- 3102 BC Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga
- 749 Kʼakʼ Yipyaj Chan Kʼawiil, known as Smoke Shell, ascends to the throne of the Maya city of Copán
- 1219 Jerusalem is retaken by the Christian Crusader kingdom in a peace treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Egyptian ruler Al-Kamil
- 1268 Battle of Wesenberg: Livonian Brothers of the Sword fight the forces of Novgorod and Pskov, led by Dmitry of Pereslavl near Rakvere in modern-day Estonia; both sides claim victory
- 1332 Emperor of Ethiopia Amda Seyon I begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces
- 1358 Treaty of Zadar: The Venetian Republic loses influence over Dalmatia in exchange for ending hostilities with the King of Hungary and Croatia, Louis I
Execution of George, Duke of Clarence
1478 Duke of Clarence George Plantagenet is convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England and is privately executed in the Tower of London, allegedly by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine
Henry Appointed Heir Apparent
1503 Henry Tudor (later Henry VIII) is appointed Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne
Cortés Leaves Cuba for Mexico
1519 Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, with 11 ships and 500 men
- 1563 Huguenot Jean de Poltrot assassinates French General Duke François de Guise with a shot from his pistol
- 1574 Zeeland falls to Dutch rebels
Pilgrim's Progress
1678 John Bunyan's Christian novel "The Pilgrim's Progress" is published in London by Nathaniel Ponder
- 1685 Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay, forming the basis for France's claim to Texas
- 1688 Quakers consider drafting formal protest of slavery in Germantown, Pennsylvania
- 1713 French invade under Jacques Cassard on Curacao
- 1735 First opera performed in America, "Flora," in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1787 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II bans children under 8 from labor
- 1797 Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby
- 1804 Ohio legislature approves establishment of Ohio University at Athens as the 1st university in Ohio; first classes are held in 1809
- 1804 Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, becomes the first U.S. land-grant college when it is chartered
Battle of Montereau
1814 The Battle of Montereau; victory of French under Napoleon Bonaparte against Austrians and Württembergers under the King of Württemberg.
- 1828 More than 100 vessels destroyed in a storm, Gibraltar
- 1834 US labor newspaper, "The Man" begins publishing as a daily, in NYC
- 1839 Detroit Boat Club forms and still exists
- 1849 First regular steamboat service to California starts (or Feb 28)
- 1850 California Legislature creates nine Bay Area counties
The American Party
1856 The American Party (Know-Nothings) convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate its first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
Chinese Rebellion in Sarawak
1857 Chinese residents in the fledging state of Sarawak rebel against the "White Rajah" James Brooke
Inauguration of Jefferson Davis
1861 Confederate President Jefferson Davis inaugurated at Montgomery, Alabama (US Civil War)
- 1865 Battle of Fort Moultrie, SC occupied by Federals
- 1865 Evacuation of Charleston, South Carolina
- 1865 Union troops force Confederates to abandon Ft Anderson, NC
- 1876 Direct telegraph link established between Britain and New Zealand
- 1878 John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jessie Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- 1879 Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha
- 1884 British General Charles Gordon arrives in Khartoum
Event of Interest
1884 Russian police seize all copies of Leo Tolstoy's book "What I Believe In"
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1885 Mark Twain publishes "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the US
- 1891 Capt Archinard's army fights with Nyamina of Niger in West-Sudan
Barnum Museum
1893 The Barnum Museum opens in Bridgeport, Connecticut, dedicated to the life of P. T. Barnum
- 1896 Cave of the Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for the first time in 50 years
- 1899 80°F recorded in San Francisco, California
