Events in History
- 362 Emperor Julianus of Constantinople ends education laws
- 626 Avaren/Slaves under khagan Bajan begin siege of Constantinople
- 904 Thessalonica is sacked by Saracen pirates led by renegade Leo of Tripoli
- 1014 Battle of Strumitsa-valley: Byzantine destroys Bulgarian armies
- 1030 Battle at Stiklestad (Trondheim)
- 1179 Lando Sittino proclaimed (anti-)pope Innocent III
- 1221 Emperor Go-Horikawa aged only 10 years old ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan
Letter from Kublai Khan to the Japanese Emperor
1279 Five emissaries dispatched by Kublai Khan from the Mongol Yuan dynasty are beheaded by Japan
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James I and VI
- 1579 Antwerp request union with Utrecht
Event of Interest
1579 Spanish King Philip II arrests plotters Antonio Perez and Princess van Eboli
Philip II of Spain
Event of Interest
1609 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
Samuel de Champlain
- 1634 Dutch fleet under Johannes van Walbeeck lands on Curacao
- 1655 Biggest townhall in the world opens in Amsterdam
- 1676 Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians
- 1693 War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen/Neerwinden - France wins Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands
- 1715 10 Spanish treasure galleons sunk off Florida coast by a hurricane
- 1773 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny Mountains completed, Schoenbrunn, Ohio
- 1783 Skaptar Volcano on Iceland erupts killing about 9,000
- 1786 1st newspaper published west of Alleghanies, Pitts Gazette
- 1793 John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay
- 1794 African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, dedicated
- 1835 1st sugar plantation in Hawaii begins
- 1836 Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
- 1847 Cumberland School of Law founded in Lebanon, Tennessee, USA. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States
- 1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police
- 1851 Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia
- 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce/Harris Treaty signed between US and Japan opening Japanese ports to trade
- 1862 American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.
- 1864 American Civil War: Battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia, 3rd and last day
- 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Macon, Georgia (Stoneman's Raid)
Event of Interest
1884 Society of Independent Artists founded in Paris by Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac
Georges Seurat
Agreement of Interest
1905 US Secretary of War William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines
William Howard Taft
- 1907 1st helicopter ascent in Douai, France
Event of Interest
1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms Boy Scouts in England
Robert Baden-Powell
- 1910 JWEL Hilgers is 1st Dutchman to fly above Dutch territory
- 1913 Independence of the Principality of Albania recognized by the Conference of London
- 1914 1st transcontinental phone link made between New York City and San Francisco
- 1914 Austrian-Hungary bombs Belgrade
- 1914 British fleet leaves Portland/passes Straits of Dover
- 1914 Russia mobilize troops along Austrian boundary
- 1914 In response to Austria's declaration of war on Serbia, Russian diplomats and general urge general mobilization, but the Tsar calls for partial mobilization
- 1920 1st transcontinental airmail flight from New York to San Francisco
- 1920 Mexican rebel Pancho Villa surrenders
- 1920 Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, Oregon
- 1921 New rules of language assumed (equal rights Flemings/Walen Belgium)
Event of Interest
1921 Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
Adolf Hitler
- 1922 Greek troops defeat Turkish forces and are on their way to Constantinople, but the Allies forbid them taking the city
Event of Interest
1923 Albert Einstein speaks on pacifism in Berlin
Albert Einstein
- 1923 KPD holds struggle day against fascism, in Germany
- 1927 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)
- 1927 Phil Mead scores his 100th 100, Hampshire v Northants
- 1930 115°F (46°C), Holly Springs, Mississippi (state record)
- 1930 Airship R100, 1st passenger-carrying flight from England to Canada
- 1932 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans
- 1937 Japanese troops occupies Peking and Tientsin
