On This Day in History for February 1

Events in History

Events 1 - 100 of 203

• 772 Adrian I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

• 1539 Emperor Karel & King Francois I sign anti-English treaty

• 1662 Dutch garrison on Formosa surrenders to Chinese pirates

• 1717 Henri d'Aguesseau's 1st appointment as chancellor of France
• 1732 Parliament of Ratisborn accepts Pragmatic Sanctions
• 1742 Sardinia and Austria sign alliance

• 1788 1st US steamboat patent issued, by Georgia to Briggs & Longstreet
• 1789 Chinese troops driven out of Vietnam capital Thang Long
• 1790 US Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (NYC)
• 1793 France declares war on Great Britain and Netherlands
• 1793 Patent granted Ralph Hodgson, NY, for oiled silk & linen


• 1796 The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York
• 1809 Dutch King Louis Napoleon accepts metric system
• 1810 1st insurance company managed by African Americans, The African Insurance Company opens in Philadelphia
• 1810 Seville, Spain surrenders to the French without a fight
• 1810 US Population: 7,239,881, African American population: 1,377,808 (19%)

• 1814 Volcano Mayon on Luzon Philippines erupts killing 1,200
• 1840 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US, incorporated
• 1843 Oldest continuous writer of insurance in America - The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (MONY) opens
• 1846 Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club" about his initiation
• 1856 Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
• 1860 1st rabbi to open House of Representatives, Morris Raphall of NYC
• 1861 Dike breaks in Gelderland, Netherlands
• 1861 Texas secedes from the Union (which precipitates the American Civil War)
• 1862 Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of Republic"

• 1864 -Feb 8th] Battle of Yazoo River, MS
• 1864 Second Schleswig War begins when Prussian and Austrian forces cross into Schleswig challenging Danish control
• 1865 13th amendment approved (National Freedom Day)

• 1865 JS Rock, 1st African American lawyer to practise in US Supreme Court, admitted to bar
• 1867 Bricklayers start working 8-hour days
• 1871 Jefferson Long of Georgia is first African American to make an official speech in US House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
• 1880 The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
• 1881 US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri authorized
• 1883 French Lt-Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes reaches Bamako on the Niger
• 1884 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published
• 1892 Mrs William Astor invites 400 guests to a grand ball at her mansion thus beginning use of "400" to describe socially elite
• 1897 Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
• 1898 1st auto insurance policy in US issued, by Travelers Insurance Co
• 1902 China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's feet
• 1902 Hermann Sudermanns "Es lebe das Leben" premieres in Berlin
• 1902 US Secretary of State Hay protests granting Russia exclusive privileges in China, on ground that it runs contrary to the 'open door' policy granting all nations equal rights there
• 1905 Hungarian premier Count István Tisza resigns
• 1906 1st federal penitentiary building completed, Leavenworth, Kansas
• 1906 Dorothy Grey, wife of British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey fatally injured
• 1908 King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon
• 1909 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah, opens
• 1909 US forces withdraw from Cuba after liberal Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president; ensuing political instability will bring a threat of US intervention in 1912
• 1910 1st British labour exchange opens


• 1910 Dragoumis government forms in Greece
• 1914 Pennsylvania State Board of [motion picture] censors appointed
• 1914 Tanganyika Railway opens
• 1917 German Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz announces unrestricted submarine warfare against allied shipping

• 1920 1st commercial armored car introduced (St Paul, Minn)
• 1920 Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms as Royal Northwest Mounted Police merge with Dominion Police
• 1923 Allied ultimatum on Lithuanian occupation of Memel

• 1924 Amsterdam's Netherlands Press Museum opens

• 1925 1st national conference of KPD's Rotfrontkämpferbund in Berlin
• 1926 Kirghiz Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kirghiz ASSR
• 1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch
• 1929 1st clean & jerk of 400 lbs (182 kg), Charles Rigoulet, 402½ lbs
• 1929 Pi Alphha Phi, the first Asian-American interest fraternity in the United States, is founded at UC Berkeley
• 1933 Colonial government arrests Anton de Kom in Paramaribo Suriname
• 1933 Dutch bishops forbid membership of non-catholic unions

