Events in History
Roman Empire
211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta
Septimius Severus
Caracalla
- 960 Coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of the Song, initiating three centuries of Song Dynasty dominance in southern China
- 1454 In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master
- 1508 Maximilian I assumes imperial title without being crowned
- 1586 Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, becomes governor-general of the States General of the United Provinces (Netherlands)
Event of Interest
1600 Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler meet for the first time near Prague
Tycho Brahe
Johannes Kepler
Event of Interest
1620 Prince Bethlen Gabor of Hungary signs peace with Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II
Event of Interest
1657 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, grants residency to Luis Caravajal
Oliver Cromwell
- 1670 Battle of Sinhagad, Shivaji commander Tanaji Malusare recaptures fort of Sinhagad from the Mugals, scaling the walls with help of pet monitor lizard
- 1697 Three Dutch East India Company ships anchor at Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia
- 1699 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow
- 1783 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 in Calabria, Italy
- 1784 1st unmanned balloon flight in Ireland
- 1787 1st Anglican bishops of NY & Pennsylvania consecrated in London
- 1787 Shays' Rebellion (of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers) fails
Election of Interest
1789 1st US electoral college chooses George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice-President
George Washington
John Adams
Event of Interest
1794 French National Convention proclaims abolition of slavery
Georges Danton
- 1797 Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 41,000
- 1803 William Dunlap adapts French melodrama "Voice of Nature"
- 1810 Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
- 1822 Free American Blacks settle Liberia, West Africa
- 1824 J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to public
- 1846 Mormons leave Nauvoo, Illinois, for settlement in the west
- 1847 1st US telegraph company established in Maryland
- 1849 University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students
- 1854 Alvan Bovay proposes name "Republican Party" in Ripon, Wisconsin
- 1855 Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela
4th Century Bible Discovered
1859 One of the oldest known copies of the Bible, "The Codex Sinaiticus" (Sinai Bible), is seen in Egypt by Constantin von Tischendorf who takes the manuscript home with him
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Event of Interest
1861 Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time; Jefferson Davis elected President of Confederacy (US Civil War)
Jefferson Davis
Event of Interest
1865 Robert E. Lee is named general-in-chief of Confederate forces
Robert E. Lee
Event of Interest
1866 Mary Baker Eddy reportedly cures her injuries by opening a bible
Mary Baker Eddy
Murder of Interest
1880 Black donnelly massacre in Biddulph, Ontario. Irish immigrants James (63), Johannah (56), John (32), Thomas (25) and Bridget (21) Donnelly murdered at home by members of the Vigilance Committee
James Donnelly
Event of Interest
1901 Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph I, gives a speech condemning the demands of national groups and calls for economic and social reform
Franz Joseph I
- 1904 John Millington Synge's play "Well of Saints" premieres in Dublin
- 1908 Star #46 was added to US flag for Oklahoma with the addition to the Union of Oklahoma on November 16, 1907
- 1913 Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim
- 1913 National Institute of Arts & Letters founded
- 1914 US Congress approves Burnett-anti-immigration law
- 1915 Experiments to find cause of pellagra begin at Mississippi State Penitentiary
- 1917 Belgian Council of Flanders established
- 1919 City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown
- 1920 1st flight from London to South Africa departs (takes 1½ months)
- 1922 WGY-AM in Schenectady NY begins radio transmissions
- 1922 After boycotts and international pressure, Japan agrees to return Shantung Province to China
Event of Interest
1922 First part of Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party" appears in the Saturday Westminster Gazette
Katherine Mansfield
Event of Interest
1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press
Paul von Hindenburg
Event of Interest
1938 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts Nazis in key posts
Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Glenn Cunningham (top miler) says 4-min mile beyond human effort
- 1941 British tanks occupy Maus, Libya
- 1941 Former Dutch premier De Geer flies to Berlin
- 1941 United Service Organization (USO) founded
- 1942 Clinton Pierce becomes 1st US general wounded in action in WW II
- 1943 Bertolt Brecht's play "The Good Person of Szechwan" premieres in Zurich
Theater Premiere
1944 Jean Anouilh's play "Antigone" premieres in Paris
Jean Anouilh
- 1944 US 7th Infantry Division captures Kwajalein, in the Pacific
Yalta Conference
1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the final phase of World War II
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Assassination Attempt
