- 451 Battle of Avarayr: Armenian rebels are defeated militarily by the Sassanid Empire but are guaranteed freedom to openly practice Christianity
- 553 Moon Jaguar becomes the 10th ruler of the Maya city of Copán (modern-day Honduras), reigns for 25 years
- 961 German King Otto II crowned
- 1328 William of Ockham [Occam] forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII
- 1526 Four remaining ships of the Spanish Loaísa Expedition sail into the Pacific Ocean and soon become separated in a storm; only one successfully crosses to reach the Spice Islands
John Calvin Expelled
1538 Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city, forcing him to live in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years
- 1596 England, France, and the Netherlands form the Triple Alliance against Spain
- 1637 Mystic Massacre: Colonial forces kill about 500 Pequot people in Connecticut in the first major battle of the Pequot War
- 1647 Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut
- 1647 Massachusetts bans priests from entering the colony
- 1736 Battle of Ackia: Chickasaw Indian and British-allied forces defeat French forces in present-day Mississippi [1]
- 1770 Orlov Revolt: Early attempt by Greeks to revolt against the Ottomans before the Greek War of Independence ends in disaster for the Greeks
- 1781 The Bank of North America is incorporated in Philadelphia
- 1790 Territory South of River Ohio created by US Congress
- 1796 French garrison of Fort Charlotte on island of St Lucia surrenders to British forces, 2780 mostly black prisoners of war board ships to England [1]
- 1798 British forces kill about 500 Irish rebels at the Battle of Tara
- 1824 Brazil is recognized by the United States
- 1828 Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg
- 1834 Portuguese Civil war ends, Dom Miguel capitulates
- 1854 William and Frederick Langenheim take eight sequential photographs of the first total eclipse of the sun visible in North America since the invention of photography [1]
1857 US slave Dred Scott and family freed by owner Henry Taylor Blow, only 3 months after US courts ruled against them in Dred Scott v. Sandford
- 1861 Union blockades towns of New Orleans and Mobile
- 1861 US Postmaster General Blair announces the end of postal connections with the South
- 1864 -30] Skirmish along the Totopotomoy Creek, Virginia
- 1864 Battle of Dallas, begins near Paulding County, Georgia (Atlanta Campaign), Union victory (US Civil War)
- 1864 Territory of Montana formed
- 1865 US Civil War Battle of Galveston, (Texas) - Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith negotiates a surrender
- 1868 US President Andrew Johnson is acquitted by the Senate by one vote during his impeachment trial
- 1869 Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- 1876 HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration
- 1887 Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
- 1894 German Emanuel Lasker becomes undisputed World Chess Champion by beating Austrian-American defending titleholder Wilhelm Steinitz, 10-5 (4 draws) in Montreal, Canada
- 1896 Dow Jones Industrial Average begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks, the daily closing value is 40.9
- 1896 James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California
- 1896 Worst streetcar disaster in North American history when part of Port Ellice Bridge collapses killing 55 people at Victoria harbour, British Columbia [1]
Dracula Published
1897 "Dracula" by Irish author Bram Stoker is published by Archibald Constable and Company in London
- 1898 San Francisco approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utilities
- 1899 Lifts for the recently opened Eiffel Tower are ready, offering an option other than 1,710 steps, for visitors to get to top
- 1900 British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
- 1904 In two days of bitter fighting, the Japanese Army soundly defeats the Russians at Kinchan and captures the forts at Nanshan
- 1905 A pogrom targets Jews in Minsk, Belarus
- 1906 Archaeological Institute of America forms
- 1906 Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London, England
- 1907 Chicago White Sox pitcher Ed Walsh no-hits NY Highlanders, 8-1 in 5 inning game
- 1908 At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom
- 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Murdock and their children become the first family to travel across the United States by car, driving from Los Angeles to New York City in a Packard Thirty in 32 days, 5 hours, and 25 minutes
- 1911 Germany passes legislation organizing Alsace and Lorraine as an autonomous state with a legislature
- 1913 Emily Duncan becomes one of the UK's first female magistrates, authorized to act in ‘lunacy matters’ at the workhouse in West Ham, London [1]
- 1913 US Actors' Equity Association forms (NYC)
Asquith Coalition
1915 H. H. Asquith forms a coalition government in the United Kingdom, bringing together Liberal, Conservative, and Labour leaders to strengthen the country's leadership during World War I
- 1917 Walton Cruise hits his first home run at Braves Field