• 1934 Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss dissolves all political parties but his


• 1935 1st "March of Time" newsreel premieres at the Capitol
• 1935 James T Farrell finishes his "Studs Lonigan" trilogy
• 1937 Stapleton, Staten Island, becomes a customs-free port
• 1940 Soviet Union begins new offensive against Finland

• 1943 German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian premier
• 1943 Mussert forms pro-Nazi shadow cabinet in Netherlands
• 1944 Supreme Soviet increases Soviet republics' autonomy
• 1944 US 7th Infantry/4th Marine Division lands on Kwajalein/Roi/Namur
• 1945 US Army arrives at Siegfriedlinie
• 1946 Republic of Hungary proclaims Zoltán Tildy as its communist president
• 1946 Norwegian politician Trygve Lie becomes 1st Secretary General of the United Nations
• 1947 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists
• 1947 NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established

• 1948 Palestine Post building in Jerusalem bombed

• 1949 200" (5.08-m) Hale telescope 1st used [See June 3, 1948]

• 1950 Urko Kekkonen elected president of Finland
• 1951 -50°F (-46°C), Gavilan, New Mexico (state record)
• 1951 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
• 1951 1st telecast of an atomic explosion
• 1951 Alfred Krupp & 28 other German war criminals freed

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Birthdays in History

• 1261 Walter de Stapledon, English bishop (1308-26), born in Annery, Devonshire, England (d. 1326)
• 1459 Conrad Celtes, German humanist scholar, born in Wipfeld, Germany (d. 1508)
• 1462 Johannes Trithemius, German cryptographer, born in Trittenheim, Germany (d. 1516)

• 1552 Edward Coke, English Chief Justice and politician (defended common law), born in Mileham, Norfolk, England (d. 1634)
• 1605 Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Portuguese rabbi, scholar and writer, born in Castro Daire, Portugal (d. 1693)
• 1635 Marquard Gude, German archaeologist and classical scholar famous for his collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions, born in Rendsburg, Holstein (d. 1689)
• 1659 Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch navigator and explorer (1st European to discover Easter Island), born in Middleburg, Netherlands (d. 1729)
• 1663 Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, Filipino Religious Sister of the Roman Catholic Church, born in Bonondo, Manila, Philippines (d. 1748)
• 1707 Frederick Louis, English prince of Wales and son of George II, born in Hanover, Germany (d. 1751)
• 1758 Agustín de Betancourt, Spanish civil engineer (steam engines, hot air balloons), born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife (d. 1824)
• 1761 Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist (d. 1836)
• 1763 Thomas Campbell, founder (Church of Disciples in America)
• 1796 Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss poet (d. 1865)
• 1801 Thomas Cole, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School)
• 1801 Émile Littré, French lexicographer (d. 1881)
• 1805 Auguste Blanqui, French revolutionary (workers' leader)
• 1807 William Bowen Campbell, American politician and Civil War Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Sumner County, Tennessee (d. 1867)
• 1810 Charles Lenox Remond, African-American orator and abolitionist, born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1873)
• 1819 Henry Lawrence Eustis, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1885)
• 1820 George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (d. 1897)
• 1827 Alphonse de Rothschild, French banker
• 1829 John Potts Slough, American politician, lawyer and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1867)
• 1833 Henry McNeal Turner, Newberry South Carolina, Minister and politician, 1st African American Methodist Bishop (d. 1915)
• 1839 James A Herne [J Aherne], US playwright (Hearts of Oak)
• 1841 William Henry Davenport, American stage magician, claimed to be a spirit medium, born in Buffalo, New York (d. 1877)
• 1844 Eduard Adolf Strasburger, German botanist (Angiospermen)
• 1844 Granville Stanley Hall, American psychologist
• 1851 Durham Stevens, American diplomat (d. 1908)
• 1872 Paul Fort, French poet/founder of Vers et Prose
• 1872 Jerome F. Donovan, American politician (d. 1949)
• 1872 Andrew Kehoe, American mass murderer (d. 1927)
• 1873 Joseph Allard, Canadian fiddler (d. 1947)
• 1873 John Barry, Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 1901)
• 1874 Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian poet/dramatist/essayist
• 1878 Hattie Wyatt Caraway, politician/teacher/1st woman elected to senate
• 1878 Milan Hodža, Slovak politician (d. 1944)

