Events in History
- 1584 San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid finished
- 1590 Giambattista Catagna elected as Pope Urban VII
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara, rise of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan
- 1616 First non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy
- 1619 Prince Bethlen Gabor's troops occupy Pozsony (Pressburg) Hungary
- 1621 Swedish troops occupy Riga
- 1644 Giambattista Pamfili replaces Pope Urban VIII as Innocent X
- 1656 England & France sign peace treaty
- 1683 Germantown in Pennsylvania is founded by 13 immigrant families
Agreement of Interest
1707 Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania and Tsar Peter the Great sign social security agreement
Peter the Great
- 1733 King Frederik Willem I divides Prussia-Brandenburg in Cantons
- 1762 Battle of Signal Hill, the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War.
- 1774 Cossack pretender to the Russian throne Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev captured
- 1776 British forces capture Kip's Bay, Manhattan, during Revolution
Event of Interest
1777 George Washington on authorisation of Congress appoints Casimire Pulaski brigadier general in Continental Army cavalry
George Washington
Historic Publication
1795 "Lyrical Ballads" published by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth - 1st work of English Romantic movement (probable date)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
Napoléon Bonaparte
- 1820 Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal; (see Portugal's crises of the Nineteenth Century).
- 1821 Act of Independence of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua declare their independence from the Spanish Empire
- 1830 First National Negro Convention begins in Philadelphia
- 1830 First passenger to be killed by a railway train (William Huskisson, England)
- 1830 Duke of Wellington opens Liverpool & Manchester Railway
- 1831 The locomotive "John Bull" operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad
Event of Interest
1835 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board reaches the Galapagos Islands
Charles Darwin
- 1846 Jung Bahadur Rana grabs power in Nepal
- 1851 Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1853 First US woman ordained a minister, Antoinette Blackwell
- 1857 Timothy Alder of NY patents a typesetting machine
- 1862 Confederates conquer Union-weapon arsenal at Harpers Ferry WV
- 1870 Dutch 1st Chamber abolishes Capital punishment (20-18)
- 1873 Last German troops leave France
- 1882 British General Wolseley occupies Cairo
- 1887 Philadelphia celebrates 100th anniversary of US Constitution
- 1894 Japan defeats China in Battle of Ping Yang
- 1898 National Afro-American Council forms in Rochester NY
- 1900 A Boer delegation issues an appeal at the Hague, Netherlands, that the major powers intervene in the war in South Africa
Event of Interest
1903 Queen Wilhelmina calls railroad strikers "criminals"
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
- 1910 Boers & Afrikaners win 1st general elections in Union of South-Africa
- 1912 War between Turkey & Montenegro breaks out in Albania
- 1913 1st US milch goat show held, Rochester, NY
- 1914 First Battle of Aisne finishes, Germans vs. French & British during WW I
- 1914 US Marines march out of Vera Cruz, Mexico
1st Use of Tanks in War
1916 First use of tanks in warfare, "Little Willies" at Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme
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- 1917 Russia proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky's Provisional government
- 1921 Pope Benedict XV publishes encyclical Alcohol Paraclitus
- 1921 WBZ-AM in Boston MA begins radio transmissions
- 1923 Governor Walton of Oklahoma declares state of siege because of Ku Klux Klan terror
- 1928 400 kg Fournier-albums (forged postage stamps) burn in Geneva
Scientific Discovery
1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin while studying influenza
Alexander Fleming
- 1930 1st international bridge match is held in London. US team defeats England
- 1931 British naval fleet mutinies at Invergordon over pay cuts
- 1931 Philadelphia A's clinch pennant, beating Cleveland
- 1935 Nuremberg Laws deprives German Jews of citizenship & makes swastika official symbol of Nazi Germany
- 1937 Works Progress Administration (WPA) extends L-Taraval streetcar line to San Francisco Zoo, at Sloat Blvd (San Francisco, California)
Event of Interest
1938 British PM Neville Chamberlain visits Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden
Neville Chamberlain
Adolf Hitler
Victory in Battle
1940 UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits Royal Air Force 11th Fighter Group on what would be the fiercest day of the Battle of Britain
Winston Churchill
Event of Interest
1943 Benito Mussolini forms a rival fascist government in Italy
Benito Mussolini
- 1943 Concentration Camp Vaivara in Estonia opens
- 1943 Concentration Camp Kauwen in Lithuania opens
- 1944 British bombers hit German battleship Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs
- 1944 Soviet troops free Sofia, Bulgaria
- 1944 US 1st Infantry division pushes through to Westwall
- 1944 US 28th Infantry division occupies Hill 555 at Roscheid
- 1944 US troops land on Palau & Morotai
- 1945 A hurricane in southern Florida and the Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
- 1947 First four-engined jet-propelled fighter plane tested, Columbus, Ohio
- 1947 RCA releases the 12AX7 miniature dual triode vacuum tube; it is still in production
- 1947 Typhoon Kathleen hit Tone River, Saitama and Tokyo area, killing at least 1,930 and injuring 1,750..
