Socrates Death Sentence
399 BC Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety
- 438 The Theodosian Code of Roman laws proclaimed in the Eastern Empire (first law reforms since 295)
- 590 Khosrau II, the last great Sasanian king, is crowned King of Persia
- 732 Zen teacher Ho-tse Shen-hui disputes founder of Northern Ch'an line
- 1145 Bernardo is elected Pope Eugene III
Siege of Bukhara
1220 Khwarezmian city of Bukhara taken by Genghis Khan's Mongol army after a 12-day siege, with the death of about 30,000 of its citizens
- 1313 Peace of Angleur, Liège signed
- 1386 Duke Philip the Stout forms Council of Flanders
Columbus's Famous Letter
1493 Christopher Columbus writes the first account of his first voyage to the Americas in a letter to his patron Luis de Santángel, Treasurer of Aragon, who then publishes it [1]
- 1539 Emperor Charles receives Cardinal Pole in Toledo
- 1552 Dutch coast hit by heavy storm
- 1563 Russian troops occupy Polotsk Lithuania
- 1637 Ferdinand III succeeds Ferdinand II as Holy Roman Emperor
- 1677 King Charles II reports anti-French covenant with Netherlands
- 1686 Jean Baptiste Lully's opera "Armide", with libretto by Philippe Quinault, premieres in performance by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
- 1714 Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clement XI's "Unigenitus" decree
- 1763 Austria, Prussia and Saxony sign the Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French and Indian War and of the Seven Years' War
- 1764 St. Louis, Missouri founded as a French trading post by Pierre Laclède
- 1768 First mustard manufactured in America is advertised in Philadelphia
Inauguration of Pius VI
1775 Angelo Braschi chosen as Pope Pius VI
- 1798 Louis Alexandre Berthier proclaim a Roman Republic after conquering Rome
- 1799 First US printed ballots are authorized in Pennsylvania
- 1804 New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery
- 1805 Harmony Society officially forms
Cuvier–Geoffroy Debate
1830 Beginning of the famous debate between French naturalists Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on animal structure
- 1845 William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, 1st uses 72 inch (183 cm) reflector telescope at Birr Castle, Parsonstown, County Offaly, Ireland
- 1848 Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston
- 1851 Black abolitionists invade Boston courtroom rescuing a fugitive slave
- 1852 Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits 1st patient
- 1861 Fort Point, in San Francisco, California, completed & garrisoned (but has never fired cannon in anger)
- 1862 Grant's major assault on Ft Donelson, Tennessee
- 1864 Fire in Rotterdam damages Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- 1867 Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz premieres in Vienna
- 1870 Ground broken for Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minnesota
- 1876 Historic Elm at Boston blown down
- 1879 US Congress authorizes women lawyers to practise before Supreme Court
- 1882 SS Dunedin leaves New Zealand for Britain with the first cargo of frozen meat
- 1891 Swedish sports club AIK is founded at Biblioteksgatan 8 in Stockholm by Isidor Behrens
- 1895 23 cm (9 inches) of snow falls on New Orleans
- 1898 USS Maine sinks in Havana harbor, cause unknown, 258 sailors die
Siege of Kimberley
1900 Boer War: Siege of Kimberley broken by British troops under Lieutenant-General John French after a 124 day siege. Kimberley defense led by Cecil Rhodes.
