- 218 7th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
- 352 Liberius begins his reign as Catholic Pope replacing Julius I
- 884 St Adrian III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1521 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason
- 1525 Battle at Zabern: duke of Lutherans beats rebels
1536 Anne Boleyn's four "lovers" are executed shortly before her own beheading
- 1540 Afghan leader Sher Shah Suri crowned ruler of Hindustan
Secret Treaty with Henry VIII
1544 Scottish Earl of Lennox Matthew Stewart signs a secret treaty with English King Henry VIII
- 1579 Artois, Henegouwen and French-Flanders sign Treaty, the Peace of Parma recognizing Spanish Duke of Parma as land guardian
- 1590 Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland
- 1620 First merry-go-round is seen at a fair in Philippopolis in the Ottoman Empire
- 1630 Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
- 1631 Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maagdenburg
- 1648 Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria
- 1672 Frontenac becomes Governor of New France (Canada)
- 1673 Frenchmen Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit, set out from the Saint-Ignace mission on an expedition to explore the Mississippi river (reach border of Louisiana and Arkansas)
- 1683 Pirates sack Velacruz, New Spain, taking 4,000 prisoners for ransom
England Declares War on France
1689 English King William III declares war on France in support of the Dutch Republic (Nine Years' War)
- 1712 Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria honored as "sovereign of Netherlands"
Vivaldi's First Opera
1713 Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi's first opera "Ottone in villa" opens at Teatro delle Grazie in Vicenza, Republic of Venice (now Italy)
- 1733 Great Britain passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
- 1744 French army takes Austrian Netherlands
- 1750 -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
- 1756 Britain declares war on France (7 Years' or French & Indian War)
- 1775 American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada
- 1787 English slave ship Sisters, en route from Africa to Cuba, capsizes killing hundreds
- 1792 Twenty-four merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street
- 1794 Hard frost in southern New England
- 1803 John Hawkins and Richard French patent the reaping machine
- 1809 Papal States annexed by France
- 1814 Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden (Constitution Day)
- 1814 Norwegian constitution passed by constituent assembly at Eidsvoll
- 1814 Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian
The Greatest Crime in Literary History
1824 The diaries of Lord Byron are burnt by six of the poet's friends at the office of John Murray in London, sometimes described as “the greatest crime in literary history”
- 1848 Gerrit, Count Schimmelpenninck resigns as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Netherlands
- 1849 Fire destroy Centrum in St Louis, Missouri
- 1853 Thorbeckes liberals win 2nd-Parliamentary election
- 1859 Australian Rules Football first 'laws of the game' published
- 1860 German football club TSV 1860 München is founded
1861 The first color photograph, of a tartan ribbon is shown by Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell to the Royal Institution in London
- 1862 Battle of Princeton West Virginia, ends with about 128 causalities
- 1863 Battle of Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
- 1863 Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language
- 1864 Battle of Adairsville Georgia, Union forces Confederates to retreat
- 1865 The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established
- 1872 Bohemian Club incorporated in San Francisco
- 1875 1st Kentucky Derby: Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75
- 1877 Edwin T. Holmes installs the first telephone switchboard burglar alarm
Recorder of Deeds Frederick Douglass
1881 Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia
- 1881 Revised version of New Testament
- 1884 Alaska becomes a US territory
- 1890 Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic paper, published in London
- 1890 Pietro Mascagni's opera "Rustic Chivalry" premieres in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi
1st Successful Submarine
1897 The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland
- 1898 Camp Merritt forms in Presidio [see 0503]
- 1899 Victoria & Albert Museum foundation laid, London, England
Historic Publication
1900 "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago
- 1900 British troops relieve Mafeking (Cape Colony)
- 1900 In China, three villages within 100 miles of Peking are burned by Boxers and 60 Chinese Christians killed
- 1902 Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer
- 1903 Cleveland Indians beat NY Highlanders 9-2 in Columbus Ohio
Shéhérazade
1904 Maurice Ravel's song cycle "Shéhérazade" premieres with Jeanne Hatto as soprano, at the Salle Nouveau Théâtre, Paris, France
- 1905 Waseda U of Tokyo defeats LA High School 5-3 in baseball
- 1909 White firemen on the Georgia Railroad strike to protest the hiring of Black workers
- 1910 Canada sets the designs for the 1-50 cent coins
- 1915 National Baptist Convention chartered
- 1916 British Summer Time (Daylight Savings) introduced
- 1919 Maurice Ravel's orchestral piece "Alborada del gracioso" premieres in Paris by the Pasdeloup Orchestra
- 1919 UK War Department orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes
- 1920 First flight by Dutch airline KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij), a joint venture with British Aerial Transport; a de Havilland double-decker plane from London lands at Schiphol in Amsterdam
- 1921 Belgian and Luxembourg sign customs union
Valencia Orange Show
