- 1142 Possible date for establishment of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) League [disputed date - other research places date between 1450 and 1660]
- 1230 Bishop Willebrand of Utrecht grants Swells state justice
- 1310 German King Henry VII crowns his son John of Bohemia as King of Bohemia
King Henry VI
1422 Henry VI becomes King of England at 8 months old after the death of his father Henry V; the youngest person to inherit the throne of England
Coronation of John II
1481 John II 'the perfect' is crowned King of Portugal at Sintra, after the death of his father
- 1638 French queen-mother Maria de' Medici visits Amsterdam
Clive Captures Arcot
1751 British troops under Robert Clive occupy Arcot in India
- 1772 Hurricane destroys ships off coast of Dominica
- 1778 British forces kill 17 to 40 Stockbridge Indian fighters in Bronx during Revolution
- 1836 HMS Beagle anchors at Porto Praya (modern-day Praia), Cape Verde Islands
The American Scholar
1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson gives his famous "The American Scholar" speech to Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, declares American literary independence from Europe
- 1842 American blacksmith Micah Rugg patents a machine for trimming the heads of bolts (US patent 2766)
- 1842 US President John Tyler authorizes the establishment of the US Naval Observatory
- 1843 Liberty Party nominates James Birney as presidential candidate
- 1850 Society of California Pioneers organize at Montgomery and Clay Streets
1854 A major outbreak of cholera occurs in Soho, London; physician John Snow calls it "the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in this kingdom"
- 1864 Battle of Jonesborough, Atlanta campaign: Union victory under William Tecumseh Sherman at Clayton County, Georgia, against Confederates; 2,000+ casualties
- 1876 Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II
- 1881 First US men's single tennis championships held at Newport, Rhode Island
- 1886 First major earthquake recorded in eastern US, near Charleston, South Carolina, killing 60 people and causing $5–6 million in damage
Jack the Ripper's First Victim
1888 The body of Jack the Ripper's first victim, Mary Ann Nichols, is found in Whitechapel in London's East End
Joule, Watt and Quadrant Adopted
1889 Second International Electrical Congress adopts the joule as unit of energy (after James Prescott Joule), the watt as unit of power (after James Watt) and the quadrant as unit of electrical inductance (later renamed henry)
- 1894 Phillies outfielder Billy Hamilton equals George Gore's MLB single game stolen bases record with 7 steals in 10-8 win vs Washington Senators in Philadelphia
- 1894 The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act passed by Richard Seddon’s Liberal government, making New Zealand the first country in the world to outlaw strikes in favour of compulsory arbitration
- 1895 First professional football game: QB John Brallier is paid $10 and his team wins 12-0
- 1896 Louis Napoleon Parker's play "Rosemary" premieres in NYC
Kinetoscope Patented
1897 Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope (Kinetographic camera), a device that produces moving pictures (US patent 589168)
- 1900 Brooklyn pitcher Brickyard Kennedy walks 6 straight Philadelphia Phillies in 2nd inning of the Superbas' 9-4 loss at Washington Park; Kennedy still achieves his 4th 20-win season
- 1902 Split skirt first worn by Mrs. Adolph Landeburg, a horse rider
- 1903 New York Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Joe McGinnity wins his 3rd doubleheader of month, beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 and 9-2 at the Polo Grounds
- 1905 Mbunga rebellion takes German Fort Mahenge East Africa
- 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention signed between United Kingdom and the Russian Empire in Saint Petersburg
- 1907 Great Britain, Russia, and France form the Triple Entente
- 1909 A. J. Reach Co. patents cork-centered baseball
- 1909 Swedish runner Thure Johansson runs world record marathon of 2:40:34.2 in Stockholm
A Square Deal
1910 Theodore Roosevelt makes a speech in Kansas advocating a 'square deal': property shall be "the servant and not the master of the commonwealth"
- 1911 The "Sullivan Act" requiring New Yorkers to possess licences for firearms small enough to be concealed comes into effect
- 1913 Massive protest rally on Sackville Street attacked by the Dublin Metropolitan Police; two strikers killed by the police
- 1913 Soccer club PSV forms in Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 1914 9.78 inches (24.8 cm) of rainfall at Bloomingdale, Michigan (state record)