- 1902 Berlin U-Bahn (Underground railway) opened
- 1903 First teddy bear introduced in America, made by Morris and Rose Michtom
- 1905 First Thoroughbred horse race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas
- 1906 British Labour Party founded
- 1912 Schooner 'Fram' reaches latitude 78° 41' S, the farthest south ever by a ship
- 1913 First avant-garde art show in America opens in NYC
- 1916 NY Yankees buy Frank "Home Run" Baker from the Athletics for $37,500
- 1917 San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch at Civic center) dedicated
1918 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania adopt the Gregorian calendar
- 1918 US army troop ship torpedoed & sunk by Germany off Ireland
- 1919 American Legion organizes in Paris
Radio History
1922 Marconi begins regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex
- 1924 A deputation for the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) meets with the Minister of the Interior, Sir Patrick Duncan, and presents him with a memorandum setting out their objections concerning the Class Areas Bill
- 1926 Brooks Atkinson Theatre opens at 256 W 47th St NYC
- 1926 Contract air mail service begins in US
Silent Film "It"
1927 Silent film "It" is released in the US starring Clara Bow
- 1930 Wenona Mustangs beat Toluca Wildcats in Illinois Basketball Tournament in 10 overtimes, 26-22
- 1931 Spring training site of NY Yankees in St Petersburg is renamed Miller Huggins Field in honor of the team's late manager
- 1932 American brothers Hubert and Curtis Stevens beat the 8-nation field to win the 2-man bobsleigh gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics
Summer and Winter Gold
1932 As a member of the gold medal-winning US four-man bobsleigh team at Lake Placid, Eddie Eagan becomes the only Olympian to win gold medals at both the Summer (boxing gold in Antwerp 1920) and Winter Games in different sports
- 1932 Australia beat South Africa in cricket by an innings in 5 hrs 53 min playing time
- 1932 III Winter Olympic Games close at Lake Placid, New York
- 1933 Karl Radek praises invincible force of German communist party
Assassination Attempt on FDR
1933 President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survives assassination in Miami, Florida, attempt but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is mortally wounded, he would die on March 29
- 1933 Social-democratic newspaper "Vorwarts" banned again in Berlin
- 1936 -60°F (-51°C), Parshall, North Dakota (state record)
1936 Adolf Hitler announces construction of the Volkswagen Beetle (the People's Car, aka the Käfer/Beetle)
- 1936 Great Britain’s 0-0 tie with the US is enough to clinch their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; breaks Canada’s 4 straight Games golden streak
Henie's 3rd Consecutive Gold
1936 Sonja Henie of Norway becomes the most successful Olympic figure skater ever by winning her 3rd consecutive gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; beats Cecilia College of Great Britain by 6.4 points
- 1939 German battleship Bismarck was launched
Take the A Train
1941 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra first record "Take the 'A' Train" written by Billy Strayhorn, at RCA Studio in Hollywood, California; it goes on to become his signature tune
Maria Callas Debuts
1941 Greek-American singer Maria Callas makes her professional opera debut as Beatrice, in Franz von Suppé's "Boccaccio" at the Olympia Theatre in Athens, Greece
- 1942 German U-boat shells Antillian oil refinery
- 1942 Japanese troops march into Palembang, South Sumatra
- 1942 World War II: British ruled Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
1943 Wartime propaganda poster "We Can Do It!" produced by J. Howard Miller and posted on the walls of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's plants in the Midwest
- 1943 Women's camp Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) hit by allied air raid
- 1944 891 British bombers attack Berlin in the largest raid by the RAF against the city
- 1944 Allies begin attack on Axis held Monte Cassino monastery, Italy
- 1950 KENS TV channel 5 in San Antonio, Texas (CBS) begins broadcasting
Cinderella Premieres
1950 Walt Disney's animated film "Cinderella" premieres in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1950 WSYR (now WSTM) TV channel 3 in Syracuse, New York (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1952 Giant slalom event for men debuts at the Winter Olympics at Oslo Games; Stein Erikson of Norway wins gold ahead of Austrians Christian Pravda and Toni Spiß
Funeral of George VI
1952 King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England
- 1954 First Bevatron particle accelerator operates in Berkeley, California
- 1954 WRDW TV channel 12 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 First pilot plant to produce synthetic man-made diamonds is announced
