Battle of Ashdown
871 Battle of Ashdown: Ethelred I of Wessex and his brother Alfred the Great beat invading Danish army
- 1198 Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
- 1214 Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
- 1297 Monaco gains its independence.
- 1310 The Great Frost: in London the Thames river froze so thickly bonfires were lit on it
- 1558 French troops under Duc de Guise occupy Calais
- 1598 Jews are expelled from Genoa, Italy
"Almira"
1705 George Frideric Handel's 1st opera "Almira" premieres in Hamburg, Germany
- 1708 Spanish armada headed by the San Jose and loaded with gold sunk after British squadron attacks off coast of Colombia (rediscovered 2015)
- 1716 Amsterdam gang leader and thief "Sjako" arrested
- 1734 Premiere of George Frideric Handel's opera "Ariodante" at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London
- 1745 Britain, Austria, Netherlands & Saxony sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
- 1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 AUs of Earth
1st State of the Union
1790 First US President George Washington delivers the first state of the union address
- 1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
- 1800 Austrians defeat French in Second Battle of Novi
- 1800 Wild Boy of Aveyron (approx.12) discovered in southern France after possibly 7 years in the wild, later christened Victor of Aveyron
- 1806 Battle of Blaauwberg: British forces attack French vassal, the Batavian Republic near Cape Town, modern day South Africa
Clark Sees Whale Skeleton
1806 Explorer William Clark views skeleton of a 105 ft whale washed up on Cannon Beach, inhabited by the Tillamook Nation (modern Oregon) [1]
First Female Paris Academy Prize
1816 Sophie Germain is the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her paper on elasticity
- 1833 Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
- 1835 US national debt is $0 for the first and only time in history
- 1838 Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
- 1842 Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
- 1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
- 1853 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
- 1856 Dr John Veatch discovers large disports of borax at Tuscan Springs, California
- 1857 Dion Boucicauly's "Poor of NY" premieres in NYC
- 1861 US Civil War: Union forces abandon Fort Barrancas in favor of Fort Pikens on Santa Rosa Island, near Pensacola, Florida
- 1863 American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
Vote to Washington African Americans
1867 African American men granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C. despite President Andrew Johnson's veto
- 1870 US mint at Carson City, Nevada begins issuing coins
Battle of Wolf Mountain
1877 Crazy Horse and his Sioux warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
Leopold II and Stanley's Secret Meeting
1878 Secret meeting of Belgian King Leopold II's agent and Henry Morton Stanley
- 1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
- 1889 Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a mechanical tabulating machine
- 1894 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
- 1897 Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
- 1902 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago, Illinois)
A Crackdown on Lovers in New York
1902 New York state assemblyman Francis G. Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and "looking at a woman in that way"
- 1902 The United Irish League, a leading force for unification in all Ireland and independence from Britain, holds its convention in Dublin
- 1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
- 1906 A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
- 1908 First subway tunnel connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn under the East River opens in New York City [1]
- 1912 Chiefs, representatives of people's and church organizations, and other prominent individuals form the African National Congress and declare its aim to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms
Chance Yankees Manager
1913 Frank Chance becomes NY Yankees manager
- 1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
Prohibition is Ratified
1918 Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, authorizing the prohibition of alcohol
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points for peace after the Great War
- 1923 Romanian conductor George Enesco makes his American debut leading the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City
- 1923 Typography strike in Amsterdam
- 1925 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
- 1925 England cricket opening batsman Herbert Sutcliffe follows his 1st innings 176 with 127 in the 2nd innings but his team cannot avoid an 81 run defeat to Australia in the 2nd Test in Melbourne
- 1929 "Man with a Movie Camera", Soviet experimental documentary film directed by Dziga Vertov, is released
- 1929 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies
- 1929 CBS radio network buys WABC in NYC
- 1932 Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter
- 1934 Jaap Speyers "Bluejackets" premieres in Amsterdam
- 1935 Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
- 1937 -50°F (-45.6°C), San Jacinto, Nevada (state record)
- 1940 Britain's 1st WW II rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
- 1942 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse replaced as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Bomber Command
- 1945 "Youth for Christ" organizes
