Events in History
Event of Interest
1279 BC Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (19th Dynasty)
Ramesses II
- 70 Rome captures 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem
Victory in Battle
1223 Mongol invasion of the Cumans: Battle of the Kalka River - Mongol armies of Genghis Khan lead by Subutai defeat Kievan Rus and Cumans
Genghis Khan
- 1417 Jacoba of Bavaria becomes countess of Holland/Zealand/Henegouwen
- 1495 Emperor Maximilian, Pope Alexander VI, Milan, King Ferdinand, Isabella & Venice sign anti-French Saint League
- 1531 "Women's Revolt" in Amsterdam: wool house in churchyard aborted
- 1578 Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England, to Frobisher Bay, Canada. Eventually mines fools gold, famously used to pave the streets of London.
Event of Interest
1621 Sir Francis Bacon imprisoned in the Tower of London for 1 night
Francis Bacon
Event of Interest
1669 Citing poor eyesight, English civil servant Samuel Pepys records the last event in his famous diary
Samuel Pepys
- 1696 John Salomonsz elected chief of Saint-Eustatius
- 1727 France, Britain & Netherlands sign accord of Paris
- 1744 French troops conquer Kortrijk
- 1759 The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions
- 1790 US copyright law enacted
- 1790 Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca
- 1813 In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth reach Mount Blaxland, marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains
- 1821 Cathedral of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, 1st US Catholic cathedral, is dedicated in Baltimore
- 1836 HMS Beagle anchors in Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope
- 1837 Astor Hotel opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria
- 1847 Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens
- 1849 Last edition of Orange sheet "Journal de La Haye"
- 1853 Elisha Kane's Arctic expedition leaves NY aboard Advance
- 1861 General Beauregard is given command of Confederate Alexandria Line
- 1861 Mint at New Orleans closes
- 1862 Battle of Seven Pines Virginia (Fair Oaks)
- 1864 Raid at Morgan's Kentucky
- 1868 1st Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio
- 1870 Congress passes 1st Enforcement Act (rights of blacks)
- 1870 E J DeSemdt patents asphalt pavement
- 1875 Reciprocity Treaty between US & Hawaii ratified
- 1878 German battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst sinks, 284 killed
- 1878 US Congress accepts decrease in dollar circulation
- 1879 1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition
Event of Interest
1879 Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after 4th President James Madison
James Madison
- 1883 French fleet under Pierre begins siege of Tamatave, Madagascar
- 1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents "flaked cereal"
- 1889 Johnstown Flood; 2,209 die in Penn
- 1891 Work on trans-Siberian railway begins
- 1893 Whitcomb Judson, Chicago, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)
- 1899 -June 5] Conference of Bloemfontein fails
- 1899 Bronx acquires Keltch Memorial Park
- 1900 British troops under Lord Roberts occupy Johannesburg
- 1900 Piet de Law captures Lt Col BE Spragges, 13th Battalion Irish Imperial Yeomanry
- 1900 US troops arrive in Beijing, help put down Boxer Rebellion
- 1901 At the opening of the Greek National Assembly, Prince George, High Commissioner of Crete, asks it to endorse the union of Crete with Greece; the proposal is later rejected
- 1902 Boer War Ends; Treaty of Unity signed, Britain annexes Transvaal
- 1902 Labor trouble and riots lead Spanish King Alfonso XII to impose martial law
Event of Interest
1905 Emperor Wilhelm II lands in Tanger
Wilhelm II
Conference of Interest
1909 National Conference on the Negro holds its first meeting in United Charities Building, New York (earlier form of the NAACP)
Lillian Wald
Edward Smith
Battle of Jutland
1916 Battle of Jutland: Largest naval battle of World War I between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet which killed 8,645 in an inconclusive battle but strategic British victory. German fleet never puts to sea again in WWI.
