Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/All
Today's anniversaries
[edit]December 21: December solstice (09:20 UTC, 2024)
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Crew of Apollo 8
- 1620 – The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to establish the Plymouth Colony.
- 1963 – An attempt by Greek Cypriot police to search certain Turkish Cypriot women in Nicosia escalated into island-wide violence, leading to 538 deaths and the displacement of nearly 27,000 people.
- 1968 – Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a trajectory to the Moon; its crew (pictured) became the first humans to visit another celestial body.
- 1988 – A bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 detonated over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
- 2018 – Operatives of the British Special Boat Service boarded the container ship Grande Tema in the Thames Estuary to detain four stowaways who had threatened the crew.
- Sun Sheng (d. 956)
- Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid (d. 1215)
- Luang Por Dattajivo (b. 1940)
- Hu Jintao (b. 1942)
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Selected anniversaries for January
[edit]January 1: Public Domain Day; Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Roman Rite Catholicism)
"Am I not a man and a brother", emblem used by abolitionists
- 417 – Galla Placidia was forced by her brother Honorius into marriage with his magister militum, Constantius III.
- 1808 – As a result of the lobbying efforts by the abolitionist movement (emblem pictured), the importation of slaves into the United States was officially banned, although slavery itself remained permitted.
- 1914 – The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line in the U.S. state of Florida became the first scheduled airline using a winged aircraft.
- 1957 – The revised Thai criminal code came into force, strengthening the law on lèse-majesté in Thailand to include insult and treating it as a crime against national security.
- 2019 – The NASA space probe New Horizons flew by the trans-Neptunian object Arrokoth, making it the farthest object visited by a spacecraft.
- Henry of Marcy (d. 1189)
- Marie-Louise Lachapelle (b. 1769)
- Vidya Balan (b. 1979)
- Tusse (b. 2002)
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January 2: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Basil of Caesarea (Roman Rite Catholicism, Anglicanism)
Ronald Reagan
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
- 1959 – The Soviet Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, was launched by a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- 1967 – Ronald Reagan (pictured) began his career in government when he was sworn in as the 33rd governor of California.
- 1976 – An extratropical cyclone began affecting parts of western Europe, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern portions of the North Sea and leading to at least 82 deaths.
- 2009 – Sri Lankan civil war: The Sri Lankan army captured the town of Kilinochchi from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, concluding the Battle of Kilinochchi.
- William de St-Calais (d. 1096)
- Hester C. Jeffrey (d. 1934)
- Roman Dmowski (d. 1939)
- Norodom Ranariddh (b. 1944)
First issue of Berlingske
- 1749 – The first issue of Berlingske (front page pictured), Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, was published.
- 1911 – An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw destroyed Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
- 1938 – The American health charity March of Dimes was founded as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to help raise money for polio research.
- 1961 – All 25 people on board Aero Flight 311 died in Finland's worst civilian air accident when the aircraft crashed near Kvevlax.
- 2009 – The cryptocurrency network of bitcoin was created when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of the chain.
- Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena (d. 1743)
- Oliver Bosbyshell (b. 1839)
- Mona Best (b. 1924)
- Lynn Hill (b. 1961)
January 4: Colonial Repression Martyrs' Day in Angola (1961)
Artist's depiction of a Mars Exploration Rover
- 1698 – Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of English monarchs since 1530, was destroyed by fire.
- 1798 – After his appointment as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
- 1936 – Billboard published its first music hit parade.
- 1989 – Two American F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Floggers that appeared to be attempting to engage them over the Gulf of Sidra.
- 2004 – Spirit (artist's impression depicted), the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, successfully landed on Mars.
- Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy (b. 1334)
- Josef Suk (b. 1874)
- Nellie Cashman (d. 1925)
- Arthur Rose Eldred (d. 1951)
January 5: Twelfth Night (Western Christianity)
Harry S. Truman
- 1757 – King Louis XV survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who later became the last person in France to be executed by drawing and quartering.
- 1869 – Te Kooti's War: After surviving a five-day siege in the pā at Ngātapa, Māori leader Te Kooti escaped from New Zealand's Armed Constabulary.
- 1919 – The German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party, was founded by Anton Drexler.
- 1949 – In his State of the Union speech, U.S. president Harry S. Truman (pictured) announced: "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal."
- 2003 – The Metropolitan Police arrested six people in conjunction with an alleged terrorist plot to release ricin on the London Underground, although no toxin was found.
- Al-Mu'tasim (d. 842)
- Joseph Erlanger (b. 1874)
- Edmund Herring (d. 1982)
- Pierre Boulez (d. 2016)
Constantine XI Palaiologos
- 1449 – Four years before the fall of Constantinople, Constantine XI Palaiologos (pictured) assumed the throne as the last Byzantine emperor.
- 1724 – Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, a Bach cantata for Epiphany, was first performed in Leipzig.
- 1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift, the precursor of plate tectonics.
- 1953 – The inaugural Asian Socialist Conference, an organisation of socialist political parties, opened in Rangoon with 177 delegates, observers and fraternal guests.
- 2014 – The first episode of the documentary series Benefits Street aired on Channel 4, prompting discussion in the United Kingdom about welfare dependency.
- Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (b. 1756)
- Earl Scruggs (b. 1924)
- Babrak Karmal (b. 1929)
- Sybil Plumlee (d. 2012)
January 7: Christmas (Eastern Christianity); Victory over Genocide Day in Cambodia; Laba Festival in China (2025)
CQD in Morse code
- 1797 – The Italian tricolour was first adopted as an official flag by the government of the Cispadane Republic.
- 1904 – The Marconi International Marine Communication Company specified CQD (audio featured) as the distress signal to be used by its operators.
- 1939 – French physicist Marguerite Perey identified francium, the last element to be discovered in nature rather than by synthesis.
- 1979 – The People's Army of Vietnam captured Phnom Penh, marking the end of large-scale fighting in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
- 2020 – After 253 days without an operational government, a second round of investiture votes produced Spain's first coalition government since the Second Republic.
- Francis Poulenc (b. 1899)
- Melly Goeslaw (b. 1974)
- Richard Hamming (d. 1998)
- Run Run Shaw (d. 2014)
January 8: Eugenio María de Hostos's birthday in Puerto Rico (2024)
Blackstone Library
- 1697 – Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
- 1904 – Blackstone Library (pictured), the first branch of the Chicago Public Library system, was dedicated.
- 1977 – Three bombs attributed to Armenian nationalists exploded across Moscow, killing seven people and injuring 37 people.
- 1981 – In Trans-en-Provence, France, a local farmer reported a UFO sighting claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
- 2011 – Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a public meeting held by U.S. representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people and injuring twelve others.
- Prince Albert Victor (b. 1864)
- Mary Arthur McElroy (d. 1917)
- Joseph Franklin Rutherford (d. 1942)
- T. J. Hamblin (d. 2012)
The plane involved in the Iran Air Flight 277 crash
- 1797 – War of the First Coalition: The siege of Kehl by Habsburg and Württembergian forces ended when French troops withdrew from their fortifications.
- 1917 – First World War: Troops of the British Empire defeated Ottoman forces at the Battle of Rafa on the Sinai–Palestine border in present-day Rafah.
- 1972 – The Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, ending a 33-game winning streak, the longest in major American professional team sports.
- 1975 – In Central and Southeastern United States, a Great Storm formed the first of forty-five tornadoes over a three-day period.
- 2011 – In poor weather conditions, Iran Air Flight 277 (plane pictured) crashed near Urmia Airport, Iran, killing 78 of the 105 people on board.
- T. W. Robertson (b. 1829)
- Carrie Chapman Catt (b. 1859)
- Farhan Akhtar (b. 1974)
- Lei Jieqiong (d. 2011)
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New Orleans
- 236 – Pope Fabian, said to have been chosen by the Holy Spirit when a dove landed on his head, began his papacy.
- 1812 – New Orleans (pictured), the first steamship on the Mississippi River, arrived at New Orleans to complete its maiden voyage.
- 1929 – Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, began serialisation.
- 1993 – The Braer Storm, the strongest extratropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Atlantic, reached peak intensity.
- Georg Forster (d. 1794)
- Hrithik Roshan (b. 1974)
- Yip Pin Xiu (b. 1992)
- Constantine II of Greece (d. 2023)
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January 11: Prithvi Jayanti in Nepal
Cover of Smoking and Health
- 1654 – Arauco War: The Mapuche-Huilliche of southern Chile defeated a slave-hunting Spanish army at the Battle of Río Bueno.
- 1693 – The most powerful earthquake recorded in Italy struck the island of Sicily, causing 60,000 deaths and prompting a period of architectural revival.
- 1914 – The Karluk, the flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, sank after being crushed by ice.
- 1964 – In a landmark report (cover pictured), U.S. surgeon general Luther Terry issued a warning that tobacco smoking may be hazardous to health, concluding that it has a causative role in lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and other illnesses.
- 2003 – After Chicago police detective Jon Burge was discovered to have forced confessions from more than 200 suspects, the governor of Illinois commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners and pardoned four others.
- Min Bin (d. 1554)
- Socrates Nelson (b. 1814)
- Eva Le Gallienne (b. 1899)
- Eva Tanguay (d. 1947)
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January 12: Zanzibar Revolution Day in Tanzania (1964)
Comet McNaught
- 1659 – The fort at Allahabad was surrendered to the forces of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
- 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Natal Native Contingent and British troops defeated Zulu forces in the Action at Sihayo's Kraal.
- 1899 – During a storm, the crew of Lynmouth Lifeboat Station transported their 10-ton lifeboat 15 mi (24 km) overland in order to rescue a damaged schooner.
- 1969 – British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first album, Led Zeppelin, in the United States.
- 2007 – Comet McNaught (pictured) reached perihelion, becoming the brightest comet in over 40 years, with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.
- John Singer Sargent (b. 1856)
- Laura Adams Armer (b. 1874)
- Princess Patricia of Connaught (d. 1974)
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January 13: Saint Knut's Day in Finland and Sweden
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William Price
- 1884 – Welsh physician William Price (pictured) was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; this eventually led to the United Kingdom cremation act becoming law.
- 1953 – Nine Moscow doctors were accused of a plot to poison members of the Soviet political and military leadership.
- 1968 – American singer Johnny Cash recorded his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at Folsom Prison in California.
- 1972 – Ghanaian military officer Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup to overthrow Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo.