1921 US President Warren G. Harding opens (via telephone) the 1st Valencia Orange Show in Anaheim, California
- 1923 Fire during closing day ceremonies at Grover Cleveland School, South Carolina
Event of Interest
1926 Wilhelm Marx succeeds Hans Luther as Chancellor of Germany
- 1927 MLB Chicago Cubs beat Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings, at Braves Field in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1927 US Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania
- 1932 US Congress changes name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico"
Nasjonal Samling
1933 Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling, the national-socialist party of Norway
- 1937 Juan Negrin succeeds Largo Caballero as Spain's premier
- 1938 Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network
- 1938 US Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
- 1939 First televised baseball game is broadcast on NBC, with Princeton University defeating Columbia University 2-1
Glenn Miller Orchestra
1939 The Glenn Miller Orchestra begins a three month engagement at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York
- 1940 Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium and begins invasion of France
- 1940 Nazis bombs Middelburg/B IJzerdrat begins illegal defiance
- 1941 Pennsylvania declares legal holiday to honor Philadelphia A's baseball club manager Connie Mack
Dutch SS Vows Loyalty
1942 Dutch SS vows loyalty to Hitler
Howard Hughes Crash
1943 Millionaire Howard Hughes crashes into Lake Mead, while test flying his Sikorsky S-43, killing CAA inspector Ceco Cline and Richard Felt
- 1943 The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer).
- 1943 World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams
- 1944 -18] Allied air raid on Surabaja, Java
- 1944 Chinese and US armed forces take Myitkyina Airport, Burma
- 1944 Operation Straightline: Allies land in Dutch New Guinea
- 1945 2 US P-47 Thunderbolts bomb Kiushu
- 1946 KVP Labor/Communists win 1st post-WW2 Dutch parliamentary elections
- 1946 US President Harry Truman seizes control of nation's railroads to delay a strike
- 1948 Israel liberates Acre, Nebi Yusha & Telel-Kadi
- 1948 Soviet Union recognizes Israel
- 1949 British government recognises Republic of Ireland (previously Irish Free State)
- 1953 Yanks & Browns use record 41 players in a game
- 1954 US Supreme Court unanimously rules on Brown v Topeka Board of Education reverses 1896 "separate but equal" Plessy v Ferguson decision ruling racial segregation in public schools as illegal
- 1955 Dutch government of Willem Drees resigns
1957 10th Cannes Film Festival: "Friendly Persuasion" directed by William Wyler wins the Palme d'Or
- 1957 Bobby Cain becomes the first Black student to graduate from an integrated public high school in the South [1]
- 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage, biggest civil rights demonstration to date (DC)
- 1958 Emergency crisis proclaimed in Algeria
1959 Sanctuary of Christ the King inaugurated, a 28 meter (92 ft) high monument and shrine overlooking Lisbon, Portugal by sculptor Francisco Franco de Sousa
- 1960 First atomic reactor system patented by J. W. Flora of Canoga Park, California
- 1961 Columbia Records officially opens the Pitman Pressing Plant, designed by American architect Minoru Yamasaki, in Pitman, New Jersey
Event of Interest
1961 Fidel Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
- 1962 Marin County withdraws from BART district
- 1963 Houston Colt .45's Don Notterbart no-hits Phillies, 4-1
- 1963 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
Sports History
1964 First Tim Horton's coffee and donut shop opens in Hamilton, Ontario by NHL player Tim Horton
- 1964 Phillies triple play Houston Colt .45s
- 1966 KFDO (now KVIJ) TV channel 8 in Sayre, Oklahoma (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1967 Dylan's 1965 UK Tour is released as film "Don't Look Back"
- 1968 European Space Research Org launches 1st satellite
- 1968 Frank Howard belts record 8th HR in 5th straight game
- 1968 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1969 "My Wife, My Dog, My Cat" by Maskman & The Agents hits #92
- 1969 Baltimore, Cleveland & Pittsburgh agree to go from NFC to AFC in NFL
- 1969 Russian probe Venera 6 landed on Venus
Music History
1970 Anonymous buyer purchases one of the pairs of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" for $15,000 at MGM Studio auction, and donates them to the Smithsonian Institution
- 1971 Stephen Schwartz' musical "Godspell" premieres off-Broadway
- 1971 Washington State bans sex discrimination
- 1972 Netherlands & People's Republic of China exchange ambassadors
- 1972 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) fires on workers leaving the Mackies engineering works in west Belfast (Although the factory was sited in a Catholic area it had an almost entirely Protestant workforce)
- 1973 Angels outfielder Bobby Valentine breaks his leg trying to scale wall to prevent a Dick Green home run during a 5-4 loss to the A's
- 1973 Five British Army soldiers are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army booby-trap bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone
- 1973 Joe Ferguson, hits the 6,000th Dodger home run
#1 in the Charts
1973 Stevie Wonder releases the music single "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", goes to #1 and wins him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
- 1973 US performs 3 nuclear tests at Rifle Colorado
- 1973 US Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
- 1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shoot-out with Los Angeles police kills six SLA members in the gunfire and resulting fire. One of the largest police shootouts in US history, with more than 9,000 rounds fired.
