- 1898 Jacob Kruijt, Dutch sociologist
- 1904 George Stevens, American director (Alice Adams, Penny Serenade)
- 1907 Christopher Fry, playwright (Ring Around the Moon), born in Bristol, England
- 1911 Helen Vlachos, journalist
- 1911 Jules Dassin, American film director (The Naked City; Night And The City; Rififi), blacklisted during McCarthy era, born in Middletown, Connecticut (d. 2008)
- 1912 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American General (d. 2002)
- 1913 Alfred Bester, American sci-fi author (Decievers, Starlight)
Willy Brandt
1913 Willy Brandt [Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm], German statesman, leader of the SPD party (1964-1987) and Chancellor of West Germany (1969-74, Nobel 1971), born in Lübeck, Germany (d. 1992)
Willy Brandt
- 1914 Jerry Zipkin, socialite
- 1923 Lotti [Charlotte] van der Gaag, Dutch sculptor/painter
- 1927 Ramsey Clark, US attorney General (1967-69)
- 1927 Sterling Lanier, American writer (Hiero's Journey)
- 1927 Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada
- 1928 Józef Glemp, Polish cardinal
- 1931 Alison Plowden, English historian (d. 2007)
- 1933 Arthur Leigh Allen, Suspected Zodiac serial killer (d. 1992)
- 1934 John Bingham, Lord Lucan, British peer suspected of murdering his nanny who disappeared, born in London (presumed dead)
- 1934 Boris Valentinovich Volynov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 5, 21)
- 1935 Bonno Spieker, Dutch 2nd Chamber member (PvdA), born in Delfzijl, Netherlands (d. 2017)
- 1935 Jacques Pépin, French chef
- 1939 Christoffel "Stoffel" van de Merwe, South African minister of Education
- 1939 Michael J Moorcock, England, sci-fi author (Alien Heat, Bull & Spear)
- 1939 Harold E. Varmus, American scientist, Nobel laureate
- 1940 Bramwell Morrison, member of Sharon, Lois & Bram
- 1942 William HAF, English prince/grandson of George V
- 1945 Birenda Bir Bikram, King of Nepal (1972- )
- 1946 Stephen (Steve) Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist, born in Ginsberg Township (d. 1977)
- 1947 Judy Heumann, American disability rights activist, and author, born in Brooklyn, New York
- 1947 Eddie Antar, founder and CEO (Crazy Eddie Electronics Store), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2016)
- 1948 Edmund "Ed" Kemper, American serial killer, born in Burbank, California
- 1950 Gillian Armstrong, Australian director (My brilliant Career, Little Women), born in Melbourne, Victoria
- 1951 Andrew S Thomas, Adelaide Australia, PhD/astronaut (STS 77, STS 89/91)
- 1951 Pape Diouf, Senegalese journalist and football agent (president Olympique de Marseille 2005-09; first black president in Europe's top 6 leagues), born in Abéché, Chad (d. 2020)
- 1953 Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard
- 1956 Reinhold Ewald, German cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-25)
- 1960 Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist
- 1961 Thomas Strittmatter, writer
- 1964 Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi (2005-20), born in Ngozi, Burundi (d. 2020)
- 1970 Miles Marshall Lewis, American author
- 1970 Johnny Yeo, English artist
- 1971 Barkha Dutt, Indian journalist
- 1972 Trevor Chowning, American Pop Artist
- 1972 DJ Lethal, Latvian-born American DJ (House of Pain, Limp Bizkit)
- 1983 Ady Barkan, American lawyer and activist (Medicare for all)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1915 28th US President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before marries second wife Edith Bolling Galt, a descendant of native American Pocahontas
Woodrow Wilson
Wedding of Interest
1932 Civil rights activist Rosa McCauley (19) weds Raymond Parks (29) in Montgomery, Alabama
Rosa Parks
Wedding of Interest
1987 Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's future Prime Minister, marries Asif Ali Zardari
Benazir Bhutto
- 1993 General Hospital co-stars Kristina Malandro & Jack Wagner wed
Wedding of Interest
2003 Founder of Oracle Larry Ellison (59) weds romance novelist Melanie Craft in Woodside, California
Larry Ellison
Deaths in History
- 468 Huna Mari bar Mar Zutra, rabbi, executed in Pumpedita
- 821 Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans
- 1133 Hildebert, French writer and bishop
- 1290 King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
- 1442 Pierre Cauchon, French Catholic bishop (b. 1371)
- 1495 Alphonso II, King of Naples (1494-95), dies at 47
- 1505 John IX van Horne, prince-bishop of Lieges, executed
- 1565 Benedetto Varchi, Italian humanist/historian (L'Ercolano), dies at 62
- 1577 Anna, duchess of Saxon/wife of prince Willem of Orange, dies at 32
- 1597 Barbara Blomberg, German mistress of emperor Karel, dies at 67
- 1633 Theodoor Galle, Flemish engraver, buried at 62
- 1638 Le Pere Joseph, French mystic, dies
- 1651 Francisco the Melo, Portuguese/Spanish earl of Assumar, dies at 54
- 1692 Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (b. 1626)
- 1710 Petrus Codde, Dutch Roman Catholic apostole vicar (1688-1704), dies at 62
