Events in History
Event of Interest
1547 English demand Edward VI (10) wed Mary Queen of Scots (5)
Mary, Queen of Scots
Election of Interest
1608 John Smith elected president of Jamestown colony council, Virginia
John Smith
Event of Interest
1776 George Washington asks for a spy volunteer, Nathan Hale volunteers
Nathan Hale
George Washington
Appointment of Interest
1823 Simón Bolívar named President of Peru
Simón Bolívar
- 1845 King Willem II opens Amsterdam Stock exchange
Historic Invention
1846 Elias Howe takes out a US patent for a lockstitch sewing machine
Elias Howe
- 1847 1st theater opens in Hawaii
- 1858 John Holden hits 1st recorded HR (Brooklyn vs NY)
- 1858 George Mary Searle discovers the asteroid 55 Pandora
- 1861 -15] Battle at Cheat Mountain, Elkwater, West Virginia
- 1861 Battle of Carnifex Ferry in Virginia, 170 casualties
- 1869 Baptist minister supposedly invents rickshaw in Yokohama, Japan
- 1870 Dutch Jurist Cooperation forms
- 1880 Pierre de Brazza signs treaty with King Makoko of Congo
- 1882 1st international conference to promote anti-semitism meets Dresden Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests)
- 1884 Congressman John R. Lynch presides over Republican National Convention
- 1894 London taxi driver George Smith is the first to be fined for drunk driving
- 1897 Lattimer Massacre - a sheriff's posse kills twenty unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States
Event of Interest
1898 Lord Kitchener's ships sails from Kartoum to Fashoda
Horatio Kitchener
- 1898 Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni
- 1899 2nd quake in 7 days (8.6) hits Yakutat Bay, Alaska
- 1900 20.3 cm rainfall at Elk Point, South Dakota (state record)
- 1905 Japanese battleship Mikasa explodes
- 1910 Great Idaho Fire destroys 3 million acres of timber
- 1913 Cleveland Call & Post forms
- 1913 George W. Buckner, named minister to Liberia
- 1913 Lincoln Highway opens as 1st paved coast-to-coast highway
Event of Interest
1919 NYC welcomes home General John J. Pershing & 25,000 WW I soldiers
John J. Pershing
- 1919 Treaty of St Germain: Austria ends incorporation with Germany
- 1919 China becomes a member of the League of Nations
- 1923 Irish Free state joins League of Nations
- 1924 Leopold and Loeb found guilty of the murder of Robert Franks in Chicago in the "the crime of the century"
- 1926 Allies-German treaty of Koblenz drawn
- 1926 Germany joins League of Nations
- 1930 Charles E Mitchell, named minister to Liberia
- 1931 Lord Cecil of British government says War was never so improbable
- 1932 Independent City Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (IND) opens in NYC
- 1933 1st Negro League All-Star Game, West beats East 11-7 (Comiskey Park)
Declaration of War
1939 Canada, under the leadership of Mackenzie King, declares war on Germany
Mackenzie King
Event of Interest
1943 Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley arrives in Prestwick/London
Omar Bradley
Event of Interest
1945 Vidkun Quisling sentenced to death for collaborating with Nazis
Vidkun Quisling
Miracle Mike!
1945 Mike the Headless Chicken is decapitated in Fruita, Colorado; he survives for another 18 months before choking to death.
