Events in History
- 701 St Sergius I reign as Catholic Pope ends
Battle of Svolder
1000 Battle of Svolder, Baltic Sea: King Olaf on board the Long Serpent defeated in one of the greatest naval battles of the Viking Age. He leaps to his death overboard.
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Royal Coronation
1543 Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling
Mary, Queen of Scots
- 1556 Pope Paul IV refuses to crown Ferdinand of Austria emperor
Conference of Interest
1561 Conference of Poissy: Religious theologians gathered by Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici
- 1567 Lomaraal van Egmond & Philip van Hoorne captured
- 1591 -10] Battle at Flores Azores: Spanish beat English
- 1675 New England colonies declare war on Wampanoag indians
- 1683 Expelled Polish & Lotharings reach Wienerwald
- 1739 Slave revolt in Stono SC led by Jemmy (25 whites killed)
- 1753 1st steam engine arrives in north American colonies
- 1776 Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)
- 1817 Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College
- 1830 Charles Durant, 1st US aeronaut, flies a balloon from Castle Garden, NYC to Perth Amboy, NJ
Historic Publication
1836 Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his influential essay "Nature" in the US, outlining his beliefs in transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
- 1839 English scientist and astronomer John Herschel takes 1st glass plate photograph
- 1841 Great Lakes steamer "Erie" sinks off Silver Creek NY, kills 300
- 1850 Territories of New Mexico & Utah created
- 1850 California is admitted as the thirty-first state of the Union
- 1861 Nurse Sally Tompkins is officially commissioned as an officer (and its only woman officer) by the Confederate US Army
Event of Interest
1862 Robert E. Lee splits his army & sends Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry
Robert E. Lee
Event of Interest
1880 Rutherford B. Hayes visits San Franicsco
Rutherford B. Hayes
- 1881 Egyptian military coup under colonel Arab "El Wahid"
- 1886 The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is finalized
- 1888 Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the Pacific is annexed by Chile
- 1892 E. E. Barnard at Lick discovers Amalthea, 5th Jupiter moon
- 1895 American Bowling Congress forms (NYC)
- 1898 Ottawa Football Club re-organizes into the Rough Riders
Event of Interest
1899 French Capt Alfred Dreyfus sentenced on unjust grounds
Alfred Dreyfus
Event of Interest
1908 Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Va
Orville Wright
- 1908 Russia takes part of Poland
- 1911 1st European post delivered by air (Hendon to Windsor, England)
- 1912 J Verdrines becomes 1st to fly over 100 mph (107 mph/172 kph)
- 1913 Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov becomes the first pilot to fly a loop, doing so in his Nieuport IV monoplane; he is arrested for ten days for endangering government property
- 1914 -12] Belgian offensive from Antwerp
- 1914 First fully mechanized unit in the British Army created - the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI)
- 1914 Meeting held at Gaelic League headquarters between Irish Republican Brotherhood and other extreme republicans; initial decision made to stage an uprising while Britain is at war
- 1915 Association for the Study of Negro Life and History formed in Chicago by Carter G. Woodson and others. Now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
- 1918 Dutch government of Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms
- 1919 Boston's police force strikes
- 1921 Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union
- 1922 St Louis Brown "Baby Doll" Jacobson hits 3 triples beating Tigers 16-0
- 1922 Turkish troops conquer Smyrna/murder Greek citizens
- 1922 William T Cosgrave replaces Irish premier Collins
- 1923 Albin Stenroos runs world record 20 km (1:07:11.2)
- 1924 Hanapepe Massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii.