- 2000 – Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as the chief executive officer of Microsoft.
- Edmund Spenser (d. 1599)
- Art Ross (b. 1885 or 1886)
- Michael Bond (b. 1926)
- Claudia Emerson (b. 1957)
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January 14: Ratification Day in the United States (1784)
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Philip V of Spain
- 1724 – Philip V (pictured), the first Bourbon king of Spain, abdicated in favour of his seventeen-year-old eldest son, who became Louis I.
- 1814 – Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel, whereby Frederick VI of Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania.
- 1969 – A major fire and series of explosions aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise killed 28 sailors, injured 314 others, and destroyed 15 aircraft.
- 1970 – The self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra in southeastern Nigeria surrendered to the federal government less than three years after declaring independence, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
- 2018 – In the "Minneapolis Miracle", American football player Stefon Diggs caught a 61-yard touchdown pass that secured the Minnesota Vikings' victory in the National Football Conference divisional playoff game.
- Ladislaus II of Hungary (d. 1163)
- Wang Bingzhang (b. 1914)
- Juan Bielovucic (d. 1949)
- Alan Rickman (d. 2016)
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January 15: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2024) John Chilembwe Day in Malawi
US Airways Flight 1549 crash and rescue
- 1857 – In British Hong Kong, hundreds of Europeans were non-lethally poisoned by arsenic in bread from a locally owned bakery, leading to geopolitical tension.
- 1934 – At least 10,700 people died when an earthquake registering 8.0 Mw struck Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar.
- 1974 – American serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the "BTK killer", murdered his first four victims.
- 1991 – The Victoria Cross for Australia was instituted by letters patent; the first Commonwealth realm with a separate Victoria Cross award in its honours system.
- 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese during its climb out from New York City and made an emergency landing in the Hudson River (featured).
- Theophylact (d. 849)
- Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929)
- Regina Margareten (d. 1959)
- Millie Knight (b. 1999)
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Jose Calugas
- 1275 – 750 years ago, Edward I permits his mother Eleanor of Provence to expel the Jews from the towns Worcester, Marlborough, Cambridge and Gloucester.
- 1809 – Peninsular War: French forces under Jean-de-Dieu Soult attacked the British's amphibious evacuation under Sir John Moore at Corunna in Galicia, Spain.
- 1862 – A pumping engine at a colliery in New Hartley, England, broke and fell down the shaft, trapping miners below and resulting in 204 deaths.
- 1942 – World War II: During the Battle of Bataan, U.S. Army sergeant Jose Calugas (pictured) organized a squad of volunteers to man an artillery position under heavy fire, which later earned him the Medal of Honor.
- 1964 – The musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, and went on to win ten Tony Awards, a record that stood for 37 years.
- 2018 – In Mrauk U, Myanmar, police fired into a crowd protesting the ban of an event to mark the anniversary of the end of the Kingdom of Mrauk U, resulting in seven deaths and twelve injuries.
- Isaac Komnenos (b. 1093)
- George Hunter Cary (b. 1832)
- Cliff Thorburn (b. 1948)
- Gene Cernan (d. 2017)
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Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaii
- 1377 – Gregory XI, the last Avignon pope, entered Rome after a four-month journey from Avignon, returning the papacy to its original city.
- 1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston and the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani (pictured).
- 1945 – World War II: Australian troops advanced along the northern part of Bougainville Island (in present-day Papua New Guinea) and began fighting Japanese forces in the Battle of Tsimba Ridge.
- 1948 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesian republicans was ratified, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to resolve disputes arising from the Linggadjati Agreement of 1946.
- 1999 – In Little Saigon, California, a series of protests began when the owner of a video rental store displayed an image of Ho Chi Minh.
- Ellen Wood (b. 1814)
- Abram Lincoln Harris (b. 1899)
- Michelle Obama (b. 1964)
- Sunanda Pushkar (d. 2014)
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United Nations Memorial Cemetery
- 1871 – A number of previously independent states united to form the German Empire, with Wilhelm I as emperor.
- 1951 – Construction began on the United Nations Military Cemetery (pictured), the only United Nations cemetery in the world, in Busan, South Korea.
- 1956 – Navvab Safavi, an Iranian Shia cleric and the founder of the fundamentalist group Fada'iyan-e Islam, was executed with three of his followers for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Hossein Ala'.
- 1969 – Thousands of Japanese police stormed the University of Tokyo after six months of nationwide leftist university student protests and occupation.
- 1983 – Thirty years after his death, the International Olympic Committee presented commemorative medals to the family of American athlete Jim Thorpe, who had been stripped of his gold medals for playing semi-professional baseball before the 1912 Summer Olympics.
- Isabella Jagiellon (b. 1519)
- Elena Arizmendi Mejía (b. 1884)
- Philippe Starck (b. 1949)
- Bruce Chatwin (d. 1989)
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Iva Toguri
- 1419 – Hundred Years' War: The siege of Rouen ended with English troops capturing the city from Norman French forces.
- 1909 – A deed was recorded for David Hanbury to sell Island No. 2 in northern California to his brother John for $10 ($339.00 in 2023).
- 1977 – Iva Toguri (pictured), convicted of treason for broadcasting Japanese propaganda, was granted a full pardon by U.S. president Gerald Ford.
- 1996 – A tank barge and a tug grounded on a beach in Rhode Island, causing a spill of an estimated 828,000 U.S. gallons (3,130,000 L) of home heating oil.
- 2006 – In the deadliest aviation accident in Slovak history, an Antonov An-24 operated by the Slovak Air Force crashed in northern Hungary, killing 42 of the 43 people on board.
- Giuseppe Millico (b. 1737)
- Sophie Taeuber-Arp (b. 1889)
- Choor Singh (b. 1911)
- Sarah Burke (d. 2012)
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January 20: Day of Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan (1990)
Icelandic financial crisis protesters
- 1156 – According to legend, Lalli slew Bishop Henry of Finland with an axe on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi in Köyliö.
- 1843 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, became the de facto first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil.
- 1968 – The Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century", ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak, and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television.
- 1969 – Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, an event that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- 2009 – During a national financial crisis, thousands of people protested (pictured) at the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavík.
- Li Jitao (d. 924)
- David Wilmot (b. 1814)
- Chandra Khonnokyoong (b. 1909)
- Yolanda González (b. 1961)
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January 21: World Religion Day (2024)
Newt Gingrich
- 1757 – French and Indian War: French regulars, Canadien militia and Indigenous forces ambushed Rogers' Rangers forces in the Battle on Snowshoes.
- 1919 – The First Dáil convened at the Mansion House in Dublin and adopted a declaration of independence calling for the establishment of the Irish Republic.
- 1968 – A B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear weapons crashed onto sea ice near Thule Air Base, Greenland, causing localized radioactive contamination.
- 1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich (pictured) for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.
- 2011 – Demonstrations in Tirana against alleged corruption in the Albanian government led to the killings of four protesters by the Republican Guard.
- Jeff Koons (b. 1955)
- Eusapia Palladino (b. 1854)
- Trương Tấn Sang (b. 1949)
- Frances Gertrude McGill (d. 1959)
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January 22: Little New Year in northern China (2025); Day of Unity of Ukraine
Apollo 5
- 1273 – Muhammad II became Sultan of Granada after his father's death in a riding accident.
- 1924 – Ramsay MacDonald took office as the first prime minister of the United Kingdom from the Labour Party.
- 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Buna–Gona on New Guinea ended with an Allied victory after two months of difficult fighting against well-prepared Japanese defence.
- 1968 – Apollo 5 (pictured), the first flight of NASA's Lunar Module, lifted off from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station.
- 1979 – Uganda–Tanzania War: After surrounding Mutukula the previous day, Tanzanian forces attacked the town in the Battle of Mutukula and caused Ugandan forces to flee.
- Christian Ramsay (d. 1839)
- Vito Cascio Ferro (b. 1862)
- S. Vithiananthan (d. 1989)
- Ursula K. Le Guin (d. 2018)
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January 23: Little New Year in southern China (2025)
A Frisbee brand flying disc
- 1264 – King Louis IX of France issued the Mise of Amiens, a settlement between King Henry III of England and barons led by Simon de Montfort heavily favouring the former, which later led to the Second Barons' War.
- 1789 – Bishop John Carroll purchased a plot of land that would become the home of the future Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States.
- 1902 – In the most fatal recorded mountaineering accident, 199 of the 210 members of an Imperial Japanese Army unit perished in a blizzard on the Hakkōda Mountains.
- 1957 – American inventor Fred Morrison sold the rights to his "flying disc" to the Wham-O toy company, who later renamed it the "Frisbee" (example pictured).
- 2001 – Five people attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, an act that many later claimed to have been staged by the Chinese Communist Party to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.
- Hai Rui (b. 1514)
- Tom Denning (b. 1899)
- Marguerite Gautier-van Berchem (d. 1984)
- Salvador Dalí (d. 1989)
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January 24: Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities (1859)
Henry VIII
- 914 – The Fatimid Caliphate began their first invasion of Egypt, against the Abbasids, which eventually ended in failure.
- 1536 – King Henry VIII of England (pictured) suffered a serious accident while jousting, receiving injuries which may have caused his later obesity and erratic personality.
- 1848 – James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, leading to the California gold rush.
- 1972 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found in the jungles of Guam, where he had been hiding since the end of World War II.
- 1977 – During the Spanish transition to democracy, neo-fascists attacked an office in Madrid, killing five people and injuring four others.
- Pope Stephen IV (d. 817)
- Charles James Fox (b. 1749)
- Luis Suárez (b. 1987)
- Rosemary Bryant Mariner (d. 2019)
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January 25: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Eastern Christianity) and Dwynwen
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Protester during the 2011 Egyptian revolution
- 1792 – Thomas Hardy founded the London Corresponding Society to seek a "radical reform of parliament", later influencing the reform movements of early-19th-century England.
- 1944 – Representatives of the Chetnik movement began a four-day congress to organise political opposition to the Allied support of the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia.
- 1971 – Idi Amin seized power from Ugandan president Milton Obote in a coup d'état, beginning eight years of military rule.
- 1993 – Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kansi shot five people outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two.
- 2011 – The Egyptian revolution began with protests (protester pictured) on the "Day of Anger", eventually leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of rule.
