Events in History
- 1079 Omar ibn Ibrahim al-Chajjam completes Jalali-calendar
- 1323 Treaty of Paris - Flemish relinquish claims over the County of Zeeland
- 1447 Tommaso Parentucelli succeeds Pope Eugene IV as Nicolas V
- 1454 Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to Casimir IV of Poland, and the Polish king agrees to help in their struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
- 1479 Treaty of Alcaçovas: Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa
Historic Discovery
1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam
Ferdinand Magellan
- 1579 Veluwe joins Union of Utrecht
- 1590 Dutch and English army led by Maurice of Nassau captures heavily protected city of Breda using a small assault force hidden in a peat barge
- 1628 Emperor Ferdinand II delegates Restitutie-edict
- 1646 Joseph Jenkes receives the 1st patent in North America for making scythes from the General Court of Massachusetts
- 1665 Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society starts publishing
Treaty of Interest
1714 Treaty of Rastatt signed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and France ending War of Spanish Succession
Charles VI
Victory in Battle
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte captures city of Jaffa, Palestine, after a 5 day siege, defeating the Ottoman Empire
Napoléon Bonaparte
Event of Interest
1831 Edgar Allan Poe removed from West Point military academy
Edgar Allan Poe
- 1834 Toronto incorporated with William Lyon Mackenzie as its 1st mayor
Event of Interest
1835 Volume One of Thomas Carlyle's famous work "The French Revolution: A History" is accidentally burnt by a maid using it as fire starter before its publication. Carlyle re-writes it.
Thomas Carlyle
Battle of the Alamo
1836 Battle of the Alamo: After 13 days of fighting 1,500-3,000 Mexican soldiers overwhelm the Texan defenders, killing 182-257 Texans including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett
Learn More >>
Event of Interest
1857 Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens
Dred Scott
Event of Interest
1865 US President Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Ball
Abraham Lincoln
Event of Interest
1869 Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table of the elements to the Russian Chemical Society
Dmitri Mendeleev
- 1882 Monarch Milan Obrenovic of Serbia crowns himself king
- 1886 1st US alternating current power plant starts, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
- 1886 1st US nurses' magazine, The Nightingale, 1st appears, NYC
- 1896 1st auto in Detroit, Charles B King rides his "Horseless Carriage"
- 1899 "Aspirin" (acetylsalicylic acid) patented by Felix Hoffmann at German company Bayer
- 1900 After a meeting in Indianapolis, USA, a group forms the Social Democratic Party and nominates Eugene Debs as its candidate for President in the forthcoming election (becomes the Socialist Party in 1901)
Event of Interest
1901 In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Wilhelm II
Theater Premiere
1909 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Griselda" premieres in Vienna
Gerhart Hauptmann
Eleftherios Venizelos
- 1918 US naval boat "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle
- 1921 Police in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee
- 1921 The Natal Indian Congress is resuscitated and reorganised at a meeting in Durban, with Ismail Gora as President
- 1922 GB Shaw's "Back to Methusaleh III/IV" premieres in NYC
- 1923 Cards announce their players will wear numbers on their uniforms
- 1924 British Labour government cuts military budget
- 1925 Belgium annexes Eupen, Malmö dy & Sankt Vith
- 1926 China asks for a seat on the Security council
- 1929 Turkey & Bulgaria sign friendship treaty
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1933 Maxwell Anderson's "Both your Houses" premieres in NYC
- 1933 Poland occupies the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk)