- 1914 Battle of Tannenberg: German troops reconquer towns Soldau and Neidenburg in East Prussia
- 1914 Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
- 1914 General von Kluck decides not to attack Paris, turning his army southeast to support the Second Army
- 1915 Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
- 1915 Chicago White Sox Jimmy Lavender no-hits NY Giants, 2-0
- 1916 Oscar Asche's musical "Chu Chin Chow" premieres in London
Sun Yat-sen Takes Command
1917 Sun Yat-sen and his supporters' rump parliament establish a military government in Guangzhou, China, and elect him generalissimo
- 1918 Boston Red Sox, win earliest AL pennant ever (season ends September 2)
- 1919 John Reed co-founds the short-lived Communist Labor Party of America after being expelled from the National Socialist Convention in Chicago, Illinois
- 1919 Kyiv captured by the Ukrainian People's Army under Symon Petliura
- 1919 Symon Petliura's Ukrainian forces kill 35 members of a Jewish defense group
- 1920 Belgium begins paying old age pensions under provisional law
- 1920 Detroit radio station 8MK (now WWJ, 950AM) is the first to broadcast a news program on the air
- 1923 Italian troops bombard and occupy the Greek island of Corfu
- 1923 League of Nations approves the Belgium mandate of Ruanda-Urundi (formerly German)
Corfu Incident
1923 Mussolini orders the Greek Government to apologize for the deaths of an Italian general and his staff on the Greco-Albanian border
The Threepenny Opera
1928 Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's play with music, "The Threepenny Opera," a socialist critique of capitalism, premieres at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin
Young Plan
1929 Committee chaired by Owen D. Young finalizes the "Young Plan" to reduce German reparations from World War I to 112 billion Gold Marks ($US8 billion) paid over 59 years
- 1934 1st NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chicago Bears 0, All-Stars 0 (79,432)
- 1935 Chicago White Sox Vern Kennedy no-hits Cleveland Indians, 5-0
- 1935 First national skeet championship in Cleveland, Ohio
- 1935 Russian miner Aleksey Stachanov digs 102 tons of coal in under 6 hours, using a jackhammer
Neutrality Act
1935 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of US arms to foreign nations at war
- 1937 Det's rookie Rudy York sets record for HRs of 18 HRs in August
- 1938 5th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 28, Washington 16, with 74,250 fans in attendance
- 1939 Nazi SS agents disguised as Polish soldiers attack a radio station in Gleiwitz, Germany, and kill a local farmer; alleged assault used as justification to invade Poland
- 1939 Remaining forces of the Japanese invading army are driven out of Mongolian territory
- 1940 First edition of illegal opposition newspaper Free Netherlands
- 1940 German occupiers in Netherlands begin soap rationing
- 1940 RAF Fighter Command loses 39 aircraft against Luftwaffe's 41
- 1940 US National Guard assembles, calling for about 60,000 members
- 1941 Radio program "Great Gildersleeve," a spin-off of "Fibber McGee & Molly," debuts on NBC
- 1942 U-boats sink and damage 131 allied ships this month (639,946 tons)
- 1943 Japanese occupiers intern Jewish Congregation of Sorabajo
- 1943 Yorktown joins other ships of Task Force 15 in striking targets on Marcus Island; first combat of Essex-class and Independence-class aircraft carriers, and the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter
- 1944 Allied offensive at "Gothen-linie" Italy
- 1944 French troops liberate Bordeaux from German occupation
- 1944 Provisional Government of the French Republic moves from Algiers to Paris
- 1944 Soviet and Romanian troops march into Bucharest
- 1946 Foghorn Leghorn, a Warner Bros. cartoon character created by Robert McKimson and Warren Foster (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series), debuts in "Walky Talky Hawky"
- 1947 Hungarian Communist Party wins election
- 1947 NY Giants set a season record for HRs by a club with 183 and end the season with 221
- 1950 Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges hits four home runs and a single against the Boston Braves
- 1953 KRBC TV channel 9 in Abilene, Texas (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 WKBG (now WLVI) TV channel 56 in Cambridge-Boston, Massachusetts (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1954 Hurricane Carol hits New England, killing 70 people; costliest ever hurricane at the time and first storm name to be retired