- J. Marion Sims (b. 1813)
- Ernst Alexanderson (b. 1878)
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy (b. 1978)
- Adele Astaire (d. 1981)
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January 26: Australia Day (1788); Republic Day in India (1950)
The dome over the Hale Telescope
- 1564 – Livonian War: A Lithuanian surprise attack resulted in a decisive defeat of numerically superior Russian forces.
- 1808 – William Bligh, the governor of New South Wales, was deposed in the only military coup in Australian history.
- 1949 – The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory (pictured) in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, saw first light.
- 1974 – Turkish Airlines Flight 301 crashed while taking off from İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport, killing 67 people.
- 2009 – Rioting broke out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that led to the deposal of President Marc Ravalomanana.
- Manuel do Cenáculo (d. 1814)
- Seán MacBride (b. 1904)
- Wayne Gretzky (b. 1961)
- Lindy Delapenha (d. 2017)
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Mahamane Ousmane
- 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: In the Macau Incident, French and Spanish warships encountered a British Royal Navy escort squadron in the Wanshan Archipelago; subsequent events, including which side retreated, were disputed by the commanders present.
- 1996 – Mahamane Ousmane (pictured), the first democratically elected president of Niger, was deposed by Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara in a military coup d'état.
- 2003 – The first selections for the United States National Recording Registry were announced by the Library of Congress.
- 2011 – Astronomers documented H1504+65, a white dwarf in Ursa Minor with the hottest surface temperature known at the time, at 200,000 kelvins (360,000 °F).
- Titumir (b. 1782)
- Mohamed Al-Fayed (b. 1929)
- Victoria Ocampo (d. 1979)
- Paul Zorner (d. 2014)
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January 28: Chinese New Year's Eve (2025)
Horace Walpole
- 1069 – Robert de Comines, Earl of Northumbria, was killed in Durham, causing William the Conqueror to embark on a campaign to subjugate northern England.
- 1754 – The word serendipity, derived from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, was coined by Horace Walpole (pictured) in a letter to a friend.
- 1933 – Choudhry Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet in which he called for the creation of a Muslim state in north-western India that he termed "Pakstan".
- 1964 – Three U.S. Air Force pilots aboard an unarmed T-39 Sabreliner were killed when the aircraft was shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.
- William H. Prescott (d. 1859)
- W. B. Yeats (d. 1939)
- Eddie Buczynski (b. 1947)
- Astrid Lindgren (d. 2002)
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January 29: Chinese New Year (2025)
Mantra-Rock Dance poster
- 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: At the Battle of Brienne, both sides' commanders, Napoleon and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, were nearly captured.
- 1967 – The Mantra-Rock Dance (poster pictured), called the "ultimate high" of the hippie era, took place in San Francisco, featuring Swami Bhaktivedanta, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
- 1991 – The first major ground engagement of the Gulf War began with the Iraqi invasion of Khafji, Saudi Arabia, recaptured three days later by Coalition forces.
- 2013 – Twenty-one people died when SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashed near Almaty, Kazakhstan.
- Salih ibn Wasif (d. 870)
- George III (d. 1820)
- Teresa Teng (b. 1953)
- Jarell Quansah (b. 2003)
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January 30: Martyrs' Day in India (1948); Fred Korematsu Day in some states in the United States
Former Cabanatuan POWs in celebration
- 1287 – Wareru created the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in today's Lower Burma and declared himself king following the collapse of the Pagan Empire.
- 1661 – Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell's remains were exhumed for a posthumous execution and his head was placed on a spike above Westminster Hall in London, where it remained until 1685.
- 1945 – World War II: Allied forces liberated more than 500 prisoners of war (pictured) from a Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines.
- 2020 – The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern.
- Livia (b. 59 BC)
- Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis (d. 1770)
- Karl Schädler (b. 1804)
- Christian Bale (b. 1974)
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January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)
Bust of Sylvester I
- 314 – Sylvester I (bust depicted), during whose pontificate many churches in Rome were constructed by Constantine the Great, began his reign as pope.
- 1919 – Intense rioting over labour conditions broke out in Glasgow, Scotland.
- 1997 – Final Fantasy VII, the first video game in the Final Fantasy franchise to use 3-D computer graphics, was released.
- 2007 – Emergency officials in Boston mistakenly identified LED placards depicting characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force as IEDs, causing a panic.
- John Francis Regis (b. 1597)
- Franz Schubert (b. 1797)
- Jackie Robinson (b. 1919)
- Adelaide Tambo (d. 2007)
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Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for February
[edit]February 1: Imbolc / Saint Brigid's Day in Ireland; National Freedom Day in the United States
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
- 1329 – The Teutonic Knights successfully besieged the hillfort of Medvėgalis in Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptised the defenders in the Catholic rite.
- 1814 – More than 1,200 people died in the most destructive recorded eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.
- 1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile and soon led the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty.
- 2009 – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (pictured) became the first female prime minister of Iceland.
- Menas of Ethiopia (d. 1563)
- Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix (d. 1761)
- Yolanda González (d. 1980)
- Harry Styles (b. 1994)
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February 2: Candlemas (Western Christianity); Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States
F-16 Fighting Falcon
- 1709 – Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued by English captain Woodes Rogers and his crew after spending four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, providing the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
- 1934 – The Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country's official export credit agency, was established.
- 1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon (pictured), the most numerous fixed-wing aircraft currently in military service, made its first flight.
- 2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the top-ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks.
- William Stanley (b. 1829)
- Likelike (d. 1887)
- Marian Cruger Coffin (d. 1957)
- Philip Seymour Hoffman (d. 2014)
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February 3: Lichun begins in East Asia (2025); Feast day of Saint Laurence of Canterbury (Western Christianity); Four Chaplains' Day in the United States
British bomber flying to join the Battle of Keren
- 1813 – Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín and the Mounted Grenadiers Regiment defeated Spanish royalist forces in the Battle of San Lorenzo.
- 1941 – Second World War: Free French and British forces (aircraft pictured) began the Battle of Keren to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian East Africa.
- 1953 – Hundreds of native creoles known as Forros were massacred on São Tomé Island by the colonial administration and Portuguese landowners.
- 2023 – A freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing hazardous materials into the surrounding area.
- Coloman, King of Hungary (d. 1116)
- Abu Bakar of Johor (b. 1833)
- Simone Weil (b. 1909)
- Kanna Hashimoto (b. 1999)
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Yasser Arafat
- 1169 – A strong earthquake struck the eastern coast of Sicily, causing at least 15,000 deaths.
- 1969 – Yasser Arafat (pictured) was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
- 1974 – American newspaper heiress and socialite Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, which she later joined, in one of the most well-known cases of Stockholm syndrome.
- 1999 – Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers, prompting outrage both within and outside the city.
- Bill Haywood (b. 1869)
- Virginia M. Alexander (b. 1899)
- Jean Bolikango (b. 1909)
- Hilda Hilst (d. 2004)
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February 5: Constitution Day in Mexico (1917)
A device for producing Bakelite
- 1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite (production device pictured), the world's first synthetic plastic.
- 1913 – Claudio Monteverdi's last opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea, was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years.
- 1958 – After a mid-air collision with a fighter plane during a practice exercise off Tybee Island, Georgia, a U.S. Air Force bomber jettisoned a Mark 15 nuclear bomb, which was presumed lost.
- 1985 – The mayors of Carthage and Rome signed a symbolic peace treaty to officially end the Third Punic War, 2,134 years after it began.
- 2019 – Pope Francis became the first pope to celebrate a papal Mass in the Arabian Peninsula.
- Marcus Ward Lyon Jr. (b. 1875)
- William Bostock (b. 1892)
- Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (d. 1983)
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar (b. 1990)
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February 6: Sámi National Day (1917); Waitangi Day in New Zealand (1840)
News reel of the Munich air disaster
- 1788 – Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the constitution of the United States.
- 1819 – British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a trading post for the East India Company.
- 1919 – More than 65,000 workers in Seattle began a five-day general strike to gain higher wages after two years of U.S. World War I wage controls.
- 1958 – The aircraft carrying the Manchester United football team crashed while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport in West Germany, killing 8 players and 23 people in total (news reel featured).
- Joseph Priestley (d. 1804)
- Barbara W. Tuchman (d. 1989)
- Jack Kirby (d. 1994)
- Gary Moore (d. 2011)
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Bruce McCandless II untethered in space
- 1497 – Supporters of the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of vanity items such as cosmetics, art and books in Florence, Italy.
- 1865 – The trustees of Seattle enact an ordinance expelling Native Americans from the newly-incorporated town.
- 1984 – During the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-B, astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart performed the first untethered spacewalk (pictured).
- 2005 – President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree on the redenomination of Azerbaijan's currency, with 1 new manat equal to 5000 old manats.
- 2014 – An inquiry report of the United Nations Human Rights Council found systematic and wide-ranging violations of human rights in North Korea.
- Bartholomäus Sastrow (d. 1603)
- John Deere (b. 1804)
- Desmond Doss (b. 1919)
- Steve Nash (b. 1974)
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Mary, Queen of Scots
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (pictured), was executed at Fotheringhay Castle for her involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
- 1879 – Angered by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket spectators rioted and attacked the England team during a match in Sydney, Australia.
- 1924 – Gee Jon became the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal gas.
- 1948 – The closing ceremony of the first Olympics held after World War II was held in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
- 1968 – Local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of people who were protesting segregation, killing three and injuring twenty-seven others.
- 1983 – The Irish-bred race horse Shergar was stolen by gunmen, who demanded a £2 million ransom.
- Daniele Barbaro (b. 1514)
- Marina de Escobar (b. 1554)
- Neila Sathyalingam (b. 1938)
- Walther Bothe (d. 1957)
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February 9: Chinese New Year's Eve (2024)
Participants in the Mud March
- 1799 – Quasi-War: USS Constellation captured the French frigate Insurgente in a single-ship action in the Caribbean Sea.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis was named the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
- 1907 – More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March (pictured), the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
- 1976 – The Australian Defence Force was formed by the integration of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Australian Air Force.
- 2016 – Two commuter trains collided head-on at Bad Aibling in southeastern Germany, killing 12 people and injuring 85.
- Judith Quiney (d. 1662)
- Aletta Jacobs (b. 1854)
- Howard Martin Temin (d. 1994)
- Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (d. 2003)
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February 10: Feast day of Saint Scholastica (Christianity); Chinese New Year (2024); National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe in Italy
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Delegates at the Inter-Allied Women's Conference
- 1355 – A tavern dispute between University of Oxford students and townspeople became a riot that left about 90 people dead.