- 1948 F-86 Sabre sets world aircraft speed record of 1080 kph
- 1948 WHN-AM in NY City changes call letters to WMGM
- 1950 During Korean conflict, UN forces land at Inchon in South Korea
- 1950 East German premier Grotewohl pleads for German reunification
- 1950 Longest game in Phila's Shribe Park, Phils beat Reds 8-7 in 19
- 1950 US troop land on Wolmi-Do island off of Seoul
- 1951 Emile Zatopek runs world record 20k (1:01:15.8)
Election of Interest
1957 Konrad Adenauer's CDU wins parliamentary election in West Germany
Konrad Adenauer
- 1958 Commuter train crashes through drawbridge, killing 48 (Elizabethport, NJ)
Event of Interest
1959 Soviet Premier Khrushchev arrives in US to begin a 13-day visit
Nikita Khrushchev
- 1962 KC A's Bill Fischer sets record of 69 1/3 innings without a walk
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 Church bombed in Birmingham AL, kills 4 African-American girls
- 1963 Alou brothers-Felipe, Matty, & Jesus-appear in San Francisco outfield for 1 inn
- 1963 Ben Bella elected 1st president of Algeria
Birthdays in History
- 973 Al-Biruni, Iranian mathematician and polymath, born in Kath, Khwarezm, Afrighid dynasty (d. 1048)
Marco Polo
1254 Marco Polo, Italian explorer (Il Milione), born in Venice, Venetian Republic (d. 1324)
Marco Polo
- 1505 Maria, Queen of Hungary as wife of Louis II and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (1531-55), born in Brussels (d. 1558)
- 1533 Catherine of Austria, queen consort of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1572)
- 1580 Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer, born in Aix-en-Provence, France (d. 1659)
- 1613 François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, French writer of maxims and memoirs, born in Paris, Kingdom of France (d. 1680)
- 1649 Titus Oates, English minister and plotter, born in Oakham, Rutland, England (d. 1705)
- 1666 Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle, repudiated wife of future King George I of Great Britain, and mother of George II, born in Celle, Germany (d. 1726)
- 1736 Jean-Sylvain Bailly, French astronomer noted for his computation of an orbit for Halley’s Comet (1759) and author of History of Ancient Astronomy from Its Origin to the Establishment of the School of Alexandria, born in Paris (d. 1793)
- 1760 Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars, born in Potsdam, Brandenburg (d. 1824)
James Fenimore Cooper
1789 James Fenimore Cooper, 1st major American novelist (Last of Mohicans), born in Burlington, New Jersey
James Fenimore Cooper
- 1811 Willem Josephus van Zeggelen, Dutch author, born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1879)
- 1828 Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (discoverer of hexamine (1859)), born in Chistopol, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1886)
- 1830 José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori, President of Mexico (1877-1911), born in Oaxaca, Mexico (d. 1915)
- 1834 Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and political writer, born in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony (d. 1896)
- 1843 Willem F Mauritius HK, prince of Orange/son of king Willem III
- 1852 Jan Matzeliger, Surinamese-Dutch inventor (shoe lacing machine), born in Paramaribo, Suriname (d. 1889)
- 1852 Edward Bouchet, American physicist, 1st African American to receive US Ph.D, born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1918)
William Howard Taft
1857 William Howard Taft, 27th US President (Republican: 1909-13) and Chief Justice, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1930)
William Howard Taft
- 1858 Charles Eugène, vicomte de Foucauld, French explorer and a hermit, born in Strasbourg, French Empire (d. 1916)
- 1860 M. Visvesvaraya, Indian civil engineer and statesman (19th Diwan of the Mysore Kingdom), born in Muddenahalli, Chikkaballapura, Kingdom of Mysore, born in (d. 1962)