- 1954 MLB Cincinnati Reds first baseman Ted Kluszewski hits 2 HRs in a 9-3 loss to Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia; 1st Redleg to ever hit 40 MLB HRs, en route to season total 49
- 1954 MLB Cleveland Indians beat New York Yankees 6-1 for record tying 26 wins in August, matching the mark of 1931 Philadelphia A's
- 1954 WMTW TV channel 8 in Portland-Poland Spring, Maine (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1955 First sun-powered automobile is demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois
- 1955 KTRE TV channel 9 in Lufkin, Texas (ABC/NBC affiliate) begins broadcasting
- 1959 Sandy Koufax breaks Dizzy Dean's NL mark of 18 strikeouts in a single game against the San Francisco Giants
- 1960 Agricultural Hall of Fame officially forms
- 1960 US sweeps the medals in the shot put at the Rome Olympics; Bill Nieder wins gold with 19.68m, ahead of countrymen Parry O'Brien and Dallas Long
- 1961 Dutch National Ballet forms through a merger of the Nederlands Ballet and the Amsterdams Ballet
- 1962 Trinidad and Tobago gain independence from Britain (National Day) with Dr. Eric Williams as its first Prime Minister
- 1964 Ground is broken for Anaheim Stadium, future home of MLB California Angels
- 1965 The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight
- 1965 US Congress establishes Department of Housing & Urban Development
- 1966 Referee Leo Horn whistles his last soccer match between AFC Ajax and Bulgaria
- 1968 12,000 die in 7.8 quake which destroys 60,000 buildings in NE Iran
- 1968 68th US Golf Amateur Championship is won by 19-year-old Bruce Fleisher
- 1968 MLB Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Roy Face ties Walter Johnson's record of 802 pitching appearances with club
- 1968 Private Eye magazine reports that John Lennon and Yoko Ono's upcoming album "Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins" will feature a cover picture of them nude
- 1968 Verne Gagne beats Dick Beyers (Dr X) in Minnesota to become NWA champ
- 1970 33 South Moluccans storm the Indonesian ambassador's home in Wassenaar, Netherlands
- 1970 Lonnie McLucas, a Black Panther activist, is convicted of conspiracy to commit murder
- 1970 WKMJ TV channel 68 in Louisville, Kentucky (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1971 An inquiry into allegations of brutality by the security forces against those interned without trial in Northern Ireland is announced
- 1971 Australia's Adrienne Beames runs a female world record marathon of 2:46:30 in Werribee, Victoria; first woman to break the 3-hour barrier in a marathon
Lennon Moves to NY
1971 Beatle John Lennon leaves England for the final time, moving to New York City
- 1972 American 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of John Kinsella, Fred Tyler, Steve Genter & Mark Spitz swim a world record 7:35.78 to beat West Germany for the gold medal at the Munich Olympics
World Record 100m
1972 American super swimmer Mark Spitz wraps up the Olympic butterfly double with a world record 54.27 in the 100m in Munich, having already won the 200m in world record time 2:00.70
- 1972 Australian swimmer Gail Neall with a world record 5:02.97 wins the 400m individual medley gold medal at the Munich Olympics
Darling of Munich
1972 Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins balance beam and floor exercise gold medals at the Munich Olympics; follows gold in the teams all-round
- 1973 Bowler Earl Anthony wins PBA National Championship, begins first of his two three-peats
- 1974 Pirate Radio Veronica broadcasts its final radio show from MV Norderney before shutting down its transmissions to comply with new Dutch anti-pirate legislation
- 1976 Mexican peso has been effectively devalued to half of its original value
- 1977 Aleksandr Fedotov sets an aircraft altitude record of 37,650 meters (123,523 feet)
- 1977 Ian Smith, espousing racial segregation, wins Rhodesian general election with 80% of the overwhelmingly white electorate's vote
Hearst Kidnappers Plead Guilty
1978 Emily and William Harris plead guilty to 1974 kidnapping of American publishing heiress Patty Hearst
- 1978 Sri Lanka adopts new constitution
- 1978 US performs nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site
- 1979 Comet Howard-Koomen-Michels collides with the Sun; first recorded instance of a comet hitting the Sun
- 1979 Donald McHenry named to succeed Andrew Young as US UN ambassador
- 1980 Poland's Solidarity trade union federations forms and is officially recognised by the Polish government
- 1980 The Gdańsk Agreement is signed, allowing Polish citizens to bring democratic changes within the communist political structure