• 1884 Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian novelist/playwright (We)
• 1885 Camille Chautemps, premier France
• 1887 Dirk Roosenburg, Dutch architect
• 1887 Charles Nordhoff, English-born author (d. 1947)
• 1889 Gertrude Caton-Thompson, British archaeologist (Zimbabwe, So Arabia)
• 1896 Anastasio Somoza García [Tacho], General, dictator and President of Nicaragua (1937-56), born in San Marcos, Nicaragua (d. 1956)
• 1897 Denise Robins, romantic novelist (1st Long Kiss), born in London, England
• 1902 Therese Brandl, Nazi concentration camp guard (d. 1947, by execution)
• 1903 Georg Rendl, Austria miner/beekeeper/writer (The Bees Novel)
• 1905 Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg, Basel Switzerland, eminent mathematician and physicist
• 1907 Alan Strode Campbell Ross, professor (coined the terms U & non-U)
• 1907 John Canaday, art critic (Metropolitan Museum of Art Portfolios)
• 1908 George Pal, Hungarian/American director (When Worlds Collide, Puppetoons)
• 1909 Douglas Hall, Governor (Somaliland Protectorate)
• 1913 Jeffrey Kindersley Quill, Test pilot
• 1916 Gordon Hobday, Lord Lieutenant (Nottinghamshire)
• 1918 Maurice Laing, life president (John Laing)

• 1920 Kenneth Bond, former vice-chairman
• 1920 Zao Wou-Ki, Chinese French painter (Juin-Octobre 1985), born in Beijing, China (d. 2013)
• 1922 Bogumil Witalis Andrzejewski, professor of Cushtic Languages
• 1924 H. Richard Hornberger, American writer (d. 1997)
• 1924 Ben Weider, Quebec businessman and author
• 1926 Douglas Johnson, British historian, born in Edinburgh (d. 2005)
• 1926 Peter Crill, Bailiff of Jersey
• 1926 Vivian Maier, American street photographer unknown until her death, born in New York City (d. 2009)
• 1927 Galway Kinnell, American author (Body Rags, Book of Nightmares), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 2014)
• 1928 Peter Gordon Dorrell, archaeologist and photographer
• 1928 Sir Samuel "Sam" Edwards, Welsh physicist (condensed matter physics), born in Swansea, Wales (d. 2015)
• 1928 Eric Evans, English dean of St Paul's, born in Tenby, Wales (d. 1996)
• 1928 Tom Lantos, (Rep-D-CA, 1981- )
• 1930 Peter Tapsell, British MP
• 1930 Shahabuddin Ahmed, President of Bangladesh
• 1930 Mario Beaulieu, Quebec politician (d. 1998)

