- 842 Charles II and Louis the German sign the Oaths of Strasbourg, a pact uniting their armies in the fight against their older brother Lothar
- 1014 Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV Excommunicated
1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV for the first time
- 1130 Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II
1349 Black Death Massacre: 900 Jews are burned alive in Strasbourg and a similar number are banned from the city after being blamed for the spread of the Black Death, part of a wave of pogroms across Western Europe
Charles V Takes Ghent
1540 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance and executes the rebels
Coronation of Akbar
1556 Akbar, aged 13, is crowned the 3rd Mughal Emperor, succeeding his late father Humayun at Kalanaur in the Punjab
- 1556 English Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic
Chronicle of Andean History and Spanish Rule
1615 Peruvian nobleman Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala writes to offer Spanish King Philip III his newly completed Chronicle of Andean history and Spanish rule - now only indigenous Andean viewpoint to survive (Danish National Library) [1]
- 1630 Dutch fleet of 69 ships reaches Pernambuco, Brazil
- 1670 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
Earth's Wobble
1747 Astronomer James Bradley presents his discovery of the wobbling motion of the Earth on its axis to the Royal Society, London
- 1766 Dutch governor Falck and King Keerthisiri Rajasinghe of Kandy sign Treaty of Batticaloa
General Benjamin Lincoln
1777 US Congress commissions Benjamin Lincoln a major general in the Continental Army
- 1778 "Stars & Stripes" arrives in a foreign port for the first time (France)
- 1794 First US textile machinery patent is granted to James Davenport in Philadelphia
1797 Battle of Cape St. Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself.
- 1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington, Pennsylvania
A Law Repugnant to the Constitution is Void
1803 Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void
- 1804 Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested, and exiled to the United States
- 1804 Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire
- 1831 Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay
Discovery of Lake Tahoe
1844 John C. Frémont and his party become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tahoe during his second expedition through the American West
1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving US President to have his photograph taken by Mathew Brady
- 1855 Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas
- 1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state of the Union
- 1862 Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut
- 1867 Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co issues 1st policy
- 1867 Morehouse College organizes (Augusta Georgia)
- 1870 Esther Morris appointed US' first female in Justice of the Peace in South Pass City, Wyoming, after previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest passage of Wyoming Territory's women's suffrage amendment in 1869
- 1870 Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the modern United States, two days after the Utah legislature passed a law allowing women the vote
- 1872 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)
1876 Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents, the Supreme Court eventually rules Bell the rightful inventor
F & J Heinz
1876 Henry John Heinz founds F & J Heinz with his brother John Heinz and cousin Frederick Heinz
- 1879 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta
- 1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions
- 1887 Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000
- 1889 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves LA for east
- 1894 Venus is both a morning star & evening star
Importance of Being Earnest
1895 Oscar Wilde's play "Importance of Being Earnest" premieres at St James's Theatre in London
Der Judenstaat
1896 Austro-Hungarian Zionist Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish State), encouraging Jews to purchase land in Palestine
Lohmann Takes Hat-trick
1896 George Lohmann takes a hat-trick for England v South Africa, 8-7 for inning - their lowest ever
- 1896 Stanley Cup, Victoria Skating Rink, Montreal, Quebec: Winnipeg Victorias beat Montreal Victorias, 2-0
- 1896 Theodor Hertzl's "Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish State) is published, proposing a Jewish homeland as a means of escaping anti-Semitism in Europe
- 1899 US Congress begins using voting machines
- 1900 Date of events in Australian movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
- 1900 Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country
Department of Commerce and Labor
1903 President Theodore Roosevelt signs bill into law establishing US Department of Commerce and Labor
- 1907 1st US foxhound association forms in NYC
- 1912 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut
- 1912 Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state
- 1914 High Council of Labor forms in Hague Netherlands
- 1918 USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
- 1919 The Polish-Soviet War begins.
