Drowning of an Emperor
1190 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowns while crossing the Saleph River in modern-day Turkey, leading an army to Jerusalem during the Third Crusade
- 1194 Major fire at Chartres Cathedral, France, leads to it rebuilt as the high point of French Gothic style
- 1358 French Jacquerie peasant leader Guillaume Cale captured at the Battle of Mello
- 1502 Crimean Khan defeats the Great Horde in battle near Worskla, leading to disintegration of the Great Horde
- 1538 Catholic German monarchy signs League of Neuremberg, in response to the formation of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League
- 1539 Council of Trent: Paul III sends letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops have traveling to Venice
1540 Former chief minister to King Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell is arrested in Westminster for treason and heresy
- 1605 False Dimitri I, an impostor, crowned Russian tsar (rules 1605-1606)
- 1610 First Dutch settlers arrive from New Jersey to colonize Manhattan Island
- 1610 Thomas West, Baron de La Mar, is appointed governor of Virginia
- 1619 Thirty Years' War: Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt
- 1624 The Netherlands and France sign the anti-Spanish Treaty of Compiègne
Piet Heyn Attacks
1627 Dutch privateer Piet Heyn attacks Portuguese ships in the Bay of All Saints, Brazil
- 1639 First American log cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington, Delaware)
- 1648 The people of Moscow rise up against Regent Boris Morozov
- 1652 John Hull opens the first mint in America in Boston
- 1682 Tornado in Connecticut uproots a 3 ft diameter oak tree
1692 First victim of the Salem witch trials, Bridget Bishop, is hanged after being found guilty of witchcraft in the Colony of Massachusetts [1]
- 1719 Jacobite Rising: Battle of Glen Shiel - Jacobite army defeated by British forces
- 1720 Mrs. Clements of England markets the first paste-style mustard
Franklin's Kite Experiment
1752 Benjamin Franklin tests the lightning conductor with his kite-flying experiment
- 1760 New York passes the first effective law regulating the practice of medicine
Puritan Othello Opens
1761 Puritan version of Shakespeare's "Othello" opens in Newport, Rhode Island
Seizure of The Liberty
1768 British customs officials seize John Hancock's ship, "The Liberty", on the suspicion that Hancock had illegally unloaded cargo without paying duties a month earlier
- 1768 Riot breaks out in Boston after customs officials seize sloop owned by John Hancock for alleged customs violation
Cook Discovers Great Barrier Reef
1770 British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to discover the Great Barrier Reef off Australia - by running aground on its coral causing the ship to leak (ship later beached and repaired)
- 1772 Burning of British revenue cutter Gaspée by Rhode Islanders
- 1786 A landslide dam on the Dadu River, caused by an earthquake ten days earlier, collapses and kills 100,000 in Sichuan province, China
- 1793 First public zoo opens in Paris
- 1794 Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia forms
- 1794 France's revolutionary regime begins trials
- 1801 Tripoli declares war on US for refusing tribute
- 1805 First Barbary War: Tripolitania agrees to peace in war with US over the latter's refusal to make tribute payments; US pays ransom for release of prisoners and lifts naval blockade
- 1805 First Barbary War: Yussif Karamanli signs a treaty ending hostilities with the United States
- 1809 First US steamboat to make an ocean voyage leaves NY for Philadelphia
Teatro Rossini
1818 Opera venue Teatro Nuovo (now Teatro Rossini) opens with Gioachino Rossini's "La gaza ladra" (The Thieving Magpie") in Pesaro, Italy
- 1829 The first Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race takes place (Oxford wins)
- 1838 Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered
Jackson's Potty Mouthed Parrot
1845 Andrew Jackson's African Grey parrot "Poll" is removed from his funeral for swearing at The Hermitage, Tennessee. Funeral attendee William Menefee Norment records: "Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house”
- 1846 Robert Thomson obtains an English patent on a rubber tyre
- 1847 Chicago Tribune begins publishing
- 1848 Battle at Vicenza: Austrians beat Sardinia-Piemonte
- 1848 First telegraph link between NYC and Chicago
- 1854 German mathematician Bernhard Reiman proposes that space is curved
- 1854 The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate
- 1857 Britain passes an act putting Canada on the decimal currency system
- 1861 Battle of Big Bethel (Bethel Church, Great Bethel): Confederate forces repulse a Union attack
Battle of Brice's Crossroads
1863 Battle of Brice's Crossroads, Mississippi; 3,500 troops led by Confederate Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Federal force of 8000
- 1864 Union victory at the Battle of Kellar's Bridge, Kentucky (Licking River)
Tristan und Isolde
1865 Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" (Tristan and Isolde) premieres in Munich, Germany
- 1869 'Agnes' arrives in New Orleans with 1st ever shipment of frozen beef
- 1871 Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 Marines in naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea
- 1880 MLB Boston Red Caps' outfielder Charley Jones becomes 1st to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning, both off of Tom Poorman in a 19-3 win over the visiting Buffalo Bisons
- 1882 Anti-colonization mass society of Alexandria, Egypt, kills 50 Europeans
- 1886 Eruption of Tarawera volcano destroys famous pink and white calcium carbonate hot-spring terraces (North Island, New Zealand)
- 1892 Baltimore catcher Wilbert Robinson sets MLB record by going 7-for-7 in a 9-inning game; Orioles rout St. Louis Cardinals, 25-4 at Oriole Park
1898 US Marines land in Cuba during the Spanish–American War
- 1899 Improved Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks forms in Cincinnati
- 1900 Relief column of 2,000 men set out from Tianjin to relieve foreigners trapped in Peking, China
- 1902 Patent for window envelope granted to H. F. Callahan
- 1905 First forest fire lookout tower is put into operation in Greenville, Maine
- 1907 France and Japan sign an agreement to maintain the independence and integrity of China, equality for all nations in trading with China, and the status quo in the Far East
- 1908 Aeronautical Society of New York, the first flying club, opens
- 1908 The Australian Parliament passes the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act providing for pensions for British subjects (excluding aborigines) at age 65
- 1915 British and French troops conquer German colony of Cameroon
- 1916 Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz rise up against the ruling Ottoman Empire in the Great Arab Revolt of World War I
- 1917 60,000 people of Petrograd Russia welcome Prince Kropotkin (banned 41 years) returning after February Russian Revolution
- 1917 Limburg mine workers strike in the Netherlands
- 1924 First political convention broadcast on radio - Republicans in Cleveland
- 1925 Inaugural service for the United Church of Canada, a union of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches held in Toronto Arena
- 1926 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Russ Wrightstone hits for the cycle
- 1930 Winnipeg Rugby Football Club forms
- 1931 Norway occupies East Greenland
- 1932 First demonstration of artificial lightning in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Bonnie and Clyde Crash
1933 Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker flip their car into a ravine. Parker suffers serious third degree burns from the accident which would affect her for the rest of her life.