- 1899 San Francisco named as a port of dispatch for Army transports
- 1899 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Victorias beat Winnipeg Victorias, 3-2 to sweep series, 2-0 for CAHL
- 1900 Battle at Paardeberg, 1,270 British killed/injured
- 1900 British troops occupy Monte Christo, Natal
- 1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner
Le jongleur de Notre-Dame
1902 Jules Massenet's opera "Le jongleur de Notre-Dame" ( The Hunchback of Notre Dame) premieres in Monte Carlo
Hidalla oder Sein und Haben
1905 Frank Wedekind's play "Hidalla oder Sein und Haben" (Hidalla, or Being and Having) premieres in Munich
- 1908 1st US postage stamps in rolls issued
- 1908 The American ambassador to Japan is given a note by the Japanese in which they agree to restrict Japanese emigration to the US; this becomes known as the 'Gentlemen's Agreement'
Baseball Trade
1909 Boston Red Sox trade Cy Young, at 41, to Cleveland Naps
- 1911 The first official flight with airmail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away
Event of Interest
1913 French modernist painting "Nude Descending a Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp causes an uproar when shown in New York
- 1913 President Francisco Madero of Mexico is overthrown
- 1915 Germany begins a blockade of Britain
- 1916 The last German garrison in the German colony of Cameroons surrenders
- 1917 First major strike of the Russian "February Revolution" starts at the giant Putilov factory in Petrograd [NS=Mar 3]
- 1918 Germany renews its offensive against the Russians, making dramatic gains against disorganized and dispirited Russian troops
NHL Record
1919 Cy Denneny of NHL Ottawa Senators scores record 52nd goal
- 1921 British troops occupy Dublin
Sports History
1922 Kenesaw Mountain Landis resigns his federal judgeship to give full attention to job as Major League Baseball Commissioner
- 1922 The Capper-Volstead Act allows farmers to buy and sell cooperatively without the risk of prosecution under antitrust laws
- 1922 WOC-AM in Davenport IA begins radio transmissions
- 1923 Belgium: Borinage-mine workers strike for higher wages
Event of Interest
1924 US Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby resigns due to Teapot Dome scandal
- 1927 1st US radio broadcast of "Cities Service Concerts"
- 1927 US & Canada open diplomatic relations
- 1928 Johan Grøttumsbråten of Norway wins the Nordic combined gold at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; doubles up with the 18k cross country gold the previous day
- 1928 Norway goes 1-2 in the ski jumping at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics with Alf Andersen taking gold ahead of Sigmund Ruud
Olympic Gold
1928 Sonja Henie of Norway wins the women’s figure skating gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Olympic Games; her first of 3 consecutive titles in the event
- 1928 USA 2 beats USA 1 by 0.5s for the 5-man bobsleigh gold medal at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Germany 2 takes bronze
- 1930 American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto
- 1930 Cow is flown and milked, milk is sealed in paper containers and parachuted
- 1930 Luigi Pirandello's "Come Tu Mi Vuoi" premieres in Milan
- 1932 Japan proclaims and names Manchukuo in Manchuria, China, as an independent state
- 1932 Norway's Sonja Henie wins her 6th straight World Women's figure skating title
- 1936 NHL record 32 points scored, NY Americans (28) & Mont Maroons (24)
- 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition opens on Treasure Island
- 1942 Japanese troop land on Bali
- 1943 1st edition of Dutch resistance newspaper "Trouw"
- 1943 A syndicate headed by New York lumberman William D Cox buys MLB's Philadelphia Phillies for $850,000; 33 year-old Cox is youngest owner in baseball
- 1943 German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbells demands "total war" from German citizens in speech at Berlin Sportpalast
- 1943 Members of student non-violent resistance group "White Rose" arrested by Nazis after distributing pamphlets in Munich, Germany
- 1944 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall signs a contract to play baseball with the Cincinnati Reds just one day after playing in a high school basketball game; debuts later that year