1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
- 1950 IV British Empire Games open in Auckland, New Zealand
- 1951 US female Figure Skating championship won by Sonya Klopfer
- 1951 US male Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
- 1952 Tetsuwan Atom by Osamu Tezuka first published in Weekly Shonen Magazine in Japan
- 1956 AL plans to test automatic intentional walk during spring training
- 1957 1st electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY)
- 1959 Israel begins exporting copper ore
- 1960 BBWAA voters fail to elect a new Hall of Fame member
- 1960 Giants move their offices to Candlestick Park
- 1961 Sputnik 7 launches into Earth orbit; probable Venus probe failure
- 1961 "Angolan War of Independence" begins
- 1962 US female Figure Skating championship won by Barbara Roles
- 1962 US male Figure Skating championship won by Monty Hoyt
- 1964 FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Oklahoma City
- 1965 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1966 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133
- 1967 US launches Lunar Orbiter 3
- 1968 Around 100 Indians and Pakistanis from Kenya arrive in Britain, escaping discrimination
Event of Interest
1969 The Palestine National Congress appoints Yasser Arafat chairman of the PLO
Yasser Arafat
- 1969 41,163, then largest NBA crowd, watches doubleheader Cin-Det, SD-Bost
- 1969 Lonne Elder's "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men" premieres in NYC
- 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt
- 1971 Government exhibit under construction in Brazil collapses, kills 65
- 1971 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC
- 1971 Lieutenant-General Vernon Erskine-Crum becomes General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland
- 1971 The NASDAQ stock exchange, the second-largest in the world - behind the New York Stock Exchange - is founded in New York City
- 1972 6th round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ends in Vienna Austria
- 1973 Manfred Kokot runs world record 50m indoor (5.61 sec)
Birthdays in History
- 1465 French van Brederode, leader of Hoeksen
- 1494 Francois Rabelais, French satirist (Gargantua and Pantagruel), born in La Devinière, Touraine, Kingdom of France (d. 1553)
- 1524 Luis de Camões, Portuguese poet (d. 1580)
- 1575 Pierre de Barulle, French cardinal
- 1620 Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (d. 1667)
- 1646 Hans A Freiherr von Abschatz, Silesian poet
- 1688 Pierre De Marivaux, writer (Marianne), born in Paris, France
- 1693 George Lillo, bourgeois English dramatist (London Merchant)
- 1725 Dru Drury, English entomologist (d. 1804)
Tadeusz Kościuszko
1746 Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish-Lithuanian Military Leader and statesman considered a national hero, born in Mereczowszczyzna, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (d. 1817)
Tadeusz Kościuszko
- 1764 Carel H Verhuell, Dutch/French vice-admiral/minister of Navy
- 1768 Maurits C van Hall, Dutch ruler of Heicop & Boeicop, lawyer/politician
- 1769 Samuel I Wiselius, Dutch lawyer/businessman/writer
- 1778 A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist (d. 1841)
- 1799 Joao Batista da Silva Leitao de Almeida Garret, Portuguese playwright
- 1802 Mark Hopkins, American educator/philosopher (Williams College)
- 1805 William H Ainsworth, English writer (Old St Paul's, Rookwood)
Emperor Norton
1819 Emperor Norton [Joshua Abraham Norton], British born self proclaimed "Norton I, Emperor of the United States", born in London, England (d. 1880)
Emperor Norton
- 1826 Halbert Eleazer Paine, American lawyer and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Chardon, Ohio (d. 1905)
- 1831 Oliver Ames, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895)
- 1841 Clément Ader, French aviation pioneer (d. 1926)
- 1842 Georg Brandes [Morris Cohen], Danish literary historian and critic
- 1842 Vasili O Klyutshevski, Russian historian
- 1846 Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist and mathematician known for discovering the Umov-Poynting vector and Umov effect, born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (d. 1915)
- 1848 [Francois-Victor-]Jean Aicard, Fren playwright/poet (Jeune Croyances)
- 1849 Jean Richepin, French poet/writer (Les Chansons de Gueux)
- 1859 Timofei Mikhailov, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya (d. 1881)
- 1865 Charles Bally, Swiss linguist (Le langage et la vie)
- 1868 Constance Gore-booth Markiewicy, Irish patriot/playwright/MP
- 1871 Friedrich Ebert, German politician, 1st Reichspräsident of the Weimar Republic (d. 1925)
- 1872 Gotse Delchev, a great Macedonian revolutionary, (d. 1903)
- 1875 Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (father of aerodynamics)
- 1881 Kliment J Woroshilov, marshal/president USSR (1953-60)
- 1881 Fernand Léger, French painter (d. 1955)
- 1884 Julius Callewaert, Flemish dominican/bringing up children
- 1885 Cairine Ray Wilson, 1st female Canadian senator (appointed), born in Montreal, Quebec
- 1888 Paul Althaus, German theologist (The Christian Truth)
- 1889 Walter Catlett, American actor (Climax, Front Page, Tale of 2 Cities), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1960)
- 1891 Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Speaker of Lok Sabha (d: 1978).