- 1919 – The Inter-Allied Women's Conference opened as a counterpart to the Paris Peace Conference, marking the first time that women were allowed formal participation in an international treaty negotiation.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists concluded their conquest of Catalonia and sealed the border with France.
- 2009 – The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit took place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 destroyed each other.
- Ira Remsen (b. 1846)
- Edith Clarke (b. 1883)
- Joseph Lister (d. 1912)
- Joan Curran (d. 1999)
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February 11: National Foundation Day (Japan) (660 BC)
- 1826 – London University, later University College London (pictured), was founded as the first secular university in England.
- 1851 – As part of celebrations marking the separation of Victoria from New South Wales, the inaugural first-class cricket match in Australia began at the Launceston Racecourse in Tasmania.
- 1976 – The Frente de Liberación Homosexual made their final public appearance, shortly before the group's dissolution due to political repression after the 1976 Argentine coup d'état.
- 2001 – The computer worm Anna Kournikova, which would affect millions of users worldwide, was released by a 20-year-old Dutch student.
- Thomas Edison (b. 1847)
- Helene Kröller-Müller (b. 1869)
- Keith Holyoake (b. 1904)
- Jennifer Aniston (b. 1969)
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February 12: Lantern Festival in China (2025); Lincoln's Birthday in some states of the United States; Red Hand Day
Edvard Munch's The Scream
- 1691 – A papal conclave convened to select a new pope after the death of Pope Alexander VIII.
- 1924 – George Gershwin's composition Rhapsody in Blue premiered at Aeolian Hall in New York.
- 1994 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream (pictured) was stolen from the National Gallery of Norway.
- 2003 – Protesters in La Paz and the Bolivian government brokered a deal to end two days of rioting against a proposed salary tax.
- Ethan Allen (d. 1789)
- Charles Darwin (b. 1809)
- Bill Russell (b. 1934)
- Anna Anderson (d. 1984)
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February 13: Shrove Tuesday (Western Christianity, 2024)
Coso artifact
- 1891 – Frances Coles was killed in the last of eleven unsolved murders of women that took place in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London.
- 1961 – Geode prospectors near Olancha, California, discovered what they claimed to be a 500,000-year-old rock with a 1920s-era spark plug encased within (pictured).
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was assassinated using VX nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Muhammad ibn Ra'iq (d. 942)
- Isabella d'Este (d. 1539)
- Dorothy Bliss (b. 1916)
- Balu Mahendra (d. 2014)
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February 14: Valentine's Day; Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2024)
Part of the Pale Blue Dot photograph
- 1655 – Arauco War: A series of coordinated Mapuche attacks took place against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile, beginning a ten-year period of warfare.
- 1779 – Native Hawaiians killed the English explorer Captain James Cook after he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of the island of Hawaii.
- 1990 – NASA's Voyager 1 space probe took the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth (cropped version pictured) from a record distance of 40.5 au (6.06 billion km; 3.76 billion mi).
- 2005 - YouTube is founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.
- 2007 – The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards.
- Valentin Friedland (b. 1490)
- Eleanora Atherton (b. 1782)
- Nadezhda Krupskaya (b. 1869)
- Vito Genovese (d. 1969)
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February 15: National Flag of Canada Day; Statehood Day in Serbia; Susan B. Anthony Day in some states of the United States
Don Dunstan in 1968
- 438 – The Codex Theodosianus, a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire, was published.
- 1763 – Prussia, Saxony and the Habsburg monarchy signed the Treaty of Hubertusburg, ending the Third Silesian War.
- 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux began excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves in the West Bank, the location of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1979 – Don Dunstan (pictured) resigned as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.
- 1999 – Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founding members of the militant organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party, was arrested by Turkish security forces in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Gisela of Swabia (d. 1043)
- Matt Groening (b. 1954)
- Mo Tae-bum (b. 1989)
- Dawa Dem (d. 2018)
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February 16: Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska
Act of Independence of Lithuania
- 1249 – King Louis IX dispatched André de Longjumeau as the French ambassador to the Mongol Empire.
- 1918 – The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence (pictured), proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania.
- 1922 – A landslide in Byblos revealed a sarcophagus in an underground tomb, later discovered to be part of a large Bronze Age necropolis.
- 1996 – Eleven people died in a train collision in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading to the creation of comprehensive U.S. federal rules for the design of passenger cars.
- Richard of Dover (d. 1184)
- Coluccio Salutati (b. 1331)
- Michael Holding (b. 1954)
- Elizabeth Olsen (b. 1989)
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Helicopter stolen in the 1974 White House incident
- 1859 – Cochinchina campaign: French Navy forces captured the Citadel of Saigon, defended by 1,000 Vietnamese soldiers of the Nguyễn dynasty.
- 1904 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera.
- 1964 – Gabonese military officers overthrew President Léon M'ba, but French forces, honouring a 1960 treaty, forcibly reinstated him two days later.
- 1974 – A U.S. Army soldier stole a Bell UH-1 helicopter (pictured) and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
- 2011 – Arab Spring: Bahraini security forces killed four protesters in a pre-dawn raid at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, while the "Day of Rage" took place in Libya with nationwide protests against Muammar Gaddafi's government.
- Hung Liu (b. 1948)
- Joseph Favre (b. 1849)
- María de las Mercedes Barbudo (d. 1849)
- Don Tallon (b. 1916)
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Protesters during the Revolution of Dignity
- 3102 BCE – According to Hindu scriptures, Kali Yuga, the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas, began.
- 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: French troops led by Napoleon forced the Army of Bohemia to retreat after it advanced dangerously close to Paris.
- 1977 – The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited the wreaths of late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel.
- 2014 – A series of violent events (pictured) involving protesters, riot police, and unknown shooters began in Kyiv that culminated in the ousting of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych five days later.
- Angilbert (d. 814)
- Per Brahe the Younger (b. 1602)
- Ōyama Sutematsu (d. 1919)
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (d. 1967)
More anniversaries:
February 19: Family Day in Canada (2024); Presidents' Day in the United States (2024)
A depiction of the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903
- 1811 – Peninsular War: Outnumbered French forces under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed Spanish troops at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain.
- 1903 – A blockade against Venezuela (depicted), caused by President Cipriano Castro's refusal to pay foreign debts, was lifted.
- 1942 – World War II: U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible relocation of over 112,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps.
- 1948 – The Southeast Asian Youth Conference, which is believed to have inspired armed communist rebellions in different Asian countries, opened in Calcutta, India.
- Nicolaus Copernicus (b. 1473)
- Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (b. 1938)
- Jennifer Doudna (b. 1964)
- Harper Lee (d. 2016)
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February 20: Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes in Ukraine (2014)
Avro CF-105 Arrow
- 1685 – The French colonization of Texas began with the landing of colonists led by Robert de La Salle near Matagorda Bay.
- 1959 – Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro CF-105 Arrow (pictured) interceptor-aircraft program amid much political debate.
- 1970 – The Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani province, one of the largest Buddhist temples in Thailand, was founded.
- 1998 – At the age of 15, American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest gold-medal winner in the history of the Winter Olympic Games at the time.
- Wulfric of Haselbury (d. 1154)
- Elizabeth Holloway Marston (b. 1893)
- Gail Kim (b. 1977)
- Tōru Takemitsu (d. 1996)
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Malcolm X
- 1746 – Jacobite rising of 1745: The siege of Inverness ended with British forces surrendering to the Jacobite army.
- 1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate Army began an attempt to gain control of the Southwest with a major victory in the Battle of Valverde.
- 1952 – A number of student protesters demanding the establishment of Bengali as an official language were killed by police in Dhaka, East Pakistan.
- 1965 – American Black nationalist Malcolm X (pictured) was assassinated while giving a speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom.
- 1973 – After accidentally straying into Israeli-occupied airspace, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two fighter aircraft, killing 108 of the 113 people on board.
- Gaius Caesar (d. AD 4)
- Léo Delibes (b. 1836)
- Incas (parakeet) (d. 1918)
- Elliot Page (b. 1987)
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Daytona International Speedway
- 1371 – Robert II became King of Scots as the first monarch of the House of Stewart.
- 1959 – Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 NASCAR auto race at the Daytona International Speedway (pictured) in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- 1974 – Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but he was stopped by police.
- 2019 – A group broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid and stole several mobile telephones and digital storage devices.
- Peder Syv (b. 1631)
- James Russell Lowell (b. 1819)
- Clarence 13X (b. 1928)
- Bronwyn Oliver (b. 1959)
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February 23: The Emperor's Birthday in Japan (1960)
Aluminium
- 1854 – The Orange River Convention was signed in Bloemfontein, with the United Kingdom agreeing to recognise the independence of the Orange Free State in present-day South Africa.
- 1886 – American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive method of producing aluminium (sample pictured).
- 1944 – In response to an insurgency in Chechnya, the Soviet Union began the forced deportation of the native Chechen and Ingush of North Caucasus.
- 1987 – SN 1987A, a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, was observed from Earth.
- 2021 – Caused by gang rivalries, riots in four Ecuadorian prisons resulted in the deaths of 79 inmates.
- al-Zafir (b. 1133)
- Allan MacLeod Cormack (b. 1924)
- Edward Elgar (d. 1934)
- Shiena Nishizawa (b. 1997)
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February 24: Independence Day in Estonia (1918)
George Frideric Handel
- 1711 – Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel (pictured), the first Italian-language opera written specifically for the London stage, premiered.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: French admiral Villaret de Joyeuse unconditionally surrendered to the British, which ended the British invasion of Martinique and began a five-year occupation of the island.
- 1979 – Uganda–Tanzania War: Ugandan government forces fled Masaka, Uganda, as the Tanzania People's Defence Force bombarded and captured the town.
- 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811 experienced uncontrolled decompression after leaving Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii, blowing seats out of the aircraft and killing nine passengers.
- Æthelberht of Kent (d. 616)
- Judah Folkman (b. 1933)
- Nina Simonovich-Efimova (d. 1948)
- Leo Ornstein (d. 2002)
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February 25: Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia (1921); National Day in Kuwait (1961)
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USS Ranger
- 1843 – Royal Navy captain Lord George Paulet began a five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.