- 1918 Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat
- 1918 Georgian Social Democratic Republic declares independence from Russia
- 1919 The Supreme Council of Allies, meeting at Versailles, decides to recognize two White Russian leaders, Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin, and support them against the Bolsheviks
Lenin's Stroke
1922 Vladimir Lenin suffers a severe stroke that leaves him partially paralyzed and severely limits his ability to lead the Soviet government
- 1923 Inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race for cars starts through public roads around Le Mans, France; inaugural winners are André Lagache and René Léonard (France) for Chenard & Walcker
- 1923 Socialist Workers Youth International forms in Hamburg
Coolidge Restricts Immigration
1924 US President Calvin Coolidge signs Immigration law restricting immigration
- 1925 Babe Ruth gets out of bed five weeks after surgery for an ulcer
Extra-Base Record
1925 Future Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Ty Cobb is first to collect 1,000 extra-base hits when he doubles in Detroit Tigers' 8-1 win against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park
- 1926 Lebanon adopts constitution
1927 Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15 millionth) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie
- 1930 Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
- 1932 Admiral Makoto Saito forms parliament in Tokyo
- 1933 Phillies Chuck Klein hits for cycle vs St Louis Cards
- 1933 The second emergency Dutch government of Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn takes office
- 1934 Century of Progress Exposition reopens in Chicago
- 1938 US House of Representatives Committee on un-American Activities forms
- 1941 Aircraft from HMS Ark Royal sights German battleship Bismarck
Betsy Ross House
1941 American Flag House (Betsy Ross' Home) given to city of Philadelphia
- 1941 German occupiers begin youth labor
- 1942 Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed in London
- 1942 Belgium Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
- 1942 Tank battle at Bir Hakeim: Afrika Korps vs British army
- 1943 Edwin Barclay of Liberia becomes the first president of an African nation to visit the US
- 1943 Jews riot against Germany in Amsterdam
- 1945 US drop fire bombs on Tokyo
- 1946 Communist Party Leader Klement Gottwald becomes Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
- 1946 Darius Milhaud's 3rd Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premieres in Prague
Mel Ott Retires
1946 NY Yankee Mel Ott retires from playing to become a manager only after going 2-for-42 and hitting .048
- 1948 Entire Hagana-arm forces sworn-in as Israeli soldiers
- 1948 South Africa elects a nationalist government under D. F. Malan with an apartheid policy
- 1951 Vaughan Williams' "Pilgrim's Progress" premieres in London
- 1953 Dutch Convair crashes at Schipholweg, 2 die
Tories Win Election
1955 Conservatives led by Anthony Eden win British parliamentary election
- 1956 A fire on board the aircraft carrier USS Bennington in Narragansett Bay, off Rhode Island, kills 103 crew
- 1956 Reds' John Klippstein, Hershel Freemman & Joe Blacks no-hitter, broken up with 2 outs in 10th & lose to Braves in 11th, 2-1
- 1958 Ceylon emergency crisis proclaimed
- 1958 Union Square, San Francisco becomes state historical landmark
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll (atmospheric tests)
- 1959 MLB Pittsburgh Pirates Harvey Haddix pitches 12 perfect innings, loses in 13th to Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium
- 1959 Wreck of WWII bomber 'Lady Be Good' in the Libyan Desert is reached by a recovery team from US Air Force's Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli; plane had crashed returning from initial mission on 1943 [1]
- 1961 Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee establishes in Atlanta
- 1961 USAF bomber flies Atlantic in a record of just over 3 hours
- 1963 Organization of African Unity forms
- 1965 Dutch Voting Rights Bill passes
- 1965 Revised International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea takes effect
- 1966 Buddhist sets himself on fire at US consulate in Hué, South Vietnam
- 1966 Guyana (formerly British Guiana) declares independence from the United Kingdom
1967 EMI rush releases The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in London and select markets in the UK, goes to #1 for 22 weeks in the UK and 15 weeks in the US
- 1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1969 Apollo 10 astronauts return to Earth
Bed-In for Peace
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their second Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 1970 The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport aircraft to exceed Mach 2
- 1972 In the Republic of Ireland, the Special Criminal Court is re-instituted to deal with crimes arising out of the Northern Ireland conflict; as part of the measures trial by jury is suspended
Frazier vs. Stander