Dillinger Robs 1st Bank
1933 John Dillinger robs his first bank, taking $10,600 from the National Bank in New Carlisle, Ohio
Mount Rushmore
1933 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues executive order making Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, part of the National Park Service [1]
- 1934 FIFA World Cup Final, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy: Angelo Schiavio scores the winner in extra time as Italy beats Czechoslovakia, 2-1
- 1934 USSR & Romania re-establish diplomatic relations
1935 In Akron, Ohio, Dr. Robert H. Smith (Dr. Bob) from Akron & Bill Wilson from New York City form Alcoholics Anonymous (date of Smith's last drink)
- 1938 English cricketer Charlie Barnett makes 98 by lunch in England v Australia test match at Trent Bridge (closest any Englishman has come to scoring 100 runs before lunch)
- 1939 MGM cartoon character Barney Bear debuts
- 1940 Canada declares war on Italy
- 1940 French government moves to Bordeaux
- 1940 German "Dutch" Q-ship Atlantis sinks Norwegian tanker
- 1940 German 5th Armoured division occupies Rouen
- 1940 Italy declares war on France and Great Britain as part of its Axis alliance with Nazi Germany
- 1940 Norway surrenders to Nazi Germany after 62 days of fighting
Lidice Massacre
1942 Nazis kill all inhabitants of Lidice, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Czech Republic) which had been implicated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi controller of Bohemia and Moravia, to “teach the Czechs a final lesson of subservience and humility”; over 170 adult men were executed by firing squad on site, women and children were sent to concentration camp gas chambers, and the village was burned down and plowed under
- 1943 FDR becomes 1st US President to visit a foreign country during wartime
Lodz Ghetto Liquidated
1943 Heinrich Himmler orders the final liquidation of Lodz ghetto in occupied Poland
- 1944 Nazi forces carry out a massacre of 642 civilians in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane
- 1944 Relief pitcher Joe Nuxhall at 15 years, 316 days, debuts for Cincinnati Reds; youngest player in MLB history; becomes All Star and broadcaster
- 1944 World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops
- 1945 US destroyer William D. Porter (Willie Dee) is sunk by kamikaze
- 1946 Italian Republic established
- 1946 Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, ends term as 1st director of CIA. Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, USA, becomes 2nd director of CIA
- 1947 Saab produces its first automobile
- 1949 Istvan Dobi becomes Hungarian premier
- 1950 Germany doesn't annex Oder-Neissegrens
- 1952 Chicago White Sox outfielder Sam Mele is only 6th MLB player to record 6 RBI's in an inning (4th) during a 15-4 win over the A's in Philadelphia
- 1952 US President Harry Truman expresses a desire to nationalize the steel industry
- 1954 KQED TV channel 9 in San Francisco, California (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1954 PBS reaches SF: KQED (Channel 9) starts broadcasting
- 1955 First separation of a virus into component parts is reported
- 1955 KWEX TV channel 41 in San Antonio, TX (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Due to Australia's strict quarantine regulations, the XVI Summer Olympic equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden, five months early
- 1959 American motorcycle racer John Penton (33) arrives in downtown Los Angeles, after cross-continental ride covering 3,051 miles in 52 hours, 11 minutes, 1 second, besting previous record by over 25 hours (this record broken in 1967) [1]
Baseball Record
1959 MLB Cleveland Indians' Rocky Colavito hits his 4 home runs in 11-8 win over the Orioles, in Baltimore
- 1959 Rocky Colovito hits 4 consecutive HRs in 1 game
- 1962 A one-day record 54 home runs hit in baseball
- 1962 Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27' 3½"
- 1964 Rolling Stones record their "12x5" album at Chess Studios in Chicago, Illinois
- 1964 Southern filibuster on civil rights bill ends; cloture invoked
- 1965 Vietnam War: Battle of Dong Xoai begins, a major engagement between the Viet Cong and South Vietnamese forces
- 1966 Cleveland Indian Sonny Siebert no-hits Washington Senator, 2-0
Music Concert
1966 Janis Joplin plays her 1st live gig with Big Brother & The Holding Company, at Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, California
- 1966 The Beatles release single "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" in UK; "Rain" featured experimental studio tricks of slowed down bass and drums tracks, and backwards vocals in the fade out
- 1967 15,000 attend Fantasy Faire and Magic Mountain Music Festival, California
- 1967 American pole vaulter Bob Seagren sets a world record mark of 17'7" in San Diego, California
- 1967 Argentina becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- 1967 Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iraq & Egypt end "6-Day War" with UN help
- 1967 USSR drops diplomatic relations with Israel
- 1968 KCFW TV channel 9 in Kalispell, MT (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1968 WHTV (now WTZH) TV channel 24 in Meridian, MS (NBC/CBS) 1st broadcast
- 1971 11 die in a train crash in Salem, Illinois
- 1971 44th National Spelling Bee: Jonathan Knisely wins spelling "shalloon"
- 1972 "Too Young" single released by Donny Osmond
Music Recording
1972 Elvis Presley records a live album at NYC's Madison Square Garden
#1 in the Charts
1972 Sammy Davis Jr.'s cover of "The Candy Man" by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse (from the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory") goes to #1 on the charts - his biggest single
- 1973 American rock band the Grateful Dead perform their longest concert, 30 songs clocking in at approximately 4:41:37, at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C.