- 1956 Pirates and KC As cancel an exhibition game in Birmingham, Alabama, due to a local ordinance barring Black players from playing against White players
- 1956 Urho Kekkonen appointed president of Finland
- 1957 Andrei Gromyko succeeds Dmitri Shepilov as Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1958 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by June Markham/Courtney Jones GRB
- 1958 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Barbara Wagner/Rob Paul of CAN
- 1958 Sjafroeddin Prawiranegara forms anti-government of Middle Sumatra
- 1961 Australia beat West Indies 2-1 in one of best Test Cricket series ever
- 1961 Plane crash kills entire US figure skating team outside Brussels airport in Belgium enroute to World Championships in Prague from NYC; 73 crew and passengers (including 34 American skaters, coaches, officials, and other team members), and a farmer on the ground are lost
- 1962 Lawsuit is filed on behalf of nine families whose requests for children to be transferred to newer school facility in Englewood, New Jersey; parents charge denial was "racial segregation"
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1963 Ken Lynch records "Misery," 1st Lennon-McCartney song by someone else
- 1964 The Beatles' "Meet the Beatles!" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 11 weeks
- 1965 Red Maple Leaf Flag becomes the official flag of Canada
- 1966 Kees Verkerk becomes world champion all-round skater
- 1967 D66 (D'66) wins 7 seats in Dutch 2nd Chamber
- 1967 First anti-bootleg recording laws are enacted
- 1967 Longest dream (REM sleep) on record is experienced by Bill Carskadon in Chicago lasting 2 hours and 23 minutes
- 1968 ABA basketball Anaheim Amigos Les Salvage scores 10 3-point baskets in game vs Denver Rockets
- 1968 Biathlon 4 x 7.5k relay debuts at the Grenoble Winter Olympics with the Soviet Union taking the gold medal ahead of Norway and Sweden
- 1968 Fred Anton Maier of Norway skates a world record 7:22.4 in winning the 5,000m at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Dutch 1,500m champion Kees Verkerk is just 0.8s behind for silver
Music History
1968 John Lennon and his wife Cynthia, and George Harrison, his wife Pattie, and sister-in-law Jenny, travel to India to study Transcendental Meditation for two months with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram in Rishikesh; Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr join them a few days later, Ringo only stays for 2 weeks
- 1968 WVUT TV channel 22 in Vincennes, Indiana (PBS) begins broadcasting
World Skating Champion
1970 Ard Schenk becomes world champion all-round skater
- 1970 Dominican DC-9 crashes into sea at Santo Domingo, kills 102
- 1970 KAMU TV channel 15 in College Station, TX (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1970 Nationalists disrupt UN session on Congo
- 1971 A British soldier dies 7 days after being mortally wounded in an Irish Republican Army attack in North Ireland
- 1971 After 1,200 years Great Britain abandons pence & shilling system for decimal currency
- 1972 Dimitrios Papadopoulos becomes metropolitan of Imbros and Tenedos
- 1972 Newly-formed NHL franchise New York Islanders hire Bill Torrey as their first General Manager
- 1972 President Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador deposed for 4th time
- 1972 Sound recordings receive US federal copyright protection for the first time
- 1973 Friendsville Academy (Tenn) ends 138-game basketball losing streak
- 1973 USSR launches Prognoz 3 to study the Sun (589/200,300 km)
#1 in the Charts
1975 Linda Ronstadt tops US singles chart with 'You're No Good', and the US album chart with Heart Like A Wheel
1976 18th Daytona 500: David Pearson makes contact with Richard Petty just yards from finish line into a wall and to infield; Petty stalls whilst Pearson restarts to win
- 1976 XII Winter Olympic Games close in Innsbruck, Austria
- 1977 Social-democrats win Danish parliamentary election
- 1978 England all out 64 for 1st loss to NZ in cricket (Geoffrey Boycott captain)
Crime History
1978 Escaped mass murderer Ted Bundy recaptured, Pensacola, Florida
- 1978 Zaire revises its constitution
1979 21st Grammy Awards: Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are"; soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever" featuring the Bee Gees, and A Taste of Honey win
- 1979 Paul Shirley (21) of Australia, sucked a lifesaver for 4 hrs 40 mins
TV Show Appearance
1979 Temple City Kazoo Orchestra appears on "The Mike Douglas Show"
- 1979 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Olympic Gold
1980 American speed skater Eric Heiden wins 500m in Olympic record 38.03s; first of record 5 gold medal sweep of events at Lake Placid, New York