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- 1948 Bijz Criminal division sentences war criminal Jacob Folks to life
- 1951 British begin economic boycott of Iran
- 1953 Swanson sells its 1st "TV dinner"
- 1954 12 second shock kills 1,460 in Orleansville Algeria
- 1956 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
- 1956 Louisville Ky public schools integrates
- 1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 20 black students enter public schools in Alabama
- 1964 Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) forms
- 1965 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1967 Gibraltar votes 12,138 to 44 to remain British & not Spanish
- 1967 Joel Horlen revives Chicago's pennant hopes with a 5-0 no-hit win
- 1969 US performs nuclear test at Grand Valley Colorado
- 1972 3 British soldiers are killed in a land mine attack near Dungannon, County Tyrone
- 1974 Portugal recognizes independence of Republic of Guinea-Bissau
- 1976 2 airliners collide over Yugoslavia, kills all 176 aboard
- 1976 5 Croatian terrorists capture TWA-plane at La Guardia Airport, NY
- 1977 Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of torture and murder, is the last person to be executed by Guillotine in France
- 1978 Arlyne Rhode sets female footbow distance record (1,113 yds & 30")
- 1979 3 Puerto Rican nationalists who attempted to kill Truman are freed
- 1980 Expos Bill Gullickson, sets rookie record of striking out 18
- 1980 Peter Comita replaces Tom Peterson of Cheap Trick
- 1981 "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso returns to Spain
- 1984 Discovery returns to Kennedy Space Center via Altus AFB, Oklahoma
- 1984 Sean O'Keefe (11) is youngest to cycle across US (24 days)
- 1985 U.S. 7th Circuit Court rules Soviet defector Walter Polovchak can't be forcibly returned to parents' country if it's deemed "not in the best interests" of underage defectors
- 1986 Bryan O'Connor named chairman of Space Flight Safety Panel
- 1988 -18] Hurricane Gilbert, kills 300 in Jamaica, Texas & Yucatan
- 1989 East Germans begin their flight to west (via Hungary and Czechoslovakia)
- 1990 Ellis Island reopens as a museum
- 1990 Hard Rock Cafe opens in Las Vegas Nevada
- 1990 Iran agrees to resume diplomatic ties with Iraq
- 1990 Mariner Matt Young becomes 21st AL'er to strike out 4 in 1 inning
Event of Interest
1990 Basilica of Our Lady of Peace consecrated by Pope John Paul II in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, as the largest church in the world at 30,000 square metres (320,000 sq ft)
John Paul II
Event of Interest
1991 Senate Committee begins hearings on Clarence Thomas' nomination
Clarence Thomas
- 1992 Lucy in Peanuts comics raises her Psychiatric Help from 5 cents to 47 cents
- 1993 1,000 Boeing 747 jumbo plane produced
- 1994 Chong Hey swims female record 400m medley (4:01.67)/100m backstroke
- 1997 Discovery buys Travel Channel for $20 million
- 2002 Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations
Birthdays in History
- 1169 Alexios II Komnenos, Byzantine emperor, born in Constantinople (d. 1183)
Julius III
1487 Julius III [Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte], Counter-Reformation Pope (1550-55), born in Monte San Savino, Tuscany (d. 1555)
Julius III
- 1550 Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, Spanish Armada commander, born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Spain (d. 1615)
- 1561 Hernando Arias de Saavedra, Spanish-American colonial governor, born in Asunción (d. 1634)
- 1624 Thomas Sydenham, English physician and author of "Observationes Medicae", born in Wynford Eagle, Dorset (d. 1689)
Maria Theresa of Spain
1638 Maria Theresa of Spain, Queen of Louis XIV of France, born in El Escorial, Spain (d. 1683)
Maria Theresa of Spain
- 1645 Romeyn de Hooghe, Dutch painter and goldsmith, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1708)
- 1736 Carter Braxton, American farmer and signer (Declaration of Independence), born in King and Queen County, Virginia (d. 1797)
- 1753 John Soane, English architect (Bank of England, Soane Museum), born in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England (d. 1837)
- 1758 Hannah Webster Foster, American author (The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton), born in Salisbury, Massachusetts (d. 1840)
- 1786 Nicolás Bravo, Mexican politician and soldier, born in Chilpancingo, Mexico (d. 1854)
- 1786 William Mason, American politician, born in Lebanon, Connecticut (d. 1860)
- 1787 John J. Crittenden, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky), born in Versailles, Kentucky (d. 1863)
- 1788 Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, French archaeologist (discovered flint tools in the gravels of the Somme valley), born in Rethel, Ardennes, France (d. 1868)
