- 1479 BC Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty)
- 1184 BC The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date)
- 387 Bishop Ambrose of Milan baptizes Augustine of Hippo
- 858 Nicholas I succeeds Benedict III as pope
- 1066 Halley's Comet sparks English monk to predict country will be destroyed
- 1185 Battle at Danoura: Yoshitsune Minamoto's fleet beats the Taira during Japan's Genpei War
- 1288 Jews of Troyes France are accused of ritual murder
- 1311 General Malik Kafur returns to Delhi after campaign in South India
- 1364 Pope Urban V names John van Virneburg as Bishop of Utrecht
- 1459 Fra Mauro completes his Map of the World in Venice for King Alfonso V of Portugal - largest known world map from Medieval Europe and the first to show Africa as a free-standing continent [1]
1503 Michelangelo undertakes to carve 12 Apostles for the Cathedral of Florence, each four and a quarter braccia high (248.2cm), at the rate of at least one completed statue per year. He produced only one, of St. Matthew, and that remained unfinished.
Battle of Muhlberg
1547 Battle of Muhlberg: Catholic forces under Emperor Charles V defeat Protestant princes John Frederick I and Philip I of Hesse
- 1570 Battles between Spanish troops & followers of Sultan Suleiman
- 1596 Pacificatie of Ireland drawn
- 1655 Piedmontese Easter Massacre: Troops of Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, slaughter upwards of 4,000 Waldensian civilians for non-compliance with the Edict of 25 January 1655, which called for the expulsion or conversion of non-Catholic householders in Piedmont, Duchy of Savoy
- 1704 First continuously published newspaper in America, The Boston News-Letter, is published in Boston by John Campbell [1]
Marat Acquitted
1793 French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat is acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of charges brought by the Girondin in Paris
- 1800 US Library of Congress is established with a $5,000 allocation
Die Jahreszeiten
1801 1st performance of Joseph Haydn's oratorio "Die Jahreszeiten" (The Seasons)
- 1823 Eugene Scribes opera "Le Menteur Veridique" premieres in Paris
- 1833 Jacob Evert and George Dulty patent the first soda fountain
- 1841 Inventor and engineer Squire Temple of Utica, New York, granted a patent for an iron truss bridge [1]
- 1863 Skirmish at Okolona and Birmingham, Mississippi (Grierson's Raid)
- 1865 Fire alarm & police telegraph system put into operation in San Francisco
- 1867 Black demonstrators stage ride-ins on Richmond, Virginia streetcars
- 1872 Mount Vesuvius erupts in Italy
- 1877 Last federal occupying troops withdraw from the South (New Orleans)
- 1877 Russo-Turkish War: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire
- 1880 Amateur Athletic Association, the governing body for men's athletics in England and Wales, is founded in Oxford, England
- 1884 National Medical Association of Black physicians organizes in Atlanta
World Record 100km
1894 French cyclist Henri Desgrange rides 100km in a world record time of 2:39:18
- 1894 Lave Cross becomes 1st Philadelphia Phillies player to hit for the cycle in 22-5 win over the Bridegrooms at Eastern Park, Brooklyn
1895 Canadian-American adventurer Joshua Slocum sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts on a solo around-the-world voyage aboard 'Spray', an 11.2-m oyster sloop [1]
- 1897 First reporter is assigned to the White House, William Price from the "Washington Star"
1898 Spanish–American War: Spain declares war after rejecting US ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba
Dewey Sails to the Philippines
1898 US fleet under commodore George Dewey sails from Hong Kong to Philippines
Transvaal Requests British Aid
1899 Transvaal British Uitlanders ask Queen Victoria for aid
- 1901 First game in baseball's American League: Chicago White Stockings win against the Cleveland Blues 8-2, other games rained out
French President Snubs Pope
1904 President Loubet of France visits King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and pointedly ignores the Pope, exacerbating relations between France and the Roman Catholic Church
Jack Hobbs Debut
1905 First-class cricket debut of Sir Jack Hobbs, "The Master" for Surrey v the "Gentlemen of England" (18 & 88)
- 1905 Senators execute a triple-play & beat Yankees 4-3
- 1908 Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock and their children depart Los Angeles in a Packard Thirty, endeavoring to become 1st family to travel across United States by car; arrive in NYC 32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes later