- 1937 Tongzhou Incident: East Hopei Army mutinies against Japanese troops and civilians
- 1942 Eastern Blvd in the Bronx renamed Bruckner Boulevard
- 1943 1 million inhabitants flee Hamburg
- 1943 Nazi's evacuate Hollandsche Theater in Amsterdam
- 1944 Allied air force bomb Germany for 6 hours
- 1944 Frank McCormick (Reds) HR off Ace Adams (Giants) in both games of DH
- 1944 US 4th Armour division occupiers Avranches
- 1947 Gas leak explodes in a beauty parlor, 10 women die in Harrisonburg, Virginia
- 1949 Moscow ends the blockade of West Berlin
- 1952 1st nonstop transpacific flight by a jet
- 1953 US bomber shot down by Soviet Air Defence Forces in the Sea of Japan, north of Vladivostok
- 1955 Smokey Burgess hits 3 HRs to help Pirates beat Reds 16-5
- 1955 USSR performs nuclear Test
Event of Interest
1956 Jacques Cousteau's Calypso anchors in 7,500 m of water (record)
Jacques Cousteau
- 1957 International Atomic Energy Agency formed by UN
Event of Interest
1958 US President Eisenhower signs into law National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- 1958 Southern Pacific Bay ferries stop running in San Francisco
- 1959 First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
- 1961 Wallis and Futuna Islands become a French overseas territory
- 1965 Gemini 5 returned after 12d 7h 11m 53s
- 1965 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1966 In Nigerian counter-coup, Head of State General Aguiyi Ironsi murdered, Yakubu Gowon appointed his successor
- 1967 Fire aboard carrier USS Forrestal in Gulf of Tonkin kills 134
- 1967 Moderate quake (6.5) strikes Caracas Venezuela causing severe damage
- 1968 Gram Parsons refuses to play with the Byrds in South Africa
- 1968 Mount Arenal, Costa Rica kills 80 in Pelee-type eruption
- 1969 Mariner 6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars
- 1970 6 days of race rioting in Hartford Ct
- 1972 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1973 Greek plebiscite chooses republic over monarchy
- 1974 2nd impeachment vote against Nixon by House Judiciary Committee
- 1974 Episcopal Church ordained female priests
- 1974 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1975 Ford became 1st US President to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz
Birthdays in History
Walter Hunt
1796 Walter Hunt, American inventor (safety pin, sewing machine), born in Martinsburg, New York (d. 1859)
Walter Hunt
- 1797 Daniel Drew, American financier (d. 1879)
- 1801 George Bradshaw, British publisher, born in Manchester, England (d. 1853)
- 1805 Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman/writer (Democracy in America)
- 1817 James Blair Steedman, American Major General (Union Army), born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania (d. 1883)
- 1820 Clement Laird Vallandigham, MC (Union), (d. 1871)
- 1828 Cuvier Grover, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bethel, Maine (d. 1885)
- 1830 Alvan Cullom Gillem, American Major General (Union Army), born in Gainesboro, Tennessee (d. 1875)
- 1843 Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d. 1901)
- 1849 Max Nordau, Austrian author and Zionist leader (d. 1923)
- 1854 Georg Kerschensteiner, German educator (Theory of Education)
- 1861 Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt, born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (d. 1884)
- 1861 Sergei D Sazonov, Russian minister of Foreign Affairs (1910-16)
- 1869 Booth Tarkington, American novelist (17, Magnificent Ambersons)
- 1872 Eric Alfred Knudsen, American folklorist (d. 1957)
- 1874 August Stramm, German poet and playwright, born in Cathedrals (d. 1915)
- 1874 James Shaver Woodsworth, Canadian politician (d. 1942)
- 1878 Don Marquis, Ill, journalist/poet (archy & mehitabel) (d. 1937)
Benito Mussolini
1883 Benito Mussolini [Il Duce], Fascist Italian dictator (1922-43), born in Predappio, Forlì, Italy (d. 1945)
Benito Mussolini
Vladimir Zworykin
1888 Vladimir K. Zworykin, Russian-American inventor (development of television, cathode ray tube), born in Murom, Russian Empire (d. 1982)
Vladimir Zworykin
- 1889 Karl Otten, German Expressionist writer, born in Oberkrüchten (d. 1963)
- 1891 Bernhard Zondek, German/Israeli gynaecologist
- 1892 Ernst van Raalte, Dutch journalist (Seen, heard... wrote), born in Rotterdam, South Holland (d. 1975)
- 1897 Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (d. 1983)
- 1898 Isidor Isaac Rabi, Polish physicist (explored atom, Nobel 1944)