Learn More
Battle of Interest
1916 Battle of Jutland: British battle cruiser HMS Invincible explodes, only 6 crew members survive
John Jellicoe
David Beatty
Reinhard Scheer
- 1919 NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes 1st crossing of Atlantic
- 1921 Suffy McInnis (1st base) begins an errorless string of 1,700
- 1921 A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-200 African Americans killed
- 1923 China & USSR exchange diplomats
- 1923 The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) forms in Durban, South Africa, with Omar Hajee Amod Jhaveri as President
- 1924 China recognizes the USSR
- 1926 Portuguese president Bernardino Machedo resigns after coup
- 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia
- 1928 1st aerial crossing of Pacific takes off from Oakland
- 1929 Atlantic City Convention Center opens
- 1930 Building begins on Albert Canal in Belgium
- 1930 Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approaches 0.0617 AUs of Earth
- 1931 7.1 magnitude Earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead.
- 1935 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits Quetta in Balochistan, British Raj (Pakistan) killing an estimated 50,000 people
- 1937 1st quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)
- 1937 German warships bombard Almeria, Spain
Event of Interest
1940 Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with French Marshal Philippe Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany
Winston Churchill
Philippe Pétain
- 1941 -June 1) 32.0 cm rain falls on Burlington Kansas (state record)
- 1941 1st issue of "Parade" goes on sale
- 1941 A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, in neutral Ireland, claims 38 lives.
- 1942 Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury
- 1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (722,666 tons)
- 1943 "Archie" comic strip 1st broadcast on radio
- 1943 Cards Mort Cooper pitches 1st of back-to-back one-hitters
- 1943 42 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month
- 1944 Allied breakthrough in Italy
- 1947 Communists seize power in Hungary
- 1947 Eastern DC-4 crashes between Ft Deposit & Perryville Md, kills 53
- 1947 Italian government of Gasperi forms
- 1949 Charley Lupica begins stay on 4 foot square platform atop a 60' pole, vowing to stay until Indians clinch pennant. (They don't, & stays 117 days)
- 1951 Netherlands & South Africa sign cultural accord
- 1953 Lebanese president Camille Shamun disbands government
- 1955 Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities
Birthdays in History
- 1443 Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England, born in Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, England (d. 1509)
- 1469 Manuel I, King of Portugal (1495-1521) during era of exploration known as "Manuel The Fortunate", born in Alcochete, Portugal (d. 1521)
- 1472 Erardus van der Mark, prince-bishop of Luik/cardinal
- 1535 Alessandro Allori, Italian painter and carpet designer, born in Florence, Italy (d. 1607)
- 1557 Feodor I (Fyodor/Theodore Ivanovich), Tsar of Russia (1584-98), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1598)
- 1640 Michał Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (1669-73), born in Biały Kamień, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (d. 1673)
- 1699 Alexander Cruden "Alexander the Corrector", Scottish biblical scholar and eccentric, compiler of a concordance to King James Bible, born in Aberdeen, Scotland (d. 1770)
- 1744 Richard Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish inventor and educationalist, born in Bath, Somerset (d. 1817)
- 1753 Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud, French politician and police leader, born in Limoges, France (d. 1793)
- 1773 Ludwig Tieck, German writer, born in Berlin (d. 1853)
- 1801 Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist, born in Zürich, Switzerland (d. 1877)
- 1810 Horatio Seymour, American politician (18th Governor of New York), born in Onondaga, New York (d. 1886)
- 1817 Georg Herwegh, German poet, born in Stuttgart (d. 1875)
- 1818 John Albion Andrew, American politician (25th Governor of Massachusetts), born in Windham, Massachusetts (d. 1867)
Walt Whitman
1819 Walt Whitman, American poet (Leaves of Grass) and volunteer nurse during the Civil War, born in West Hills, New York (d. 1892)