- 1944 Maastricht resistance fighter JAJ Janssen arrested
- 1947 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania
- 1947 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC
- 1951 3 City College of NY basketball players admit to accepting bribes
- 1951 Nepal becomes a constitutional monarchy
- 1951 Netherlands Radio School forms
1952 4th Emmy Awards: First time awards are presented on a nationwide basis; "The Red Skelton Show," Sid Caesar, and Imogene Coca win
- 1952 Norwegian speed skater Hjalmar Anderson wins his 3rd gold medal of the Oslo Winter Olympics when he claims the 10,000m in Olympic record 16:45.8; also wins gold in 1,500m and 5,000m
- 1953 KOLN TV channel 10 in Lincoln, NB (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1954 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California
- 1955 Baghdad Pact signed, making Turkey & Iraq a defense alliance
- 1957 Kenyan freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi executed by hanging by the British colonial government
Sports History
1960 Continental League President Branch Rickey and Toronto team owner Jack Kent Cooke announce the opening date of their new baseball league as April 18, 1961
- 1960 VIII Winter Olympic Games open in Squaw Valley, California
- 1960 Walter O'Malley, LA Dodger owner, purchases Chavez Ravine for $494,000
- 1961 Henk van der Grift becomes world champion skater
- 1962 4th Daytona 500: Race winner Fireball Roberts dominates the event, leading 144 of the 200 laps
- 1962 France & Algerian Muslims negotiate truce to end 7 year war
- 1964 Muriel Resnik's "Any Wednesday" premieres in NYC
- 1964 Papandreou government takes power in Greece
- 1965 27 copper miners die in avalanche, Granduc Mountain, British Columbia
Event of Interest
1965 Church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten and shot during a peaceful march in Marion, Alabama. His death 8 days later inspires the Selma to Montgomery marches.
- 1965 Frank Gifford announces his retirement from football for broadcasting
- 1965 The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom
- 1967 Softball pitcher Eddie Feigner strikes out 6 straight major leaguers
- 1968 After winning men's luge singles Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck (1964), Thomas Köhler of Germany teams with Klaus Bonsack to take out the doubles in Grenoble
- 1968 Britain commences a trial of year-round daylight saving time (BST - British Standard Time, one hour ahead of GMT)
- 1968 Thousands of people in West Berlin demonstrate against US involvement in the Vietnam War
- 1968 X Winter Olympic Games close in Grenoble, France
- 1969 Doug Walters scores 2nd innings century after 242 in 1st
- 1969 PLO-attack El-Al plane in Zurich Switzerland
- 1970 Chicago 7 defendants found innocent of inciting to riot
- 1972 California Supreme Court abolishes death penalty
- 1972 Giulio Andreotti sworn in as premier of Italy for the 1st time
1973 15th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins his 4th Great American Race by more than 2 laps from Bobby Isaac
- 1973 54-kg octopus measuring 7m across captured in Hood Canal, Washington
- 1973 Belgian Emiel Puttemans runs 3,000m indoor record 7:39.2
- 1974 NASA launches Italian satellite San Marcos C-2 (235/843 km)
- 1974 US ambassador to India Daniel Moynihan present $2,046,700,000 check
- 1975 Italy broadens abortion law
- 1977 American rock band KISS play their first concert in their hometown venue of Madison Square Garden in New York City
- 1977 Space Shuttle Enterprise takes its maiden flight affixed atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Aircraft Carrier
- 1977 West Indies cricket fast bowlers Joel Garner (4/130) and (Colin Croft 3/85) debut in drawn 1st Test v Pakistan at Bridgetown, Barbados
- 1978 1st Iron Man Triathlon (swim, bike ride, and run marathon) held, beginning and ending at the Aloha Tower in Honolulu Harbor of Oʻahu, Hawaii
- 1979 -52°F (-47°C), Old Forge, New York (state record)
1979 21st Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins after race leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison collide with each other on final lap; first 500 mile race broadcast from start to finish
