Events in History
Event of Interest
1431 Joan of Arc handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon
Joan of Arc
Event of Interest
1496 Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine
Leonardo da Vinci
Martin Luther is Excommunicated
1521 Martin Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church for failing to recant parts of his Ninety-five Theses which started the Protestant Reformation
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- 1638 Dutch Premier Van Joost speaks of "Hostage rights of Aemstel"
- 1638 Schouwburg Theater, the 1st in Amsterdam, opens
- 1653 The Coonan Cross Oath is taken in the Saint Thomas Christian community in an effort to avoid submission to Portuguese rule in India
- 1667 Resistance of Androsovo in Russia-Poland
Event of Interest
1746 "Bonnie Prince Charlie", Prince Charles Edward Stuart's army leaves Glasgow, Scotland [NS=Jan 14]
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Victory in Battle
1777 General George Washington's revolutionary army defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, New Jersey
George Washington
- 1815 France, the United Kingdom, and Austria form an alliance against Russia and Prussia
Event of Interest
1823 Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
Stephen F. Austin
- 1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community
- 1831 1st US building & loan association organized, Frankford, Penn
- 1833 Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic
- 1834 The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.
- 1840 1st deep sea sounding by James Clark Ross in south Atlantic at 2425 fathoms (14,450 feet)
Event of Interest
1842 Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine leave Liverpool, England for America on board the RMS Britannia
Charles Dickens
- 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first President of the independent African Republic of Liberia.
- 1852 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii
- 1853 Solomon Northup is freed after 7 illegal years in slavery with aid of Washington Hunt, Governor of New York
- 1861 Delaware legislature rejects proposal to join Confederacy
- 1861 US Fort Pulaski and Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
Event of Interest
1862 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester
Stonewall Jackson
- 1868 Meiji Restoration returns authority to Japan's emperors
Brooklyn Bridge Opens
1870 Construction begins on New York's Brooklyn Bridge; completed May 24, 1883
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- 1871 Oleomargarine patented by Henry Bradley, Binghamton, NY
- 1872 1st patent list issued by US Patent Office
- 1885 The beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop in the Sino-French War
- 1888 1st wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington, D.C.
- 1889 Admissions convention meets in Ellensburg, WA, asks for statehood
Event of Interest
1889 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suffers a mental breakdown after supposedly witnessing a horse flogging
Friedrich Nietzsche
Theater Premiere
1900 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Schluck und Jau," premieres in Berlin
Gerhart Hauptmann
- 1902 Due to a bad pitch Australian batsman Reggie Duff is held back to No. 10 on Test debut v England at MCG; scores 104
- 1910 British miners strike for 8 hour working day
- 1911 US postal savings bank inaugurated
- 1911 The Government of India announces that emigration to Natal, Southern Africa, is prohibited with effect from 1 July
- 1911 The Russian Turkestan city of Almaty is destroyed by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake
Liberty Bell
1912 Southern Pacific RR offers to bring Liberty Bell to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco free
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- 1918 US Employment Service opens as a unit of the Department of Labor
Event of Interest
1919 Herbert Hoover is placed in charge of war relief in Europe
Herbert Hoover
- 1919 The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, which was a short-lived agreement for the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, is signed by the King of Iraq and the President of the World Zionist Organization
- 1921 Turkey makes peace with Armenia
- 1922 1st living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar
Event of Interest
1925 Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and proclaims himself dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the Leader)
Benito Mussolini
- 1926 Greek gen Theodorus Pangulos names himself dictator
- 1932 Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.