- 1892 Ugo Betti, Italian playwright
- 1892 Andreu Nin, Catalan politician (d. 1937)
- 1892 E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet (d. 1964)
Raymond Dart
1893 Raymond Dart, Australian paleoanthropologist (Australopithecus africanus), born in Brisbane, Queensland (d. 1995)
Raymond Dart
- 1895 Annie [Anna HM] Romein-Verschoor, Dutch historian (Erflaters)
- 1895 [Johann Baptist] Hanns Albin Rauter, German SS and Police leader in the occupied Netherlands, born in Klagenfurt, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1949)
- 1896 Friedrich Glauser, writer
- 1896 Friedrich Hund, German physicist (d. 1997)
- 1897 Ludwig Erhard, chancellor of Germany (CDU)
Charles Lindbergh
1902 Charles Lindbergh, American aviator who was 1st to fly solo across the Atlantic, born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1974)
Charles Lindbergh
- 1902 Hartley Shawcross, British lawyer and politician (d. 2003)
- 1903 Alexander Oppenheim, mathematician
- 1903 Frank Howley, Brigadier General (Answers for Americans), born in Hampton, New York
- 1904 Herman B. Wiardi Beckman, Dutch politician (SDAP)/resistance fighter
- 1904 MacKinlay Kantor, Webster City Iowa, novelist (Andersonville)
- 1906 Clyde William Tombaugh, American astronomer (discovered Pluto)
- 1906 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologist (Confessing Church)
- 1909 Kenneth W Howell, English Anglican bishop (Chile/Bolivia/Peru)
- 1910 Uys Krige, South African playwright/novelist (Orphan of the Desert)
- 1912 Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian politician (d. 1999)
- 1912 Louis-Albert Cardinal Vachon, archbishop of Quebec (d. 2006)
Rosa Parks
1913 Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, born in Tuskegee, Alabama (d. 2005)
Rosa Parks
- 1914 Alfred Andersch, German writer (Red Head)
- 1916 Basil Hembry, farmer/campaigner
- 1916 Gavin Buchanan Ewart, English poet (Pleasures of the Flesh)
- 1916 Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha, 41st master of the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi Order (d. 1980)
- 1917 Aga Yahya Khan, Pakistan military/politician
- 1918 Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher (d. 1991)
- 1919 Frank van Klingeren, Dutch architect (De Meerpaal, Dronten)
- 1920 Derek Worlock, English Roman Catholic Archbishop Liverpool, born in London (d. 1996)
Betty Friedan
1921 Betty Friedan, American feminist and writer (The Feminine Mystique), born in Peoria, Illinois (d. 2006)
Betty Friedan
- 1922 Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Indian classical singer (khayal form of singing, bhajans, abhangs), born in Ron, Karnataka, India (d. 2011)
- 1923 Belisario Betancur, Colombian politician, President of Colombia (1982-86), born in Amagá, Colombia (d. 2018)
- 1925 Russell Hoban, US children's book author (Riddley Walker/Pilgermann)
- 1926 John Edward Caulwell Hearne, writer
- 1929 Mary Joan Nielubowicz, rear admiral/nurse
- 1931 Isabel Martínez de Perón [Maria Martinez], wife of Juan Perón and President of Argentina (1974-76), born in La Rioja, Argentina
- 1935 Martti Talvela, Hiitola Karelia Finland, operatic basso
- 1936 Daan van Golden, Dutch sculptor
- 1938 Donald W Riegle Jr, (Sen-D-MI, 1976- )
- 1939 Jacques Charlier, Belgian sculptor
- 1939 Stan Lundine, (Rep-D-NY, 1976-86)
- 1940 Theodore "Ted" Stanley, American anesthesiologist and medical entrepreneur (created the fentanyl lollipop), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2017)
- 1943 Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese president of the regional government of Madeira