- 1945 University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team sets an NCAA record by holding Arkansas State to 6 points in a 75-6 win
- 1947 General George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State
- 1947 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
Death Sentence for Ans van Dijk
1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
- 1952 Jordan adopts constitution
- 1953 Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
- 1953 René Mayer forms French government
- 1955 Furman sets NCAA basketball single-game scoring record with 154 pt
- 1955 Georgia Tech ends Kentucky's 130-game home basketball win streak
- 1955 WUNC TV channel 4 in Chapel Hill, NC (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Conrad Aiken
- 1956 Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
Charles De Galle President
1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as president of France's 5th Republic
- 1961 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
- 1961 The French vote for Algerian independence from French rule in the wake of seven years of guerrilla war
Nicklaus Turns Professional
1962 21-year-old future Hall of Fame golfer Jack Nicklaus makes his first professional appearance; tied 50th in Los Angeles Open
- 1962 Dutch express train crashes into a slow commuter train, killing 93 people
- 1963 "Mona Lisa", on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
"Katharina Ismailova"
1963 Dmitri Shostakovich' opera "Katharina Ismailova" premieres in Riga
"War on Poverty"
1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
- 1965 Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the American natonal flower (it does not pass)
- 1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
Pompidou Reappointed PM
1966 Georges Pompidou re-appointed French Prime Minister and forms new government
- 1966 The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
- 1966 The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
- 1966 The Who and The Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
Cousteau's 1st TV Special
1968 Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
Irish and Northern Irish PMs meet
1968 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill travels to Dublin to meet with Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch to continue discussions on matters of joint interest to the two governments
- 1971 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island, California
- 1971 Voyageurs National Park, Minn, established
- 1972 Dmitri Shostakovich' 15th Symphony premieres in Moscow
- 1972 NCAA announces freshman can play on teams starting in fall
Music History
1973 Elvis Presley files for divorce from Priscilla Presley on his 38th birthday
Chappell's Best Test Bowling
1973 Greg Chappell's best Test bowling, 5-61 v Pakistan at SCG
- 1973 Judge Sirica begins the trial of the Watergate burglars in Washington, D.C.
- 1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
- 1973 USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
- 1974 E Wilson Jr's musical "Let My People Come" premieres in NYC
- 1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
- 1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
Watergate Figures Released
1975 Judge John Sirica orders release of Watergate's John Dean III, Herbert W. Kalmbach and Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
- 1976 Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles
Connor's ATP Title
1978 American Jimmy Connors beats Björn Borg of Sweden 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to win his first and only season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix tennis title at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Harvey Milk Elected
1978 Harvey Milk becomes the 1st openly gay person elected to public office in California
- 1978 Israeli government votes to 'strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
"All Creatures Great and Small"
1978 TV series "All Creatures Great and Small" debuts on BBC TV, based on the books by James Herriot, starring Robert hardy and Christopher Timothy
- 1979 Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
- 1979 French oil tanker MV Betelgeuse explodes while offloading its cargo in Bantry Bay, West Cork, Ireland, killing 50 crew members; a salvage diver also dies later
- 1979 Today Show gets a new theme song
- 1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
- 1980 Islander Glenn Resch's 20th shut-out opponent-Canucks 3-0
- 1980 NCAA decides to sponsor women's championships in 5 sports
- 1981 India all out 63 in one-day international v Australia
Allende's Inspiration
1981 Isabel Allende begins a letter to her dying grandfather that will become her first novel "The House of the Spirits"
- 1982 AT&T agrees to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies
- 1982 Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville, Tennessee
- 1982 US Justice Department withdraws anti-trust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
- 1984 NCAA announces that basketball tournament will have 64 teams
- 1984 Washington Capitals Bengt Gustafsson scores 5 goals to beat Philadelphia 7-1
- 1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
Willie McCovey Elected
1986 San Francisco Giants Willie McCovey is 16th elected to MLB Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility
HP's Scientific Calculator
1988 Hewlett-Packard introduces HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
- 1989 Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.