Walt Whitman
- 1835 Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese military leader, born in Hino, Tokyo, Japan (d. 1869)
- 1837 Ernest Daudet, French journalist and writer (White Terror), born in Nîmes, France (d. 1921)
- 1837 William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Arlington House, Virginia (d. 1891)
- 1837 Stephen Dodson Ramseur, American general and the youngest West Pointer to be Major General, born in Lincolnton, North Carolina (d. 1864)
- 1838 Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Wife at University), born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England (d. 1900)
- 1852 Francisco Moreno, Argentine explorer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1919)
- 1860 Walter Sickert, Danish-English painter (The Miner), born in Munich (d. 1942)
- 1861 Emily Bissell, American welfare worker and founder of Christmas Seals, born in Wilmington, Delaware (d. 1948)
- 1863 Francis Younghusband, British journalist and explorer (1904 British expedition to Tibet), born in Murree, British India (d. 1942)
- 1872 Charles Greeley Abbot, American astronomer (Solar Constant), born in Wilton, New Hampshire (d. 1973)
- 1872 W. Heath Robinson, English illustrator and cartoonist (Don Quixote), born in Islington, England (d. 1944)
- 1882 Sándor Graf Festetics, Hungarian nobleman and politician, born in Dég, Fejér county, Hungary (d. 1956)
- 1883 Lauri Kristian Relander, 2nd President of Finland (1925-31), born in Kurkijoki, Finland (d. 1942)
- 1885 Alois Hudal, Austrian bishop who helped Nazi war criminals escape trial, born in Graz, Austria-Hungary (d. 1963)
- 1887 Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and poet (Nobel 1960), born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (d. 1975)
- 1892 Gregor Strasser, German political activist and NSDAP-Reich organization leader, born in Geisenfeld, Germany (d. 1934)
- 1892 Konstatin G Paustovski, Russian author (Bespokojnaja Joenostj) [NS]
- 1892 Michel Kikoine, Belarus painter (d. 1968)
- 1892 Konstantin Georgiyevich Paustovsky, Russian writer (d. 1968)
- 1899 Ilse Lagner, German antiwar writer, born in Breslau (d. 1987)
- 1899 Leonid Leonov, Russian writer, born in Moscow (d. 1994)
- 1900 Helma Wolf-Catz, Dutch author (Undercurrent, Coral Reef)
- 1907 Valston Hancock, British air marshal
- 1909 Jan Lewando, British director (Marks & Spencer)
- 1910 Francis Avery Jones, British gastro-enterologist
- 1911 Edward Adamson, British artist, 'father of art therapy' and collector, born in Sale, England (d. 1996)
- 1912 Henry M "Scoop" Jackson, (Sen-D-Wash)
- 1912 Martin Schwarzschild, US astronomer (evolution)
- 1912 Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American experimental physicist (conducted the Wu experiment), born in Liuhe, China (d. 1997)
- 1913 Peter Gibson, British Rear-Admiral
- 1916 Bert Haanstra, Holten Netherlands, director (Fanfare)
- 1921 Andrew Grima, British jeweller
- 1921 Robert Arthur Ley, UK, sci-fi author (Telepath, Power of X)
- 1922 Elisabeth, arch duchess of Austria/princess of Liechtenstein
Rainier III
1923 Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (1949-2005), born in Monaco (d. 2005)
Rainier III
- 1924 Patricia Roberts Harris, (Rep-D),1st African American woman cabinet member, born in Mattoon, Illinois (d. 1985)
- 1926 Derek Birley, founding Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster
- 1926 Martin Peake, 2nd Viscount Ingleby, British peer and business man (d. 2008)
- 1927 Isabel Stoate, British diplomat
- 1927 James Eberle, British admiral, director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs)
- 1927 Michael Sandberg, British CEO (Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp)
- 1929 Neil Shaw, British CEO (Tate & Lyle)
- 1930 William Taylor, British Chairman of Convocation (London University)
- 1931 John Schrieffer, US physicist (Nobel 1972)
- 1931 Steve Horn, (Rep-R-California)
- 1932 Elizabeth Southey, British CEO (National Fed of Women's Institutes)
- 1932 George Vallings, British Vice Admiral
- 1932 Ronald Hampel, British CEO (ICI)
- 1932 Jay Miner, American microchip designer (d. 1994)
- 1935 Jim Bolger, 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1936 Zevulun Hammer, Israeli politician, minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel (1996-98), born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 1998)