- 1979 Mini-series "Roots: Next Generations" premieres on ABC TV
- 1979 NASA launches space vehicle S-202
Election of Interest
1979 President Ziaur Rahman's National Party wins Bangladeshi general election
- 1979 Snow falls in the Sahara Desert
Music History
1980 Bassist Bill Wyman says he will leave Rolling Stones in 1983 (Sure!)
- 1980 East German cross country skier Barbara Petzold wins first of 2 gold medals at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in women's 10k; also takes gold as part of 4 x 5k relay team
- 1980 Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberal Party wins Canadian elections
- 1980 Soviet figure skater Irina Rodnina wins her 3rd consecutive Olympic pairs title at Lake Placid; gold medals with husband Alexander Zaitsev (1976, 80) and Alexei Ulanov (1972)
- 1981 Jeff Erlanger (10), a spinal tumor survivor and quadriplegic, appears on children's television program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", discusses his disability and demonstrates his electric wheelchair
NHL Record
1981 Twenty-year-old Edmonton center Wayne Gretzky becomes the first player in NHL history to score five career hat tricks before age 21, scoring five goals and two assists in a 9-2 Oilers home win against St. Louis
- 1983 Indiana Pacers lose, 121-94 in Milwaukee; begin a 28 NBA game losing streak on the road
- 1983 Right wing Lanny McDonald becomes the first player in NHL franchise Calgary Flames' history to score 50 goals in a season in a 5-1 loss to Buffalo Sabres
- 1984 East German figure skater Katarina Witt wins first of 2 consecutive women's singles gold medals at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins gold in Calgary (1988)
- 1984 Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen wins the 20k gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; sweeps all 3 individual events, also winning 5k and 10k events
Olympic Gold
1984 Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen wins first of 4 career Olympic gold medals in the Large Hill individual event at the Sarajevo Winter Games
- 1984 Revised Concordat between Italy and Vatican is signed
Film & TV History
1986 Anti-smoking ad airs for the first time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner; he dies of smoking-induced lung cancer on October 10, 1985
- 1986 San Antonio guard Alvin Robertson scores NBA's 2nd quadruple double-20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists & 10 steals in 120-114 win over Phoenix Suns
- 1988 Federal Road Safety Corps is established in Nigeria
A Better Man
1989 "A Better Man" single released by Clint Black (Billboard Song of the Year 1989)
1990 32nd Daytona 500: Derrike Cope wins after Dale Earnhardt shreds right rear tyre on last lap
Sports History
1991 Edmonton Oiler goalie Grant Fuhr returns to NHL after season-long suspension for substance abuse & shuts out NJ Devils 4-0
- 1992 American amateur astronomer Peter Collins discovers Nova Cygni 1992, observed from Boulder, Colorado
- 1994 Shreveport Pirates join Canadian Football League as 4th US-based team; fold 1995
- 1996 38th Daytona 500: Dale Jarrett wins his 2nd Great American race ahead of Dale Earnhardt and Ken Schrader
Music History
1998 Andrea Bocelli makes his operatic debut as Rodolfo in "La bohème" at the Teatro Comunale in Cagliari
- 1998 Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on NYC subways
- 2000 Stjepan Mesić becomes the second President of Croatia
- 2001 43rd Daytona 500: Michael Waltrip wins tragic race; last lap crash claims life of Dale Earnhardt, prompting sport to implement new safety procedures
Event of Interest
2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he dies
- 2003 Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by SOHO.
