Palermo's Palatine Chapel
1140 The Palatine Chapel, commissioned by Roger II and one of Norman Sicily's most important buildings, is consecrated on Palm Sunday in Palermo (World Heritage Site 2015)
- 1192 Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his claim to the throne is confirmed by election; the killing is carried out by the Nizari Isma'ili sect, also known as the Assassins
- 1253 Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, first proclaims Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and declares it the essence of Buddhism, effectively founding Nichiren Buddhism
- 1253 Utrecht is destroyed by a fire that lasts nine days
- 1376 English "Good Parliament" begins meeting in London, will sit till 10th July, then the longest-sitting English parliament
- 1376 English parliament demands supervision of royal spending
- 1503 Battle at Cerignalo: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats a French force led by Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours
- 1521 Treaty of Worms: Emperor Charles names his brother Ferdinand Archduke of Netherlands-Austria
- 1611 Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, the Catholic University of the Philippines, the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world
- 1635 Virginia Governor John Harvey accused of treason and removed from office
- 1655 English General-at-Sea Robert Blake (he was never titled Admiral) beats North African pirate fleet
- 1656 Dutch ship Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) laden with eight chests of silver, wrecks on the western coast of Australia with the loss of 118 lives [1]
- 1694 French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet sets out from Quebec leading the first documented journey of the Labrador coastline (reaches Zoar area) [1]
Norris Meets Aurangzeb
1701 English ambassador William Norris is granted an audience with Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in attempt to gain trading rights for the New East India Company (he fails)
- 1728 82 survivors of the Dutch ship Zeewijk sail into Batavia on a hand-built boat, ten months after being shipwrecked off the western coast of Australia [1]
1788 Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the US Constitution
1789 Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific
Armistice of Chersco
1796 Armistice of Cherasco between Sardinia and Napoleon Bonaparte at Cherasco, Piedmont gives France territories of Piedmont, Savoy and Nice
- 1804 31 British ships sail up the Suriname River, demanding the transfer of the colony from the Dutch
US-Canada Border Treaty
1818 Rush-Bagot treaty signed between US President James Monroe and Great Britain, demilitarizing the US-Canada border [1]
- 1829 Dutch Parliament passes new press laws that tighten government control over newspapers and printed publications, expand censorship, and limit what journalists and publishers may print
- 1847 George B. Vashon becomes 1st African American to enter New York State Bar
- 1848 Slavery abolished in French colonies
- 1855 First veterinary college in the US is incorporated in Boston
- 1865 Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera "L'Africaine" premieres in Paris
Billy the Kid Escapes
1881 Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Lincoln, New Mexico
- 1881 French troops sent into Tunisia
1887 "Europe's first motoring competition" is 'won' by The Marquis de Dion on a steam-powered quadricycle built by French toymaker and engineer Georges Bouton; French newspaper Le Velocipede organized the 'test', and Bouton was the only participant
- 1892 First performance of Antonín Dvořák's orchestral work "Carnival Overture"
- 1901 Cleveland's Bock Baker gives up a record 23 singles as White Sox beat Blues (Cleveland Blues!) 13-1
- 1902 Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar preceded by the Julian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1 Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date
- 1914 181 die in coal mine collapse at Eccles, West Virginia
- 1919 American stuntman and parachute developer Leslie Irvin (23) makes the first premeditated free-fall parachute jump from a plane above the US Army Air Service's McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio [1]
- 1920 Azerbaijan SSR joins USSR (1st time)
Capablanca World Chess Champion
1921 Cuban José Raúl Capablanca becomes the world's third chess champion defeating German champion Emanuel Lasker in Havana
- 1922 WOI (Ames, Iowa) country's 1st licensed educational radio station
- 1924 119 die in coal mine disaster at Benwood, West Virginia