- 1909 Harry Hillman and Lawson Robertson run a 100-yard three-legged race in 11 seconds
- 1910 German Catholic youth movement Quickborn forms
1913 The Woolworth Building opened in New York City by Frank Winfield Woolworth at a cost of $13.5 million, at 792 feet then the world's tallest building
- 1914 A shipment of 35,000 rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition are landed at Larne for the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF, an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland
- 1915 Leaders of the Armenian community in Constantinople (now Istanbul) are arrested by Ottoman authorities, and many later killed, marking the start of the Armenian Genocide
- 1915 Pittsburgh Rebels' Frank Allen no-hits St Louis Terriers (Federal League), 2-0
- 1915 WWI: German army fires chloroform gas at Canadian forces near the village of St. Julien, France
1916 Easter Rising of Irish republicans against British occupation begins in Dublin
Shackleton's Rescue Mission
1916 Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for ice-trapped ship Endurance
- 1917 NY Yankees left-handed pitcher George Mogridge no-hits Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park
- 1917 US Congress passes the Liberty Loan Act, authorizing the Treasury to issue a public subscription for 2 billion in bonds for the war
- 1920 League of Nations assigns British Mandate over Palestine at the San Remo Conference, in San Remo, Italy [1]
- 1920 Polish troops attack Ukraine
- 1921 First municipal elections for men and women in Belgium
- 1921 Under Allies supervision, a plebiscite in the Tyrol favors merging with Germany; unhappy with the outcome, Allies give the area to Italy
- 1923 General harbor strike begins in NYC
- 1924 Thorvald Stauning becomes prime minister of Denmark for the first time
- 1925 88°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in April
- 1928 Fathometer, which measures underwater depth, is patented
- 1929 First non-stop flight from England to India takes off
- 1932 German national election (NSDAP 36.3% in Prussia)
Sudetenland Demands Self-Rule
1938 Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia demand self government
- 1940 German Nazi official Josef Terboven (41) is appointed Reichskommissar for the Occupied Norwegian Territories; holds the position until his suicide at the end of the war
- 1941 British army begins evacuation of Greece
- 1941 Dutch Prince Bernhard becomes an RAF pilot
- 1942 2nd night Exeter bombed by German Luftwaffe
- 1944 1st Boeing B-29 arrives in China "over the Hump"
- 1945 Albert B "Happy" Chandler is named 2nd baseball commissioner
Rubberlegs
1945 Miles Davis makes recording debut with the Herbie Fields Orchestra, backing singer "Rubberlegs" Wilson, at Savoy Records Studio, Newark, New Jersey
1946 11 players named to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Tinker, Evers, Chance, Burkett, McCarthy, Waddell, Plank, Walsh, Jack Chesbro, Griffith and McGinnity
Symphonic Variations
1946 One-act ballet "Symphonic Variations" choreographed by Frederick Ashton with music by César Franck danced by Sandler's Wells Ballet debuts at Covent Garden, London
- 1949 3rd Tony Awards: "Death of a Salesman" & "Kiss Me Kate" win
- 1950 Independent Republic of South Maluku is declared
- 1950 Jordan formally annexes the West Bank
- 1950 US President Harry Truman denies there are communists in the US government
- 1954 1st American, civilian pilot, P.R. Holden, wounded in Indochina
- 1954 Australia & USSR break diplomatic relations
- 1954 WSEE TV channel 35 in Erie, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Conference of Bandung against colonialism and for self determination, ends
- 1955 Gaullists lose elections in France
- 1955 KFDM TV channel 6 in Beaumont, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 KMAU (now KGMV) TV channel 3 in Wailuku, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 AL umpire Frank Umont is 1st to wear glasses in a regular season game
- 1957 Chicago Cub pitchers walk NL record 9 Reds in 5th inning
- 1958 Lee Walls hits 3 HRs, as Cubs beat Dodgers 15-2
- 1959 Netherland Dance Theater opens (Rudi of Dantzig & Cut Flier)
- 1959 WICD TV channel 15 in Champaign, IL (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1960 14th Tony Awards: "The Miracle Worker" (play) & "Fiorello!" (musical) win
- 1960 Heavy earthquake strikes South Persia, 500 killed
- 1960 Record 4 grand slams hit today
1961 17th century Swedish warship Vasa, which sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is salvaged
Event of Interest
1961 JFK accepts "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs
- 1962 First Lockheed A-12 undergoes taxi testing
Baseball Record
1962 LA Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax's 2nd career 18-strikeout, in a 10-2 win over Cubs in Chicago
- 1962 Massachusetts Institute of Technology sends a TV signal by satellite for the first time from California to Massachusetts
Hall of Fame
1963 Future Basketball Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy plays his last NBA game for Boston as Celtics beat LA Lakers, 112-109 in Game 6 for their 5th straight NBA C'ship
- 1963 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Film & TV History
1964 Gene Roddenberry registers his Star Trek series with the Writers Guild of America
- 1964 Mexico becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
- 1965 Military coup under Donald Reid Cabral in Dominican Republic
- 1966 Atlanta Braves win NL-record 18 straight home games (17 in Milwaukee)
1967 American General William Westmoreland says in a Vietnam War news conference that the enemy has "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily"
- 1968 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Pete Tountas
- 1968 Leftist students take over Columbia University, NYC
- 1968 Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations
- 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1969 Car firm British Leyland launch the Austin Maxi in Oporto Portugal
- 1969 Lebanese army in battle with Palestinians
- 1969 Loyalist members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) explode a bomb at a water pipeline between Lough Neagh and Belfast, Northern Ireland
- 1969 Marshall Lin Biao named Mao's designated successor as the sole Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China
- 1969 US B-52's drop 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary
- 1970 Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth
- 1970 People's Republic of China launches its 1st satellite transmitting song "East is Red"
- 1971 Soyuz 10 returns to Earth
- 1974 Dutch women hockey team becomes world champion
- 1974 NFL grants franchise to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1976 American composer Steve Reich's "Music for 16 Musicians," scored for four pianos, multiple percussion instruments, two clarinets, a violin, a cello, and four wordless and amplified women’s voices, a violin, has its world premiere at Town Hall in New York City [1]
Baseball Record
1978 Angels Nolan Ryan strikes out 15 Mariners, 20th time he has 15 in game
- 1979 Rhodesian bishop Abel Muzorewa wins general election
Georgia On My Mind
1979 US State of Georgia designates Ray Charles' rendition of "Georgia On My Mind" (written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell) as official state song
- 1980 US military operation to rescue 52 hostages in Iran fails, 8 die
Shoemaker Wins #8,000
1981 Bill Shoemaker wins his 8,000th horse race, 2,000 more than any other jockey
- 1981 San Antonio blocks 20 Golden State shots to set an NBA regular season game record
- 1981 US ends grain embargo against USSR
Event of Interest
1982 150 Khomeini followers assault student dormitory in West Germany
- 1982 Cards win 12th game in a row; 7-4 over Phillies
- 1982 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Mike Durbin
- 1983 Austrian socialist party loses parliamentary election
- 1985 Pulitzer prize awarded to Carolyn Lizer for "Yin"
- 1986 Film "Crocodile Dundee" starring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski premieres in Australia (highest grossing film of the year in the US)
Film & TV History
1987 Howard Stern holds a free speech rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, NYC
- 1988 NFL Draft: Auburn tight end Aundray Bruce first pick by Atlanta Falcons
- 1989 Massachusetts declares today "New Kids on the Block Day"
- 1989 Tens of thousands of pro-democracy students strike in Beijing, China
- 1990 Brian Friel's stage drama "Dancing at Lughnasa" opens at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland; later wins Olivier Award, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award for Best Play
- 1990 Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of anthrax after 48 years of quarantine
Event of Interest
1990 Junk bond king Michael Milken pleads guilty to six felonies related to securities fraud
- 1990 STS-31 launches, the 35th mission of the US Space Shuttle program, carrying the Hubble space telescope
- 1990 West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currencies and economies by July 1
- 1991 Freddie Stowers is awarded the posthumous Medal of Honor for which he had been recommended in 1918.