- 1934 Sidney Howard & Paul de Kruif's "Yellowjacket" premieres in NYC
- 1935 Frank Bartell (Czech), cycles record 80.584 mph in LA
- 1936 Belgium ends Locarno pact
- 1940 1st US telecast from an airplane, NYC
Erwin Rommel
- 1944 USAAF begins daylight bombing of Berlin
- 1945 117 SD-prisoners executed at Savage Farm
- 1945 Chinese 38th division occupies Lashio
- 1945 Erich Honnecker & Erich Hanke flee nazis
- 1945 Federico Garcia Lorca's "La Casa" premieres in Buenos Aires
- 1946 France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation
- 1947 XB-45, 1st US 4-engine jet bomber, makes 1st test flight, Muroc, CA
- 1950 Silly Putty goes on sale in the US
- 1951 Belgium extends conscription to 24 months
Event of Interest
1951 The trial of Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel Rosenberg begins
Julius Rosenberg
Ethel Rosenberg
Georgy Malenkov
Event of Interest
1955 Dutch premiere of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"
Samuel Beckett
- 1957 Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) declares independence from UK
- 1957 Centenary of Dred Scott slavery court decision marked by rediscovery of Scott's grave
- 1959 Farthest radio signal heard (Pioneer IV, 400,000 miles)
- 1960 President Sukarno disbands Indonesia's parliament
- 1961 1st London minicabs introduced
- 1961 Dutch Queen Juliana celebrates 12½ year jubilee
- 1961 Dutch guilder revalued 4.74%
- 1962 St Louis vote to build a new downtown stadium for the Cardinals
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1962 US promise Thailand assistance against communist aggression
- 1964 Constantine succeeds Paul I as king of Greece
- 1964 Tom O'Hara runs world record mile (3:56.4)
- 1965 1st nonstop helicopter crossing of North America, JR Willford
- 1966 Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks)
- 1967 Jimmy Hoffa enters Lewisburg Federal Prison
- 1967 Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Allilujeva approaches the US Embassy in New Delhi, India, and asks for political asylum
- 1970 A Catholic man is shot dead by British soldiers in Belfast, North Ireland
- 1972 Keswick to Penrith railway officially closes
- 1973 In an exhibition game with the Pirates, Twins Larry Hisle becomes the 1st designated hitter (he hits 2 HRs & knocks in 7 RBIs)
- 1974 An unnamed Italian industrialist loses a record $1,920,000 at roulette over 5 hours in Monte Carlo Casino
- 1975 Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
- 1976 Ice Pairs Championship at Gothenburg won by Rodnina & Zaitsev (Soviet Union)
Event of Interest
1978 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia
Larry Flynt
Birthdays in History
Michelangelo
1475 Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance (David, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), born in Caprese, Tuscany (d. 1564)
Michelangelo
- 1483 Francesco Guicciardini, Italian attorney/president of Romagna
- 1492 Jean Luis Vives, Spanish theory/humanist/reformer
- 1495 Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (Opere Toscane, La Coltivazione)
- 1619 Cyrano de Bergerac, French playwright (Voyage to the Moon), known for his large nose
- 1663 Francis Atterbury, English man of letters and priest, born in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (d. 1732)
- 1698 John Alberti, Dutch theologist/philologist
- 1706 George Pocock, British admiral (d. 1792)
- 1716 Pehr Kalm, Swedish explorer and naturalist (d. 1779)
- 1740 Giovanni Meli, Siclian poet (Buccolica)
Casimir Pulaski
1747 Casimir Pulaski, Polish Military Leader (called the father of American cavalry), born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1779)
Casimir Pulaski
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet ("Sonnets from the Portuguese"), born in Kelloe, Durham (d. 1861)
- 1812 Aaron Lufkin Dennison, father of American watchmaking
- 1817 Princess Clémentine of Orléans (d. 1907)
- 1818 William Claflin, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