- 1865 Henri Capitant, French lawyer (Loi Falcidie) (d. 1937)
- 1865 Nicolaus Adriani, Dutch linguist (Middle-Celebes languages), born in Oud-Loosdrecht, North Holland, Netherlands (d. 1926)
- 1868 Dirk Berend Nanninga, Dutch painter (d. 1954)
- 1876 Frank Gannett, American newspaper publisher (Gannett), born in Rochester, New York (d. 1957)
- 1876 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian Bengali novelist (Devdas), born in Debanandapur, Hooghly district, Bengal Presidency, India (d. 1938)
- 1877 Jakob Ehrlich, Austrian politician and Zionist, born in Bystřice pod Hostýnem, Czech Republic (d. 1938)
- 1877 Max Factor, Polish-American make-up artist, inventor and founder of cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor & Company, born in Zduńska Wola, Poland, Russian Empire (d. 1938)
- 1879 Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia (1932-39), born in Stanley, Tasmania (d. 1939)
- 1881 Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French automobile designer and manufacturer (Automobiles E. Bugatti), born in Milan, Italy (d. 1947)
- 1883 Esteban Terradas i Illa, Spanish mathematician, scientist and engineer, born in Barcelona (d. 1950)
- 1887 Carlos Dávila, President of Government Junta of Chile (1932), born in Los Ángeles, Chile (d. 1955)
Agatha Christie
1890 Agatha Christie, English crime writer (Murder on the Orient Express), born in Torquay, Devon (d. 1976)
Agatha Christie
- 1890 Claude McKaye, Jamaican-American author (Songs of Jamaica, Banjo), born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica (d. 1948)
- 1892 Silpa Bhirasri [Corrado Feroci], Italian-Thai sculptor, born in Florence, Italy (d. 1962)
- 1894 Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (d. 1977)
- 1895 Magda Lupescu, consort of King Carol II of Romania (d. 1977)
- 1898 John J Slauerhoff, Dutch ship's doctor/writer/poet (El Dorado)
- 1899 Milton S Eisenhower, Dwight's brother/pres (Pennsylvania State)
- 1900 Larry Kent, CA, director (High Stakes)
- 1901 Sir Donald Bailey, British engineer (d. 1985)
- 1904 Umberto II, van Piemonte, the last King of Italy (ruled 1946)
- 1908 Gerd Gaiser, German writer (Ship in the Mountain)
Jean Batten
1909 Jean Batten, New Zealand aviator (first-ever solo flight from England to New Zealand in 1936), born in Rotorua, New Zealand (d. 1982)
Jean Batten
- 1909 C. N. Annadurai, Indian politician and 1st Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, born in Kancheepuram, Madras, British India (d. 1969)
- 1910 George D Kilpatrick, Canadian/British bible scholar
- 1910 Richard Baerlein, racing writer
- 1911 Luther Terry, 9th Surgeon General of the United States (1961-65) warned against smoking, born in Red Level, Alabama (d. 1985)
- 1913 Hans Filbinger, German politician (CDU)
- 1913 John Mitchell, Nixon's attorney general who went to jail
- 1914 Creighton Abrams, American general (commander of American forces in the Vietnam War, 1968-72), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1974)
- 1914 Jens Otto Krag, premier of Denmark (1962-68, 71-72)
- 1914 Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
- 1915 Helmut Schoen, football coach
- 1924 Lucebert, Dutch poet/painter/cartoonist (Boozz, PC Hooft prize 1967)
- 1925 Carlo Rambaldi, Special effects artist (Alien, E.T.), born in Vigarano Mainarda, Italy (d. 2012)
- 1926 Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
- 1926 Edward Derwinski, American congressman for Chicago 1959-83, first Secretary of Veteran Affairs 1989-1992, born in Chicago, Illinois
- 1927 David Stove, Australian philosopher, (d. 1994)
- 1928 Rod Robbie, Canadian architect and planner (Roger's Centre/Sky Dome, Toronto), born in Poole, England (d. 2012)
- 1929 Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist who predicted quarks (the theory of elementary particles), born in Manhattan, NYC, New York