- 1933 – USS Ranger (pictured), the United States Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, was launched.
- 1951 – After being postponed due to World War II, the inaugural Pan American Games opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 1994 – Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian Muslims praying at the mosque in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people and wounding 125 others.
- 2009 – At their headquarters in Pilkhana, members of the Bangladesh Rifles began a mutiny that resulted in 82 deaths.
- Emma Catherine Embury (b. 1806)
- Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (d. 1934)
- Divya Bharti (b. 1974)
- Don Bradman (d. 2001)
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Nabonassar's name in Akkadian
- 747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar (name in Akkadian pictured) began, marking a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
- 1914 – RMS Britannic, the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line after RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, was launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
- 1979 – The Superliner railcar entered revenue service with Amtrak.
- 1993 – A van filled with explosives is detonated by terrorists under the Austin J. Tobin Plaza at the World Trade Center site, killing six and injuring over 1,000 others.
- 2014 – Former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Kevin Lau was stabbed, prompting concerns and protests about media freedom.
- Fatima bint al-Ahmar (d. 1349)
- Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll (b. 1629)
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b. 1954)
- Jennie Smillie Robertson (d. 1981)
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February 27: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Narek (Catholicism)
Memorial to the victims of the Sumgait pogrom
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Patriot victory at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge resulted in the arrests of 850 Loyalists over the following days.
- 1814 – Peninsular War: In the south of France, Spanish, British and Portuguese soldiers under the command of Arthur Wellesley defeated French soldiers in the Battle of Orthez, causing the French to retreat east.
- 1988 – The Armenian community of Sumgait in Azerbaijan was the target of a violent pogrom (memorial pictured).
- 1996 – The multimedia franchise Pokémon was launched with the release of the video games Pocket Monsters Red and Green.
- Robert of Melun (d. 1167)
- Alice Hamilton (b. 1869)
- Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar (d. 1956)
- Leah Poulton (b. 1984)
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February 28: Tibetan New Year begins (2025); Kalevala Day / Finnish Culture Day
The first team of S.L. Benfica
- 1874 – In one of the longest cases ever heard in an English court, the claimant in the Tichborne case was convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the missing heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
- 1904 – The most successful football club in Portugal, S.L. Benfica (first team pictured), was founded in Lisbon as Sport Lisboa.
- 1914 – In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Greeks living in southern Albania proclaimed the short-lived Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.
- 1939 – In one of the most famous errors in lexicography, the erroneous word "dord" was discovered in Webster's New International Dictionary by an editor.
- 1974 – The British election ended in a hung parliament after the Liberal Party, under Jeremy Thorpe, achieved their highest ever number of votes.
- Hortense Allart (d. 1879)
- William Zorach (b. 1889)
- Christopher C. Kraft Jr. (b. 1924)
- Fernando Cajías (b. 1949)
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February 29: Beginning of the Nineteen-Day Fast (Baháʼí Faith, 2024)
A damaged building from the 1960 Agadir earthquake
- 1704 – Queen Anne's War: French and Native American forces raided the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing more than 50 colonists.
- 1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands campaign began when American forces assaulted Los Negros Island, the third largest of the Admiralty Islands.
- 1960 – The deadliest earthquake in Moroccan history (damaged building pictured) struck the city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000 people.
- 2004 – Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown following popular rebel uprising.
- 2012 – Construction of Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower and third-tallest structure, was completed.
- Oswald of Worcester (d. 992)
- Kamil Tolon (b. 1912)
- Oswaldo Payá (b. 1952)
- Carmel Busuttil (b. 1964)
More anniversaries:
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
It is now 12:59 on Saturday, December 21, 2024 (UTC)|Purge cache for this page
Selected anniversaries for March
[edit]March 1: Disability Day of Mourning; Saint David's Day; Independence Day in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Longtaitou Festival in China (2025); Yap Day in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia
Dmitri Mendeleev
- 1562 – An attempt by Francis, Duke of Guise, to disperse a church service by Huguenots in Wassy, France, turned into a massacre, resulting in 50 dead, and starting the French Wars of Religion.
- 1869 – The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (pictured) finished his design of the first periodic table.
- 1921 – The Australian cricket team, led by Warwick Armstrong, became the first team to complete a whitewash in the Ashes, an achievement that would not be repeated for 86 years.
- 1936 – Hoover Dam, straddling the Arizona–Nevada border on the Colorado River, was completed.
- 1992 – A Bosnian-Serb wedding procession was attacked in Sarajevo, resulting in what is widely considered the first casualty of the Bosnian War.
- Roger North (d. 1734)
- Deke Slayton (b. 1924)
- Nick Griffin (b. 1959)
- Mustafa Barzani (d. 1979)
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Wilt Chamberlain
- 1484 – The College of Arms, one of the few remaining official heraldic authorities in Europe, was incorporated by royal charter in the City of London.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militiamen from Georgia and South Carolina attempted to resist the British action to seize and remove supply ships anchored at Savannah, Georgia.
- 1949 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world by airplane.
- 1962 – Playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, which remains an NBA record.
- 2022 – Russian forces captured the city of Kherson, the only regional capital to be taken during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Pope Adrian VI (b. 1459)
- Alexander Bullock (b. 1816)
- Bedřich Smetana (b. 1824)
- Ida Maclean (d. 1944)
March 3: Liberation Day in Bulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan
Program for the woman suffrage parade
- 1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted, introducing English common law to the Principality of Wales.
- 1891 – Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming was established as the first national forest in the United States.
- 1913 – Thousands of women marched in Washington, D.C. (program cover pictured) "in a spirit of protest" against the exclusion of women from American society.
- 1924 – The Ottoman Caliphate, the world's last widely recognized caliphate, was abolished.
- 1991 – Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers during an arrest, causing public outrage that increased tensions between the African-American community and the police department over police brutality and social inequality.
- Antony Bek (d. 1311)
- Bonnie J. Dunbar (b. 1949)
- Xavier Bettel (b. 1973)
- May Cutler (d. 2011)
March 4: Feast day of Saint Casimir (Catholicism)
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Władysław II Jagiełło
- 1386 – Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło (pictured), beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty.
- 1773 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three journeys there.
- 1899 – Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing over 300 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australian history.
- 1918 – A case of influenza was recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the Spanish flu pandemic.
- 2017 – Construction began on a 69-metre (226 ft) statue of the Buddha at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok.
- Hindal Mirza (b. 1519)
- Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (b. 1907)
- Harold Barrowclough (d. 1972)
- Gary Gygax (d. 2008)
March 5: Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, England
Prototype Spitfire K5054
- 1811 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of Barrosa, Anglo-Iberian forces trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French attack but could not break the siege itself.
- 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last Caribbean pirates, was apprehended after his flagship sloop Anne was captured by authorities.
- 1936 – The prototype (pictured) of the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.
- 1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph Guerrillero Heroico of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
- 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.
- Edward Cornwallis (b. 1713)
- J. R. Kealoha (d. 1877)
- Anna Akhmatova (d. 1966)
- Ailsa McKay (d. 2014)
William Speirs Bruce
- 845 – The Abbasid Caliphate executed 42 Byzantine officials who had been captured in the sack of Amorium of 838 for refusing to convert to Islam.
- 1447 – Tommaso Parentucelli was elected as Pope Nicholas V in Rome.
- 1904 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce (pictured), the Antarctic region of Coats Land was discovered by the Scotia.
- 1988 – The Troubles: In Operation Flavius, the Special Air Service killed three volunteers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
- 2000 – The Marine Parade Community Building, the mural cladding of which is the largest installation art in Singapore, was opened.
- Clark Shaughnessy (b. 1892)
- Joseph Berchtold (b. 1897)
- Shaukat Aziz (b. 1949)
- Cyprien Ntaryamira (b. 1955)
March 7: Feast day of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism)
Police attacking civil rights activists outside Selma, Alabama
- 1573 – A peace treaty brought the Ottoman–Venetian War to an end, ceding Cyprus from the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire.
- 1871 – José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.
- 1941 – The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappeared with 45 men on board.
- 1965 – Unarmed civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, were attacked by police (pictured) on "Bloody Sunday".
- 2021 – A series of four explosions at a military barracks in Bata, Equatorial Guinea caused at least 107 deaths.
- Ludwig Mond (b. 1839)
- Masako Katsura (b. 1913)
- Mochtar Lubis (b. 1922)
- Divine (d. 1988)
March 8: International Women's Day; Aurat March in Pakistan
Io with two volcanic plumes
- 1576 – A Spanish colonial officer wrote a letter to King Philip II containing the first mention of the Maya ruins of Copán in present-day Honduras.
- 1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence.
- 1963 – The Ba'ath Party came to power in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council for the Revolutionary Command.
- 1966 – Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Lord Nelson in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb.
- 1979 – Images taken by Voyager 1 proved the existence of volcanoes on Io (pictured), a moon of Jupiter.
- Adela of Normandy (d. 1137)
- Louie Nunn (b. 1924)
- Alfons Rebane (d. 1976)
- Haseeb Ahsan (d. 2013)
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Princess Kaʻiulani
- 1776 – Scottish political economist Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations, the first modern work in economics, was published.
- 1891 – Kaʻiulani (pictured) was appointed heir apparent to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
- 1925 – The Royal Air Force began a bombardment and strafing campaign against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan, in what is now Pakistan.
- 1956 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet troops suppressed mass demonstrations against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
- 1957 – The Mw 8.6 Andreanof Islands earthquake struck Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami.
- Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (d. 886)
- Catherine of Bologna (d. 1463)
- Friederike Caroline Neuber (b. 1697)
- Dick Walker (b. 1938)
March 10: Mothering Sunday (Western Christianity, 2024)
Eliot Spitzer
- 1695 – Nine Years' War: At the Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Catalan miquelets attacked a column of French regular infantry and caused them to surrender.
- 1959 – An anti-Chinese uprising began as thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa to prevent the Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese army.
- 1968 – Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85.
- 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered a faint ring system around Uranus.
- 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer (pictured), Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring.
- Tvrtko I of Bosnia (d. 1391)
- Lillian Wald (b. 1867)
- Marie-Eugénie de Jésus (d. 1898)
- Rupert Bruce-Mitford (d. 1994)
March 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2024); National Heroes and Benefactors Day in Belize (2024)
Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, after its rupture
- 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood killed at least 240 people and damaged more than 600 homes, after a crack in the Dale Dike Reservoir (pictured) caused it to fail.