- 1820 Horatio Gouverneur Wright, American Major General (Union Army), born in Clinton, Connecticut (d. 1899)
- 1831 Friedrich C K von Bodelschwingh, German theologist (Home Mission)
- 1831 Philip Henry Sheridan, Major General (Union Army), born in Albany, New York
- 1834 George du Maurier, Franco-British illustrator and writer (Trilby), born in Paris, France (d. 1896)
- 1835 Charles Ewing, American attorney and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lancaster, Ohio (d. 1883)
- 1882 F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect (d. 1980)
- 1882 Geoffrey Mander, English industrialist (Mander Brothers Ltd.), born in Wolverhampton, England (d. 1962)
- 1890 Fernand Ansseau, Belgian operator/theory (Orfeo)
- 1893 Kathleen Smoothy, housewife (last link to Siege of SIdney Street)
- 1900 John Henry Pyle Pafford, British librarian (University of London), born in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire (d. 1996)
- 1901 Mark Donskoy, Odessa Russia, director (Heart of a Mother)
- 1903 Empress Kōjun of Japan (d. 2000)
- 1904 José Antonio Aguirre, Basque politician (d. 1960)
- 1909 Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian statesman and nationalist, born in Ikenne, British Nigeria (d. 1987)
- 1911 Charles Frank, physicist
- 1912 Madge Adam, astronomer
- 1913 David Bowman, trade unionist
- 1915 Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, 52nd Da'i al Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohras
- 1917 J A Mommersteeg, Dutch asst sect of Defense (KVP)
- 1917 Will Eisner, American illustrator and cartoonist (d. 2005)
- 1919 Maurice Grosse, British paranormal investigator (d. 2006)
- 1921 Oliver Wright, British Ambassador (To US)
- 1922 Ruben Ayala, Chino, California, politician (California State Senator 1974-1998) (d. 2012)
- 1923 Raymond "Bill" Hoffenberg, college president (Wolfson at Oxford)
- 1924 William H. Webster, American judge, Director of the FBI (1978-87) and Director of the CIA (1987-91), born in St. Louis, Missouri
Alan Greenspan
1926 Alan Greenspan, American economist, presidential advisor and Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States (1987-2006), born in NYC, New York
Alan Greenspan
- 1926 Elwood H [Bud] Hillis, (Rep-R-IN, 1971- )
- 1927 John Fairchild, CEO (Fairchild publishing), born in Newark, New Jersey
- 1927 Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr, Shawnee Oklahoma, USAF/astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5)
- 1929 Hal Miller, British MP
- 1929 Ho Dam, North Korean secretary of State (1970-83)
- 1929 Tom Foley, American politician (Rep-D, 1965-1995) and speaker of the house (1989-95), born in Spokane, Washington (d. 2013)
- 1931 David Haddon Whitaker, British publisher (Whitaker's Almanack)
- 1931 Hal Needham, American stuntman, (d. 2013)
- 1933 Heiko Wierenga, Dutch soc-dem mayor of Enschede (1977-94)
- 1936 A "Bram" Stemerdink, Dutch minister of Defense (PvdA)
- 1936 Marion S Barry, (Mayor-D-Washington, D.C., 1979-90, 95- ), drug indictment
- 1937 Ivan Boesky, stockbroker inside trading, born in Detroit, Michigan
Valentina Tereshkova
1937 Valentina Tereshkova, Soviet cosmonaut and 1st woman in space (Vostok 6), born in Maslennikovo, Russia
Valentina Tereshkova
- 1938 Pauline Boty, English artist, born in London (d. 1966)
- 1939 Christopher Bond, (Sen-R Missouri)
- 1939 Infanta Margarita of Spain, duchess of Soria
- 1941 Ann Winterton, British MP
- 1946 Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry, Cameroon, astronaut (STS 18)
- 1946 Tony Klatka, rocker (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
- 1946 Richard Noble, Scottish businessman (land speed record 1983-97), born in Edinburgh
- 1947 Teru Miyamoto, Japanese author
- 1948 James FCS "Jim" Woude, cartoonist
- 1952 Lyn Perrin, executive administrator (WIC)
- 1953 Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
- 1955 Cyprien Ntaryamira, 5th President of Burundi (1994) who was assassinated at the start of the Rwandan genocide, born in Mubimbi, Bujumbura Rural Province, Burundi (d. 1994)