- 1933 Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
- 1939 Gene Cox becomes 1st girl page in US House of Representatives
- 1940 WPG-AM in Atlantic City NJ consolidates with WBIL & WOV as "new" WOV
- 1941 Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 yr lease)
- 1941 Italian counter offensive in Albania
- 1941 American National Collegiate Football Rules Committee announces a new rule permitting free substitution of players
- 1942 American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
- 1943 1st missing persons telecast (NYC)
- 1943 Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- 1944 World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
- 1945 Allies land on west coast of Burma, conquer Akyab
Event of Interest
1945 British Premier Winston Churchill visits France
Winston Churchill
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
1945 Admiral Chester Nimitz begins planning assaults on Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan
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Event of Interest
1946 As a reward for his wartime cooperation, Governor Thomas E. Dewey commutes Charles "Lucky" Luciano's pandering sentence on condition that he does not resist deportation to Italy
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Thomas E. Dewey
- 1947 William Dawson becomes 1st black to head congressional committee
- 1949 The central bank of the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is founded
- 1951 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents
- 1953 Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
- 1955 Jose Ramon Guizado becomes president of Panama
- 1956 A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 1st electric watch introduced, Lancaster Pa
- 1958 The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 Alaska admitted as 49th US state
Election of Interest
1961 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. elected Chairman of US House Education and Labor Committee
Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Excommunication
1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
John XXIII
- 1966 Floyd B McKissick, named national director of CORE
- 1967 "The Tonight Show" is shortened from 105 to 90 minutes
- 1967 Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion
- 1969 Rep Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by Congress
- 1970 Marxist government takes over in Congo
- 1972 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb in Callender Street, Belfast, injuring over 60 people
- 1974 Arias Navarro succeeds Carrero Blanco as Premier of Spain
- 1974 Burma accepts its constitution
- 1974 Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London
- 1974 Miguel Pinero's "Short Eyes," premieres in NYC
Birthdays in History
Cicero
106 BC Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher, born in Arpinum (d. 43 BC)
Cicero
- 1196 Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231)
- 1624 William Tucker, 1st African American child born in America
- 1680 Johann Baptist Zimmermann, German stucco worker
- 1698 Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet (d. 1782)
- 1710 Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1796)
- 1719 Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian (d. 1773)
- 1722 Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist (d. 1752)
- 1730 Charles Palissot de Montenoy, French writer/politician
- 1760 John Storm, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1835)
- 1763 Joseph Fesch, French cardinal/war commission/earl/senator
- 1777 M A Elisa Bonaparte, Corsican monarch of Lucca/Piombino
- 1778 Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)
- 1789 Carl Gustav Carus, German physiologist & painter, born in Leipzig, Germany (d. 1869)
- 1793 Lucretia Coffin Mott, American teacher/minister/abolitionist/feminist
- 1802 Charles Pelham Villiers, British House of Commons member (d. 1898)
- 1803 Douglas William Jerrold, author/playwright/wit (Punch Mag), born in London, England
- 1810 Antoine T. d'Abbadie, French explorer (Ethiopia), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1897)
- 1810 Eliza Von Bretton di Zerega, Danish West Indies, baroness