- 1993 – The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the country's first female attorney general.
- 2007 – Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley of the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.
- 2009 – A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.
- Mary of Woodstock (b. 1278)
- Stanisław Koniecpolski (d. 1646)
- Ralph Abernathy (b. 1926)
- Gladys Pearl Baker (d. 1984)
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Andrew Watson
- 1537 – Croatian–Ottoman wars: After the execution of feudal lord Petar Kružić, Croatian forces at Klis surrendered to the Ottoman forces in exchange for their safe passage to northern locations.
- 1881 – Andrew Watson (pictured) captained the Scotland national football team against England, becoming the world's first black international footballer.
- 1947 – Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine to help stem the spread of communism.
- 1952 – British diplomat Lord Ismay was appointed the first secretary general of NATO.
- 1971 – The Turkish Armed Forces executed a "coup by memorandum", forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel.
- 2006 – U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family members.
- William Henry Perkin (b. 1838)
- Gemma Galgani (b. 1878)
- Zhao Wei (b. 1976)
- Arina Tanemura (b. 1978)
British attack on Cartagena de Indias
- 1567 – A Spanish mercenary army surprised a band of rebels at the Battle of Oosterweel in the Habsburg Netherlands, beginning the Eighty Years' War.
- 1741 – War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (depicted).
- 1964 – Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her.
- 1996 – A mass shooting at a school occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 17 people and prompting tighter gun control in the UK.
- John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden (b. 1719)
- Adolf Anderssen (d. 1879)
- Meinhard Michael Moser (b. 1924)
- Jan Howard (b. 1929)
March 14: New Year's Day (Sikhism); White Day in parts of East Asia; Pi Day
Gioachino Rossini
- 1309 – On Eid al-Fitr, the citizens of Granada stormed palaces in the city, deposing Sultan Muhammad III and placing his half-brother Nasr on the throne.
- 1864 – The Petite messe solennelle was first performed in Paris, 34 years after Gioachino Rossini (pictured) retired as a composer.
- 1931 – Alam Ara, the first Indian sound film, premiered at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay.
- 1988 – China defeated Vietnam in a naval altercation while attempting to establish oceanographic observation posts on the Spratly Islands.
- 2021 – The Burmese military and police forces killed at least 65 civilians during the Hlaingthaya massacre in Yangon, including those protesting a recent coup d'état.
- Albert Einstein (b. 1879)
- Zita of Bourbon-Parma (d. 1989)
- Piri (b. 1999)
- Ieng Sary (d. 2013)
Julius Caesar
- 44 BC – Julius Caesar (bust pictured), the dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.
- 1823 – Sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reported the existence of the island of New South Greenland near Antarctica.
- 1916 – Six days after Pancho Villa and his cross-border raiders attacked Columbus, New Mexico, U.S. General John J. Pershing led a punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue Villa.
- 1917 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
- 1943 – The deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Greek city of Thessaloniki began.
- 1951 – The Iranian oil industry was nationalized in a movement led by Mohammad Mosaddegh.
- Albert of Schwarzburg (d. 1327)
- Matthew Charlton (b. 1866)
- Ignace Tonené (d. 1916)
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. 1933)
March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires
Cap badge of the Royal Welch Fusiliers
- 934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
- 1689 – The Royal Welch Fusiliers (cap badge pictured), one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.
- 1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.
- 1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
- 1988 – Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.
- Alaric Alexander Watts (b. 1797)
- Don Blasingame (b. 1932)
- Virginia Randolph (d. 1958)
- Jean Bellette (d. 1991)
March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)
Dorchester Heights Monument
- 1864 – Second Schleswig War: In an attempt to end a Danish blockade, Eduard von Jachmann led a Prussian squadron in an attack against a Danish fleet led by Edvard van Dockum.
- 1902 – The Dorchester Heights Monument (pictured), memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated.
- 1957 – A plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
- 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland collapsed during refurbishing construction, killing two workers, and leading to the abandonment of the tunnel.
- 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in the deaths of 28, the wounding of more than 600 others, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines.
- Jocelin of Glasgow (d. 1199)
- Menno van Coehoorn (d. 1704)
- Pattie Boyd (b. 1944)
- Shu Xiuwen (d. 1969)
March 18: Feast day of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Christianity)
Traian Vuia's monoplane
- 363 – A fire began in Rome that resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.
- 1277 – Charles I of Anjou acquired a claim on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in exchange for a significant sum of money.
- 1906 – Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air monoplane (pictured) with an unassisted takeoff.
- 1925 – The Tri-State Tornado spawned in Missouri, traveled over 219 miles (352 km) across Illinois and Indiana, and killed 695 along the way, making it the tornado with the longest continuous track ever recorded and the deadliest in U.S. history.
- 1977 – The punk group the Clash released their first single, "White Riot", described as their "most controversial song" due to its lyrics about class economics and race.
- 2019 – Syrian civil war: The U.S. Air Force carried out an airstrike in al-Baghuz Fawqani, killing 64 civilians.
- Edward the Martyr (d. 978)
- Clem Hill (b. 1877)
- Johnny Papalia (b. 1924)
- Wali Mohammad Itoo (d. 1994)
March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity); Nowruz (2024)
Zhao Bing, Emperor of Song
- 1279 – Mongol conquest of Song China: Zhao Bing (pictured), the last emperor of the Song dynasty, drowned at the end of the Battle of Yamen, bringing the dynasty to an end after three centuries.
- 1824 – American explorer Benjamin Morrell departed Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud.
- 1944 – The secular oratorio A Child of Our Time by Michael Tippett premiered at the Adelphi Theatre in London.
- 1998 – An unscheduled Ariana Afghan Airlines flight crashed into a mountain on approach into Kabul, killing all 45 people aboard.
- 2011 – First Libyan Civil War: The French Air Force launched Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.
- Lord Edmund Howard (d. 1539)
- Greville Wynne (b. 1919)
- Joe Gaetjens (b. 1924)
- Lise Østergaard (d. 1996)
Chemical structure of zidovudine
- 1724 – Following the death of Pope Innocent XIII, a papal conclave convened in Rome to elect a new pope.
- 1861 – An earthquake occurred in the Argentine province of Mendoza, causing at least 6,000 deaths and destroying most of the buildings in the province's capital city.
- 1922 – The United States Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier, USS Langley.
- 1944 – World War II: U.S. Marines made a landing on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase as part of Operation Cartwheel.
- 1987 – The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (chemical structure pictured) became the first treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for HIV/AIDS.
- 2014 – Taliban militants killed nine civilians in a mass shooting at the Kabul Serena Hotel in Afghanistan.
- Maud Menten (b. 1879)
- Willie Brown (b. 1934)
- Fernando Torres (b. 1984)
- Christel Boom (d. 2004)
March 21: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2024); Oltenia Day in Romania
Scottish Cup
- 1874 – Queen's Park defeated Clydesdale 2–0 in the final of the inaugural Scottish Cup (trophy pictured).
- 1913 – More than 360 were killed and 20,000 homes were destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
- 1968 – War of Attrition: The Battle of Karameh took place between the Israel Defense Forces and allied troops of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces.
- 1980 – The American soap opera Dallas aired the episode "A House Divided", which led to eight months of international speculation on "Who shot J.R.?"
- 2019 – A major explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng, China, killed 78 people and injured 640 others.
- Ælla of Northumbria and Osberht of Northumbria (d. 867)
- Alice Henry (b. 1857)
- Al Williamson (b. 1931)
- Chinua Achebe (d. 2013)
Charilaos Vasilakos (center) training for the marathon
- 106 – The Bostran era, the official era of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, began.
- 1638 – Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her participation in the Antinomian Controversy.
- 1896 – Charilaos Vasilakos (pictured) won the first modern marathon in preparation for the inaugural Summer Olympics.
- 1913 – Phan Xích Long, the self-proclaimed emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the following day.
- 1984 – Teachers at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were falsely charged with the sexual abuse of schoolchildren, leading to the longest and costliest criminal trial in United States history.
- 1995 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned from the space station Mir aboard Soyuz TM-20 after 437 days in space, setting a record for the longest spaceflight.
- John Kemp (d. 1454)
- Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
- Abolhassan Banisadr (b. 1933)
- Rob Ford (d. 2016)
March 23: Earth Hour (20:30 local time, 2024)
Bhagat Singh
- 1888 – Chaired by William McGregor, a meeting of ten English football clubs was held in London, which would eventually result in the establishment of the Football League.
- 1931 – Bhagat Singh (pictured), one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by the British authorities.
- 1989 – Two researchers announced the discovery of cold fusion, a claim which was later discredited.
- 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Russia's Kemerovo Oblast, killing all 75 people on board, after the pilot's 15-year-old son had unknowingly disabled the autopilot while seated at the controls.
- 2005 – A fire and explosion at the third-largest oil refinery in the United States killed 15 workers and kicked off process safety programs throughout the world.
- Henry of Grosmont (d. 1361)
- Pierre-Simon Laplace (b. 1749)
- Akira Kurosawa (b. 1910)
- Kangana Ranaut (b. 1987)
March 24: Purim (Judaism 2024), World Tuberculosis Day
Flag of Prince Edward Island
- 1387 – Hundred Years' War: An English fleet led by Richard Fitzalan attacked 250–360 French, Flemish and Castilian vessels in the Battle of Margate.
- 1934 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act came into effect, which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after a period of ten years.
- 1939 – Members of the German National Movement in Liechtenstein attempted to overthrow the government and provoke Liechtenstein's annexation into Nazi Germany.
- 1964 – Royal assent was given to Prince Edward Island's Provincial Flag Act, which outlined the design of its provincial flag (pictured).
- 2006 – Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus as an actress whose alter ego is the titular character, premiered.
- Wulfred (d. 832)
- Theodora Kroeber (b. 1897)
- John Millington Synge (d. 1909)
- Chris Bosh (b. 1984)
March 25: Bangladesh Genocide Remembrance Day
Enrico Fermi in 1943
- 1458 – Wars of the Roses: A formal reconciliation ceremony between the Lancastrians and Yorkists led to a brief period of peace.
- 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: In their second battle in seven days, the French Army of the Danube and Habsburg forces battled for control of the Hegau region.