- 1959 Saul Anuzis, American politician
- 1962 Valerie French, American animatronics art director
- 1967 Mihai Tudose, Romanian politician, Prime Minister (2017-), born in Brăila, Romania
- 1984 Becky, Japanese-British entertainer
- 1985 Alaska Thunderf**k [Justin Andrew Honard], American drag queen and TV performer (RuPaul's Drag Race), born in Erie, Pennsylvania
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1898 Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (25) weds political activist Alice Dunbar (22) in New York
Wedding of Interest
1928 Industrialist Oskar Schindler (19) weds Emilie Schindler (20) in Svitavy, Czech Republic
Oskar Schindler
Deaths in History
- 766 Chrodegang, church reformer/bishop of Mainz, dies at about 50
- 1252 Saint Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint (b. 1235)
- 1447 Saint Colette of Corbie, French abbess and reformer (Poor Clares), dies at 66
- 1490 Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
- 1531 Pedrarias Dávila, Spanish conquistador
- 1583 Zacharias Ursinus, German theologist (Heidelberger Catechism), dies at 48
- 1615 Pieter Both, Dutch admiral/1st gov-gen (East Indies, 1609-14), drowns
- 1616 Francis Beaumont, Elizabethan playwright, dies (birth date unknown)
- 1627 Krzysztof Zbaraski, Polish statesman (b. 1580)
- 1674 Johann Paul Schor, German baroque painter, dies at 58
- 1720 Pieter van Flowers, Flemish painter, buried at 63
Henry Pelham
1754 Henry Pelham, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1743-54) who introduced the Gin Acts, dies at about 57
Henry Pelham
Davy Crockett
1836 Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, adventurer and politician, killed at the Battle of the Alamo at 49
Davy Crockett
- 1836 James Butler Bonham, American lawyer from South Carolina and soldier (b. 1807)
- 1836 Jim Bowie, American pioneer and soldier (b. 1796)
- 1836 James Bowie, American pioneer and soldier (Texas Revolution), dies at 39
- 1842 Constanze Mozart, wife of W.A. Mozart (b. 1763)
- 1844 Gabriel Duvall, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1811-35), dies at 91
- 1846 Nikoli A Poveloi, Russian writer/publisher, dies at 49 [NS]
- 1854 Caspar GC Reinwardt, German/Dutch biologist, dies at 80
- 1854 Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British soldier and politician (b. 1778)
- 1866 William Whewell, English polymath and philosopher (History of Inductive Science), dies at 71
- 1881 Horatia Nelson, the illegitimate daughter of Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson (b. 1801)
Louisa May Alcott
1888 Louisa May Alcott, American author (Little Women), dies of a stroke at 55
Louisa May Alcott
Gottlieb Daimler
1900 Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and inventor, designed 1st motorcycle, dies at 65
Gottlieb Daimler
- 1905 John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician, dies at 86
- 1912 August Toepler, German physicist, dies at 75
- 1917 Jules HPFX Vandenpeereboom, premier of Belgium (1899), dies at 73
- 1933 Anton Cermak, American politician (44th Mayor of Chicago, 1931-33), dies 23 days after being shot in Miami at 59
- 1933 Anton J Cermak, US mayor of Chicago, murdered
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
1935 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, US 59th Supreme Court justice (1902-32), dies of pneumonia at 93
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
- 1939 Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician (Proving π is a transcendental number), dies at 86
- 1941 John Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (Mount Rushmore), dies at 73
- 1941 Leen Schijvenschuurder, Dutch February strike leader, executed
- 1944 Ernst Cohen, Dutch chemist, gassed at Auschwitz concentration camp at 74
- 1945 Jan Thijssen, Dutch resistance fighter, executed at Savage Farm
- 1948 Ross Lockridge, Jr., American novelist (Raintree County), dies at 33