- 1900 Eyvind Johnson, Swedish novelist (Return to Ithaca), Nobel Prize (1974), born in Svartbjörnsbyn (d. 1976)
- 1904 J. R. D. Tata, Indian industrialist (d. 1993)
Dag Hammarskjöld
1905 Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish public servant, 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-61) and posthumous Nobel Peace Prize winner (1961), born in Jönköping, Sweden (d. 1961)
Dag Hammarskjöld
- 1905 Stanley Kunitz, American poet (d. 2006)
- 1907 Melvin Belli, American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and "Melvin Bellicose", born in Sonora, California (d. 1996)
- 1910 Henry Brian Boyne, journalist
- 1911 Foster Furcolo, 60th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1995)
- 1911 Iakovos, Archbishop of America (d. 2005)
- 1913 Erich Priebke, Nazi war criminal
- 1914 Abram Games, graphic artist
- 1914 Dovie Hudson, community activist in rural Mississippi
- 1915 Bruce R. McConkie, LDS apostle and author (d. 1985)
- 1915 Francis W. Sargent, 64th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1998)
- 1918 Vladimir Dudentzev, Russian writer
- 1919 Miltos Sachtouris, Greek poet (d. 2005)
- 1919 Robert Marsden Hope, Australian Justice and Royal Commissioner, born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1999)
- 1920 Neville Jeffress, Australian founder of Media Monitors Australia (d. 2007)
- 1921 Aled Eames, Welsh maritime historian, born in Llandudno (d. 1996)
- 1924 Arnold Weinstock, English industrial/multi-millionaire (GEC)
Elizabeth Short
1924 Elizabeth Short, American victim in the Black Dahlia case, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1947)
Elizabeth Short
- 1926 Russel Firestone, polo great (Circle F-1959 champs)
- 1927 Harry K V Mulisch, writer (Message to King Rat)
- 1928 Li Ka-Shing, Hong Kong-Chinese business magnate and entrepreneur (CK Holdings), born in Chao'an, Guangdong, China
- 1929 Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher
- 1932 Nancy Landon Kassebaum, (Sen-R-Kansas, 1979- )
- 1936 Elizabeth Hanford Dole, US Secretary of Transportation (1983-87)
- 1937 Daniel McFadden, American economist and Nobel Prize Laureate who developed theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice, born in Raleigh, North Carolina
Charles Schwab
1937 Charles Schwab, American investor and entrepreneur (Charles Schwab Corporation), born in Sacramento, California
Charles Schwab
- 1938 Jean Rochon, Quebec politician
- 1946 Bill Forsyth, director (Local Hero, Breaking In, Housekeeping)
- 1949 Marilyn Tucker Quayle, novelist/wife of Vice President Dan Quayle (1989-93)
- 1955 Dave Stevens, American illustrator
- 1956 Ronnie Musgrove, Former Governor of Mississippi
- 1957 Virginia Maria "Ginni" Rometty, American chairwoman, president and CEO of IBM, born in Chigago, Illinois
- 1959 Ruud Janssen, Dutch writer and artist
- 1963 Graham Poll, English football referee
- 1963 Jim Beglin, Irish football commentator
- 1965 Chang-Rae Lee, Korean-born author
- 1966 Richard Steven Horvitz, American comic voiceactor
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1565 Mary, Queen of Scots marries her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Mary, Queen of Scots
Wedding of Interest
1914 Mountain climber George Mallory (28) weds Ruth Dixon Turner
George Mallory
Wedding of Interest
1955 Mexican artist Diego Rivera (68) marries 4th wife art dealer Emma Hurtado
Diego Rivera
Wedding of Interest
1981 His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales weds Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral, London
Diana Spencer
Prince Charles
Deaths in History
- 238 Pupienus, Roman Emperor ruled 3 months with Balbinus
- 238 Balbinus, Roman Emperor, ruled 3 months with Pupienus
- 1030 Olaf II Haraldsson, King of Norway, dies in battle of Stiklestad at 34 or 35
- 1095 Ladislaus I, King of Hungary, dies at 55
- 1099 Urban II [Odo van Lagery], French Pope who began the First Crusade (1088-99), dies at about 64
- 1507 Martin Behaim, German navigator and geographer, dies at 47
- 1566 Agnes Waterhouse, British woman hanged after being convicted of witchcraft at approximately 63
- 1573 Spanish prince of Eboli, dies
- 1573 John Caius, English physician, dies at 62
- 1596 Jacobus Latomus, Flemish poet (Psalms/Jeremias) dies at about 84
- 1612 Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b. 1554)
- 1632 Samuel Ampzing, Dutch poet (Biblical Treasures), dies at 42
- 1644 Urban VIII [Maffeo Barberini], Pope (1623-44), dies
- 1649 David Teniers I, Flemish painter (altaar stukken), dies