- 1937 Vladislav Ivanovich Gulyayev, Russian cosmonaut
- 1938 John Prescott, British Labour MP
- 1939 Terry Waite, English Anglican Church envoy/Lebanese hostage, born in Bollington, Cheshire
- 1940 Gilbert Shelton, American underground comics illustrator
- 1941 June Clark, British Professor of Nursing (Middlesex U)
- 1941 Louis J. Ignarro, American pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 William Nordhaus, American economist (Nobel Prize 2018, climate change modelling), born in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- 1942 John Daniel, British Vice-Chancellor (Open U)
- 1943 Richard Timothy George Mansfield Parker, 9th Earl of Macclesfield
- 1945 Linda Davies, British Judge
- 1945 Bernard Goldberg, American journalist
- 1946 Ted Baehr, American media critic
- 1947 William H Campbell Jr, rocker
- 1948 Duncan L Hunter, (Rep-R-CA, 1981- 2009), born in Riverside, California
- 1948 Svetlana Alexievich, journalist and author (Noble Prize for Literature 2015), born in Stanislav, Ukraine
- 1950 Edward Barker, cartoonist
- 1955 Ben de Lisi, British fashion designer
- 1957 Stephen Jones, English milliner (John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood), born in the Wirral Peninsula, England
- 1958 Mkhuseli Jack, South African UDF-leader (consumer boycots)
- 1962 Børge Ousland, Norwegian polar explorer, 1st person to complete solo crossing of the Antarctic, born in Oslo, Norway
- 1963 Viktor Orbán, Hungarian politician, Prime Minister of Hungary (2010-), born in Székesfehérvár, Hungary
- 1964 Leonard Asper, Canadian businessman
- 1974 Adrian Tomine, American cartoonist
- 1977 Joel Ross, British disc jockey
- 1986 Robert Gesink, Dutch cyclist
- 1990 Liberty Irene Kasem, daughter of Casey & Jean Kasem
Weddings in History
Deaths in History
- 455 Petronius Maximus, Roman senator, Emperor of Rome (455), lynched by an angry mob trying to escape Rome at 58 or 59
- 1091 Hendrik van Verdun, bishop of Luik (1075-91), dies
- 1198 Moses ben Solomon Ha-Cohen, rabbi of Mainz, dies
- 1246 Isabella of Angouleme, queen of John of England
- 1349 Thomas Wake, English politician (b. 1297)
- 1408 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shogun, dies at 49
- 1410 King Martin I of Aragon (b. 1356)
- 1495 Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England, dies at 80
- 1504 Engelbert II, Earl of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz and viceroy of Luxembourg, dies at 53
- 1551 Aristotele "Basiano" da Sangallo, Italian set designer, dies
- 1558 Philip Hoby, English politician (b. 1505)
- 1567 Pereguin de la Grange, French minister/martyr of Reform, dies
- 1567 Guido de Bres, Belgian theologian (b. 1522)
- 1594 Tintoretto, Italian Mannerist painter and notable exponent of the Renaissance school, dies at 75
- 1620 Willem Louis, earl of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies at 59
- 1665 Pieter J Saenredam, Dutch architectural painter, dies at 67
- 1680 Joachim Neander, German clergyman (b. 1650)
- 1740 Frederik Willem I, King of Prussia (1713-1740), dies at 51
- 1747 Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman (b. 1686)
- 1799 Pierre Lemonnier, French astronomer (b. 1715)
- 1809 Ferdinand von Schill, Prussian officer/rebel, dies in battle at 33
- 1809 Jean Lannes, French marshal (b. 1769)
- 1831 Samuel Bentham, British mechanical engineer (b. 1757)
- 1832 Évariste Galois, French mathematician (Group theory), dies at 20
Joseph Grimaldi
1837 Joseph Grimaldi, English pantomimist and the "greatest clown in history", dies at 57
Joseph Grimaldi
- 1846 Philip Marheineke, German clergyman (b. 1780)
- 1847 Thomas Chalmers, Scottish minister and 1st moderator (Free Church of Scotland 1843-47), dies at 67
- 1848 Eugénie de Guérin, French writer (b. 1805)
- 1849 Leonard PJ du Bus de Gisignies, gov-gen of Neth-Indies, dies at 69
- 1860 Peter Vivian Daniel, American jurist, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1841-60), dies at 76
- 1862 Robert Hopkins Hatton, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 35
- 1880 Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés, French chemist and inventor of margarine, dies at 62