- 1926 National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America
- 1926 Train disaster at Wassenaar, Netherlands, 4 die
- 1932 Frank Crosetti ties record, striking out twice in 1 inning
- 1932 Mine strikes at Belgian Borinage ended
- 1932 Spanish Cortes grants Catalonia autonomy
- 1932 Steamboat SS Observation explodes in NYC East River (71 killed)
- 1934 G Kaufman & M Hart's "Merrily We Roll Along" premieres in NYC
- 1939 Nazi army reaches Warsaw
- 1940 28 German aircraft shot down above England
- 1942 1st bombing on continental US soil at Mount Emily, Oregon during WWII by Japanese planes
- 1942 Compulsory work for women, children and old males in Batavia
- 1943 15 German JU-88's sink Italian flag ship Rome
Event of Interest
1943 Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley flies from Algiers to Marrakech/Prestwick
Omar Bradley
- 1943 Red Army occupies Bachmatsj
- 1943 US, British & French troops land in Salerno (operation Avalanche)
- 1944 Allied forces liberate Luxembourg
- 1944 Red Army supports coup in Bulgaria, instituting new Communist government (1946-1990) during the "National Uprising"
- 1944 Resistance fighter Jaap Musch arrested in Nijverdal, Netherlands
- 1944 US 113th cavalry passes Belgian-Dutch borders
- 1945 Japanese in South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indochina surrender to Allies
- 1945 Philadelphia A's Dick Fowler no-hits St Louis Brown, 1-0
Event of Interest
1945 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log
Grace Hopper
- 1950 1st use of TV laugh track by "The Hank McCune Show" in the US
- 1950 Mass arrests of communists in France
- 1954 Earthquake strikes Orleansville, Algeria: 1,400 killed
- 1954 Indians becomes 1st Cleveland team to win 100 games in a season
- 1956 African Party for Liberation of Guinea-Bissau & Cape Verde forms
- 1957 Nashville's new Hattie Cotton Elementary School dynamited
Event of Interest
1957 US President Eisenhower signs 1st civil rights bill since Reconstruction
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools
George Wallace
Event of Interest
1965 Francois Mitterrand nominated for French presidency
Francois Mitterrand
- 1965 Tibet is made an autonomous region of China
Event of Interest
1966 The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act is signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Lyndon B. Johnson
- 1967 1st successful Test flight of a Saturn V
- 1967 Uganda declares independence from Great Britain
- 1969 Allegheny Airlines flight 853 collides with a Piper Cherokee above Indiana, kills all 83 occupants
- 1971 1,000 convicts riot & seize Attica, NY prison
- 1975 Viking 2 Mars probe launches
- 1976 New Zealand government establishes the country’s first centralised electronic database through the Wanganui Computer Act, raising questions about the state’s ability to gather information on its citizens
- 1977 Tiger rookies Lou Whitaker & Allan Trammell debut together & will play together for 19 years
Event of Interest
1978 Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an uprising in the Iranian army
Ayatollah Khomeini
Birthdays in History
Aurelian
214 Aurelian, Roman Emperor (270-275), born in Serdica (d. 275)
Aurelian
- 384 Flavius Honorius, Eastern Roman Republic emperor (395-423), born in Constantinople (d. 423)
- 1349 Albert III, Duke of Austria (1365-95), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1395)
- 1427 Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, English politician, born in Conisbrough Castle, Yorkshire (d. 1464)
- 1466 Ashikaga Yoshitane, 10th Japanese shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate (d. 1523)
- 1558 Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier, born in Nomeny, Meurthe-et-Moselle (d. 1602)
- 1585 Armand Jean du Plessicide de Richelieu, premier of France (1624-42), born in Paris (d. 1642)
- 1629 Cornelis Tromp, Dutch naval officer and son of Maarten Tromp, born in Rotterdam, Dutch Republic (d. 1691)
- 1646 Zeger Bernhard van Espen, Flemish theologist, born in Leuven, Belgium (d. 1728)
- 1700 Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, daughter of Louis Frederick I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, born in Rudolstadt (d. 1780)