- 1919 United Parcel Service forms
- 1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
- 1921 Canadian 5 cent nickel coin is authorized
- 1921 Fictional character Skeezix is discovered on the Wallet family's doorstep in Frank King's cartoon strip "Gasoline Alley"
- 1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses," in New York
International Business Machines
1924 Thomas J. Watson Sr. renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM)
- 1925 State of emergency crisis in Bavaria ends, NSDAP re-allowed
Olympic Gold
1928 Clas Thunberg of Finland wins his 2nd gold medal of the Games and 5th career title when he takes out the 1,500m speed skating at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics
- 1928 Per-Erik Hedlund leads a Swedish sweep of the medals in the 50k cross-country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Gustaf Jonsson & Volgar Andersson take the minor medals
1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, seven gangsters are killed, allegedly on Al Capone's orders
- 1931 Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls
Dracula
1931 The original "Dracula" film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire is released
Radio Premiere
1932 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show debuts on CBS radio, airing there until 1937, moving to NBC until 1949, and returning to CBS in 1949, before moving to television
- 1934 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto
- 1936 Karl Schäfer of Austria wins his 2nd consecutive men’s figure skating Olympic gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games in Germany
- 1936 National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
- 1936 Norwegian speed skater Ivar Ballangrud sets Olympic record 17:24.3 to win the 10,000m at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; his 3rd gold medal from 4 events and 4th career Olympic gold
- 1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed
- 1941 Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published
- 1941 Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street
- 1941 German Afrika Korps lands in Tripoli, Libya
- 1941 One millionth vehicle traverses the NY Midtown Tunnel
- 1942 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang, Sumatra
- 1942 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
- 1942 The Polish resistance movement, the Home Army, is formed and will eventually become the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe
- 1942 World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 German offensive against US troops through de Faid-pass, Tunisia begins, starting the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid
- 1943 The Soviet Union recaptures the city of Rostov-on-Don, liberating Russia from the German 17th Army during WWII
- 1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
- 1944 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial & Sport Fishing"
- 1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile & Ecuador joins UN
1945 Second day of the bombing of Dresden by Allied air forces
- 1945 World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
- 1945 World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
- 1946 ENIAC, the first US computer, is announced to the public by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
- 1949 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel)
- 1949 Dutch Drees government presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses
- 1950 Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg
- 1950 USSR & China sign peace treaty
- 1952 Giant slalom event for women debuts at the Winter Olympics at Oslo Games; American skier Andrea Mead-Lawrence wins gold ahead of Dagmar Rom of Austria and German Annemarie Buchner
- 1952 VI Winter Olympic Games open at Oslo, Norway
- 1953 "Trionfo di Afrodite (Triumph of Aphrodite)", the final work of Carl Orff's Trionfi trilogy premieres at La Scala Teatro in Milan, Italy
- 1954 WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St Petersburg, Florida (NBC) begins
- 1956 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow
- 1956 Indonesia withdraws from Netherlands Indonesian Union
- 1956 Verhoeven, Nauta and De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate
- 1957 Georgia Senate unanimously approves Senator Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites
Film & TV History
1957 Live television on Playhouse 90 features drama "The Comedian", starring Mickey Rooney, and directed by John Frankenheimer, earns an Emmy Award for screenwriter Rod Serling
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1957 Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizes in New Orleans with Martin Luther King Jr. as its President
- 1958 Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
- 1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in NYC
- 1960 2nd Daytona 500: Junior Johnson survives a 37 car crash on Turn 4 to win driving a John Masoni owned Chevrolet
- 1960 Marshal Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
- 1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, is first produced in Berkeley, California, by bombarding a three-milligram target of three isotopes of californium with boron-10 and boron-11 nuclei from the Heavy Ion Linear Accelerator
8½
1963 "8½" film directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, is released (Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film 1964)
- 1963 US launches communications satellite Syncom 1 [1]
A World Without Love
1964 British pop music duo Peter & Gordon release single "A World Without Love" (written by Paul McCartney, credited to Lennon-McCartney)
- 1965 7th Daytona 500: Fred Lorenzen wins driving for Holman-Moody; race ends on lap 133 due to persistent rain
- 1966 Australian currency is decimalised, and decimal currency postage stamps introduced
- 1966 Russian writers Andrei Sinyavsky & Joey Daniel found guilty under the offense of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda for publishing their satirical writings abroad
Respect
1967 Aretha Franklin records her single "Respect" at Atlantic Studio in NYC; her rendition of Otis Redding's tune becomes Billboard Song of the Year (1967)