- 1992 Vinson Pike fined £1000 for distributing obscene computer pictures
- 1993 Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by George Branham
- 1993 The IRA explodes a 1000kg car bomb in Bishopsgate, London, killing a news photographer and injuring 44 others
- 1994 Armando Calderon Sol wins El Salvador presidential election
- 1994 Bomb attack in center of Johannesburg, 9 killed
- 1994 NFL Draft: Ohio State defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson first pick by Cincinnati Bengals
- 1994 NY Rangers sweep NY Islanders in NHL playoffs
Sports History
1995 Court orders New York Yankees baseball player Darryl Strawberry to pay back $350,000 in taxes
- 1995 Dow Jones Industrial Average hits record 4303.98
- 1995 Package bomb, linked to Unabomber, blows up killing Gilbert B Murray
- 1996 Highest scoring MLB baseball game in 17 years - Minnesota Twins 24, Detroit Tigers 11
- 1996 The UN and Iraq end a third round of negotiations over Iraq's possible sale of $1 billion of oil for 90 days for a 180-day trial period
- 1998 Bishop Juan José Gerard presents Guatemala: Nunca Más! (Guatemala: Never Again), a report detailing human rights violations during the Guatemalan civil war
Sports History
2004 NFL Draft: Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning first pick by San Diego Chargers
- 2004 United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years ago, as reward for cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction
Papal Inauguration
2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and takes the name Pope Benedict XVI
- 2006 King Gyanendra of Nepal gives in to the demands of protesters and restores the parliament he dissolved in 2002
- 2007 Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defense of Iceland during peacetime
- 2013 33 people are killed and 115 are injured after a magnitude 5.7 earthquake strikes Jalalabad, Afghanistan
- 2013 Deadliest structural failure in history when 1,134, mostly garment workers killed and 2,500 injured after the Rana Plaza building collapses in Savar Upazila, Bangladesh
- 2015 Armenia commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire
Music History
2018 Ed Sheeran's "÷" is the best-selling album of 2017, selling 6.1 million copies, according to IFPI
- 2018 Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo arrested and charged with eight murders after being identified through genealogy websites
- 2018 Streaming music services overtake worldwide sales of CDs and vinyl for the first time according to IFPI
- 2018 Suffragist Millicent Fawcett is the first woman to have a statue erected in Parliament Square, London
- 2021 At least 82 COVID-19 patients die in a fire at Ibn Khatib hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, with 100 more injured
Event of Interest
2021 Joe Biden becomes the first US President to officially recognize killing of Armenians in the Ottoman empire during WWI as 'genocide'
- 2022 Slovenian populist prime minister Janez Janša defeated by Freedom Movement 's Robert Golob, a party only launched in January 2022 [1]
- 2022 Violent clashes between Arab nomads and members of the Massalit community in Sudan's West Darfur state result in the deaths of at least 168 people [1]
- 2023 India surpasses China as the worlds most populous country according to UN estimates, with 1,425,775,850 people (estimated to reach 1.7 billion by 2064) [1]
Tucker Carlson Fired
2023 Tucker Carlson, Fox News most popular prime-time host, is fired from the cable network [1]
- 2024 Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser", previously though lost, sells for a record Austrian auction price of 30 million euros [1]
- 2025 Amsterdam's Mayor Femke Halsema apologizes for the city’s role in the persecution of its Jewish residents during a Holocaust commemoration at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a theater that the Nazis used as a deportation center; over 60,000 of the Dutch capital's pre-war Jewish population of 80,000 were deported and killed
- 2025 Sophie Lloyd, a female magician who tricked her way into British men-only Magic Circle in 1991, is granted membership 34 years after being expelled [1]