• 1931 Mark Richmond, CEO (Science & Engineering Research Council)
• 1932 John Nott, British policitican(C), Secretary of State for Defence during Falkland War, born in Bideford, Devon
• 1933 Reynolds Price, American writer (Strengthened by a Pale Green Light)
• 1935 Ruth Clarke, Moderator (General Assembly of the United Reform Church)
• 1935 Vladimir Viktorovich Aksyonov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 22, T-2)
• 1936 G H Blake, Principal (Collingwood College, Durham U)
• 1936 Azie Taylor Morton, 35th Treasurer of the United States (d. 2003)
• 1939 Paul E Gillmor, (Rep-R-Ohio)
• 1941 Robert Walmsley, British Vice-Admiral
• 1941 Jerry Spinelli, children's author
• 1943 Josceline Dimbleby, cookery writer
• 1944 Mike Enzi, American accountant, and politician (US Senator from Wyoming (R), 1997-2021), born in Bremerton, Washington (d. 2021)
• 1947 Adam Ingram, British politician, born in Glasgow, United Kingdom
• 1951 Andrew Smith, British politician, born in Wokingham, United Kingdom
• 1952 Roger Y. Tsien, American chemist (Nobel Prize 2008), born in NYC, New York (d. 2016)
• 1955 Kate Ashbrook, British general secretary of the Open Spaces Society
• 1957 Donna Adamek, American tenpin bowler (BWAA Woman of Year 1978-81), born in Duarte, California
• 1958 Kevin McCarra, Scottish sports journalist (The Guardian, Scotland on Sunday, The Times), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 2020)
• 1961 Daniel M. Tani, American astronaut, born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania
• 1963 Takashi Murakami, Japanese artist, born in Tokyo, Japan
• 1965 Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, born in the Prince's Palace of Monaco, Monaco
• 1967 Meg Cabot, American author, born in Bloomington, Indiana
• 1967 Patle Shishupal Natthu, Indian politician, born in Bhandara, India

• 1969 Andrew Breitbart, American conservative blogger & publisher, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2012)
• 1977 Phil Ivey, American poker player (10 World Series of Poker bracelets, 1 World Poker Tour title, 9 World Poker Tour final tables), born in Riverside, California
• 1985 Rachael Scdoris, American dog musher, born in Bend, Oregon

Deaths in History

• 656 Sigebert III, King of Austrasia, dies at about 25
• 1204 Alexius IV Angelus, Regent of Byzantium (1203-04), murdered at 21
• 1248 Hendrik II, Duke of Brabant (1235-48), dies at 40
• 1328 Charles IV, the Handsome, King of France (1322-28), dies at 33
• 1502 Olivier de la Marche, Flemish soldier & poet, dies at 77
• 1542 Girolamo Aleandro, Italian Catholic cardinal, dies at 61
• 1563 Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, dies of fever
• 1590 Lawrence Humphrey, English clergyman & educator, dies at 63
• 1691 Alexander VIII [Pietro Ottoboni], Italian Pope (1689-91), dies at 80
• 1691 George Etherege, English stage writer (Love in a Tub), dies at 56
• 1694 John L baron van Elderen, 63rd bishop of Liege (1688-94), dies at 73
• 1705 Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, 1st Queen consort of Prussia (1701-05), dies at 36
• 1718 Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician, dies at 57
• 1733 August II, the Strong, King of Poland (355 children), dies at 62
• 1734 John Floyer, English physician & writer, dies at 84
• 1747 Jacobus Capitein, Dutch Christian minister, dies at ~30
• 1761 Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French Jesuit prince & historian, dies at 78
• 1768 Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer, dies at 82
• 1793 William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman, dies at 76
• 1832 Ecco Epkema, Dutch classic linguist (Frisian, Old Frisian), dies at 71
• 1832 Archibald Murphey, North Carolina politician, dies at 55
• 1839 Giuseppe Valadier, Italian architect & archaeologist, dies at 76
• 1850 Edward Baker Lincoln, son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, dies at 3

• 1864 Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza, dies at 44
• 1869 Frederik Willem Conrad, Dutch hydraulic engineer & railway pioneer, dies at 68
• 1873 Matthew Maury, American oceanographer, dies at 67
• 1878 George Cruikshank, English caricaturist & illustrator (Grimm), dies at 85
• 1883 Pavel Melnikov, Russian historian and author (In the Forests), dies at 64 [NS=Feb 13]
• 1893 George Henry Sanderson, Mayor of San Francisco, dies at 70
• 1897 Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist, dies at 70
• 1903 George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist & mathematician (spectroscope), dies at 83
• 1904 Peter Paul Maria Alberdingk Thijm, Dutch historian & writer, dies at 76
• 1905 Oswald Aschenbach, German painter, dies at 77
• 1908 Carlos I, King of Portugal (1889-1908), assassinated by Republican sympathisers at 44
• 1910 Otto Julius Bierbaum, German writer (Irrgarten Der Liebe), dies at 44
• 1936 Georgios Kondylis, Prime Minister of Greece & general of the Greek army, dies at 56
• 1937 Marguerite Audoux, French novelist, dies at 73
• 1940 Philip Francis Nowlan, American sci-fi writer, creator of Buck Rogers character (b. 1888)