- 1711 Thomas Hutchinson, Loyalist politician of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, born in Boston, Massachusetts Bay British America (d. 1780)
- 1731 Francisco Javier Clavijero, Mexican Jesuit teacher and writer, born in Veracruz, Mexico (d. 1787)
William Bligh
1754 William Bligh, British naval commander (mutinied against on HMS Bounty), born in Plymouth (probable), England (d. 1817)
William Bligh
- 1755 Benjamin Bourne, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island), born in Bristol, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, British America (d. 1808)
- 1769 Cornelis Felix van Maanen, Dutch minister of Justice (1807-42), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1846)
- 1789 William Cranch Bond, American astronomer (codiscovered Hyperion), born in Falmouth, Maine (d. 1859)
- 1794 William Lonsdale, English geologist and paleontologist (fossil coral), born in Bath, Somerset, England (d. 1871)
- 1807 Richard Chenevix Trench, Irish Anglican clergyman and philologist, born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1886)
- 1809 William Radford, U.S. Navy rear admiral, born in Fincastle, Virginia (d. 1890)
- 1817 Speed Smith Fry, American lawyer, judge, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Mercer County, Kentucky (d. 1892)
- 1819 Martin Luther Smith, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Danby, New York (d. 1866)
- 1822 Napoléon JKP Bonaparte, French prince and member of National Convention, born in Trieste, Austrian Empire (d. 1891)
- 1826 Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden (1856-1907), born in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg (d. 1907)
- 1826 Thomas John Lucas, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Dearborn County, Indiana (d. 1908)
Leo Tolstoy
1828 Leo Tolstoy [Lev Nikolayevich], Russian novelist (Anna Karenina, War and Peace), born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia (d. 1910)
Leo Tolstoy
- 1834 Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English writer (John Inglesant), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1903)
- 1834 William MacRae, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Wilmington, North Carolina (d. 1882)
- 1850 Harishchandra, Indian poet, dramatist and commonly referred as "father of modern Hindi", born in Vārānasi, India (d. 1885)
- 1850 Jane Ellen Harrison, British anthropologist and linguist, born in Cottingham, Yorkshire (d. 1928)
- 1855 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, British-German philosopher (wrote works about political philosophy and natural science), born in Southsea, Hampshire, England (d. 1927)
- 1855 Anthony Francis Lucas, Croatian-American oil exploration pioneer, born in Split, Austria-Hungary (d. 1921)
- 1858 Benjamin Kidel, English Sudan (Control of the Tropics)
- 1868 Mary Austin, Ill, feminist/nature writer (Land of Little Rain)
- 1872 Delilah L Beasley, American author/columnist (Negro trail-blazers)
- 1878 Adelaide Crapsey, American poet (d. 1914)
- 1878 Sergio Osmeña, 4th President of the Philippines (d. 1961)
- 1887 Alf (Alfred) Landon, (R-Ks) American politician and Presidential candidate (1932, 1936). Dies 1987
Colonel Sanders
1890 Colonel Harland Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, born in Henryville, Indiana (d. 1980)
Colonel Sanders
- 1899 Brassaï [Gyula Halász], Hungarian-French artist, born in Brassó, Austria-Hungary (d. 1984)
- 1900 James Hilton, English novelist (Goodbye Mr Chips)
- 1903 Phyllis Whitney, American writer (d. 2008)
- 1905 Hussain Sha - Indian Saint, Philosopher, Pithapuram
- 1907 Leon Edel, American biographer (Henry James: A Biography 1953–1972 - Pulitzer 1963), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1997)
- 1908 Cesare Pavese, Italian writer (La belle estate)
- 1911 John Gorton, Australian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Australia (1968-71), born in Wellington New Zealand (disputed) (d. 2002)
- 1911 Paul Goodman, American poet and writer (d. 1972)
- 1918 Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Italian President (1992-99), born in Novara, Italy (d. 2012)
