Florence Cathedral
1418 Competition announced to design the dome of Florence Cathedral, main competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi (supported by Cosimo de' Medici)
- 1541 A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the ancient Japanese province of Higo (modern day Kumamoto Prefecture). (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1541)
- 1587 Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland (according to legend)
- 1605 Spanish army under of general Spinola conquers Lingen
- 1612 Pendle Witch trial begins with 10 people accused of witchcraft in Lancaster, England, key witness 9 year-old boy
- 1634 Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
- 1636 The Covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts is first signed.
Event of Interest
1674 Jean Racine's "Iphigénie" premieres in Versailles
- 1686 Giovanni Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus
Event of Interest
1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great arrives in Zaandam
- 1700 Swedish, English & Dutch army lands on Seeland, Denmark
- 1735 Evening Post begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
- 1737 First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris
- 1759 -19] 2nd sea battle of Lagos: England vs France
- 1769 A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tonnes of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
- 1795 Curacao governor De Veer sends militia to stop rebellious slaves
- 1817 60-70ft sea serpent sightings reported offshore in Gloucester, Massachusetts
- 1826 Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing travelling across the Sahara, is the first European to reach the fabled trading city of Timbuktu (murdered near there a few weeks later)
- 1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
Historic Expedition
1838 United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica
- 1840 American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
- 1840 French colony established in Akaroa, South Island of New Zealand
- 1846 General Stephen W Kearney's US forces capture Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 1848 Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas
- 1858 Netherlands & Japan sign trade agreement
Event of Interest
1862 General Lee's adjutant Major Stuart captured
- 1862 Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)
- 1864 6th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia: Confederate assault
- 1864 Battle of Petersburg: Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of a 3 day battle
- 1868 French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
- 1870 Battle at Gravelotte Privat: Prussia beat France, 32,000 casualties
- 1872 Aaron Montgomery Ward issues the first "catalog" for his mail-order business, it is one sheet listing 163 available items
- 1873 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494')
- 1891 Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die
- 1896 Adolph Ochs (39) buys NY Times
First Labour Government
1904 Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid
Event of Interest
1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
- 1914 -20] Belgian army withdraws to Antwerp
- 1914 French troops under general Dubail occupy Sarrebourg
Event of Interest
1914 US President Woodrow Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"
- 1917 A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
- 1917 Dutch Naval Air Force forms (MLD)
Event of Interest
1917 The Queen's Hospital opens to provide pioneering plastic surgery for WWI soldiers, led by Harold Gillies in Sidcup, England
- 1919 Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago, Illinois
American Women Demand Their Rights
1920 State Representative Harry T. Burn (24) casts deciding vote in Tennessee's and thus America's ratification of the 19th Amendment to the constitution allowing women's suffrage, after reading a letter from his mother
- 1924 France begins withdrawing troops from the Ruhr
- 1925 Belgium & US sign treaty about war debts
- 1925 Cardinal Mercier warns Belgians against socialism/liberalism
- 1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service
- 1932 Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns reach 16,201m in a balloon launched from Dübendorf, Switzerland
- 1932 Englishman James Mollisson is 1st to fly east to west over Atlantic
- 1936 106.5°F - Hottest afternoon ever in Iowa
- 1937 1st FM radio construction permit issued (W1X0J (WGTR) in Boston MA)
'Hitler Will Have to Break Us or Lose the War'
1940 Battle of Britain: The air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; Luftwaffe lose approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF lose 68 in one of the largest ever air battles
- 1943 Otto Skorzeny's Heinkel-111 shot down at Sardinia
Event of Interest
1944 Chartres freed by US 3rd Army forces during WWII led by General George S. Patton
- 1944 Paris rail workers strike against Nazi occupiers
- 1944 US 15th Army Corps reaches Mantes-Gassicourt near Paris
- 1947 Naval torpedo & mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain killing 300
- 1949 Hungary adopts constitution
- 1950 Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
- 1954 James E. Wilkins is 1st black to attend a US cabinet meeting
- 1955 -19] Hurricane Diane, kills 400 in US
- 1955 46.1 cm rainfall at Westfield, Massachusetts (state record)
- 1955 Sjukri al-Quwatli re-elected president of Syria
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Radio History
1958 Fidel Castro makes a speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde
Historic Publication
1958 Novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov is published
- 1958 Perez Prado "Mambo King" receives one of the 1st gold records
- 1958 United Kingdom issues regional stamps (N Ireland, Scotland & Wales)
- 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
- 1958 Verne Gagne beats Edouard Carpentier in Omaha, to become NWA champ
- 1960 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
- 1962 Peter, Paul & Mary release their first hit "If I Had a Hammer"
Event of Interest
1963 James Meredith becomes the 1st black graduate from University of Mississippi
- 1964 Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
- 1964 USSR launch 3 Kosmos satellites
Event of Interest
1971 New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake announces in Parliament that New Zealand’s combat force would be withdrawn from Vietnam before the end of the year, coinciding with a similar announcement by the Australian government
Murder of Interest
1976 Korean axe murder incident: 2 US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans claiming it was planted by Kim Il-sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone
Event of Interest
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands Saint War against Kurds
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1982 Japanese election law is amended to allow for proportional representation.