- 1929 Eva Burrows, the 13th General of The Salvation Army
- 1934 Fred Nile, Australian politician
- 1937 Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel laureate
- 1937 Fernando de la Rúa, 51st President of Argentina
- 1939 Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet/painter
- 1939 Jim Kimsey, co-founder of AOL, born in Washington, D.C. (d. 2016)
- 1940 Norman [Richard] Spinrad, American sci-fi author (Child of Fortune)
- 1941 Mirosław Hermaszewski, Polish cosmonaut (Soyuz 30), born in Lipniki, Reichskommissariat Ukraine, German-occupied Poland
- 1942 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, American sci-fi author (Hotel Transylvania)
Emmerson Mnangagwa
1942 Emmerson Mnangagwa "the crocodile", Zimbabwean politician (President 2017-), born in Zvishavane, South Rhodesia
Emmerson Mnangagwa
- 1944 Sotirios Hatzigakis, Greek politician
- 1946 Oliver Stone, American director (Wall St, Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon), born in NYC, New York
- 1946 Howard Waldrop, American sci-fi author
- 1949 Joe Barton, American politician (U.S. House of Representatives, 1985-2019), born in Waco, Texas
- 1954 John Hervey, 7th marquess of Bristol, English flamboyant peer who lost his fortune to drug addiction, born in Bury St Edmunds, England (d. 1999)
- 1954 Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (d. 2007)
Lloyd Blankfein
1954 Lloyd Blankfein, American CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs, born in NYC, New York
Lloyd Blankfein
- 1955 Mac Sweeney, (Rep-R-TX, 1985- )
- 1955 Željka Antunović, Croatian politician
- 1955 Renzo Rosso, Italian clothing designer
- 1958 Lesley Player, Redhill England, Sarah Fergusson's father's lover
- 1964 Ryoko Kikuchi, Zama City, Kanagawa, Japanese cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-11) and reporter
- 1964 Róbert Fico, Slovak Prime minister
- 1969 Jim Curtiss, American writer
- 1972 Princess Letizia of Spain
- 1977 Leander Jordan, National Football League offensive lineman
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
1977 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer (Half of a Yellow Sun), born in Enugu, Enugu State
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- 1981 Mark Duggan, whose shooting death sparked widespread riots in England, born in London
Prince Harry
1984 Prince Harry [Henry Charles Albert David Windsor], Prince of Wales, 6th in British succession, born in London, England
Prince Harry
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1794 4th US President James Madison (43) weds Dolley Madison (26) in Jefferson County, West Virginia
James Madison
Deaths in History
- 9 Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman viceroy of Syria, suicide at 59
- 668 Constans II, Byzantine emperor (641-668), dies at 37
- 866 Robert the Strong, Margrave of Neustria
- 921 Ludmilla, wife of 1st christian Bohemian king Borijov I/saint, dies
- 928 Louis III, the Blind Proveneaals king of Lombardije/Germany, dies at 48
- 1231 Louis I, Duke of Wittelsbach, dies
- 1352 Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and religious leader (b. 1273)
- 1500 John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1525 Jan de Bakker [Johannes Pistorius], Roman Catholic priest who was the first preacher in Northern Netherlands to be put to death as a direct result of his Protestant beliefs, burned at the stake at 26
- 1559 Isabella Jagiełło, Queen consort and regent of Hungary, dies of a long illness at 40
- 1596 Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (b. 1535 or 1540)
- 1598 Hidejoshi [Hijoshi], Japanese general strategist/kampaku, dies
- 1613 Thomas Overbury, English poet (A Wife) and essayist, dies at 32
- 1643 Richard Boyle, Irish politician, 1st Earl of Cork, dies at 76
- 1649 John Floyd, English Jesuit preacher (b. 1572)