- 1819 Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland (d. 1900)
- 1829 John G R Acquoy, theologist/church historian
- 1829 Konrad Duden, German linguist (Der grosse Duden)
- 1835 Larkin Goldsmith Mead, sculptor
- 1836 Sakamoto Ryoma, Japanese revolutionary (d. 1867)
- 1840 Father Joseph Damien de Veuster, Belgian helped lepers in Hawaii
- 1855 Hubert Bland, English socialist (d. 1914)
- 1862 Sir Matthew Nathan, British Governor of Queensland and other places (d. 1939)
- 1868 Franz V M Cumont, Belgian religious historian
- 1870 Henry Handel Richardson [Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson], Australian novelist (Richard Mahoney), born in East Melbourne, Australia (d. 1946)
- 1873 Ichizo Kobayashi, Japanese businessman (d. 1957)
- 1876 Wilhelm Pieck, co-founder German Communist Party/pres (1949-60)
- 1879 Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge, US First Lady (1923-29)
- 1880 Donat Raymond, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame builder (head Canadian Arena Company, Montreal Forum rebuilt in 1968) and politician, born in St. Stanislas de Kostka, Quebec (d. 1963)
Clement Attlee
1883 Clement Attlee, British Prime Minister (L-1945-51), born in Putney, London (d. 1967)
Clement Attlee
- 1884 E. Stanley Jones, American evangelist (Christ of Indian road), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1973)
- 1886 John G Fletcher, American poet (Epic of Arkansas)
- 1887 Helen Parkhurst, US educator (Education on the Dalton plan)
- 1887 August Macke, German painter (d. 1914)
- 1891 Osip E Mandelstam, Polish/Russian poet/author (Kamenj) [NS=Jan 15]
- 1893 Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, French novelist and essayist (Gilles)
- 1896 Joe Falcaro, American bowler (National Match Game champion 1929-33), born in Lawrence, New York (d. 1951)
- 1900 Dorothy Arnzer, director
- 1901 Eric Voegelin, German American philosopher (Order & History), born in Cologne, Germany (d. 1985)
Ngô Đình Diệm
1901 Ngô Đình Diệm, President and authoritarian leader of South Vietnam (1954-63), born in Quảng Bình, French Indochina (d. 1963)
Ngô Đình Diệm
- 1902 Henry Lennox d'Aubigny Hopkinson, diplomat/politician
- 1903 Charles Foulkes, Canadian general
- 1905 Dante Giacosa, engineer/designer
- 1906 Roman Brandstaetter, writer
- 1910 Thomas Stuart Willan, historian
- 1911 John Sturges, American director (Old Man & Sea, Magnificent 7)
- 1912 Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and senator (d. 2002)
- 1912 Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)
- 1915 Jack Levine, American social realist painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2010),
- 1917 Vernon A. Walters, American diplomat and US permanent rep to the UN (1989-91), born in NYC, New York (d. 2002)
- 1917 Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (d. 2004)
- 1920 Siegfried Buback, German Federal Prosecutor, born in Wilsdruff, Saxony, Germany (d. 1977)
- 1922 Morten Nielsen, Danish poet/resistance fighter
- 1924 Andre Franquin, cartoonist
- 1924 Henry M Fazzie, South African Union/UDF-leader
- 1924 Roy Harding, British teacher
- 1924 Doug Ellis, British entrepreneur
- 1929 Marilyn Lloyd, (Rep-D-TN, 1975- )
- 1929 Sergio Leone, Italian director who invented spaghetti westerns (The Man with No Name trilogy), born in Rome, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1989)
- 1930 Marcel Dubé, Quebec playwright
- 1932 Anatoli Petrovich Kuklin, Russian cosmonaut
- 1934 Carla Hills, American lawyer and politician (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1975-77), born in Los Angeles, California
- 1939 Janice Crosio, Australian politician
- 1942 John Marsden, Australian lawyer, gay activist (d. 2006)
- 1944 Blanche d'Alpuget, Australian novelist, biographer and second wife of Bob Hawke
- 1946 Cissy King, American entertainer
- 1947 Sergey Filipovich Protchenko, Russian cosmonaut
- 1949 Sylvia Likens, American torture victim (d. 1965)
- 1951 Frank Chikane, Secretary-General of South African Council of Churches
- 1951 Gary Nairn, Australian politician
- 1954 Ned Lamont, American businessman and politician, Governor of Connecticut (2019-), born in Washington, D.C.