- 1900 James Loudon, Dutch politician, Governor-General of Dutch East Indies (1872-75), dies at 75
- 1900 John Power, Irish baronet and whiskey manufacturer (Powers Whiskey), dies in battle
- 1906 Hermann Schell, German theologist (Gott und Geist), dies at 56
- 1906 King Alfonso XIII, assassinated in Madrid
- 1906 Victoria von Battenberg, assassinated in Madrid
- 1908 Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Canadian poet, dies at 68
Elizabeth Blackwell
1910 Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician who was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, dies at 89
Elizabeth Blackwell
- 1916 Rear Admiral Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood, dies in Battle of Jutland
- 1918 Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist and son of Eilhard Mitscherlich, dies at 82
- 1928 Ludwig Enneccerus, German leader, dies at 85
- 1928 Manuel de Oliveira Lima, Brazilian historian, dies at 60
- 1931 Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, French Canadian cardinal, archbishop of Quebec (b. 1866)
- 1952 Walter Schellenberg, German lawyer/headed spy (Venlo), dies
- 1957 Leopold Staff, Polish poet (b. 1878)
- 1960 Willem Elsschot [Alfons Josephus de Ridder], Flemish writer (Kas), dies at 78
- 1960 Walther Funk, German economist and Nazi politician, dies at 69
- 1961 Walter Little, Canadian politician (b. 1877)
- 1962 Henry F. Ashurst, American Democratic politician (U.S. Senator from Arizona), dies at 87
- 1963 Carel C. van Essen, Dutch archaeologist (Art of Ancient Rome), dies at 63
- 1971 Massimo Campigli, Italian painter and illustrator, dies at 75
- 1972 Walter Freeman, American physician (developer and practitioner of psychiatric surgery transorbital lobotomy), dies
- 1973 Albert Egges van Giffen, Dutch archaeologist, dies at 89
- 1974 Adelle Davis, American nutritionist and author (Let's Stay Healthy), dies of cancer at 70
- 1976 Jacques Monod, French biochemist, dies
- 1976 Martha Mitchell [nee Beall], wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, dies of multiple myeloma at 57
- 1981 Giuseppe Pella, 31st Prime Minister of Italy, dies at 79
- 1986 James Rainwater, American physicist (Nobel 1975-determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei), dies at 68
- 1986 Jane Frank, American artist, dies at 67
- 1987 Roy Winsor, American producer (Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life), dies at 75
- 1989 Charles A Hufnagel, doc (artificial heart valve pioneer), dies at 72
- 1991 Angus Wilson [Johnstone-W], British writer (Wrong Set), dies
- 1991 H N "Swanie" Swanson, literary agent, dies at 91 of a stroke
- 1992 Lutz Stavenhagen, top aid to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, dies at 52
- 1993 Spuds Mackenzie, American advertisement dog
- 1996 Paul Peter Piech, artist, dies at 76
- 1996 Peter Gordon Dorrell, archaeologist/photographer, dies at 68
- 1996 Timothy Leary, American psychologist & advocate for psychedelic drug use, dies of cancer at 75
- 1997 Rosie Will Monroe, WW II icon (Rosie the riveter), dies at 76
- 1997 James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist, dies at 92
- 1997 Anton Zischka, Austrian writer (Lebendiges Europa), dies at 92
- 2002 Eric Boyland, English biochemist (cancer research), dies at 97
- 2006 Ryan Bennett, broadcast commentator (b. 1970)
- 2006 Miguel Berrocal, sculptor (b. 1933)
- 2006 Raymond Davis Jr., American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
- 2009 Millvina Dean, British civil servant who was the last living survivor of the RMS Titanic and also the youngest aboard, dies of pneumonia at 97
- 2009 George Tiller, American abortion doctor (b. 1941)
- 2009 Danny La Rue, British entertainer (b. 1927)
- 2010 Louise Bourgeois, French-born American sculptor, painter and print maker, dies at 98
- 2010 Rubén Juárez, Argentine bandoneonist (b. 1947)
Chris Haney
2010 Chris Haney, Canadian journalist who created the board game "Trivial Pursuit", dies at 59
Chris Haney
- 2013 Tim Samaras, American tornado chaser, dies from tornado injuries at 55
- 2014 Martha Hyer, American actress (Day of the Wolves, Night of the Grizzly), dies at 89
- 2019 Niara Sudarkasa [Gloria Albertha Marshall], American educator and anthropologist (Lincoln College), dies at 80
- 2020 Christo [Javacheff], Bulgarian artist and wrapper (Running Fence), dies at 84