- 1981 Dirk Wellham scores 103 on his Test Cricket debut, v England at The Oval, London
- 1981 MLB Kansas City Royals fires manager Jim Frey, replacing him with Dick Howser
- 1982 USSR performs underground nuclear test at Kazakhstan
- 1983 American hurdler Edwin Moses sets 400m hurdle record of 47.02 seconds in Koblenz, West Germany
- 1984 Pinklon Thomas beats Tim Witherspoon in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1985 "Prakas" sets trotting mile record of 1:53.4 at Du Quoin, Illinois
- 1985 Ángel Cordero Jr. becomes the third jockey to ride horses earning over $100 million
- 1985 Night Stalker suspect that terrorized California is captured in East Los Angeles
- 1986 Aeromexico DC-9 and a small plane collide in LA, killing 82 people including 15 on the ground
- 1986 SS Admiral Nakhimov collides with the Soviet bulk carrier Pyotr Vasyov, killing 423 of the 1,234 people on board
You Know I'm Bad
1987 Michael Jackson's "Bad" music video, directed by Martin Scorcese, premieres during TV special "Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns" on CBS
- 1987 South Africa's longest mine strike in history ends after 21 days
- 1987 The Great Potato Incident: Minor league Williamsport Bills catcher Dave Bresnahan attempts to lure an opposing baserunner off third base using a potato carved to look like a baseball; umpire calls runner safe, and the catcher is fined $50 and released by the team [1] [2]
- 1988 Arbitrator George Nicolau rules Major League Baseball team owners conspired against free agents after the 1986 season
- 1988 Bomb attack destroys the Khotso House, the office of the South African Council of Churches
- 1988 Major 5-day power blackout of downtown Seattle, Washington begins
- 1989 Arbitrator T. Roberts orders Major League Baseball club owners to pay $10.5 million in damages for collusion against free agents during the 1986 season
Griffeys Make History
1990 Baseball outfielders Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become the first father and son to play on the same team, the Seattle Mariners; the pair hit back-to-back singles in the first inning and both score
- 1990 Dennis Eckersley saves his 40th game of the season during the Oakland Athletics' 4–2 victory over the Texas Rangers
- 1990 East Germany and West Germany sign a treaty to join legal and political systems
- 1991 Colorado Rockies bat out of order against Montreal Expos in 1st inning
- 1991 Houston quarterback David Klingler sets an NCAA record with 6 touchdown passes in the 2nd quarter as the Cougars clobbered Louisiana Tech 73-3
- 1991 Richard J. Kerr ends term as deputy director of CIA
- 1991 Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union following the failed coup in Moscow
Webster Ends CIA Term
1991 William H. Webster ends his term as 14th director of CIA; the only person to head both FBI and CIA
1992 44th Emmy Awards: "Northern Exposure" (Best Drama & Best Drama Writing), Christopher Lloyd (Road To Avalonlea), and Dana Delany (China Beach) win
- 1992 Dynamite explosion in a mine in the Philippines kills 500 people
- 1992 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Cleveland, Ohio, on WNCX 98.5 FM
1993 50th Venice Film Festival: "Short Cuts" directed by Robert Altman and "Three Colors: Blue" directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski are jointly awarded the Golden Lion
- 1993 HMS Mercury, the Royal Navy's communications training establishment, closes after 52 years in commission
- 1993 Minnesota Twins beat Cleveland Indians 5-4 in 22 innings
- 1993 National Congress removes Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez following his impeachment
Kasparov Loses to Computer
1994 A Pentium computer running Richard Lang's ChessGenius 2 program defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov
- 1994 Final withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Estonia and Latvia
- 1994 The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Sinn Féin) declares a ceasefire in Northern Ireland
- 1994 Thierry Henry makes his professional debut for Monaco in a 2-0 loss to Nice
- 1997 Eddie George runs for 216 yards on 35 carries and scores a touchdown as the Oilers, playing their first NFL game in Tennessee, beat Oakland 24-21 in overtime at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis
- 1997 Final episode of talk show "Rolanda," hosted by Rolonda Watts, airs
- 1998 North Korea reportedly launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1; while the North Korean government claims the launch is successful, no objects are tracked in orbit from the launch
Fly