- 1801 Marie Laveau, American Voodoo practitioner, born in French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1881)
- 1810 Albert G. Blanchard, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Charlestown, Massachusetts (d. 1891)
- 1815 Eleazer Arthur Paine, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Geauga County, Ohio (d. 1882)
- 1832 Randall L. Gibson, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Versailles, Kentucky (d. 1892)
- 1836 Joseph Wheeler, American Major General (Confederacy/Cavalry/Army of Tennessee), born in Augusta, Georgia (d. 1906)
- 1839 Isaac Kauffman Funk, American publisher (Funk & Wagnalls), born in Clifton, Ohio (d. 1912)
- 1839 Charles Peirce, American scientist and philosopher known as "the father of pragmatism", born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1914)
- 1844 Abel Hoadley, Australian confectioner (Violet Crumble), born in East Sussex, England (d. 1918)
- 1852 Alice Brown Davis, first female Principal Chief of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma (1922-35), born in Park Hill, Indian Territory (d. 1935)
- 1854 Anton Dreesmann, German-Dutch manufacturer (Vroom & Dreesman), born in Haselünne, Germany (d. 1934)
- 1857 James Edward Keeler, American astronomer (rings of Saturn), born in La Salle, Illinois (d. 1900)
- 1861 Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (Trold, der vejrer kristenblod), born in Vejen, Denmark (d. 1941)
- 1866 Jeppe Aakjær, Danish poet and novelist (Bondens Søn), born in Fly, Jutland (d. 1930)
- 1871 Charles Collett, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway (1922-41) (d. 1952)
- 1877 Georgia Douglas Johnson, African American poet and playwright (Autumn Love Cycle), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1966)
- 1883 Euphemia "Phemia" Molkenboer, Dutch author/poster artist
- 1885 Berthold Altaner, German church historian (Patrologie)
- 1885 Carl Van Doren, US literary critic and biographer (1939 Pulitzer Prize), born in Hope, Illinois (d. 1950)
- 1885 Johannes de Jong, cardinal/archbishop of Utrecht (Handbook)
- 1886 Hilda Doolittle, American poetess (Imagist movement), born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (d. 1961)
- 1887 Giovanni Gronchi, Italian politician, President of Italy (1955-62), born in Pontedera, Italy (d. 1978)
- 1890 Franz Werfel, Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet (Mirror Man, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh), born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (d. 1945)
Elsa Schiaparelli
1890 Elsa Schiaparelli, Italian fashion designer, born in Rome, Italy (d. 1973)
Elsa Schiaparelli
- 1892 Arthur Compton, US physicist (1927 Nobel Prize for Physics for Compton Effect), born in Wooster, Ohio (d. 1962)
- 1893 Maria de Jesus, Portuguese supercentenarian (world's oldest person 2008-9) who lived to be 115, born in Olival, Kingdom of Portugal (d. 2009)
- 1895 Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Indian Telugu writer (Ramayana Kalpa Vrukshamu, Veyipadagalu), born in Nandamuru, Madras state, British India (d. 1976)
- 1896 Ye Ting, Chinese military leader (d. 1946)
- 1896 Robert Taschereau, Canadian judge and politician (d. 1970)
- 1897 Nancy Lancaster, American decorator (Colefax and Fowler), born in Mirador, Virginia (d. 1994)
- 1897 Georges Bataille, French writer (d. 1962)
- 1898 Waldo Semon, American inventor (polyvinyl chloride), born in Demopolis, Alabama (d. 1999)
- 1902 Toivo R Pekkanen, Finnish writer (Wegwerkers)
- 1904 Max Shachtman, American politician (d. 1972)
- 1907 Alva R. Fitch, American army officer (d. 1989)
- 1908 Waldo Wedel, American Archaeologist (d. 1996)
- 1912 William Oliver Everson, American poet, born in Sacramento, California (d. 1994)
- 1913 Zephania] Mothopeng, South African activist, President of the Pan-African Congress, born near Vrede, South Africa (d. 1990)
Terence O'Neill
1914 Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Ulster Unionist Party: 1963-69), born in London, England (d. 1990)
Terence O'Neill
- 1917 Franfo Fortini [Franco Lattes], Italian poet, born in Florence (d. 1994)
- 1917 Miguel Serrano, Chilean author and diplomat
- 1920 Fabio Taglioni, Italian motorcycle engineer (d. 2001)
- 1921 Cornelis A H Wagtho, student/resistance fighter
- 1924 Boyd K. Packer, LDS church apostle, born in Brigham City, Utah (d. 2015)
- 1926 Beryl Cook, British painter, born in Egham, England (d. 2008)
- 1928 Leo P[atrick] Kelley, American sci-fi author (Dead Moon, Vacation in Space)
- 1928 Jean Vanier, Canadian disabilities advocate
- 1928 Walter Martin, American Christian apologist (d. 1989)
- 1930 Kenneth Dadzie, Ghanaian diplomat and 1st African Secretary-General of UNCTAD, born in the Gold Coast (d. 1995)
- 1933 David Rowland, English real estate developer/broker/multi-millionaire
- 1933 Yevgeny Khrunov, Soviet cosmonaut (Soyuz 5), born in Prudy, Tula Oblast, Soviet Union (d. 2000)