- 2003 Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea
- 2004 A runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol, and fertilizer catches fire and explodes near Neyshabur in Iran, killing 295 people, including 182 rescue workers
Sports History
2004 Greg Maddux signs with the Chicago Cubs, the team he began his career with
- 2007 49th Daytona 500: Kevin Harvick wins by 0.02s over Mark Martin in the closest finish since the first race at Daytona in 1959
Laureus Awards
2008 Laureus World Sports Awards, Marinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia: Sportsman: Roger Federer; Sportswoman: Justine Henin; Team: South African Men's National Rugby Union team
- 2009 The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announced that the Taiwanese economy has contracted an unprecedented 8.36% in the fourth quarter of 2008; thus placing the country in a technical recession
Event of Interest
2010 Bibliothèque nationale de France purchases the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova a for €7 million
- 2013 $50 million worth of diamonds is stolen in an armed robbery at Brussels Airport, Belgium
- 2013 15 people are killed by flooding and landslides in Indonesia
- 2014 American snowboarder David Wise wins first of 2 consecutive Olympic halfpipe gold medals in Sochi; wins again in Pyeongchang (2018)
- 2014 Netherlands sweeps the medals in the men's 1,000m speed skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics; Jorrit Bergsma wins gold ahead of teammates Sven Kramer and Bob de Jong
- 2014 Police clash with protesters in Bangkok, Thailand
2014 Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 begins as protesters, riot police and unknown shooters take part in violent events in the capital, Kiev, culminating after five days in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych
Event of Interest
2016 Pope Francis questions US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump's Christianity over his call to build a wall on the Mexican border
- 2018 60th Daytona 500: Austin Dillon wins after multi-car wreck sends race into overtime (207 laps) ahead of rookie Darrell Wallace Jr
- 2018 After taking out the men's combined gold medal, Austrian alpine skier Marcel Hirscher wins the giant slalom at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
- 2018 Aseman Airlines flight crashes in the Zagros mountains, Iran, killing all 66 on board
- 2018 Frenchman Martin Fourcade wins his 2nd of 3 gold medals at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the 15k mass start biathlon; also wins men's 12.5k pursuit & mixed relay
- 2018 Syrian government forces begin a new offensive on Eastern Ghouta in Syria's civil war
Event of Interest
2019 16 US states, including California and New York, band together to sue President Donald Trump over his use of emergency powers to build a border wall.
- 2019 25-year old murder of a woman solved when police in Minnesota run DNA though a genealogy site and find suspect
Election of Interest
2019 Australian political parties hacked by a "sophisticated state actor" Prime Minister Scott Morrison says, just months ahead of general election
- 2019 British parliamentary committee issues scathing report on Facebook, accusing company of breaking privacy laws, calling for new regulations
- 2019 Gun battle in Pulwama, Indian-controlled Kashmir, kills nine with Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammad held responsible
- 2019 Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says "There's no way the US can crush us" in interview with BBC, saying his daughter's arrest politically motivated
Laureus Awards
2019 Laureus World Sports Awards, Monte-Carlo Sporting, Monaco: Sportsman: Novak Đoković; Sportswoman: Simone Biles; Team: French Men's National Football team
- 2019 NHL hockey team Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon agrees to invest $250 million into the Alliance of American Football; named new chairman of the AAF
Election of Interest
2020 Ashraf Ghani is declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential elections five months after the vote due to fraud allegations requiring a recount
- 2020 Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, suspending those claims
- 2020 President Donald Trump commutes the 14-year sentence of former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich's corruption conviction
- 2020 Swarms of desert locusts affecting east Africa reach South Sudan, threatening a food crisis
- 2021 Facebook blocks users in Australia from accessing news sites in response to proposed new laws for tech companies to pay to show news content
- 2021 NASA's Perseverance rover successfully lands at Jezero Crater, Mars, on mission to find microfossils [1]
- 2021 Nearly seven million people required to boil their water in Texas as unusually harsh winter storm in the state continues
- 2022 Johannes Thingnes Bø of Norway wins his 4th biathlon gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics when he takes out the men's mass start
- 2022 Scientific study says the sudden drop in emissions due to COVID-19 shutdowns caused the record rainfall in eastern China in 2020 that killed hundreds [1]
- 2022 Storm Eunice [Zeynep/Nora] moves across Europe and the UK with gusts of 120mph, killing at least 17, cutting off power to millions [1]
African Union Summit
2023 Global financial system is "dysfunctional and unfair" and is "failing developing countries" according to UN Secretary General António Guterres at opening of African Union leaders' summit in Ethiopia [1]
- 2024 Massacre leaves 49 dead after tribal fighting in Papa New Guinea's Enga Province [1]
- 2024 Singaporean chess prodigy Ashwath Kaushik at eight years old is the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in a classic tournament game at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open, Switzerland [1]
- 2025 The royal tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II (reigning from about 1493 to 1479 BC) is discovered west of the Valley of the Kings, the first tomb of a pharaoh found since Tutankhamun in 1922 [1]
- 2025 The United States and Russia hold talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine without a representative from Ukraine [1]