- 1974 Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) explode four bombs in Republic of Ireland, killing 33 civilians, wounding 300 (highest number of casualties in a single incident during "The Troubles")
- 1975 "Funky Gibbon" by The Goodies hits #79
Music History
1975 "Rolling Stones"singer Mick Jagger (31) punches a restaurant window, needs 20 stitches for repairs
- 1975 10CC releases "I'm Not in Love"
- 1975 NBC pays $5M for rights to show "Gone With The Wind" one time
- 1976 Earthquake in Uzbekistan: thousands killed
Event of Interest
1977 Nolan Bushnell opens the 1st Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre restaurant in San Jose, California
- 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers Lee Lacy hits record 3rd consecutive pinch-hit home run
- 1979 Coldest temperature ever recorded in Hawaii: 12°F (-11°C), on the Big Island at Mauna Kea Observatory, elevation 13,796 feet
- 1979 MLB Philadelphia Phillies win over Cubs, 23-22 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field on a breezy day in Chicago; teams combine for 13 first inning runs, and finish game with 50 hits, including 11 homeruns
- 1980 Major race riot in Miami, Florida - 16 killed, 300 injured
Music History
1980 Paul & Linda McCartney appear in remote segment from England, after being awakened by Father Guido Sarducci, on "Saturday Night Live"
- 1980 V. S. Kumar Anandan from Sri Lanka balances on one foot for 33 hours (Guinness World Record)
- 1981 Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff
- 1983 Israel & Lebanon sign a peace treaty
- 1983 Stanley Cup Final, Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY: 4 consecutive titles for NY Islanders; sweep Edmonton Oilers in 4 games with a 4-2 Game 4 win
- 1984 Cincinnati Reds Mario Soto throws 4 strikeouts in one inning
- 1984 Marvin Creamer becomes 1st known person to sail around the world without navigational instruments, arriving back in Cape May, New Jersey, after 513 days
Event of Interest
1984 Prince Charles calls proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversy on the role of the Royal Family and course of modern architecture.
- 1985 Les Anderson, catches record 97 lb 4 oz Chinook salmon, while fishing off coast of Alaska
- 1986 "Chicken Song" by Spitting Image hits #1 on the UK pop chart
- 1987 USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die
- 1989 Longest cab ride at 14,000 miles costs $16,000 (later surpassed)
- 1990 Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a record 2,831.71
- 1990 European court rules on pension rights for men & women
Event of Interest
1990 The Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong designed by I. M. Pei opens as the first supertall skyscraper outside the US
- 1990 WIBC Bowling Queens won by Patty Ann
- 1990 World Health Organization takes homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses
- 1992 At least 10 people are killed as pro-democracy protests begin in Thailand
Sports History
1992 Expos Gary Carter is 3rd to catch 2,000 games (joins Boone & Fisk)
Chattahoochee
1993 "Chattahoochee" single released by Alan Jackson (CMA Award Single of the Year & Billboard Song of the Year, 1993)
Historic Invention
1993 Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled
- 1994 Bakili Muluzi's UDF wins Malawi presidents/parliamentary election
- 1996 Habib & Whitaker make 320 for 5th Cricket wkt, Leics v Worcs
- 1997 WIBC Bowling Queens won by Sandra Jo Shiery-Odom
- 1998 New York Yankees pitcher David Wells tosses a perfect game in a 4-0 win against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium, NY
- 2000 Explosion rocks Glorietta Mall in Manila's Makati business district, injuring 13 people, mostly teenagers. According to local authorities, the homemade bomb was placed in front of a toilet beside a video arcade.