- 1925 Kurdish rebels surrender to Turkish army
- 1925 Netherlands & Great Britain return to gold standard
- 1925 The “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” begins in Paris, France; it draws 16 million visitors over seven months, and later becomes the source for the term sescribing the design movement of 'art deco'
Britain Returns to the Gold Standard
1925 Winston Churchill announces the United Kingdom's return to the gold standard
- 1928 RCA and GE install three test television sets in homes in Schenectady, New York, allowing trials of inventor Ernst Alexanderson's home television receiver; a poor, unsteady 1.5-square-inch picture is received from a radio transmitter
- 1930 First night of organized baseball is played in Independence, Kansas
- 1931 Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field
- 1934 Soccer team Blue White '34 forms
- 1934 Spanish government of Ricardo Samper forms
- 1934 Tigers' Goose Goslin grounds into 4 straight double plays
Home Owners Loan Act
1934 US President FDR signs Home Owners Loan Act
- 1935 Moscow underground railway opens (81 km long)
- 1937 First animated cartoon electric sign is displayed in NYC
- 1937 Pan Am operates the first scheduled commercial transpacific flight
Hitler's Treaty Claim
1939 Adolf Hitler claims German-Polish non-attack treaty still in effect
Pennsylvania 6-5000
1940 Glenn Miller records the song "Pennsylvania 6-5000" in NYC; tune is named after phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan
- 1940 SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Rudolf Höss (not Hess, different Nazi) becomes commandant of concentration camp Auschwitz
- 1941 Last British troops in Greece surrender
- 1942 "WWII" continues to be titled so as a result of a Gallup Poll after US President Franklin Roosevelt suggests other names [1]
- 1942 German Luftwaffe estimated to have flown over 11 thousand sorties against Malta since 20th March
- 1942 Nightly "dim-out" begins along US East Coast, as a deterance to German military threats
- 1943 1st performance of Marc Blitzstein's "Freedom Morning"
- 1943 German-Italian counter offensive in North Africa
- 1943 US 34th Division occupies Djebel el Hara, North Tunisia
- 1944 Exercise "Tiger" ends with 750 US soldiers dead in D-Day rehearsal after their convoy ships were attacked by German torpedo boats off Slapton Sands, Devon.
Stalin Meets Orlemanski
1944 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meets Polish-American priest Stanislaus Orlemanski in Moscow to discuss religion and the future of post-war Poland
- 1945 British commandos attack Elbe & occupy Lauenburg
- 1945 US 5th army reaches Swiss border
Voyage of the Kon-Tiki
1947 Thor Heyerdahl and the crew of the "Kon-Tiki" sail from Peru to Polynesia
- 1949 Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others also killed
PM Mosaddegh
1951 Mohammad Mossadegh elected Prime Minister of Iran by the Parliament of Iran (Majlis)
- 1952 St Louis Browns lend 2 black minor leaguers to Hankyu Braves of Japan
- 1952 WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect
- 1955 WBIQ TV channel 10 in Birmingham, Alabama (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Cincinnati Reds outfielder Frank Robinson hits his 1st of 586 HRs
- 1956 Last French troops leave Vietnam
- 1957 WSOC TV channel 9 in Charlotte, North Carolina (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1958 Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
Nixon Tours Latin America
1958 US Vice President Richard Nixon begins goodwill tour of Latin America
- 1958 Vanguard TV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)
- 1959 KLOE TV channel 10 in Goodland, KS (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1959 KPLR TV channel 11 in Saint Louis, MO (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1961 Lt Col Gueorgui Mossolov takes E-66A to 34,714 m altitude
- 1961 Milwaukee Braves' future HOF pitcher Warren Spahn throws his second career no hitter at 41; beats SF Giants, 1-0 at County Stadium
- 1963 17th Tony Awards: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (play) and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (musical) win
- 1964 Japan joins the OECD
My Name is Barbra
1965 "My Name is Barbra", Barbra Streisand's first television special, premieres on CBS
- 1965 Lindsey Nelson broadcasts baseball game at Houston Astrodome from a hanging gondola
Pavarotti Debuts
1965 Luciano Pavarotti makes his debut at La Scala Teatro in Milan, Italy in Franco Zeffirelli's production of "La bohème" with Mirella Freni
- 1965 Richard Helms replaces Marshall S. Carter as deputy director of CIA