- 1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
- 1968 Norwegian 15k Olympic cross country champion Harald Grønningen wins his second gold medal of the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 4 x 10k relay
- 1968 Soviet Union goes 1-2 in pairs figure skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; husband & wife team Oleg Protopopov and Liudmila Belousova edge teammates Tatiana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik
- 1968 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
1971 13th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins his 3rd Great American Race; goes on to win the inaugural Winston Cup title
- 1971 Movie "Ben Hur" is first shown on television
Nixon Taping System
1971 President Richard Nixon installs a secret recording system in the White House
- 1971 Tehran agreement signed; oil companies accept 55 percent tax rate, immediate increase in posted prices, and further successive increases
- 1972 CBS "Late Movie" premieres
- 1972 Lord Widgery arrives in Coleraine, where the 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972) Tribunal was to be based, and holds a preliminary hearing
- 1972 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit & soft landing on Moon
Ali vs. Bugner
1973 Muhammad Ali beats British heavyweight boxing champion Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in 12 rounds at Las Vegas Convention Centre
- 1975 Right-wing radicals plant a bomb at Amsterdam's under construction Venserpolder metro station, hoping to turn public sentiment against those protesting the building of the subway system [1]
- 1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1978 First "micro on a chip" or microchip is patented by Texas Instruments
- 1979 In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police
Olympic Gold
1980 Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins first of 3 gold medals at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics when he takes out 30k event; also wins relay and 50k gold
- 1980 US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
- 1981 Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
- 1982 "Night of 100 Stars", an all-star variety special celebrating the centennial of the Actors' Fund of America, takes place at NYC's Radio City Music Hall
Torvill and Dean's Perfect Score
1984 Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously dominate ice dancing at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, performing to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" in their free dance routine and recording 9-of-9 perfect scores for artistic impression [1]
- 1984 Canadian speed skater Gaétan Boucher takes out the 1,000m gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,500m; narrowly beats Soviet skater Sergey Khlebnikov in both events
Whitney Houston
1985 "Whitney Houston" debut album by Whitney Houston is released (Grammy Award Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female 1986, Billboard Album of Year 1986)
- 1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut
- 1987 Detroit Pistons-Philadelphia 76ers game draws crowd of 53,745 at Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac; third largest crowd in NBA history; Pistons win, 125-107
- 1988 30th Daytona 500: Bobby Allison beats his son, Davey, to the finish line; remembered for Richard Petty's rollover crash in the tri-oval on lap 106, rolls over 8 times and hit by Brett Bodine; walks away unhurt
- 1989 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
Satanic Verses
1989 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel "Satanic Verses". A bounty is also placed on his head.
- 1989 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed in orbit
- 1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster
- 1989 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
- 1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some
- 1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes a photograph of the entire solar system, the images transmitted in real-time with earth a 'pale blue dot'
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 "The Silence of the Lambs" film based on the book by Thomas Harris, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is released (Best Picture 1992)
- 1991 NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 mil salary arbitration
- 1992 American sprinter Andre Cason runs world record 60m indoor (6.41s) in Madrid, Spain
- 1992 Cease fire in Somalia begins
Wayne's World
1992 Comedy film "Wayne's World" starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, based on their Saturday Night Live sketch premieres
- 1992 Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60)
- 1992 Merlene Ottey runs world record 60m indoor (6.96 sec)
- 1993 Fire in Linxi Department Store in Tangshan, China, kills 79
NBA Trade
1995 Portland Trail Blazers trade Clyde Drexler to the Houston Rockets, who end up winning the 1995 NBA Championship
Live by Request
1996 "Live by Request" debuts on the A&E Network, based on singer Tony Bennett's idea, the set list was determined by viewer phone calls; Bennett starred in the first episode, wins an Emmy Award (Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program)
- 1998 Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing
- 2000 Spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid
- 2002 Fishing vessel Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board
- 2004 Roof of the Transvaal water park in Moscow collapses, killing more than 25 people and injuring more than 100 others
- 2005 Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos
- 2005 Online video-sharing site YouTube is founded in San Mateo, California, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim
- 2005 Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the Philippines that hit the Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City
- 2008 A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, killing six people, including himself, and injuring 18
- 2010 52nd Daytona 500: Jamie McMurray, driving for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing wins; Mark Martin, oldest polesitter in Daytona 500 history at 51 years, 27 days