- 1950 Albert Lebrun, President of France (1932-40), dies at 78
- 1951 Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian politician and statesman, dies at 70
- 1954 Jan Kalf, Dutch literature/art historian, dies at 80
- 1963 Kornelis ter Laan, 1st Dutch socialist mayor (Zaandam), dies at 91
- 1964 King Paul I, King of Greece (1947-64), dies at 62
- 1968 Joseph Martin Jr, Speaker of the House, dies at 83
- 1969 Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (b. 1952)
- 1971 Raymond Herreman, Belgian poet, journalist and writer (Jericho's Rose), dies at 74
- 1973 Pearl S. Buck, American author (Good Earth - Nobel Prize 1938), dies at 80
- 1973 Vera Fjodorova Panova, Russian author (Sputniki), dies at 67
- 1981 Klaus Grabowski, German alleged murderer and convicted sex offender, shot and killed in Lübeck District Court by Marianne Bachmeier the mother of the daughter he was accused of murdering
- 1984 Martin Niemöller, German theologian who supported then opposed the Nazi regime, famous for his widely quoted poem "First they came ...", dies at 92
- 1985 Eric Sloane, American artist, dies at 80
Georgia O’Keeffe
1986 Georgia O'Keeffe, American sculptor/painter (Flowers), dies at 98
Georgia O’Keeffe
- 1987 Edward Zorinsky, American (Sen-D-NB, 1976-88), dies at 58
- 1992 Emmy Huf, Dutch cabaret performer/writer (I Want Warm Meat), dies
- 1992 Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Portuguese painter (Infinite Passage), dies at 83
- 1993 Cyril Collard, French director (Lesson nuits fauves), dies at 35
- 1993 Andrew Gilchrist, British ambassador (Ireland, Indonesia, Iceland), dies at 82
- 1994 Max Schubert, winemaker, dies at 89
- 1994 Tengis Abuladze, Georgia SSR MP (Penalty), dies at 71
- 1995 David Beinhoff, mayor, dies at 24
- 1995 Emile van Moerkerken, photographer (Ice Princess), dies at 78
- 1995 Helene Virginie Weijel, Dutch author (In Two Worlds), dies at 44
- 1996 Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, politician, dies at 88
- 1997 Anthony Hopkins, English clinical neurologist and Director of the Research Unit at the Royal College of Physicians, dies at 59
- 1997 Cheddi B Jagan, dentist/founder PPP/Guyanese Premier (1953, 1957-64) dies
- 1997 Michael Manley, Jamaican PM (PNP, 1972-80, 89-92), dies
- 1998 Adem Jasari, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader, killed
- 1999 Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifah, 1st emir of Bahrain (1961-1999), dies of a heart attack at 65
- 2003 John Sanford, American author (b. 1904)
- 2005 Tommy Vance, British radio disc jockey (b. 1943)
- 2005 Hans Bethe, German-American quantum physicist (Nobel 1967), dies at 98
- 2006 Anne Braden, American civil rights activist, journalist, and educator, dies at 81
- 2007 Jean Baudrillard, French cultural theorist, philosopher, political commentator and photographer (b. 1929)
- 2007 Ernest Gallo, American winemaker (b. 1909)
- 2008 Peter Poreku Cardinal Dery Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale, Ghana
- 2009 Francis Magalona, Filipino media artist and photographer. (b. 1964)
- 2009 Susan Tsvangirai, wife of Morgan Tsvangirai (b. 1959)
- 2010 Mark Linkous, member of Sparklehorse (b. 1962)
- 2010 Denis Henry, British High Court judge, dies at 78
- 2012 Francisco Xavier do Amaral, East Timorese President, dies at 75
- 2012 Donald Payne, American Congressman, dies from colon cancer at 77
- 2012 Jaap Boersma, Dutch politician (Minister for Social Affairs (ARP)), dies at 82
Nancy Reagan
2016 Nancy Reagan [Anne Frances Robbins], US First Lady (1981-89), dies at 94
Nancy Reagan
- 2018 Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet and academic (Noctuary), dies at 61
- 2018 Ferdousi Priyabhashini, Bangladeshi sculptor (Independence Day Award-2010), dies at 71
- 2018 Sir John E. Sulston, British molecular biologist, co-recipient of 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (roundworm genome sequencing), dies of stomach cancer at 75