- 1919 Gottfried Dienst, Swiss football referee (d. 1998)
- 1920 Robert Wood Johnson III, American philanthropist (d. 1970)
- 1920 Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (d. 1993)
- 1922 Anthony Derrick Parsons, diplomat
- 1922 MacKenzie John, pipe major
- 1922 Manolis Glezos, Greek politician and writer
- 1922 Hans Dehmelt, German-born American physicist (Nobel Prize 1989), born in Gorlitz (d. 2017)
- 1923 Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1926 Annie nee Becker Kriegel, historian
- 1926 Yusuf al-Qaradawi, prominent Egypt Muslim cleric
- 1929 Stan Parris, (Rep-R-VA, 1973-74, 81- )
- 1934 Sonia Sanchez, US playwright/poet (The Bronx is Next)
- 1935 Gopal Baratham, Singaporean author
- 1938 Don Hogan Charles, American photographer and first African-American photographer hired by The New York Times, born in NYC, New York (d. 2017)
- 1939 Howard P McKeon, (Rep-R-California)
- 1941 Les Braid, England, bass (Swinging Blue Jeans-You're No Good)
- 1941 Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (created C programming language, helped developed Unix), born in Bronxville, New York (d. 2011)
- 1942 John Linder, (Rep-R-Georgia)
- 1945 Omukama Patrick David Matthew Olimi Kaboyo II, king of Toro
- 1946 Pete Gavin, English rocker (Heads Hands & Feet), born in London
- 1949 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian politician
- 1951 Alexander Downer, Australian politician
- 1952 Angela Cartwright, England (Make Room for Daddy, Lost in Space)
- 1952 Lee M Morin, cmdr USN/astronaut, born in Manchester, New Hampshire
- 1953 Alisher B Usmanov, Russian business magnate and investor, born in Chust, Uzbekistan
- 1956 Anatoli Pavlovich Artsebarsky, Russian colonel/cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-12)
- 1957 Gabriele Tredozi, Italian engineer
- 1960 Mario Batali, American chef and restaurateur, born in Seattle, Washington
- 1962 Aleta Rzepecki Sill, bowler (1983 WIBC single), born in Detroit, Michigan
- 1972 Natasha Kaplinsky, British newsreader, born in Brighton, United Kingdom
- 1974 Vikram Batra, Indian army officer, born in Palampur, India (d. 1999)
- 1984 Farrah Gray, American entrepreneur and author (Reallionaire), born in Chicago, Illinois
- 2000 Victoria Federica de Marichalar y de Borbón, granddaughter of king Juan Carlos I of Spain
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1770 Founding Father of America Robert R. Livingston (23) weds John Steven's daughter Mary Stevens
Robert R. Livingston
- 2004 Crown Prince of Brunei Al-Muhtadee Billah (30) weds commoner Pengiran Anak Sarah (17) at Nurul Iman Palace in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Deaths in History
William the Conqueror
1087 William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England (1066-1087) and Duke of Normandy (1035-1087), dies at about 59
William the Conqueror
- 1398 King James I of Cyprus (1382-98), dies at about 64
- 1438 Edward [Dom Duarte], King of Portugal (1433-38), dies at 46
- 1487 Chenghua, Emperor of China, dies at 39
- 1488 Francis II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1433)
- 1513 James IV, King of Scots (1488-1513), dies in battle at 40
- 1573 Andre de Resende, Portuguese dominican/humanist, dies
- 1596 Anna Jagiellon, Polish Queen
- 1612 Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (b. 1570)
- 1676 Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, French army officer (b. 1612)
- 1680 Henry Marten, English regicide (b. 1602)
- 1683 Algernon Sidney, English Whig politician/plotter, beheaded
- 1713 Giovanni A di Bartlommeo Viscardi, Swiss architect, dies
- 1755 Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, German historian (b. 1694)
- 1770 Bernard S Albinus [Weiss], German surgeon/anatomist, dies at 73
- 1770 Georg Dionysius Ehret, German-English botanist and cartoonist, dies at 62
- 1806 William Paterson, American jurist and statesman (b. 1745)
- 1810 Johann Baptiste Hagenauer, Austrian sculptor, dies at 78
- 1815 John Singleton Copley, American painter of portraits and historical objects, dies at 77
- 1817 Paul Cuffe, African American civil rights activist (helped settle Sierre Leone), dies at 58