- 1989 Boeing 737-400 crashes at Kegworth, England, 46 die
- 1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
"Davis Rules"
1991 "Davis Rules" with Jonathan Winters & Randy Quaid premieres on ABC-TV
- 1991 Tamas Darnyi swims world record 400m medley (4:12.36)
Bush Vomits on PM
1992 George H. W. Bush falls ill and vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap
Elvis Presley Stamp
1993 Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
Jordan Makes 20,000 Points
1993 Michael Jordan's game-high 35 points leads Chicago to 120-95 win over Milwaukee; gives him exactly 20,000 points in 620th game of his NBA career; 2nd-fastest to reach milestone after Wilt Chamberlain (499)
Letterman "The Tonight Show"
1993 NBC offers "The Tonight Show" to David Letterman
"El Mariachi"
1993 Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" debuts at the Toronto Film Fetsival - will become lowest-budgeted film ever to gross $1 million
Mike Schmidt Elected
1995 Philadelphia Phillies 12-time All Star third baseman Mike Schmidt is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
A Lawyer for the Unabomber
1998 Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
- 1998 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life
Karura Tree Planting Protest
1999 Tree planting protest against the privatisation of Karura Forest, including Wangari Maathai, attacked in Kenya prompting outrage
"No Child Left Behind Act"
2002 US President George W. Bush signs into law the "No Child Left Behind Act", providing financial assistance to schools exhibiting academic improvement
RMS Queen Mary 2
2004 RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II
- 2006 A magnitude 6.9 earthquake with its epicenter just off the Greek island of Kythira hits much of the country and is felt throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.
- 2008 New Jersey officially apologizes for slavery, becoming the first Northern state to do so.
- 2009 A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit Costa Rica´s region of Volcan Poás, with an epicenter near Cinchona. It was caused by Varablanca-Angel fault.
- 2011 Attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store kills 6 and wounds 13, including Giffords
- 2012 "The 3:16 Game" AFC Wild Card Playof, underdogs Denver Broncos defeat Pittsburgh Steelers 29–23 with Tim Tebow connecting with Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass on first scrimmage play of overtime
- 2013 130 wildfires across Australia’s east coast force thousands to evacuate their homes
- 2013 2,130 prisoners held by the Syrian government are exchanged for 48 Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels
Nash 5th to 10,000 Assists
2013 Steve Nash becomes 5th NBA player to record 10,000th career assists, playing for the LA Lakers against Houston - Lakers still lose 125–112
"Blackstar"
2016 ISO/Columbia Records/Sony Music release David Bowie's 26th and final studio album "Blackstar" on his 69th birthday; enters charts in US and UK at #1
El Chapo Recaptured
2016 Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announces the recapture of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, six months after he escaped prison
- 2018 Self-declared Republic of Somaliland passes its first ever law against rape
- 2018 US record year for cost of natural disasters announced - $306 billion in 2017
- 2020 Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they are stepping back as "senior" royals, will work towards becoming financially independent
- 2020 Iran launches missile strike on Irbil and Al Asad bases in Iraqi housing some American troops in retaliation to assassination of General Qasem Soleimani
Bieber has Lyme Disease
2020 Singer Justin Bieber reveals he has Lyme disease, an infectious disease spread by ticks
- 2020 Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 crashes just after take-off from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board
Tokyo State of Emergency
2021 Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declares a state of emergency for Tokyo and surrounding areas after COVID-19 cases surge to their highest level
- 2021 Storm Filomena hits Spain with 50cm (20 inches) of snow falling on Madrid, resulting in four deaths and leaving thousands stranded
Twitter Bans Trump
2021 Twitter bans US President Donald Trump permanently "due to the risk of further incitement of violence"
Pelosi Demands Trump Resignation
2021 US Speaker Nancy Pelosi demands President Donald Trump's resignation or he will face a second impeachment, while also calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him in the wake of the January 6 attack of the Capitol
- 2022 Dan Campbell's Detroit Lions finish the season with a 9–8 record, achieving their first winning season since 2017
- 2022 The United Kingdom passes 150,000 COVID-19 deaths, the first country in Europe and the seventh globally [1]
- 2023 China loosens travel restrictions and reopens its borders after nearly three years [1]
Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Government
2023 Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attack Brazilian government buildings including the High Court and Presidential Palace, with over 1500 later arrested [1]
Pope Calls for Ban on Surrogacy
2024 Pope Francis says surrogate motherhood should be banned calling it "despicable" for commercializing pregnancy [1]
- 2024 The decision to seize Andrew Tate's assets is overturned by Bucharest's Court of Appeal after a successful appeal, ordering a new trial over the assets
- 2024 US Army veteran Henry "Robby" Robinson (98) is awarded France's Medal of Honor for his service in WWII by French Ambassador to the US in a ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada; Robinson worked as a scout behind enemy lines, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, participated in the liberation of the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, and served as a guard during the Nuremberg Trials
- 2024 Vulcan, NASA's first commercially financed moon mission launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida but its lander Peregrine develops problems soon after [1]