1972 Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1972 The British state-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son is sold to a consortium of private businesses headed by the Midland Bank
- 1972 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) plant a bomb in Oxford Street, Belfast, killing a 64-year-old woman
- 1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
SALT I Accord
1972 US President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I agreement in Moscow, limiting anti-ballistic missile systems and placing the first major restraints on the US-Soviet nuclear arms race
- 1973 "Funky Worm" by Ohio Players hits #15
- 1973 "Super Fly Meets Shaft" by John & Ernest hits #31
- 1973 Bahrain adopts its constitution
- 1973 Beatles' "Beatles 1967-1970" album (the blue one) goes #1
- 1973 British composer Michael Tippett's 3rd Piano Sonata premieres
- 1974 During a David Cassidy concert at London's White City, a 14-year-old is trampled, and dies four days later
Rhinestone Cowboy
1975 "Rhinestone Cowboy" single released by Glen Campbell (Billboard Country Song of the Year, 1975)
- 1975 A tennis match at the Surrey Championships lasts just 31 minutes, one of the briefest contests in the tournament’s history
- 1977 George Willig climbs the South Tower of NYC's World Trade Center, famously fined 1 cent for each of 110 stories he climbed
- 1978 The first legal casino opens in Atlantic City
Dancin' Fool
1979 CBS Records releases Frank Zappa's "Dancin' Fool" single from his album "Sheik Yerbouti"; it peaks at #45, his biggest hit at the time
McCartney II
1980 Columbia Records releases "McCartney II" album by Paul McCartney in the US; his second solo home-recorded record peeks at No. 3 on the charts, spurred by the No. 1 single "Coming Up"
- 1980 Dietmar Mogenburg of West Germany ties high jump record at 7'8"
Soyuz 36
1980 Soyuz 36 carries cosmonauts Valery Kubasov and the first Hungarian in space, Bertalan Farkas, to Salyut 6
- 1981 A Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler jet crashes onto the flight deck of USS Nimitz during operations in the Arabian Sea, killing 14 sailors and Marines and injuring 45
- 1981 The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due)
- 1982 35th Cannes Film Festival: "Missing" directed by Costa Gavras and "Yol" directed by Serif Goren and Yilmaz Güney jointly awarded the Palme d'Or
- 1982 British container ship Atlantic Conveyor, carrying Chinook helicopters, and destroyer HMS Coventry are hit during the Falklands War: 39 crew members die
- 1983 LA Lakers set NBA playoff game record of fewest free throws
- 1983 NASA launches Exosat
- 1983 Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" premieres at Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City
- 1983 Space Shuttle Challenger moves to launch pad for STS-7
- 1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 Floods kill 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Intervention Ruled Out
1984 US President Ronald Reagan rules out US military intervention in the Iran-Iraq War
- 1985 Explosions destroy two tankers off Gibraltar, 30 die
- 1987 Sri Lanka launches a major military offensive in the Jaffna Peninsula against the Tamil Tigers to retake rebel-held territory during the civil war
- 1987 US Supreme Court ruled dangerous defendants could be held without bail
- 1988 Stanley Cup Final, Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton, AL: Edmonton Oilers beat Boston Bruins, 6-3 for 4 game series sweep
- 1989 American radio broadcasters go silent for 30 seconds at 7:42 am to honor the radio industry
- 1989 Danish parliament allows same-sex marriage
- 1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1990 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Phillies Retire #20
1990 Philadelphia Phillies retire future Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt's uniform #20
Home Run Off the Head
1993 In Major League Baseball, Carlos Martinez famously hits a ball off Jose Canseco's head for a home run
- 1996 Parliamentary elections in Albania results are disputed, with irregularities and intimidation causing opposition parties to withdraw; pro-Western Democratic party wins over 50% of the vote
- 1997 Sammy Sosa (Cubs) and Tony Womack (Pirates) hit inside-the-park home runs
- 1998 The United States Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York
Arthur C. Clarke Knighted
2000 Arthur C. Clarke is knighted "for services to literature" at a ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka
- 2001 Super Rugby Final, Canberra: Fullback Andrew Walker kicks 5 penalties & 3 conversions as the ACT Brumbies win their first title; beat Coastal Sharks (Durban), 36-6
2002 55th Cannes Film Festival: "The Pianist" directed by Roman Polanski wins the Palme d'Or
- 2002 Álvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia
The Eminem Show
2002 Eminem releases his 4th studio album "The Eminem Show" (2002 Billboard Album of the Year, Grammy Award Best Rap Album 2003)
- 2002 The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars
- 2003 Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours and 56 minutes. Nepal’s tourism ministry confirms the record in July.