- 1752 Peter Warren, British admiral
- 1781 Johann Kies, German astronomer and mathematician, dies at 73
- 1792 René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France (b. 1714)
- 1813 Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (b. 1771)
William Wilberforce
1833 William Wilberforce, English abolitionist, dies at 73
William Wilberforce
- 1839 Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician (b. 1755)
- 1857 Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French prince of Canino and Musignano, dies at 54
- 1857 Thomas Dick, Scottish scientific teacher and writer (b. 1774)
- 1863 Edward Needle Kirk, US Union brigadier general, dies in battle at about 35
- 1886 Solomon Gazfried, rabbi/author (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch), dies
- 1887 Agostino Depretis, Italian statesman, Prime Minister of Italy (1876-78, 1778-79, 1881-87), dies at 74
Vincent van Gogh
1890 Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (Sunflowers), dies 2 days after shooting himself at 37
Vincent van Gogh
- 1891 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, father of Bengali prose (Exile of Sita), dies at 70
- 1897 Joost Gerard Kist, Dutch lawyer and president of High Council (1885-97), dies at 74
- 1900 Umberto I of Italy, King of Italy (1878-1900), shot four times and assassinated by Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci at 56
- 1913 Tobias Asser, Dutch advocate of world law (Nobel 1911), dies at 75
- 1918 Ernest William Christmas, Australian painter (b. 1863)
- 1922 Edward Gailliard, Flemish linguist and archaeologist, dies at 81
- 1938 Nikolai Krylenko, Russian/Soviet jurist and politician (b. 1885)
- 1947 Willem Vliegen, Dutch journalist and chairman (SDAP), dies at 84
- 1956 Ludwig Klages, German philosopher (study of graves), dies at 83
- 1960 Richard Simon, co-founder (Simon & Shuster), dies
- 1973 Norm Smith, Australian rules footballer and coach (b. 1915)
- 1974 Erich Kästner, German author (b. 1899)
- 1976 Mickey Cohen, American gangster (Cohen crime family), dies at 62
- 1979 Herbert Marcuse, German-American communist philosopher (Eros & Civilization), dies at 81
- 1981 Robert Moses, American urban planner (b. 1888)
Vladimir Zworykin
1982 Vladimir K. Zworykin, Russian-American inventor (development of television, cathode ray tube), dies at 94
Vladimir Zworykin
- 1982 Cor[nelis R J] Kieboom, resistor/President Feyenoord, dies at 81
- 1982 Richard Gale, English general and airborne commander (Normandy), dies at 86
- 1983 J. B. Charles [Willem H. Nagel], Dutch criminologist and writer, dies at 83
- 1983 Luis Buñuel, director (Monk), dies of cirrhosis of liver at 83
- 1987 Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay, Bengali author (b. 1894)
- 1988 Ellin Berlin [MacKay], Mrs Irving Berlin, dies at 86
- 1990 Bruno Kreisky, union chancellor Austria, dies
- 1992 Tavio Amorin, Togolese politician, murdered
- 1993 AJA Quintus Bosz, Indonesian/Suriname lawyer, dies at 78
- 1994 Francisco Veguillas, Spanish general, murdered at 68
- 1994 John Bayard Britton, American doctor who performed abortions, and killed by anti-abortion extremist Paul Hill, in Pensacola, Florida
Dorothy Hodgkin
1994 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British biochemist who developed protein crystallography to study molecular structure, including that of vitamin B12 (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1964), dies of a stroke at 84 [1]
Dorothy Hodgkin
- 1996 Aruna Asaf Ali, Indian independence activist and politician (first Mayor of Delhi), dies at 88
- 1996 Ric Nordman, Canadian politician (b. 1919)
- 1996 Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, French mathematician, dies at 75
- 2000 Kobie Coetsee, South African Minister of Defense (1993-94) and Minister of Justice (1980-93), dies at 69
- 2001 Edward Gierek, Polish politician (b. 1913)
- 2001 Wau Holland, German computer hacker (b. 1951)
- 2003 Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean rebel leader (b. 1937)
- 2006 Jim Olin, American politician (Rep-D-VA, 1983-93), dies at 86
- 2007 Marvin Zindler, American television reporter (b. 1921)
- 2008 Eric Varley, British politician and cabinet minister, dies at 75
- 2009 Gayatri Devi, 3rd Maharani consort of Jaipur, India (1940-49), dies of lung failure and gastric problems at 90
- 2016 Marta Marzotto, Italian countess and designer, dies at 85
- 2016 Zelda Fichandler, American theater director and producer (Raisin, K2), dies at 91