- 1751 Kilian I von Dientzenhofer, builder (Nepomukkerk, Prague), dies at 62
- 1787 Soame Jenyns, English writer (b. 1704)
- 1799 Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician, dies at 74
- 1803 Johann G von Herder, German philosopher, theologist and poet, dies at 59
- 1831 Willem Bilderdijk, Dutch poet and literature (My Relief), dies at 75
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
1839 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French naturalist (Lamarckian evolution), dies at 85
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- 1843 Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, British Viceroy of India (b. 1748)
- 1848 Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1781)
- 1855 Samuel Rogers, English poet (Italy, a poem), dies at 92
- 1862 Johnson Kelly Duncan, architect/Confederate brig-generaal, dies at 35 of malarial fever
- 1879 Charley Parkhurst, American stagecoach driver who disguised herself as a women for 30 years, dies at 67
- 1881 George Edmund Street, English architect, dies at 57
- 1892 Richard Owen, English zoologist (Dinosauria), dies at 88
- 1894 Erastus Flaval Beadle, American publisher (Beadle's Dime Novels), dies at 73
- 1897 Carlo A Alfieri, Italian Member of parliament, dies at 70
- 1915 Henry Enfield Roscoe, English Chemist, dies at 82
- 1915 Louise Blanchard Bethune, 1st American female architect, dies at 59
- 1919 John Alcock, English pilot (1st non-stop flight across Atlantic Ocean), dies in crash at 27
- 1931 Jack "Legs" Diamond, American gangster and bootlegger, murdered at 34
- 1932 Eduard "Ede" Bernstein, German marxist/revisionist, dies at 82
- 1935 Juan V Gomez, general/dictator of Venezuela (1908-35), dies
- 1936 Andrija Mohorovičić, Austro-Hungarian-born Yugoslav seismologist (b. 1857)
- 1939 Matthew Brown, Journalist, dies at 51
- 1948 Janet Fay, hammered to death by Honeymoon Killers
- 1966 Gene Gauntier, dies in Cuernavaca Mexico
- 1971 Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Russian poet and editor in chief (Novyj Mir), dies at 61
- 1972 Neilia Biden, Joe Biden's first wife and their 13-month-old daughter Naomi, are killed in an automobile accident a few days before he takes office as the newly elected Senator for Delaware
- 1973 Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani scholar, orator and philosopher, dies at 65
- 1975 Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian-American genetist, evolutionary biologist and author (Mankind Evolving), dies at 75
- 1977 Louis Untermeyer, American poet and critic (Immortal Poems, Story Poems), dies at 92
- 1977 Walter Breedveld, Dutch writer (Een ship vergaat), dies at 76
- 1980 Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76
- 1981 Mehmet Shehu, PM Albania (1954-81)/"US-Russ spy", commits suicide
- 1982 Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German Combat pilot and highest-decorated German soldier of WWII, dies at 66
- 1985 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet (b. 1916)
- 1992 Mother Clare Hale, cared for NYC AIDS babies (Hale House), dies at 87
- 1992 Charles Leatherland, Baron Leatherland, British journalist and Labour Party politician, dies at 94
- 1994 Peter Hebblethwaite, English editor-in-chief (The Month), dies at 64
- 1994 Roger Apéry, Greek-French mathematician (b. 1916)
- 1995 Chaim Pearl, rabbi, dies at 76
- 1995 Georgio Fini, restaurateur, dies at 70
- 1995 Ross Thomas, author, dies at 69
- 1995 Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
- 1998 Lev Demin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)
- 2000 Randolph Apperson Hearst, American newspaper publisher (Hearst Newspapers), dies at 85
- 2002 Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1934)
- 2002 Wayne Owens, former U.S. Congressman (D-Utah) (b. 1937)
- 2003 Susan Travers, English-French Foreign Legion soldier, dies at 94
- 2004 Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (b. 1926)
- 2005 Alan Voorhees, American engineer and urban planner (b. 1922)
Joseph Barbera
2006 Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (Hanna-Barbera - Tom and Jerry, Flintstones), dies at 95
Joseph Barbera
- 2006 Ruth Bernhard, American photographer (1905)
- 2006 Mike Dickin, British radio broadcaster (b. 1943)
- 2006 Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani author, journalist and political activist (b. 1923)
- 2007 Gerald Le Dain, Canadian Supreme Court judge (b. 1924)
- 2007 Bill Strauss, American writer on generations, satirist, and founder of the Capitol Steps (b. 1947)
- 2008 Mark Felt, the infamous "Deep Throat", American FBI official and whistle blower during the Watergate Scandal dies aged 95
- 2010 Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and economist (b. 1940)
- 2010 Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist and classical scholar (b. 1913)
- 2010 James Pickles, English judge and columnist, dies at 85
Václav Havel
2011 Václav Havel, Czech politician (President of Czechoslovakia, 1990-2, Czech Republic, 1993-2003), dies at 75
Václav Havel