- 2004 NY Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming its flawed reporting and lack of skepticism during the buildup to the 2003 Iraq War helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction
- 2004 US Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing
- 2006 Earthquake in Java, Indonesia, kills over 5,700 people and leaves 200,000 homeless
- 2012 A gunman in the Finnish town of Hyvinkaa kills 2, wounds 7
Butler Leaks Rock Vatican
2012 Pope Benedict XVI's butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents
2013 66th Cannes Film Festival: "Blue Is the Warmest Colour" directed by Abdellatif Kechiche wins the Palme d'Or. The two main actresses in the film, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux also awarded
- 2013 Joss Whedon is awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from Wesleyan University
- 2014 Protests across Thailand in response to military coup; General Prayuth warns of a crackdown in demonstrations continue
- 2014 World Health Organization confirms that Ebola has reached Sierra Leone
- 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA Eastern Conference
- 2015 Henry Threadgill releases his album "In for a Penny, In for a Pound" with jazz quintet Zooid (Pulitzer Prize for Music 2016)
- 2017 Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky John Best killed, Micah David-Cole Fletcher injured defending Muslim teenager in Portland, Oregon
- 2018 Ireland votes to repeal their 8th amendment to allow legalized abortion, 66.4% vote yes
- 2019 Ken Wyatt becomes Australia's first Aboriginal minister in government as the minister for indigenous Australians
- 2019 Nine climbers die in a week on Mt Everest after overcrowding leads to a huge queue to reach the summit
- 2020 Costa Rica becomes the first county in Central America to legalize same-sex marriage
The Ickabog
2020 J. K. Rowling begins publishing children's story "The Ickabog" online in installments
- 2020 US restricts travel from Brazil as the country posts world's second highest number of recorded cases of COVID-19
- 2021 A super blood moon, the first total lunar eclipse in two years, is visible across the Pacific
- 2021 Amazon says it will buy 97-year-old film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.45 billion
- 2021 Ferry sinks carrying about 150 people in Nigeria between Niger state and Kebbi state, with only 20 people rescued
2021 Former advisor Dominic Cummings gives a damming report to MPs into UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis
- 2021 In landmark case oil giant Royal Dutch Shell ordered by a Hague court to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 [1]
- 2021 Nine people shot and killed by their colleague, a public transit employee in San Jose, California
2021 President Joe Biden orders US intelligence agencies to intensify efforts to investigate the origins of COVID-19
- 2021 Russia reports it has started vaccinating domestic animals against COVID-19, using the Karnivak-Kov vaccine [1]
- 2022 A Hindi novel "Tomb of Sand," written by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, wins the International Booker Prize for the first time [1]
ABBA Voyage
2022 Premiere of "ABBA Voyage," a virtual concert featuring computer-generated images of the Swedish pop band and live musicians at the specially built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena in London, England; all four members, as well as the King and Queen of Sweden, attend
- 2023 At least 828 civilians have now died and 3,688 have been injured over six weeks of fighting in Sudan, according to the Sudanese American Physicians Association [1]
- 2023 Philadelphia Phillies reliever Craig Kimbrel becomes eighth MLB pitcher to earn 400 career saves, in 6-4 victory over Braves in Atlanta
- 2024 Fire in a camp in Rafah, Gaza, for displaced Palestinians, caused by an Israeli airstrike, kills at least 35 people, mostly women and children [1]
- 2025 51st American Music Awards: Billie Eilish wins Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Favorite Female Pop Artist, and Bruno Mars wins Favorite Male Pop Artist
Charles III Visits Canada
2025 King Charles III begins a royal visit to Canada accompanied by Queen Consort Camilla and is the first reigning monarch to read the Speech from the Throne since 1977 [1]