- 1943 Ken Thompson, American computer scientist
- 1944 Daniel Mica, American politician (Rep-D-Florida, 1979-89), born in Binghamton, New York
- 1947 James Danforth "Dan" Quayle, USA (Sen-R-Ind, 44th Vice President 1989-93), born in Indianapolis, Indiana
- 1947 Sanford Bishop, (Rep-D-Georgia)
- 1948 Robert Coover, novelist (Pricksongs & Descants)
- 1948 Rod Grams, (Rep-R-Minnesota), (d. 2013)
- 1952 Li Yinhe, Chinese sexologist
- 1953 Svetlana Ulmasova, USSR, 3K (world title 1978)
- 1953 Jerome Powell, American Chair of the US Federal Reserve (2018-), born in Washington, D.C.
- 1955 Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak Prime minister
- 1957 Evan Wolfson, American attorney and activist
- 1958 Werner Schwab, Austrian playwright and artist, born in Graz (d. 1994)
- 1958 Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer
- 1959 Zenani Mandela, daughter of Nelson & Winnie Mandela
- 1960 Siobhan Dowd, British/Irish author (d. 2007)
- 1961 Stewart O'Nan, American author (Snow Angels, The Names of the Dead), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1962 Alfred Twardecki, Polish historian
Weddings in History
- 1875 Princess Louise of Belgium marries Prince Philip von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha in Belgium
Deaths in History
Septimius Severus
211 Lucius Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome (193-211), dies at 64
Septimius Severus
- 708 Sisinnius, Greek-Syrian pope (708, 20 days), dies
- 856 Hrabanus Maurus, East France, archbishop of Mainz, dies
- 869 Saint Cyril, Greek missionary to the Slavs (b. 827)
- 1189 Gilbert of Sempringham, English monastery founder/saint, dies
- 1222 Willem I, earl of Holland (1203-22), dies
- 1503 Queen Elizabeth, consort of Henry VII of England, dies
- 1505 Joan of France, Queen of France (1498) and Catholic saint who founded several religious orders, dies at 40
- 1508 Conrad Celtes, German humanist scholar, dies at 49
- 1615 Dom Justo Takayama, Japanese warlord (b. 1552)
- 1615 Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian scholar, polymath and child prodogy (b. 1535)
- 1617 Louis Elsevier, Dutch publisher, dies at about 76
- 1640 Hendrick C Vroom, Dutch seascape painter, dies
- 1694 Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (b. 1651)
- 1714 Duke of Berry, French King Louis XIV's grandson, dies
- 1746 Robert Blair, Scottish poet (The Grave), dies at 46
- 1774 Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)
- 1781 Willem Crul, British admiral (West-Indies), dies in battle during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War at 59
- 1799 Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (b. 1728)
- 1815 Geert Reinders, Dutch cattle breeder and inoculation proponent, dies at 77
- 1815 Jacob van Strij, Dutch cartoonist and graphic artist, dies at 58
- 1844 Willem de Clerq, Dutch merchant/literary, dies at 49
- 1869 Johan Michiel Dautzenberg, Flemish author (Future), dies at 60
James Donnelly
1880 James Donnelly, Irish-Canadian patriarch of the "Black Donnellys", murdered in the Black Donnelly massacre at 63
James Donnelly
- 1885 Sarah Miriam Peale, American portrait painter (General Lafayette, 1825), dies at 84
- 1905 Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor, dies at 63
- 1911 Peter A "Piet" Cronje, South Africa Boer general, dies at about 75
- 1918 Akiyama Saneyuki, Japanese officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy, dies at 49
- 1921 Xavier Mellery, Belgian painter and illustrator, dies at 75
- 1928 Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Dutch physicist (electromagnetic radiation, Nobel 1902), dies at 74