Event of Interest
2001 US President George W. Bush calls for reduced regulations to encourage more oil, gas, and nuclear production
- 2004 Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage
Music History
2005 Australian singer Kylie Minogue is diagnosed with breast cancer at 36
- 2006 Aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to form an artificial reef
- 2007 Demolition work begins at Dublin's famous Lansdowne Road Stadium to be replaced by the new Aviva Stadium, opened in 2010
- 2007 Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test run agreed upon by both governments, the first trains to cross the Demilitarized Zone since 1953
Sports History
2008 Dale Jarrett's final race, the All-Star race, before joining ESPN's NASCAR coverage full-time
- 2009 Video game Minecraft is first released to the public while still in development
- 2010 Archaeologists announce the discovery of the oldest tomb in Mesoamerica at 2,700 years old, at Chiapa de Corzo, Mexico, containing the remains of a 50-year-old man [1]
- 2013 90 people are killed and 200 are injured after a series of bombings across Iraq
- 2014 Atlético Madrid win the 2013–14 La Liga
Sports History
2014 Bayern Munich defeats Borussia Dortmund to win the 2013–14 DFB-Pokal
Election of Interest
2014 Center-right Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, wins a landslide general election victory in India
- 2014 St Johnstone FC win the Scottish Cup for 1st time in 130 years, defeating Dundee United 2-0
Blurryface,
2015 "Blurryface," 4th studio album by Twenty One Pilots is released (1st album ever to have every track gold-certified)
- 2015 A mudslide hits the alpine town of Salgar in Western Colombia killing over 50 people
- 2015 Canada defeats Russia to win gold at the 2015 IIHF World Championship
- 2015 Gun fight between rival biker gangs and police in Waco, Texas leaves 9 dead and 18 injured. 170 later arrested for organised crime.
- 2015 Melbourne Victory FC defeats Sydney FC to win the Australian A-League
- 2015 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Shoal Creek G&CC: Jeff Maggert wins first of 2 consecutive Champions Tour majors with par on 1st playoff hole against Kevin Sutherland
Event of Interest
2017 US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate any links between Russia and individuals associated with Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign
- 2018 Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo spreads to the city of Mbandaka
- 2018 Gina Haspel confirmed as the first female director of the CIA by the US Senate
- 2018 Michigan State University agrees to pay $500 million in claims to 300 survivors of sexual abuse involving Larry Nassar, the largest sexual abuse case in sports history
- 2019 Taiwan's parliament votes to legalize same-sex marriage, the first Asian country
- 2019 Tyler, the Creator releases his fifth studio album "Igor" which becomes his first number-one album in the United States
Event of Interest
2020 Former US President Barack Obama criticizes the US government's handling of the pandemic during an online address to graduates, saying officials "aren't even pretending to be in charge"
Event of Interest
2020 Israel swears in a new government led by both Benny Gantz, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after 510 days
Sports History
2020 Michael Jordan's autographed Air Nike 1s trainers from 1985 sell for a record $560,000 in an online auction
- 2021 Cyclone Tauktae makes landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat with wind speeds of up to 160km/h (100mph)
- 2021 Long working hours killed 745,000 people a year, in 2016, in the first study of its kind by the World Health Organization [1]
- 2023 Montana is the first US state to ban TikTok, with Governor Greg Gianforte signing legislation to ban the Chinese-owned social media network to protect against alleged intelligence gathering [1]
- 2023 Nepali Sherpa Kami Rita Sherpa (53) climbs Mt. Everest for a record 27th time [1]
- 2023 Scientists discover comb jellies (ctenophores) are the closest relative to the very first animals that evolved half a billion years ago, by focusing on groups of genes on chromosomes [1]
- 2023 The oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, The Codex Sassoon, from late 9th / early 10th century, sold for $38.1 million at Sotheby's in New York, one of the highest prices for a book at auction [1]
- 2023 World now likely to pass the key warming threshold of 1.5C, with scientists predicting 66% this will happen chance between now and 2027 [1]
- 2023 World's oldest architectural plans revealed on two stone monoliths mapping huge prehistoric stone structures called desert kites - thought to trap wild animal herds, in Southeastern Jordan and Northern Saudi Arabia [1]
- 2025 Mexican Navy training ship ARM Cuauhtémoc, a 160-foot tall steel-hulled, three-masted barque, drifts into the underside of NYC's Brooklyn Bridge, snapping the ship's masts, killing two sailors and injuring dozens more