- 1973 NASA launches Radio Astronomy Explorer 49 into lunar orbit
Feel Like Makin' Love
1974 "Feel Like Makin' Love" single released by Roberta Flack (Billboard Song of the Year 1974)
Sports History
1974 Philadelphia Phillies slugger Mike Schmidt hits a ball off public address speaker hanging from Houston Astrodome roof
- 1974 Rumor's government in Italy resigns
- 1975 Rockefeller panel reports on 300,000 illegal CIA files on Americans
- 1975 Yankees sponsor Army Day at their temporary home, Shea Stadium; during a 21-gun salute, part of the fence is blown away, and another part is set on fire
- 1976 49th National Spelling Bee: Tim Kneale wins spelling narcolepsy
Music Concert
1976 67,000 fans attends Paul McCartney & Wings concert at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington
- 1977 American golfer Al Geiberger becomes the first player in history to post a sub-60 score, 59 (−13), in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event during the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial CC in Tennessee
- 1977 Apple Computer ships its first Apple II computers
- 1977 International Labour Organisation and United Nations meet to discuss apartheid in South Africa and potential actions to prevent further violence and state repression.
- 1978 Costa Rica becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- 1978 Yankees trade Ken Holzman for Ron Davis
- 1979 Baltimore Orioles pull their 8th triple play (5-4-3 vs Cleveland)
- 1980 Eight Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners escape from Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast using handguns smuggled into the prison
Sports History
1981 British runner Sebastian Coe sets 800m record (1:41.73) in Florence
- 1981 IRA's Joseph Doherty escapes from Crumlin Road Jail
- 1981 Seven Brothers Square in Bronx named honoring 7 Santini Bro Moving Co
- 1982 American TV sitcom "Taxi" last airs on ABC, cancelled after 4 seasons and 15 Emmy Award wins; moves to NBC in the fall, airing for 1 season and wins 3 more Emmys
- 1982 Battle of Sultan Yakoub: Israeli raid into Syria results in 30 deaths and the capture of Israeli tanks
- 1982 Iran-Iraq War: Iran recaptures Khorramshahr, Iran from Iraq
- 1982 Israeli troops reach outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon
- 1982 John N. McMahon replaces Bobby R. Inman becomes deputy director of CIA
- 1984 US missile shoots down an incoming missile in space for first time
- 1984 Zhu Jian Hua of China high jumps a record 7'10" (2.39m)
- 1985 Claus von Bülow acquitted during second trial on charges he tried to murder his wife
- 1985 Coca-Cola announces they're bringing back their 99-year-old formula
- 1986 In South Africa, the three-year-old 'State of Emergency' is renewed for another twelve months, followed by an organized campaign of civil disobedience against it
- 1987 NASA Discovery's SRBs & external tank are mated
- 1988 Greatest number of participants (31,678) on a bicycle tour (London)
- 1989 "Tales From The Crypt" TV Anthology debuts on HBO
- 1990 Burger King begins using Newman's Own Salad Dressing
- 1990 Detroit Pistons beat Trailblazers for 1st time since 1974 in Portland
- 1990 Rap group "2 Live Crew" members arrested in Florida for obscenity
- 1991 New York welcomes home troops from Operation Desert Storm in the Mother of All Parades
- 1991 South Florida and Denver picked for 1993 NL franchises
- 1992 Satellite Intelsat K launched
- 1994 Biggest European clock ever (9100 kg/(237) 2.5 m) at Aarle-Rixtel
- 1994 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1995 Orioles Jeff Manto, hits his 4th consecutive homer
- 1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Toledo, Ohio, on WBUZ 106.5 FM
Event of Interest
1996 Intel releases 200 MHz Pentium chip
- 1996 Stanley Cup Final, Miami Arena, Miami, Florida: Uwe Krupp's unassisted goal in triple-OT gives Colorado Avalanche a 1-0 win over Florida Panthers and a 4 game series sweep
Film & TV History
1996 Variety talk show "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" hosted by Rosie O'Donnell premieres
- 1997 Feng Yun-2B Long March 3 Launch (China) is successful