- 1965 US marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966
- 1965 William F. Raborn Jr. replaces John McCone as 7th head of CIA
- 1966 Cleveland ties record with 10th straight win since Opening Day
- 1966 David Diamond's 5th Symphony premieres with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein; the work was dedicated to the conductor
- 1966 OCAM, Common Afro-Mauritian Organization forms
Ali Stripped of Title
1967 Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the US Army and is stripped of his boxing title
McDonnell Douglas
1967 The Douglas Aircraft Company behind schedule with deliveries of the DC-8 and DC-9 and close to bankruptcy agrees to merge with the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation to form McDonnell Douglas
- 1969 British progressive rock band King Crimson with Robert Fripp, Greg Lake & Ian McDonald debuts
- 1971 Dutch social democratic party/D'66/DS'70 win parliamentary election
- 1971 Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. becomes 1st black admiral in US Navy
- 1973 Over 6000 Mk. 82 500 pound bombs detonate over 18 hrs in a railyard in northern California. 5500 structures damaged, town of Antelope destroyed, with every building reduced to foundations. Leads to Transportation Safety Act (1974)
Lennon's Final TV Interview
1975 Ringo Starr appears on "The Smothers Brothers Show", singing Hoyt Axton's "No No Song", and John Lennon is the guest on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" program, in what turns out to be his final television interview; both on NBC-TV
- 1975 South-Vietnam Gen Duong Van Minh sworn in as president till April 30
- 1977 American defense employee Christopher John Boyce convicted for selling secrets to the Soviet Union
Red Army Faction Trial
1977 Andreas Baader and members of the terrorist group Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang) are jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly two years in Stuttgart, Germany
- 1977 The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is signed
- 1980 Reunion Arena in Dallas opens
- 1980 US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigns in protest over the Iran hostage rescue attempt
- 1981 "We’re Fighting Back" premieres on CBS in the US, based on the formation of the Guardian Angels
- 1981 Galician current Statute of Autonomy
- 1983 Argentine government declares all 15-30,000 missing persons dead
- 1983 NASA launches Geos-F
- 1985 Billy Martin named NY Yankee manager for 4th time
1986 Soviet TV news program Vremya announces a nuclear accident at Chernobyl nuclear power station, 2 days after the event
- 1987 American engineer Ben Linder is killed in an ambush by U.S.-funded Contras in northern Nicaragua.
- 1987 NBA announces expansion to Charlotte NC & Miami Fla in 1988 & Minneapolis Minn & Orlando Fla in 1989
- 1987 NFL Draft: University of Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 1988 Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 roof tears off in flight; kills stewardess
- 1988 Baltimore Orioles lose AL record 21 games in a row
- 1988 NJ Devils set all time playoff mark for penalty minutes
- 1989 Argentina, hit by rocketing inflation, runs out of money
- 1990 Boston Celtics score most points in a playoff, beat NY Knicks 157-128
- 1990 Last issue of Dutch communist daily De Waarheid (The Truth)
- 1990 Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions: Dave Ferraro beats Tony Westlake, 226–203
- 1991 Revival of Jules Styne and Stephen Sondheim's musical "Gypsy" starring Tyne Daly, re-opens at Marquis Theater, NYC, after a short break and venue transfer; runs for an additional 105 performances
- 1991 Space Shuttle STS 39 (Discovery 12) launched
- 1992 Italian President Francesco Cossiga formally resigns
- 1993 Carlo Ciampi forms Italian government with ex-communists
Hockey's Worst Cheap Shot?
1993 NY Islanders beat Washington Capitals 4 to 1 in playoffs, Capitals' Dale Hunter attacks Pierre Turgeon after scoring, in hockey's worst cheap shot
- 1993 Zambian national football team dies in a plane crash near Libreville, Gabon that kills 30 people [1]
Ames Pleads Guilty
1994 Aldrich Ames, former CIA officer and his wife Rosario plead guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and Russia
- 1994 Freddy Thielemans sworn in as Mayor of Brussels, Belgium
- 1995 Gas explosion in South Korean metro, 103 die
- 1995 Sri Lankaan BAE748 crashes at Palaly, 52 die
- 1996 In Australia's worst massacre in modern history, Martin Bryant shoots and kills 35 in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Leads to a compulsory gun buy back program and major changes to gun control laws.