- 1933 Archibald Sayce, English educator (b. 1846)
- 1936 Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (b. 1895)
- 1939 Edward Sapir, US linguist/cultural antropologist (indian), dies at 55
- 1939 Henri Deterding, Dutch oil magnate (Royal Oil, Shell), dies at 72
- 1940 Nikolai Yezhov, Head of Soviet NKVD (b. 1895)
- 1941 Johann Peter Kirsch, Luxembourg church historian and archaeologist, dies at 79
- 1944 Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian writer, dies at 72
- 1946 Margarete Boie, writer, dies
- 1953 Alexander Loudon, Dutch diplomat (League of Nations), dies at 60
- 1956 Leendert Antonie Donker, Dutch Minister of Justice (PvdA), dies at 56
- 1957 Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican illustrator, dies
- 1958 Frederik de Merode, Belgian prince, dies at 46
- 1961 Piet[er] L. Kramer, Influential Dutch architect (Amsterdam School), dies at 79
- 1964 Siegfried T Bok, neurobiologist/anatomist (Cybernetica), dies at 71
- 1965 U C Greyhound, champion trotter (horse), dies at 33
- 1966 Gilbert H. Grosvenor, American geographer and 1st full-time editor of National Geographic Society (1899-1954), dies at 90
- 1967 Albert Orsborn, 6th General of The Salvation Army, dies at 80
- 1968 Gerard den Brabander [Jan G Jofriet], poet (Nothing New), dies at 67
- 1968 Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)
- 1974 Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (Bose–Einstein statistics), dies at 80
- 1977 Brett Halliday, American writer (Dividend on Death), dies at 72
- 1978 Bergen Evans, American professor of English ($64,000 Question), dies at 73
- 1982 Georg Konrad Morgen, German judge (b. 1909)
- 1987 Carl Rogers, American psychologist (b. 1902)
- 1992 Fred Slyter, dialogue coach, dies after long illness at 56
- 1994 Han Jansen, Dutch painter, dies at 62
- 1994 Harold Schneider, US producer (5 Easy Pieces, War Games), dies at 55
- 1994 Justinus Darmojuwono, Indonesian archbishop/cardinal, dies at 79
- 1995 Patricia Highsmith [Mary Patricia Plangman], US/Swiss, dies at 74
- 1997 James Friell, Scottish political cartoonist (Daily Worker), dies at 84
- 2000 Carl Albert, American politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1971-77) dies at 91
- 2003 Benyoucef Ben Khedda, Algerian politician (b. 1920)
Betty Friedan
2006 Betty Friedan, American writer and feminist (The Feminine Mystique), dies of congestive heart failure at 85
Betty Friedan
- 2007 Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian poet and translator (b. 1959)
- 2007 Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-born American abstract painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
- 2008 Stefan Meller, Polish diplomat and 9th Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-06), dies at 65
- 2010 Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher, dies at 85
- 2012 Florence Green, last surviving veteran of World War One, dies at 110
- 2012 Robert Glaser, American educational psychologist, dies from Alzheimer's disease at 91
- 2012 Istvan Csurka, Hungarian writer and politician, dies at 77
- 2012 Robert Daniel, five term American congressman for Virginia, dies at 75
- 2013 Theresia van der Pant, Dutch sculptor, dies at 88
- 2016 Edgar Whitcomb, American politician and Governor of Indiana (1969-73), dies at 98
- 2016 Edgar Mitchell, american NASA astronaut (Apollo 14), dies at 85
- 2020 Daniel Arap Moi, Kenya's longest serving President (1978-2002), dies at 95
- 2020 Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Caribbean poet (Born to Slow Horses) and academic, dies at 89