- 1997 Kevin Brown of Florida Marlins no hits SF Giants 9-0
Event of Interest
1997 Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold
Agreement of Interest
1999 NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo during the Kosovo War
- 2000 Stanley Cup Final, Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX: New Jersey Devils defeat Dallas Stars, 2-1 in double OT for a 4-2 series victory
Canonization
2001 Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa
- 2002 The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom
- 2003 Michael Leshner and Michael Stark become the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Canada [1]
Wicked
2003 Stephen Schwartz' musical "Wicked", starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, officially opens at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, California
2003 The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission
- 2007 "The Sopranos" series finale on HBO (infamous "cut to black" ending)
- 2007 61st Tony Awards: "Spring Awakening" (musical) & "The Coast of Utopia" (play) win
- 2007 Novelty dance song "I'm a Gummy Bear" by German band Gummibär released
- 2008 Gora Prai airstrike by the US reportedly kills 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops and 8 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal areas
- 2012 66th Tony Awards: "Once" (musical) & "Clybourne Park" (play) win
- 2012 A Helicopter crash near Nairobi, Kenya, kills five people, including George Saitoti, a Kenyan cabinet minister
Sports History
2012 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Shoal Creek G&CC: Defending champion Tom Lehman wins by 2 strokes from Bernhard Langer of Germany and Taiwan's Lu Chien-soon
- 2013 70 people are killed as a series of bombs explode across Iraq
Man of Steel
2013 Superman film "Man of Steel" directed by Zack Snyder, starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams premieres in New York City
- 2018 A planetary dust storm causes NASA's Opportunity Rover to cease communication from Mars
Film & TV History
2018 Actor Vince Vaughn arrested for drunk driving and resisting arrest near Los Angeles
- 2019 Former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrested on corruption charges
- 2019 New DNA research on grapes shows one French wine Savagnin Blanc has been grown for 900 years in Jura published in "Nature Plants"
- 2019 Three men sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and murder of eight-year-old Muslim girl in Kathua, India in high-profile case that sparked political resignations and nationwide protests
- 2020 Cameroon's conflict with English-speaking separatists rated world's most-neglected conflict according to Norwegian Refugee Council
Event of Interest
2020 Statues of Confederate figures and explorers become focus of #BlackLivesMatter protests, with many removed including of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and of Christopher Columbus in Richmond
Murder of Interest
2020 Swedish prosecutors close the case on the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme after 34 years, saying the probable killer is dead
2021 Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of drug lord El Chapo, pleads guilty to helping run his criminal operations and aiding his 2015 prison escape
- 2021 European Space Agency announces new Venus mission, the probe EnVision to study Venus' tesserae (its continent-like terrains) [1]
- 2021 UN says famine is affecting 350,000 people in Tigray, Ethiopia, the worst starvation calamity in the world right now
- 2021 Zahid Quraish confirmed as America's first Muslim federal judge for the District of New Jersey by the US Senate
Film & TV History
2022 Actress Rebel Wilson comes out on Instagram, before it emerges an Australian newspaper had given her 27 hours to comment on their upcoming story on her new female partner [1]
Music History
2022 Ringo Starr suspends his half-completed summer All-Starr Band tour when two musicians test positive for COVID-19
- 2024 Apple announces it will be using generative A.I. on its devices and in its update for Siri, in a partnership with OpenAI [1]