1999 "Fly," the 5th studio album by the Dixie Chicks is released (Grammy Award Best Country Album 2000, Billboard Album of the Year 2000)
- 1999 Dino Ciccarelli retires from the NHL
- 1999 LAPA Flight 3142, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65 people, including two on the ground
- 1999 The first of a series of apartment bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others
- 2003 Jerry Lewis's 38th annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $60,505,234
- 2005 A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 965 people
2006 Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" is recovered from a raid by Norwegian police; the painting was said to be in a better-than-expected condition
- 2008 Jerry Lewis's 43rd annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $65,031,393
Disney Acquires Marvel
2009 The Walt Disney Company announces it will acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion
- 2012 Apple loses its patent dispute with Samsung in Tokyo, Japan
- 2014 Final edition of Jerry Lewis's 49th annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon airs and raises $56,952,177
Mt. McKinley Becomes Denali
2015 President Obama officially re-designates Alaska’s Mt. McKinley as Denali, its native American name
- 2015 US President Barack Obama arrives in Alaska on a 3-day tour highlighting climate change
- 2015 Violent protests in Kiev after Ukraine parliament vote, leaving one national guard dead and 100 people injured
President Rousseff Impeached
2016 Brazilian Senate votes to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, removing her from office
- 2017 Indications that Neanderthals are the first to make glue out of tar are strengthened by research published in "Scientific Reports"
- 2017 International Organization for Migration states 18,500 Rohingya Muslims have fled from violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state after 110 deaths, making for Bangladesh
- 2018 19-year-old Indonesian boy is rescued after 49 days adrift when his floating fish trap becomes detached
- 2019 Gunman kills seven people and injures 22 during high speed chase in Odessa, Texas
- 2019 India removes citizenship status from 1.9 million people in state of Assam, leaving them off its new National Register of Citizens
- 2019 Major track crash during Formula 2 race at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, kills Anthoine Hubert and critically injures Juan Manuel Correa
- 2019 Minnesota Twins smash 6 HRs in 10-7 loss to the Tigers in Detroit; break MLB record by hitting 268th home run of the season
- 2019 US missile attack kills 40 people in al-Qaeda jihadist training camp in Idlib province, Syria
Akon City
2020 Singer Akon lays the first stone for Akon City, a futuristic solar-powered city to be built in Senegal, saying it will be a real-life version of Wakanda in "Black Panther"
- 2020 US cases of COVID-19 passes 6 million with 183,300 deaths with California (699,000) and Florida (619,000) recording the most (Johns Hopkins)
- 2021 36-year old Cristiano Ronaldo is confirmed as a Manchester United player for a second time when his transfer from Juventus is ratified; Ronaldo left United in 2009 to join Real Madrid
- 2022 Mary Peltola is the first Alaskan Native to be elected to US Congress, defeating Sarah Palin in a special election [1]
- 2022 UN releases report accusing China of serious human rights abuses against Uyghurs in its western Xinjiang region, “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity” [1]
- 2022 UN weather agency predicts a rare "triple dip" La Nina pattern to last till the end of 2022, the first this century, likely to extend droughts in Horn of Africa, South America [1]
- 2022 US life expectancy falls to its lowest level since 1996 (76.1 years vs. 79 years in 2019), with COVID-19 the main contributing factor according to the CDC [1]
- 2023 At least 76 people die in a fire in a office building housing migrants and vulnerable people in Johannesburg, South Africa [1]
- 2023 New computer model study suggests humanity was almost wiped out 900,000 years ago with just 1,280 reproducing individuals remaining [1]
- 2023 Two leaders of right wing group the Proud Boys are given lengthy sentences for sedition for their assault on the US Capitol (Joseph Biggs, 17-years-old, and Zachary Rehl, 15-years-old) [1]
- 2024 Bodies of six Israeli hostages are found in a tunnel near Rafah, Gaza, shot just before their discovery; Hamas blames Israeli failure to sign a ceasefire prompting large Israeli protests [1]
- 2025 Major landslide in western Sudan destroys entire village of Tarasin in the Marrah Mountains, killing at least 1000 people [1]