- 1933 Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (Fendi, Chanel), born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 2019) birth date disputed
- 1934 James L Oberstar, American politician (Rep-D-Minnesota, 1975-2011), born in Chisholm, Minnesota, (d. 2014)
- 1935 Paul van Vliet, Dutch cabaret performer, born in The Hague, Netherlands
- 1935 Mary Oliver, American poet (1984 Pulitzer Prize), born in Maple Heights, Ohio (d. 2019)
- 1937 Jared Diamond, American biologist and author (Guns, Germs and Steel), born in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1939 Topham Brinton, English carpet magnate/multi-millionaire
- 1939 Mother Flawless Sabrina [Jack Doroshow], American LGBT activist, drag queen and pioneer for transgender people and drag queens, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2017)
- 1941 Pyotr I Klimuk, Polish cosmonaut (Soyuz 13, 18B, 30)
Stephen Jay Gould
1941 Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and popular science writer, born in NYC, New York (d. 2002)
Stephen Jay Gould
- 1941 Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese inventor and video game designer (d. 1997)
- 1943 Neale Donald Walsch, American author (Conversations with God), born in Milwaulkee, Wisconsin
- 1945 Rein van den Broek, Dutch trumpeteer (Ekseption)
- 1945 [Richard] Mike Mullane, American USAF, astronaut (STS 41-D, STS-27, STS-36), born in Wichita Falls, Texas
- 1946 Michèle Alliot-Marie, French politician, born in Villeneuve-le-Roi, France
- 1948 Margaret Trudeau, Canadian 1st lady, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
- 1948 Zhang Chengzhi, Chinese writer (History of the Soul), born in Beijing, China
- 1951 Albert R Wynn, American politician (Rep-D-Maryland 1993-2008), born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
- 1952 Gerry Conway, Marvel comics writer (Punisher), born in New York City
- 1952 Vic Toews, Canadian politician, born in Filadelfia, Paraguay
- 1954 Cynthia Lummis, American politician, (Rep-R-WYO) first woman representative from Wyoming, born in Cheyenne, Wyoming
- 1955 Giannina Facio Franco, Mrs Phillipe Junot, born in San José, Costa Rica
- 1958 Chris Columbus, American film writer/director (Mrs Doubtfire, Nine Months), born in Spangler, Pennsylvania
- 1960 Alison Bechdel, American cartoonist (Fun Home), born in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania
- 1964 John E. Sununu, American politician (S-(R)-New Hampshire 2003-09), born in Boston, Massachusetts
Jack Ma
1964 Jack Ma, Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Alibaba Group, born in Hangzhou, China
Jack Ma
- 1975 Jonathan Hoenig, American investment advisor
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1957 Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien (23) weds Aline Chaine (21) in Canada
Jean Chretien
Wedding of Interest
1961 Nigerian novelist, critic and academic Chinua Achebe ("Things Fall Apart") marries Christie Okoli
Chinua Achebe
- 2005 Camilla Parker-Bowles' son Tom Parker Bowles (30) weds "Harpers & Queen" fashion features editor Sara Buys at St. Nicholas' Church in Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, England
Deaths in History
Qin Shi Huang
210 BC Qin Shi Huang, Founder of the Qin dynasty and 1st emperor of a unified China (220 - 210 BC), dies reportedly from ingesting mercury pills meant to make him immortal at 49
Qin Shi Huang
- 827 Pope Valentine dies after 40 days in office [date approximate]
- 918 Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, dies at about 53
- 954 Louis IV [Louis of Overseas], King of France (936-54), dies at about 33
- 1167 Empress Matilda [Maud], claimant to the English throne, daughter of Henry I of England, wife of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1102)
- 1197 Henry II of Champagne (b. 1166)
- 1217 William de Reviers, 5th Earl of Devon
- 1279 Robert Kilwardby [Anglicus], English Archbishop of Canterbury (1272-78), philosopher and Cardinal, dies (b. 1215)
- 1305 Nicholas van Tolentino, Italian saint, dies
- 1308 Emperor Go-Nijō of Japan (b. 1285)
- 1382 Louis I, the Great, King of Hungary/Poland, dies
- 1419 John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (1404-19), assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France at 48
- 1482 Federico da Montefeltro, Italian Renaissance condottiero and arts patron
- 1519 John Colet, English churchman and educator
- 1547 Pierlugi Faraese, Italian son of Pope Paul III, murdered
- 1559 Anthony Denny, English knight of the shire and confidant of King Henry VIII of England, dies at 58
- 1600 John Bruhesius [Bruhesen], bishop of Groningen, dies
- 1604 William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator (b. 1545)
- 1623 John I Van de Velde the Elder, Dutch calligrapher (Mirror of Write-Konste), dies
- 1669 Henrietta Maria, French-born daughter of Henry IV of France and queen of Charles I of England (b. 1609)