- 1934 – Enrico Fermi (pictured) published his discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000 "undesirable" people from the Baltic states to Siberia.
- Kō no Moronao (d. 1351)
- Melita Norwood (b. 1912)
- Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas (d. 1927)
- Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
Elbridge Gerry
- 1344 – Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
- 1651 – The Spanish ship San José ran aground onto coasts controlled by the indigenous Cunco people, who subsequently killed the crew.
- 1697 – The Safavid Empire began a four-year occupation of the Ottoman city of Basra on the Persian Gulf.
- 1812 – The Boston Gazette printed a cartoon coining the term "gerrymander", named after Governor Elbridge Gerry (pictured), who approved the legislation that created oddly shaped electoral districts.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists began their final offensive of the war, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.
- 1999 – A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.
- 'Adud al-Dawla (d. 983)
- Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (b. 1794)
- Julie-Victoire Daubié (b. 1824)
- D. M. Thomas (d. 2023)
March 27: Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)
Ball-and-stick model of sildenafil
- 1884 – Outraged by a jury's decision to convict a man of manslaughter instead of murder, a mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, began three days of rioting.
- 1899 – Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of Marilao River.
- 1998 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
- 1999 – During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an Army of Yugoslavia unit shot down a U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft.
- 2020 – North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
- Jonathan Jennings (b. 1784)
- Doug Wilkerson (b. 1947)
- Elisheva Bikhovski (d. 1949)
- T. Sailo (d. 2015)
HMS Campbeltown during the St Nazaire Raid
- 1802 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid to be identified, but at the time considered to be a planet.
- 1935 – The Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin.
- 1942 – Second World War: The port of Saint-Nazaire in German-occupied France was disabled by British naval forces (ship pictured).
- 1946 – The US Department of State released the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, a proposal for the international control of nuclear weapons.
- 1979 – British prime minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a vote of no confidence after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the Winter of Discontent.
- 1999 – Kosovo War: Serbian police and special forces killed around 93 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Izbica.
- Ernst Lindemann (b. 1894)
- Nasser Hussain (b. 1968)
- Lady Gaga (b. 1986)
- Charles Schepens (d. 2006)
March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic (1959); Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)
Mariner 10
- 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrian army at the Battle of Towton, allowing Edward IV to secure the English throne.
- 1882 – The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, was founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
- 1974 – NASA's Mariner 10 (pictured) became the first space probe to make a flyby of Mercury.
- 1999 – The Chamoli earthquake, one of the strongest to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than 90 years, killed at least 100 people.
- 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales took place following the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.
- Thomas Coram (d. 1751)
- Emilia Baeyertz (b. 1842)
- Sam Loxton (b. 1921)
- Ruth A. M. Schmidt (d. 2014)
March 30: Land Day in Palestinian communities (1976)
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Depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Fes
- 1822 – The United States merged East Florida and West Florida to create the Florida Territory.
- 1912 – Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed the Treaty of Fes (depicted), making Morocco a French protectorate.
- 1977 – Annie Hall had its first screening at the LA Film Festival; it would later be voted the funniest screenplay ever by members of the Writers Guild of America.
- 2009 – The Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked and held for several hours by 12 gunmen, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries.
- Nicolae Rădescu (b. 1874)
- William Hoapili Kaʻauwai (d. 1874)
- DJ AM (b. 1973)
- Chrisye (d. 2007)
March 31: Easter (Western Christianity, 2024); Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927); International Transgender Day of Visibility
Woodcut picture of Matthew C. Perry
- 1854 – U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Japanese depiction pictured) and the Tokugawa shogunate signed the Convention of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
- 1959 – After a two-week escape journey from Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama reached the Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh in India.
- 1964 – The Brazilian Armed Forces overthrew President João Goulart, establishing a military dictatorship that lasted 21 years.
- 2004 – The Old National Library Building in Singapore was closed to make way for a tunnel, despite widespread protests.
- Guru Angad (b. 1504)
- J. P. Morgan (d. 1913)
- Ewan McGregor (b. 1971)
- Ahmad Sayyed Javadi (d. 2013)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for April
[edit]April 1: April Fools' Day; Iranian Islamic Republic Day (1979)
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
- 1871 – The Duke of Buckingham (pictured) opened the first section of the Brill Tramway, a short railway line to transport goods between his lands and the national rail network.
- 1952 – Israel enacted a citizenship law, prior to which the country technically had no citizens.
- 1969 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with V/STOL capabilities, entered service with the Royal Air Force.
- 2001 – Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands was legalised, with the country becoming the first to do so.
- Aimery of Cyprus (d. 1205)
- Sophie Germain (b. 1776)
- Shivakumara Swami (b. 1907)
- Scott Joplin (d. 1917)
April 2: World Autism Awareness Day; feast day of Saint Francis of Paola (Catholicism); Malvinas Day in Argentina (1982)
Southern bread riots
- 1863 – About 5,000 people in Richmond, Virginia, mostly poor women, rioted in protest of the high price of bread (depicted).
- 1979 – Spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military research facility near the city of Sverdlovsk, causing at least 68 deaths.
- 1982 – Argentine special forces invaded the Falkland Islands, sparking the Falklands War against the United Kingdom.
- 1992 – Bosnian War: At least 48 civilians were massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 2012 – A gunman shot at people inside Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, California, leaving seven people dead and three injured.
- Prince George of Denmark (b. 1653)
- Wilhelmine Reichard (b. 1788)
- Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet (d. 1803)
- Elizabeth Catlett (d. 2012)
Rakesh Sharma
- 1043 – Edward the Confessor, usually considered to be the last king of the House of Wessex, was crowned King of England.
- 1984 – Aboard Soyuz T-11, Rakesh Sharma (pictured) became the first Indian to be launched into space.
- 1996 – A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while attempting an instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing all 35 people on board, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
- 2009 – A gunman opened fire at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, U.S., killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide.
- 2013 – The northeastern section of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, experienced several flash floods that killed at least 100 people.
- Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (d. 687)
- Mary Carpenter (b. 1807)
- Reginald Heber (d. 1826)
- Gus Grissom (b. 1926)
April 4: Hansik in Korea (2024); Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese, 2025)
Alexios I Komnenos
- 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines.
- 1081 – The Komnenos dynasty came to full power with the coronation of Alexios I Komnenos (pictured) as Byzantine emperor.
- 1859 – Bryant's Minstrels premiered the minstrel song "Dixie" in New York City as part of their blackface show.
- 1949 – Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, establishing NATO, an international military alliance whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.
- A. Thomas Bradbury (b. 1902)
- Martin Rundkvist (b. 1972)
- Xu Lai (d. 1973)
- Inez Robb (d. 1979)
April 5: Feast day of Saint Vincent Ferrer (Catholicism)
Pocahontas
- 919 – The Fatimid Caliphate began a second unsuccessful invasion of Egypt, then under Abbasid rule.
- 1614 – Pocahontas (pictured), a Native American woman, married English colonist John Rolfe, leading to a period of peace between the Powhatan people and the inhabitants of Jamestown, Virginia.
- 1944 – Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from Auschwitz with the aid of an SS officer who opposed the Holocaust.
- 1986 – The Libyan secret service bombed a discotheque in West Berlin, resulting in three deaths and 229 others injured.
- 2009 – The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
- al-Nuwayri (b. 1279)
- Thure de Thulstrup (b. 1848)
- Marie-Rosalie Cadron-Jetté (d. 1864)
- Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
ABBA
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy unsuccessfully attempted to capture HMS Glasgow near Block Island.
- 1808 – John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company, the profits from which made him the first multi-millionaire in the United States.
- 1974 – ABBA (pictured) won the Eurovision Song Contest representing Sweden with the song "Waterloo".
- 1994 – The aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down in Kigali; the event became the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide.
- 2008 – Egyptian workers staged an illegal general strike, two days before key municipal elections.
- 2009 – Mass protests began across Moldova against the results of the parliamentary election.
- James Mill (b. 1773)
- Donald Wills Douglas Sr. (b. 1892)
- Rose O'Neill (d. 1944)
- Ng Ser Miang (b. 1949)
April 7: National Beer Day in the United States
Artist's conception of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh, the bloodiest battle in U.S. history at the time, in Hardin County, Tennessee.
- 1949 – The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, based on Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, opened on Broadway.
- 1964 – Reverend Bruce W. Klunder was killed by a bulldozer while he was protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
- 1994 – Rwandan Civil War: The Rwandan genocide began a few hours after the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana, with hundreds of thousands killed in the following 100 days.
- 2001 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey (artist's conception pictured), the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, launched from Cape Canaveral.
- Berengar I of Italy (d. 924)
- Martha Ray (d. 1779)
- Joseph Lyons (d. 1939)
- Dave Arneson (d. 2009)
Little Nemo
- 1271 – Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baybars.
- 1904 – France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.
- 1911 – American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.
- 1933 – The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.
- 1973 – The Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo, Norway.
Toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad
April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada (1917); Day of Valor in the Philippines (1942)
- 193 – Year of the Five Emperors: Septimius Severus was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops at Carnuntum in modern-day Austria.
- 1388 – Despite being vastly outnumbered, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Näfels.
- 1939 – After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, African-American singer Marian Anderson gave an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
- 1967 – The Boeing 737 took its maiden flight, eventually becoming the most produced commercial passenger jet airliner in the world.
- 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: Coalition forces captured Baghdad and the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled.
- Young Dirty Bastard (b. 1989)
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel (b. 1806)
- Mary Jackson (b. 1921)
April 10: Eid al-Fitr (Islam, 2024)
M87* imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition began with the Austrian invasion of Bavaria, then a client state of France.
- 1925 – The novel The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published by Scribner's.
- 1970 – In the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, Paul McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles.
- 1973 – In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board.
- 2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image of a black hole (depicted), located at the center of the galaxy M87.
- Gabrielle d'Estrées (d. 1599)
- Lew Wallace (b. 1827)
- Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (b. 1917)
Mary II and William III
- 1689 – William III and Mary II (both pictured) were crowned joint sovereigns of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: A hastily assembled Royal Navy fleet launched an assault against the main strength of the French Atlantic Fleet; an incomplete victory led to political turmoil in Britain.
- 1951 – U.S. president Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements about the Korean War that contradicted the administration's policies.
- 2001 – In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated American Samoa 31–0, the largest margin of victory recorded in international football.