- 1841 Augustin P de Candolle, Swiss botanist, dies at 63
- 1866 Gergely Czuczor, Hungarian-Czech poet and translator (Great Hung dictionary), dies at 65
- 1876 American Horse, Sioux chief, dies in battle
- 1888 Jan van Swieten, Dutch governor of West-Sumatra, dies at 71
- 1891 Jules Grévy, 2nd President of the French Third Republic, dies at 84
- 1898 Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (b. 1842)
- 1901 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, dies at 36
- 1901 Willem baron of Goltstein of Oldenaller, minister of Cologne dies
- 1902 Titus AJ van Asch van Wijck, Governor of Suriname (1891-97), dies at 53
- 1907 Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop (b. 1840)
- 1909 Edward Henry Harriman, American railroad entrepreneur (b. 1848)
- 1913 Count Paul J Smet de Naeyer, Belgian politician, dies
- 1931 Lujo [Ludwig J von] Brentano, German economist dies at 86
- 1934 Roger Fry, English artist and art critic, dies at 67
- 1941 Gustav Ehrismann, German author and expert on the German language, dies at 85
- 1941 Hans Spemann, German embryologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1935), dies at 72
- 1946 Mynona, Polish writer (The Creator), dies at 74
- 1962 Pat Rooney, American vaudevillian (Night club), dies at 82
- 1962 Geoffrey Mander, English industrialist (Mander Brothers Ltd.), dies at 80
- 1963 Ernst Kantorowicz, German-American historian (Laudes regiae), dies at 68
- 1963 Jan Schouten, Dutch founder (illegal Trouw)/chairman (ARP), dies
- 1966 Leon de Smet, Flemish painter, dies at 85
Mao Zedong
1976 Mao Zedong, Chinese revolutionary and Chairman of the Communist Party of China (1949-76), dies of a heart attack at 82
Mao Zedong
- 1978 Jack L Warner [Jacob Warner], Canadian-American film executive and president of the Warner Bros. Studios, dies at 86
- 1978 Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet (b. 1892)
- 1980 John Howard Griffin, American photographer, journalist and author (Black Like Me), dies from complications of diabetes at 60
- 1981 Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and semanticist, dies at 80
- 1982 Frederic Dannay [Ellery Queen], American detective writer, dies at 76
- 1984 Yilmaz Güney, Kurdish film director (Yol; Arkadaş; Baba; Ağit), dies of gastric cancer at 47
- 1985 Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1987 Gerrit John Heijn, senior executive (Ahold), kidnapped/murdered
- 1990 Rimantas Stankevičius, Lithuanian cosmonaut, dies at 46
- 1990 Samuel Doe, Liberian politician (b. 1951)
- 1991 Edwin M. McMillan, American physicist and discoverer of plutonium (Nobel 1951), dies at 83
- 1991 John Lawrence, doctor, dies
- 1991 Joop Zwart, Dutch political activist and resistance fighter, dies at 78
- 1994 Keith Davis, voice Tutor/Author, dies at 85
- 1995 Jamie Whitten, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi), dies at 85
- 1996 Jack Pepys, immunologist, dies at 82
- 1999 Chan Parker, American author; wife of Charlie Parker and Phil Woods (b. 1925)
- 1999 David Stafford-Clark, English psychiatrist, dies at 83
- 2000 Julian Critchley, British journalist and politician, dies at 69
- 2002 Geoffrey Dummer, British electronics engineer, built first integrated circuit and work in radar, dies at 93
Edward Teller
2003 Edward Teller, Hungarian-American physicist, father of the Hydrogen bomb (Manhattan Project), dies at 95
Edward Teller
- 2003 Thomas Allibone, English physicist (Manhattan Project, high-voltage particle acceleration), dies at 99
- 2005 John Wayne Glover, English-born Australian serial killer, commits suicide in prison at 72
- 2005 Stanley Dancer, American harness racer (4 Hambletonians, 3 Trot Triple Crown), dies at 78
- 2006 William B. Ziff, Jr., American magazine publishing executive, (Modern Bride; Popular Electronics, PC Magazine), dies of cancer at 76
- 2008 Warith Deen Muhammad, American religious leader (b. 1933)
- 2012 Verghese Kurien, Indian engineer (billion-litre idea), dies from kidney failure at 90
- 2014 Denny Miller, American actor, dies from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at 80
- 2020 Shere Hite [Shirley Diana Gregory], American-German sex therapist (The Hite Report), dies at 77 [1]