- 1676 Gerrard Winstanley, English religious reformer (b. 1609)
- 1748 Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, Filipino Religious Sister of the Roman Catholic Church, dies at 85
- 1749 Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1706)
- 1759 Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer and Jesuit missionary, dies at 55
- 1765 Jacob Gilles, GRand Pensionary of Holland, dies at about 74
Mary Wollstonecraft
1797 Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and feminist (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), mother of Mary Shelley, dies of septicaemia at 38
Mary Wollstonecraft
- 1801 Jason Fairbanks, American murderer, dies at 20
- 1806 Johann C Adelung, German translator/librarian, dies at 74
- 1828 Count d'Andreossi, French general/parliament leader, dies at 67
- 1839 Pieter Fontijn, Dutch painter, dies at 66
- 1842 Letitia Tyler, US President Tyler's (1841-45) wife, dies at 51
- 1845 Joseph Story, American lawyer and 19th Supreme Court justice (1812-45), dies at 65
- 1851 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American pioneer of educating the deaf, dies at 63
- 1862 Carlos Antonio López, 1st President of Paraguay (1844-62), dies at 71
- 1898 Elisabeth AE, empress of Austria/wife of Franz Joseph I, dies at 60
- 1915 Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Premier of Quebec, dies at 93
- 1925 Henry Lincoln "Linc" Johnson, American attorney and politician, remembered as one of the most prominent early 20th century African-American Republicans, dies of a stroke at 55
- 1931 Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1869)
- 1937 Sergei Tretyakov, Russian constructivist writer, playwright and special correspondent for Pravda, executed by Stalinist regime at 47
- 1944 Jaap P Musch, Dutch resistance fighter, murdered by Nazis
- 1952 Youssef Aftimus, Lebanese civil engineer and architect (b. 1866)
- 1955 Robert Blackburn, British aviation pioneer and the founder of Blackburn Aircraft, dies at 70
- 1960 Fjodor Panfjorov, Russian author (Volga - matushka-reka), dies at 63
Harold Gillies
1960 Harold Gillies, New Zealand father of modern plastic surgery who pioneered skin graft techniques on injured soldiers in WWI, dies at 78 of a slight cerebral thrombosis gained while operating on the leg of an 18-year-old girl [1]
Harold Gillies
- 1963 Eugène Baie, Belgian author (Sub rosa et sub umbra), dies at 89
- 1965 Father Divine [Reverend Major Jealous Divine], "the Messenger", African American religious leader
- 1966 Emil Gumbel, German mathematician and pacifist (b. 1891)
- 1975 George Paget Thomson, English physicist who demonstrated electron diffraction (Nobel 1937), dies at 83 [1]
- 1976 Dalton Trumbo, American writer, director (Johnny Got His Gun), dies at 70
- 1976 Mordecai Johnson, 1st African American president of Howard U, dies at 86
- 1977 Hamida Djandoubi, Tunisian convicted murderer who was the last person to be executed in Western Europe, is beheaded in Marseille by guillotine at 28
- 1979 Agostinho Neto, 1st President of Angola (1975-79), dies at 56
- 1982 Max Winders, Belgian architect (WWII), responsible for bringing the Belgian gold stock, dies at 100
- 1983 Balthasar J "John" Vorster, South African premier (1966-78), dies at 67
- 1983 Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1983 Norah Lofts, British author (The Town House), dies at 79
- 1983 Balthazar Johannes Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa (1966-77), dies at 67
- 1985 Ernest Julius Öpik, Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist known for his studies of meteors and the structure and evolution of the cosmos, dies at 91
- 1990 Samuel Kanyon Doe, president of Liberia (1980-90), assassinated
- 1991 Sarah Sally Lawrence, entertainer, dies at 61
- 1993 Stuart Rose, British designer (British Post Office), dies at 81
- 1994 Amy Clampitt, American poet (Silence Opens), dies at 74
- 1995 Derek Meddings, special Effects technician, dies at 64
- 1996 Hans List, Austrian scientist and inventor, dies at 100
- 2000 Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah, Pakistani journalist and writer. (b. 1921)
- 2001 DJ Uncle Al (b.1969)
- 2004 Brock Adams, American politician (b. 1927)
- 2006 Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, King of Tonga (1965-2006), dies at 88
- 2007 Anita Roddick, English businesswoman and cosmetic manufacturer (Body Shop), dies at 64 [1]
- 2007 Ted Stepien, American businessman and basketball team owner, dies at 82
- 2010 Edwin Charles Tubb, British sci-fi writer (Earth is Heaven, Earthfall), dies at 90
- 2013 Clay Shaw, American politician (Rep-R-FL, 1981-2007), dies from lung cancer at 74
- 2014 Richard Kiel, American actor, dies from a heart attack at 74
- 2016 Eddie Antar, founder and CEO (Crazy Eddie Electronics Store), dies at 68