- 1961 Lynn Hill, American rock climber (IFSC Climbing World Cup gold 1990), born in Detroit, Michigan
- 1962 Francesca Lia Block, American author
- 1963 Alex Wheatle MBE, black British novelist
- 1975 Thomas Bangalter, French DJ (Daft Punk - "Get Lucky"), born in Paris, France
- 1979 Francesco Bellissimo, Italian mangaka
- 1980 Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model
- 1988 Rodrigo de la Cadena, Mexican artist and performer
Greta Thunberg
2003 Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate change activist, born in Stockholm, Sweden
Greta Thunberg
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1783 US Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall (27) weds Mary Willis Ambler in Hanover County, Virginia
John Marshall
Wedding of Interest
1923 German politician Hermann Goering (30) weds Carin Hulda (34)
Hermann Goering
Deaths in History
- 236 St Anterus, Catholic Pope (235-6) dies in office and buried in Rome
- 1098 Walkelin, first Norman bishop of Winchester (b. unknown)
- 1322 Philip V, the Tall, King of France (1316-22), dies
- 1437 Catherine of Valois, Queen of Henry V of England, dies at 35
- 1501 Ali Sjir Neva'i [Fani], Turkish poet/author, dies at 59
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
1543 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Portuguese-Spanish conquistador who conquered Central America and later discovered California, dies of gangrene at around 43
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
- 1552 Henry II of Bavaria, Bishop of Utrecht (1524-29), Worms (1523-52) and Freising (1541-52), dies at 64
- 1560 Peder Palladus, Danish church reformer (Visitasbog), dies at about 56
- 1570 Bartholomeus Latomus [Steinmetz], Flemish archbishop of Trier, dies
- 1571 Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (1535-71), dies at 65
- 1641 Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomical prodigy, dies at 22
- 1656 Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)
- 1670 George Monck, English general, dies at 61
- 1690 Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi, Lithuanian rabbi (b. 1615)
- 1701 Prince Louis I of Monaco (b. 1642)
- 1743 Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect and designer, dies at 85
- 1759 Marquis & Marquess of Tavora, Portuguese nobles, executed
- 1779 Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon, dies at 66
- 1795 Josiah Wedgwood, English pottery designer and manufacturer (Wedgwood), dies at 64
- 1813 Bennelong, Australian aboriginal interlocutor between his tribe and the British settlers (b. c. 1764)
- 1826 Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)
- 1841 Wilhelmus Kist, writer/director of Dutch (Official) Gazette, dies at 82
- 1858 Henry Darcy, French hydraulic engineer (Darcy's Law), dies at 54
- 1865 Jozef Lies, Flemish painter, dies at 43
- 1870 Konstantin Ushinsky, Russian educationalist, dies at 46
- 1875 Pierre Larousse, French editor (b. 1817)
- 1882 William H Ainsworth, English writer (Guy Fawkes), dies at 76
- 1882 Clement Claiborne Clay, American politician (U.S. Senator from Alabama), dies at 65
- 1895 James Merritt Ives, American lithographer and businessman (Currier and Ives), dies at 70
- 1898 James Wimshurst, British designer and inventor (electrostatic generator), dies at 70
- 1903 Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler, dies at 65
- 1911 Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek author (b. 1851)
- 1912 Felix Dahn, German historian, jurist and poet, dies at 77
- 1915 James Elroy Flecker, English poet and dramatist (Hassan), dies at 30
Grenville M. Dodge
1916 Grenville M. Dodge, American railroad engineer (Transcontinental Railroad-Union Pacific) and Major General (Union Army), dies at 84
Grenville M. Dodge
- 1920 Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician, dies at 31
- 1923 Jaroslav Hašek, Czech writer (Good Soldier Schweyk), dies at 39
- 1927 Carle David Tolmé Runge, German mathematician and physicist, dies at 70
- 1931 Joseph J C Joffre, French marshal, dies at 78
- 1933 Wilhelm Cuno, German Reich's chancellor (1922-23) and businessman, dies at 56
- 1938 Arthur Boon, Flemish priest/philologist, dies at 54
- 1943 Sir Walter James, Premier of Western Australia, dies at 79 (b. 1863)
- 1944 Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1873)