- 1997 "Jekyll & Hyde" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC
- 1997 Ringo Starr's fourth All-Starr Band debuts in concert; members include: Peter Frampton, Jack Bruce, Gary Brooker, Simon Kirke, and Mark Rivera
- 2001 Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist
- 2002 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Superstition Mountain G&CC: Jim Thorpe wins his lone career major title with birdie on first playoff hole against John Jacobs
Oldest #1 in History
2003 Andre Agassi recaptures the world #1 ranking to become the oldest top-ranked male in the history of the ATP rankings at 33 years and 13 days
2004 Shrek the sheep from Tarras, Central Otago, New Zealand, is finally shorn live on TV after 6 years avoidance; the fleece weighed 27 kg (60 lb)
- 2005 The Patent Law Treaty enters into force, simplifying and harmonizing formal patent filing procedures across member countries and making it easier for inventors and businesses to seek patent protection internationally
- 2007 ICC Men's Cricket ODI World Cup, Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados: Australia 3-peat with 53 run win over Sri Lanka; Player of the Match: Adam Gilchrist (AUS) 149 (104) & 2 catches
- 2007 NFL Draft: LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell first pick by Oakland Raiders
- 2011 NFL Draft: Auburn quarterback Cam Newton first pick by Carolina Panthers
- 2012 Tent collapse in St Louis, Missouri, kills one and injures 110 people
- 2013 3 people are killed and 14 are injured after a gas explosions causes a building to collapse in Reims, France
- 2013 8 people are killed and dozens are injured after Taliban attacks on election candidates in Pakistan
- 2014 Craig Ferguson announces he will leave "The Late Late Show" at the end of 2014
- 2016 NFL Draft: Cal quarterback Jared Goff first pick by Los Angeles Rams
Goop Magazine
2017 Gwyneth Paltrow brand Goop and Condé Nast announce they will be launching a quarterly publication together
- 2018 Indian government announces electricity has now reached every Indian village
- 2018 Shaquem Griffin is the first one-handed person to be drafted into the NFL; selected by Seattle Seahawks
- 2018 The world's largest known child sacrifice site is uncovered by archaeologists near Trujillo, Peru, with 140 sets of remains from the Chimú civilization dating to about 550 years ago
- 2019 American diver Victor Vescovo makes the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana trench at 10,927m (35,849ft), and finds a plastic bag
Record Opening for Avengers: Endgame
2019 Disney says Marvel film "Avengers: Endgame" made estimated $1.2 billion worldwide, first film to make more than 1 billion on opening
- 2019 Largest demonstrations since 2014 in Hong Kong over plans to change law to send suspects to mainland China for trial
Spanish General Election
2019 Spanish general election: no party wins a majority, Socialists under Pedro Sanchez win most with 29%
Game of Thrones: The Long Night
2019 TV series "Game of Thrones: The Long Night" episode debuts with the longest battle ever screened (nearly 80 mins), surpassing "Lord of the Rings" Battle of Helm's Deep (44 mins)
- 2020 Argentina bans all commercial domestic and international flights until September 1 because of COVID-19
- 2020 President Vladimir Putin warns Russia has not yet reached the peak of COVID-19 infections, with 93,000 recorded cases and 867 deaths
- 2020 US confirmed cases of COVID-19 pass 1 million, while death toll of 58,365 surpasses that of US soldiers killed in Vietnam War (Johns Hopkins)
- 2020 US Department of Defense releases three declassified videos of possible UFOs from 2004 and 2015
- 2021 NASA's Parker Solar Probe becomes the first spacecraft to cross the Alfvén critical boundary, the outer atmosphere of the Sun [1]
Biden Calls for Spending
2021 US President Joe Biden makes a major speech to a joint session of Congress calling for a new era of government spending [1]
Russia Strikes Kyiv
2022 Russian missiles strike Ukrainian city of Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Indigenous Reserves
2023 Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decrees six new indigenous reserves covering 620,000 hectares (1.5m acres), with bans on mining and restrictions on commercial farming [1]
- 2023 Taiwanese political TV drama "Wave Makers" debuts on Netflix - goes on to ignite a #Me Too movement in Taiwan [1]
- 2024 A worse than usual rainy season across East Africa due to El Nino kills at least 155 people in Tanzania and 60 in Kenya with hundreds of thousands displaced [1]
- 2024 At least 37 mostly nocturnal tornadoes cause widespread devastation and four deaths in Oklahoma [1]
- 2025 Airports, hospitals, and public transit shut down due to a widespread power outage in Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and parts of France [1]
Cowboy Carter Tour
2025 Beyoncé's 10th concert tour, The Cowboy Carter Tour, commences in Inglewood, California
- 2025 Canadian voters reelect the Liberal Party to run the government, prompted by trade war with US and comments by US political leaders made about annexing their country [1]