- 1982 NYSE tops 100m shares traded for the 1st time, sets a new record of 132.69m shares traded
- 1983 Hurricane Alicia battered Houston & Galveston, Texas
- 1983 Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d becomes the youngest woman to swim English Channel
- 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1984 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
- 1985 Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby)
- 1986 Crockett's Tavern opens in Fort Wilderness
- 1986 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Philadelphia PA on WYSP 94.1 FM
- 1986 WYSP-FM Philadelphia begins simulcasting Howard Stern Show
- 1987 Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
- 1987 Philip Rush of NZ, set record for triple crossing English Channel his time 28:21, 10 hours faster than 1st man to do it
- 1987 Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
- 1988 FDA approves Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment
- 1988 Largest house (130 rooms) on Long Island sold for $22 million
- 1988 Republican Convention in New Orleans select Bush-Quayle ticket
- 1989 ArenaBowl III, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Detroit Drive beats Pittsburgh Gladiators 39-26, George LaFrance MVP
- 1989 Arturo Barrios of Mexico sets 10K record (27:08.23) in Berlin
- 1989 Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
- 1991 Hurricane Bob hits NC with 115 MPH wind
- 1991 Pan American games close in Havana
- 1993 Historical Kapelbrug in Luzern Switzerland, destroyed by fire
- 1994 15th Commonwealth Games open in Victoria, Canada
- 1994 5.6 earthquake in Algeria, kills 171
- 1996 Record 6,654 tap at Macy's Tap-o-mania in NYC
- 2000 A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act.
- 2005 Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killings in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
- 2005 Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
- 2008 President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigns due to pressure from opposition
- 2011 The "West Memphis Three" are released from prison after 18 years in imprisonment
- 2012 Al-Qaeda militants kill 14 people in an attack in Aden, Yemen
- 2012 NATO air strikes kill at least 13 militants in Afghanistan
- 2013 6 people are killed by a bomb blast on a bus in West Bengal, India
Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
2017 Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes
Event of Interest
2017 White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is fired by US President Donald Trump
- 2018 Archaeologists confirm first-ever cheese found from Ancient Egypt 3,200 years old in tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis
- 2019 1.7 million take part in pro-democracy protest peacefully in Hong Kong, a quarter of the population
- 2019 Iceland holds a funeral for the first glacier lost to climate change at site of Okjökull glacier
- 2019 US President Donald Trump confirms he is interested in buying Greenland for the US
Event of Interest
2020 California Governor Gavin Newsom declares state of emergency as 27 fires burn across the state amid a continuing heat wave
- 2020 Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigns amid a military coup condemned by the UN Security Council
- 2022 Huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones announced discovered at La Torre-La Janera, Huelva, southern Spain [1]
- 2022 New way to break down "forever chemicals" PFAS compounds responsible for cancers, low birth weights and lowered immunity published by scientists in journal "Science" [1]
Summit of Interest
2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary General António Guterres warn of "another Chernobyl" due to fighting by Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at a summit in Lviv [1]