- 1945 Edgar Cayce, American psychic (b. 1877)
- 1945 Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (Lenin: God of the Godless), dies at 68
William Joyce
1946 William Joyce, American-born Irish Fascist politician and NAZI propagandist, hanged in Britain for treason at 39
William Joyce
- 1969 Jean Focas, Greco-French astronomer (b. 1909)
- 1970 Gladys Aylward, British missionary in China; portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (b. 1902)
- 1972 Frans Masereel, Flem WWII resistance fighter (Le Soleil), dies at 82
- 1974 Arthur Daley, American sportswriter (NY Times-Pulitzer 1956), dies from a heart attack at 69
- 1975 Robert Neumann, Austrian-British author (False Flag), dies at 77
- 1975 Walter Linck, Swiss sculptor, dies at 71
- 1976 Michael V. Love, American test pilot (X-24), dies in F-4 crash at 37
- 1977 Avraham Ofer, Israeli minister of housing, commits suicide
- 1977 Benno Stokvis, Dutch attorney/politician, dies at 75
- 1979 Conrad Hilton, US founder (Hilton Hotels), dies at 91
- 1980 Axel Springer Jr, German photographer, commits suicide at 38
Joy Adamson
1980 Joy Adamson [Friederike Viktoria Gessner], Austrian naturalist and author (Born Free), murdered at 69 by her servant
Joy Adamson
- 1981 Princess Alice of Albany (b. 1883)
Gaston Eyskens
1988 Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium (1949, 1958-61, 1968-72), dies at 82
Gaston Eyskens
- 1988 Rose Ausländer, German poet (b. 1901)
- 1989 Sergei Lvovich Sobolev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)
- 1989 Nick Virgilio, American Haiku poet, dies at 60
- 1992 Radomiro Tomic, Chilean president (1970), dies
- 1993 Peter Brocco, blacklisted in the 1950's, dies of heart attack at 89
- 1993 Johnny Most, American sports announcer (b. 1923)
- 1994 Roel Bazen, Dutch sound technician (Van Kooten & The Bie), dies at 48
- 1994 Frank Belknap Long, American writer (Rim of the Unknown), dies at 92
- 1995 Gerard W Taylor, South African/British surgeon, dies at 74
- 1995 Robert Nesbitt, impresario, dies at 88
- 1996 Geoffrey Pardoe, British engineer (Project Manager for the Blue Streak ballistic missile programme), dies at 67
- 1996 Terence Cuneo, English artist (official artist for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953), dies at 88
- 2002 Freddy Heineken, Dutch beer brewer (Heineken), dies at 78
- 2004 Des Corcoran, Premier of South Australia (b. 1928)
- 2005 Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator (b. 1917)
- 2005 Will Eisner, American comic book artist (b. 1917)
- 2005 JN Dixit, Indian government official (b. 1936)
- 2005 Edward R. Roybal, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1963-93), dies at 89
- 2006 Bill Skate, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1954)
- 2007 William Verity Jr., United States Secretary of Commerce 1987-1989 (b. 1917)
- 2007 Michael Yeats, Irish Fianna Fáil senator 1961-1981 and son of W.B. Yeats (b. 1921)
- 2007 Sir Cecil Walker, Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for North Belfast 1983-2001 (b. 1924)
- 2008 Werner Dollinger, German politician and economist (b. 1918)
- 2009 Ulf G. Lindén, Swedish entrepreneur (b. 1937)
- 2009 Hisayasu Nagata, Japanese politician (b. 1969)
- 2009 Alan Walters, British political economist (Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), dies at 82
- 2010 Professor Sir Ian Brownlie, International law specialist
- 2010 Mary Daly, American theologian and feminist scholar (b. 1928)
- 2012 Wylie Walker Vale, American endocrinologist who discovered the stress hormone, dies at 70
- 2012 Robert L Carter, American civil rights activist & judge, dies after complications from a stroke at 94
- 2012 Winifred Milius Lubell, American illustrator & writer (The Outer Lands), dies of congestive heart failure at 97
- 2012 Josef Skvorecky, Czech writer & publisher, dies at 87
- 2012 Harold Zirin, American astronomer, dies at 82
- 2014 Saul Zaentz, American record company executive (Fantasy), and film producer (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest; Amadeus; The Unbearable Lightness Of Being; The English Patient), dies of Alzheimer's disease complications at 92
Edward W. Brooke
2015 Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), American politician & first popularly elected African American to the US Senate (1967-79), dies at 95
Edward W. Brooke