1st Olympic Gold by a Canadian in Canada
2010 Alexandre Bilodeau wins the gold medal in the freestyle skiing men's moguls event, becoming the first Canadian to win gold during an Olympic Games hosted in Canada
- 2010 America's Cup: Team USA defeats Alinghi 2-0 to win in Spain
- 2011 Bahraini uprising begins in Bahrain, calling for greater political freedom and equality for the Shia population and later an end to the monarchy
- 2013 A suicide bombing kills 4 police officer and injures 5 in Dagestan
- 2013 Japan remains in recession as the economy shrinks by a further 0.1%
- 2013 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp
- 2013 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, will be switched off for two years for upgrading
- 2013 The recession in the Eurozone economy deepens with a fall of 0.6% in GDP in the fourth quarter of 2012
Time to Thrive
2014 Actress Ellen Page comes out as gay in a speech at the Human Rights Campaign's "Time to Thrive" conference
- 2014 Britain's Lizzy Yarnold wins her first of 2 consecutive Olympic women's skeleton gold medals in Sochi; also wins event in Pyeongchang (2018)
Olympic Gold
2014 For the first time in men's figure skating, all 3 Olympic singles medalists are of Asian descent; Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) gold, Patrick Chan (Canada) and Denis Ten (Kazakhstan)
- 2014 Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta resigns after less than a year in office
- 2014 Swiss cross country skier Dario Cologna wins his 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the 15k classical; also wins 30k skiathlon
Laureus Awards
2017 Laureus World Sports Awards, Monte-Carlo Sporting, Monaco: Sportsman: Usain Bolt; Sportswoman: Simone Biles; Team: Chicago Cubs
Olympic Gold
2018 American snowboarder Shaun White wins an unprecedented 3rd Olympic halfpipe gold medal (previous 2006, 10) at the Pyeongchang Winter Games
- 2018 Dutch speed skater Jorien ter Mors wins her 3rd career Olympic gold medal in the 1,000m at Pyeongchang; 1,500m and team pursuit champion in Sochi (2014)
- 2018 Ex-student Nikolas Cruz shoots and kills 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida, before being captured
South African History
2018 South African President Jacob Zuma resigns from office
- 2019 Amazon cancels plans to build a corporate campus in Long Island, Queens, New York after widespread opposition
- 2019 Colombian Juan Carlos Sánchez Latorre jailed for sexual abuse of 276 children in Barranquilla
- 2019 Egyptian parliament approves measures to enable President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to extend his rule till 2034
- 2019 Explosive-packed vehicle rams paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir killing at least 40. Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammad claim responsibility.
- 2019 JP Morgan is the first bank to create its own crypto-currency JPM Coin
- 2019 OKC guard Russell Westbrook makes a triple-double (44 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) in an NBA record 11th consecutive game as the Thunder go down, 131-122 in New Orleans
- 2019 Singer Ryan Adams accused of sexual misconduct towards younger upcoming female singers in a report by "The New York Times"
- 2019 US Senate confirms William Barr as Attorney General
- 2020 More than 800,000 people displaced from their homes in north-western Syria amid assault by Syrian pro-government forces on last rebel stronghold
- 2020 UEFA places 2 year ban on Manchester City from European club competition for committing "serious breaches" of club licensing and financial fair play regulations; EPL champions also fined €30million
- 2021 63rd Daytona 500: Michael McDowell navigates through fiery, final-lap pileup to claim his first career NASCAR Cup Series win in his 14th season; race delayed by rain for 6 hours after huge Lap 14 crash
- 2021 At least 60 people killed and hundreds missing after a boat capsizes on the Congo River carrying 700 people in western Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 2021 Guinea declares an Ebola epidemic after three deaths, its first deaths since 2016
- 2022 The megadrought affecting the American Southwest is now considered the worst for 1,200 years according to scientists [1]
- 2023 At least 73 European-bound migrants are missing presumed dead after a boat capsizes off the coast of Libya, with just seven known survivors, according to the UN [1]
Nikki Haley Runs for President
2023 Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announces she is running for US President, the first to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican party nomination [1]
- 2023 New Zealand declares a national state of emergency after Cyclone Gabrielle causes widespread flooding and devastation across the North Island [1]
- 2024 Indonesian presidential election: Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto appears to win by significant margin (full results 20 March) [1]
- 2024 Israel launches air strikes in Lebanon in an escalation of conflict along the border, killing four, in a retaliation after a Hezbollah rocket killed an Israeli soldier in Safed [1]
- 2024 Korean scientists say they have created "meaty rice" with beef grown inside rice grains in a lab, adding 8% more protein [1]
- 2024 Shooting at a rally to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory kills one and injures more than 20 in downtown Kansas City, Missouri [1]
- 2024 Technology and AI company, Nvidia's market capitalization reaches $1.83 trillion, overtaking Alphabet and Amazon [1]
- 2025 American jazz saxophonist Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra releases "New Dawn," his debut album as a solo artist, recorded shortly after his 100th birthday
Pope Francis Hospitalized
2025 Pope Francis is admitted to hospital in Rome with a respiratory tract infection, that later develops into pneumonia [1]
- 2025 US Justice Department formally move to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but not until seven experienced department prosecutors quit rather than obey what they consider an ill-advised directive [1]