- 1980 East German speed skater Karin Enke wins first of 3 career Olympic gold medals with victory in the 500m at Lake Placid Winter; wins 1,000m & 1,500m in Sarajevo (1984)
NHL Record
1980 NHL Oilers Wayne Gretzky assists on NHL-record-tying 7 goals, in 8-2 victory over Washington at Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton
- 1980 Soviet cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina claims her 3rd of 4 career Olympic gold medals in 5k event at Lake Placid; also wins 10k and relay gold (Innsbruck 1976) and relay (Albertville 1992)
- 1981 23rd Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins record 7th title at Daytona, beating Bobby Allison to the line by 3.5 seconds
- 1981 Rocket-powered ice sled attains 399 kph, Lake George, New York
- 1982 Dan Issel (NBA-Nuggets), begins streak of 63 consecutive free throw
- 1982 Ocean Ranger oil-drilling platform lost off Newfoundland, 84 die
- 1984 500,000 Iranian soldiers move into Iraq
- 1984 An East German sweep of the medals in the women's 3,000m speed skating at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; Andrea Schöne takes gold ahead of teammates Karin Enke and Gabi Zange
- 1985 STS 51-E vehicle moves to launch pad
- 1985 Teen film "The Breakfast Club" is released, written and directed by John Hughes, starring Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy
- 1986 44,180 largest NBA crowd to date-Philadelphia at Detroit
People Power Revolution
1986 National Assembly of the Philippines proclaims Ferdinand Marcos President for six more years after rigged elections against Corazon Aquino, supercharging the EDSA people power revolution [1]
Disqualified for Kneeling
1987 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler is disqualified from Andy Williams Open for kneeling on a towel to make a shot
1987 29th Daytona 500: Bill Elliott leads for 104 of 200 laps including the last 3; had won pole with record speed of 210.364 mph
- 1987 ABC-TV begins broadcasting "Amerika" mini-series
- 1987 Karlstad skates world record 10km (14:03,92)
- 1987 Nikolai Guljajev becomes world champion skater
- 1988 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1989 Israel attacks border strip Taba near Egypt
1989 Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ends as the last Soviet troops cross the Soviet-Afghan border
- 1990 Baseball owners lock out players
- 1991 Daily market volatility as Hussein mentions withdrawal, but Bush calls his offer a "cruel hoax"
- 1991 Freighter with dynamite explodes in Phang Nga Thailand, 120 die
- 1991 Troy State sets NCAA Div II record with 103 points in 2nd half routing DeVry Institute 187-117
- 1992 100th episode of "Cops" airs on Fox
- 1993 Bombings by mafia drug lords kill 14 in Bogotá, Colombia
- 1993 Howard Stern Radio Show begins transmitting to Rochester, New York on WRQI 95.1 FM
- 1994 Tom Barrasso becomes winningest US born goalie in NHL history, as the Pittsburgh Penguins win, 5-3 over visiting Winnipeg; passes record of 252 career wins set by Frank Brimsek
- 1994 US asks Aristide to adopt a peace plan from Haiti
- 1995 Burundi premier Anatole Kanyenkiko resigns
- 1995 Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at record 3986.17
- 1995 Population of People's Republic of China hits 1.2 billion
Sports History
1996 American boxer Tommy Morrison announces he has contracted HIV, a diagnosis he later claimed to be false
- 1996 Mortar attack by a far left Marxist terrorist group on the US Embassy in Athens, Greece hits a parking lot wall and damages three vehicles
NFL Record
1996 NFL coaching maestro Bill Belichick is fired by Cleveland, finishing his Browns coaching career with a record of 36-44
Poove Unakkaga
1996 Tamil romantic comedy film "Poove Unakkaga" is released, directed by Vikraman, and starring Sangita and Vijay in his breakthrough role
1998 40th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt's only Daytona win in his 20th start; snaps a 59-race winless streak
1998 The Angel of the North, a large-scale steel sculpture 20 m (66 ft) tall by Antony Gormley is installed at Gateshead, northern England
- 1999 PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan is arrested in Kenya
- 1999 Wayne Gretzky records 5 assists in NY Rangers' 7-4 win over the Predators; takes a 1,000 point lead over Gordie Howe in all time NHL scoring lead; Gretzky's only appearance in Nashville
- 2000 Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails
NHL History
2000 Martin Brodeur becomes first goaltender in NHL history to get credit for a "game winning" goal as New Jersey wins, 4-2 over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers
- 2001 First draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal "Nature"
- 2002 At the Tri-State Crematory in La Fayette, Georgia, investigators find uncremated bodies disposed of in the woods and buildings on crematorium's property. One of the worst incidents of abuse in the funeral service industry.