- 1654 Cornelis Bicker, merchant/mayor of Amsterdam, dies at 61
- 1700 André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (b. 1613)
- 1701 Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)
- 1707 George Stepney, English poet and diplomat (b. 1663)
- 1794 Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
- 1803 Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1719)
- 1830 William Huskisson, first rail fatality (b. 1770)
- 1835 Sarah Knox Taylor, wife of Jefferson Davis (b. 1814)
- 1842 Francisco Morazán, 2nd President of The Federal Republic of Central America, dies at 50
- 1859 John LA Luyten, Catholic Member of Dutch 2nd parliament, dies at 72
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, British engineer (SS Great Britain, Great Western Railway), dies of a stroke at 53
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- 1864 John Hanning Speke, British explorer, the first European to reach Lake Victoria in east Africa, dies at 37
- 1874 Benjamin Robbins Curtis, American attorney and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, dies at 64
- 1883 Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist (Plateau's Law), dies at 81
- 1885 Jumbo, P. T. Barnum's circus elephant (hit by a train)
- 1893 Thomas Hawksley, English civil engineer (b. 1807)
- 1914 Jacobus Herculas de la Rey, Boer leader in the South African War (1899–1902), dies at 66
- 1920 Raimundo Madrazo y Garreta, Spanish Realistic painter, dies at 79
- 1921 Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, Russ baron/general, dies
- 1927 Herman Gorter, Dutch socialist and poet (May, Tiny Hero's Poem), dies at 62
Thomas Wolfe
1938 Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (Look Homeward Angel), dies of tuberculosis.at 37
Thomas Wolfe
- 1940 Dick Ket, Dutch painter and cartoonist, dies at 37
- 1942 Jack Singer, American war reporter (Wasp), dies
- 1945 André Tardieu, Prime Minister of France (b. 1876)
- 1972 Geoffrey Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, Archbishop of Canterbury (1945-61), dies at 85
- 1973 Gustav VI Adolf, King of Sweden (1950-73), dies at 90
- 1978 Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft builder, dies at 80
- 1978 Robert Cliche, French Canadian politician and judge (b. 1921)
- 1982 Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, Iran's former foreign minister, executed in Iran
- 1983 LeRoy Prinz, choreographer, dies at 88
- 1987 Bob Tadema Sporry, author, dies at 75
- 1987 Steven Tuomi, murder victim of Jeffery Dahmer (b. 1963)
- 1989 Robert Penn Warren, American poet and novelist (All the King's Men, Pulitzer 1946), dies at 84
- 1990 G. M. J. Veldkamp, Dutch politician (CDA), dies at 69
- 1990 Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 60
- 1992 Walter B Jones, (Rep-D-NC, 1966-92), dies at 79
- 1993 Herman Meyer, Germanist (Deutsche Dichtung), dies at 82
- 1994 Michael Joyce, Irish stage manager and theatre director, dies at 48
- 1995 Marguerite Fawdry, museum curator, dies at 83
- 1995 Michio Watanabe, politician, dies at 72
- 1995 Sam McCluskie, trade unionist, dies at 63
- 1996 Brother Eugene Gerard Salois, teacher, dies at 76
- 1996 George Scheuer, Austrian writer and journalist, dies at 80
- 1996 Peter Michael Grayson, British showman, dies at 70
- 2003 Josef Hirsal, Czech novelist (b. 1920)
- 2004 Walter Stewart, Canadian writer and journalist, dies at 73
- 2006 Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and writer, dies at 77
- 2014 Nicholas Romanov, French-born pretender to the Russian throne, dies at 91
- 2014 Timothy Mace, British cosmonaut, dies of cancer at 58
- 2016 Rose Mofford, American politician, 1st female Governor of Arizona (1988-1991), dies at 94
- 2018 Jeff Lowe, American mountain climber (co-founder Lowe Alpine), dies of pneumonia at 67
- 2020 Moussa Traoré, Mali soldier, politician and dictator, President of Mali (1968-91), dies at 83