• 1945 Johan Huizinga, Dutch culture historian (Homo Ludens), dies at 72
• 1946 Hans Bethge, German poet, dies at 70
• 1954 Julius P. Hoste, Belgium minister & daily newspaper publisher (Last News), dies at 69

• 1958 Clinton Davisson, American physicist (Nobel 1937- discovery of electron diffraction in the famous Davisson-Germer experiment), dies at 76
• 1963 Fleetwood Lindley, American man & last living person to see Abraham Lincoln's face, dies at 75
• 1966 Hedda Hopper [Elda Furry], American gossip columnist, dies at 75
• 1970 Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician, dies at 48
• 1974 Lynda Ann Healy, 1st Bundy murder victim, abducted in Seattle at 22
• 1976 Edgar Pangborn, American author (Judgment of Eve, Davy), dies at 66
• 1976 George Whipple, American scientist & Nobel Prize Laureate, dies at 97
• 1976 Werner Heisenberg, German physicist who discovered the uncertainty principle (Nobel 1932), dies at 74
• 1977 Edmond Hamilton, American sci-fi author (Danger Planet), dies at 72

• 1986 Alva Myrdal, Swedish Nobel peace prize winner (1982), dies at 84
• 1987 Sala Burton, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1983-87), dies of cancer at 61
• 1988 Reinder Zwolsman, Dutch businessman, dies at 75
• 1989 Elaine de Kooning, American artist, dies at 70
• 1991 Annie van Ommeren-Averink [Hanna Jacoba of Ommeren-Averink], Dutch politician (CPN), dies at 77
• 1992 Irving Kaufman, American federal judge (Rosenberg Case), dies at 81
• 1994 Fouad Fram al-Boustani, Lebanese historian (Rawaeaa), dies at 88
• 1995 Michael Cesar, American man & self-proclaimed 'Pope of Pot', dies of liver cancer at 52
• 1996 Clive Burton, British neuropathologist, dies at 54
• 1997 Herb Caen, American columnist (SF Chronicle), dies of lung cancer, at 80
• 1997 Mitchell Goodman, American writer, dies at 71
• 1997 Peter Morris, British historian of France, dies at 50
• 1999 Paul Mellon, American philanthropist (Washington National Gallery of Art), dies at 91
• 2001 André D'Allemagne, Quebec teacher, political observer and essayist, dies at 71
• 2003 Michael P. Anderson, American astronaut & member of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), dies at 43
• 2003 David Brown, American astronaut & member of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), dies at 46
• 2003 Kalpana Chawla, American astronaut (STS 87) and the first woman of Indian descent to go to space, dies in Space Shuttle Columbia disaster at 40
• 2003 Laurel Clark, American astronaut and member of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), dies at 41
• 2003 Rick D. Husband, American astronaut & member of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), dies at 45
• 2003 William C. McCool, American astronaut & member of the STS-107 Mission, dies in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster at 41
• 2003 Ilan Ramon, Israeli astronaut & member of STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster), dies at 48
• 2003 David M. Brown, U.S. Navy Captain & NASA astronaut, dies at 46
• 2005 George Douglass Milne, British peer, soldier and artist, dies at 95
• 2006 Bryce Harland, New Zealand diplomat, dies at 74
• 2007 Ahmad Abu Laban, Danish Muslim leader, dies at 60
• 2012 Gerlando Alberti, Sicilian Mafioso, dies from cancer at 88
• 2012 Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet & Nobel Laureate, dies at 88

• 2015 Beryl Platt, Baroness Platt of Writtle, British engineer, politician and CEO of the Equal Opportunities Commission, dies at 91
• 2017 Étienne Tshisekedi, Congolese opposition leader, dies at 84
• 2018 Patricia Lindop, British radiobiologist & physician, dies at 87