- 2002 Kile Smith's "Symphony: Lumen ad revelationem" premieres at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, performed by the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, led by Donald Spieth
- 2002 Walt Disney releases "Return to Never Land", an animated film sequel to 1953's "Peter Pan"
- 2003 An estimated 6-11 million people around the world take to the streets to protest against war with Iraq
- 2004 46th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins exactly 6 years to the day after his father Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first and only Daytona 500 in 1998
- 2009 51st Daytona 500: Matt Kenseth wins shortened race; called off with 48 laps to go after a severe rainstorm hits the track
- 2011 Stray tabby cat Larry becomes Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street, the official resident of the UK Prime Minister, from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home [1]
Presidential Medal of Freedom
2011 US President Barack Obama awards writer and activist Maya Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- 2012 Fire at Comayagua prison, Honduras, kills 358
- 2012 United Kingdom unemployment rate reaches 17 year high of 8.4%
- 2013 2012 DA14, an asteroid with a 50m diameter, comes within 27,700km of Earth the same day as the Chelyabinsk meteor hits Siberia
- 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor breaks up over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring over 1,200 people, with 26 to 33 times energy of Hiroshima bomb
- 2014 Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch wins his 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the men's large hill event; also wins normal hill gold
- 2014 Tammam Salam is elected Prime Minister of Lebanon after a 10 month gridlock
- 2014 World champion Aleksandr Tretyakov of Russia wins the men's skeleton gold medal at his home Sochi Winter Olympics
- 2017 The Indian space rocket PSLV-C37 successfully launches 104 satellites in a single flight
NBA Record
2018 Denver's Serbian center Nikola Jokić records fastest triple double in NBA history (14 minutes, 33 seconds) in the Nuggets' 134-123 win at Milwaukee; Jokić finishes with 30 points, 17 assists, 15 rebounds
- 2018 Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigns in a surprise move
- 2018 First known case of transgender woman breastfeeding reported in "Transgender Health Journal" in US
- 2018 Frenchman Pierre Vaultier retains his Olympic snowboard cross title (Sochi 2014) with a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games
- 2018 German figure skaters Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot set new ISU best free skating score of 159.31 on their way to pairs gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
- 2018 German women's luge singles champion Natalie Geisenberger and men's doubles winners Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt earn their 2nd Olympic gold medals in Pyeongchang in the team relay event
- 2018 IBU Female Rookie of the Year, Hanna Öberg of Sweden wins 15k individual biathlon gold medal with 4 clean shootings at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; first victory and podium of her career
- 2018 Sochi (2014) Olympic slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the US wins the giant slalom at the Pyeongchang Winter Games; also takes combined silver
- 2018 Vancouver (2010) Olympic super-G champion Aksul Lund Svindal of Sweden wins the downhill gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games
- 2019 A fired employee opens fire at Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois, killing five and injuring six
Trump's Border Wall
2019 US President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to divert funds to build a border wall, after signing bipartisan spending agreement to avoid another government shutdown
- 2020 Beijing orders people returning to the city after Lunar New Year holiday to self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent spread of Covid-19
- 2021 Major winter storm in the US stretches from Texas to Maine, over 3 million without power in Texas, goes on to kill 210 people
- 2021 Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization
- 2021 UK is the first European country to require travellers from COVID-19 'hotspots' to isolate in quarantine hotels, following other countries such as Australia, NZ and Singapore
- 2022 Floods and landslides after the heaviest rain in a century in Petrópolis, Brazil, leave 146 people dead with 191 missing [1]
- 2022 In the only podium sweep of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Germany takes all 3 medals in the 2-man bobsled; Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis win gold
- 2023 Buffalo gunman Payton Gendron sentenced to life in prison, after pleading guilty to ten counts of first-degree murder and a count of domestic terrorism, the first in New York [1]
I Feel Like Dancing
2023 Jason Mraz releases the single "I Feel Like Dancing" from his upcoming album "Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride"
Sports History
2023 Joel Embiid scores his 10,000th career point in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers
- 2023 Scientists warn the Thwaites Glacier, the so-called "Doomsday Glacier" and the size of Florida, is weakening threatening a global sea level rise of 1.6 meters [1]
- 2023 Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigns after eight years in office, the longest-serving First Minister and the first woman [1]
Women's NCAA Scoring Record
2024 Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I women's career scoring leader in a game for Iowa against Michigan, scoring a career-high 49 points
- 2024 Germany becomes the world's third-largest economy after Japan slips into recession [1]
- 2024 Greece is the first Christian Orthodox country to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption [1]
- 2024 Private company Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander Odysseus launches aboard SpaceX’s Falcon from the Kennedy Space Center [1]
- 2025 A gold mine collapse in Mali kills about 42 people at Bilali Koto [1]
- 2025 Severe winter storm across Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee brings freezing temperatures and widespread flooding, resulting in the deaths of 21 people [1]
- 2025 South African imam Muhsin Hendricks, the world's first openly gay imam, is shot and killed in Bethelsdorp, South Africa