- Romanos III Argyros (d. 1034)
- Ewelina Hańska (d. 1882)
- Trevor Linden (b. 1970)
April 12: First day of Passover (Judaism, 2025); Third Month Fair begins in southwest China (2025); Cosmonautics Day in Russia; Yuri's Night
NATO F-15 fighter aircraft during Operation Deny Flight
- 1807 – The Froberg mutiny of Greek and Albanian troops in British service ended with the explosion of the gunpowder magazine at Fort Ricasoli, Malta.
- 1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge near Manchester, England, collapsed reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step across it.
- 1993 – Bosnian War: NATO forces began Operation Deny Flight (aircraft pictured) to enforce a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered by the United Nations Security Council.
- 2012 – The Guinea-Bissau military seized control in a coup amid a presidential election, later handing power to a transitional administration under Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo.
- 2013 – Four Chadian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing by jihadist rebels in Kidal, Mali.
- Alexander Ostrovsky (b. 1823)
- Keiko Fukuda (b. 1913)
- Karim Fakhrawi (d. 2011)
April 13: Vaisakhi (Sikhism, 2024)
Jefferson Memorial
- 1742 – The first performance of George Frideric Handel's celebrated oratorio Messiah took place in Dublin.
- 1943 – The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial (pictured) in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
- 1946 – Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison thousands of SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone.
- 2009 – Andrew Hussie's webcomic Homestuck debuted, and concluded on the same day in 2016.
- 2017 – War in Afghanistan: In an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb used in combat.
- Arthur Matthew Weld Downing (b. 1850)
- Joe Hewitt (b. 1901)
- Evelyne Daitz (b. 1936)
April 14: Tamil New Year and other New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asia (2024); Day of the Georgian Language (1978)
"Houston, we've had a problem here"
- 43 BC – War of Mutina: Despite initial success, troops loyal to Mark Antony were defeated near the Via Aemilia in northern Italy by legions loyal to the Roman Senate.
- 1944 – The freighter Fort Stikine, carrying cotton bales, gold and ammunition, exploded in the harbour of Bombay, India, sinking surrounding ships and causing about 800 deaths.
- 1970 – After an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded, disabling the spacecraft's electrical and life-support systems, astronaut Jack Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem here" (audio featured).
- 1983 – Let's Dance, English musician David Bowie's best-selling album, was released.
- 1994 – Iraqi no-fly zones conflict: In a friendly-fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort, two U.S. Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down two U.S. Army helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 people.
- Anne Sullivan (b. 1866)
- John Gielgud (b. 1904)
- Yakov Dzhugashvili (d. 1943)
April 15: Patriots' Day in some states in the United States (2024); Day of the Sun in North Korea; Jackie Robinson Day and Tax Day in the United States
Hillsborough Memorial
- 1632 – Thirty Years' War: A Swedish–German army defeated the forces of the Catholic League at the Battle of Rain, mortally wounding their commander Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly.
- 1923 – Ten Japanese-American children were killed in a racially motivated arson attack on a school in Sacramento, California.
- 1936 – Two Jews were killed near Tulkarm in Mandatory Palestine, an act widely viewed as the beginning of violence within the Arab revolt.
- 1989 – The Hillsborough disaster (memorial pictured), a human crush that caused 97 deaths in the worst disaster in British sporting history, occurred during an FA Cup match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Sheffield.
- 2019 – A fire severely damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, destroying the cathedral's timber spire and much of the roof.
- Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452)
- Nikita Khrushchev (b. 1894)
- Claudia Cardinale (b. 1938)
- Emma Watson (b. 1990)
MV Sewol
- 1520 – A revolt of citizens in Toledo, Castile, opposed to the rule of the foreign-born Charles I began when the royal government attempted to unseat radical city councilors.
- 1862 – Slavery in Washington, D.C., ended when the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act became law.
- 1945 – Second World War: British and Canadian forces concluded the Liberation of Arnhem in the Netherlands from German occupation.
- 1948 – The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, headquartered in Paris, was founded.
- 2014 – The ferry MV Sewol (pictured) capsized and sank off Donggeochado, South Korea, killing 306 people, mainly students from Danwon High School.
- Frederick I, Duke of Austria (d. 1198)
- Molly Brant (d. 1796)
- Ponnambalam Ramanathan (b. 1851)
April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)
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Modern reconstruction of Kaunas Castle
- 1362 – Lithuanian Crusade: After a month-long siege, forces of the Teutonic Order captured and destroyed Kaunas Castle (reconstruction pictured), which was defended by troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1783 – The Mechanical Turk, a fraudulent chess-playing "machine" by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controlled by a hidden human, began a tour of Europe.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: After a three-day chase, the French ship D'Hautpoul was captured off Puerto Rico by a British squadron under Alexander Cochrane.
- 1973 – George Lucas began writing a 13-page film treatment that later formed the basis of Star Wars.
- 1984 – Metropolitan Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed while on duty during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London, resulting in an 11-day police siege of the building and a breakdown of Libya–United Kingdom relations.
- Eliza Acton (b. 1799)
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike (b. 1916)
- Ralph Abernathy (d. 1990)
Robert Mugabe
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Colonists Paul Revere and William Dawes, later joined by Samuel Prescott, began a midnight ride to warn residents of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, about the impending arrival of British troops.
- 1938 – Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of DC Comics, made his debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
- 1946 – The final session of the League of Nations concluded in Geneva, with delegates agreeing to transfer much of its assets to the United Nations.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe (pictured) became the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, beginning a 37-year period in power.
- 2007 – A ladle spilled 30 tonnes (33 tons) of molten steel in a factory in Liaoning, China, killing 32 workers.
- Theobald of Bec (d. 1161)
- Clara Elsene Peck (b. 1883)
- Universo 2000 (b. 1963)
April 19: Feast day of Saint Alphege of Canterbury (Catholicism, Anglicanism), Education and Sharing Day in the United States (2024), Primrose Day in London
Mae West
- 1773 – The Polish Partition Sejm met to discuss the First Partition of Poland, carried out the previous year by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: French general Louis-Nicolas Davout defeated an Austrian force in Lower Bavaria, allowing him to rejoin the main French army.
- 1927 – American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" with her play Sex.
- 1989 – A gun turret exploded on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
- Uesugi Kenshin (d. 1578)
- Elizabeth Dilling (b. 1894)
- Denis O'Brien (b. 1958)
April 20: First day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2024); 420 (cannabis culture)
Vädersolstavlan
- 1535 – Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the painting Vädersolstavlan (depicted), the oldest coloured depiction of the city.
- 1818 – Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
- 1942 – World War II: German and Italian forces began a large-scale counter-insurgency operation in occupied Yugoslavia.
- 1968 – South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
- 2010 – An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
- Peter Bartholomew (d. 1099)
- Allegra Byron (d. 1822)
- Toller Cranston (b. 1949)
April 21: Natale di Roma in Italy (AD 47)
Wignacourt Aqueduct
- 900 – A debt was pardoned by the chief of Tondo on the island of Luzon and recorded on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known calendar-dated document found in the Philippines.
- 1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct (pictured) in Malta was inaugurated and was used to carry water to Valletta for about 300 years.
- 1836 – Forces of the Republic of Texas led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexican troops of General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive and final battle of the Texas Revolution.
- 1975 – South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on hearing of the fall of Xuân Lộc, the last battle of the Vietnam War.
- 2021 – The Indonesian Navy submarine Nanggala sank, resulting in the deaths of all 53 people on board.
- Pope Alexander II (d. 1073)
- Antonín Kammel (b. 1730)
- Cheryl Gillan (b. 1952)
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Pedro Álvares Cabral
- 1500 – A fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral (pictured) anchored off present-day Brazil; he later claimed the land for the Portuguese Empire.
- 1885 – The first meeting of the Colonial Defence Committee, a standing committee of the British Colonial Office, was held to discuss the defence of Barbados.
- 1918 – The short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was established on territory formerly part of the Russian Empire.
- 1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
- 2016 – The Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, opened for signature and was signed by 175 parties.
- Philip of Poitou (d. 1208)
- Robert Ludwig Kahn (b. 1923)
- Regine Velasquez (b. 1970)
April 23: National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey (1920)
Liberation of Flossenbürg
- 1467 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Albanian leader Skanderbeg defeated an Ottoman army under Ballaban Badera to raise the siege of Krujë.
- 1945 – World War II: The US Army's 90th Infantry Division liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp (pictured) in Germany, freeing 1,500 prisoners.
- 1976 – The American band the Ramones released their debut album, which became highly influential on the emerging punk rock movement.
- 1979 – Blair Peach, a New Zealand teacher, was fatally injured after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall, London.
- 2018 – A man intentionally struck pedestrians with a van on Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada, leading to 11 deaths.
- Joan of France (b. 1464)
- Pandita Ramabai (b. 1858)
- Satyajit Ray (d. 1992)
April 24: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (1915); Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2024)
Hubble Space Telescope
- 1837 – A fire broke out in Surat, India, which went on to destroy about 75% of the city.
- 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, the first electrical measurement to clearly demonstrate quantum mechanics, was presented to the German Physical Society.
- 1916 – Irish republicans led by Patrick Pearse began the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland, and proclaimed the Irish Republic an independent state.
- 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope (pictured) was launched aboard STS-31 by Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1993 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in London's financial district in Bishopsgate, killing one person, injuring forty-four others, and causing damage that cost £350 million to repair.
- Mellitus (d. 624)
- Kumar Dharmasena (b. 1971)
- Estée Lauder (d. 2004)
- Nancy Dorian (d. 2024)
April 25: Liberation Day in Italy (1945)
USS Triton
- 1643 – First English Civil War: Despite being vastly outnumbered, a Parliamentarian force under James Chudleigh defeated a Royalist army near Okehampton, Devon, at the Battle of Sourton Down.
- 1915 – First World War: The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles to begin the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.
- 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine Triton (pictured) completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
- 1983 – The first issue of The Jakarta Post was published in Indonesia.
- 2015 – Nepal was struck by a magnitude-7.8 earthquake, killing more than 8,000 people.
- Naresuan (d. 1605)
- Georg Sverdrup (b. 1770)
- Emmeline B. Wells (d. 1921)
Lorenzo de' Medici
- 1478 – In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici (pictured) and killed his brother Giuliano at Florence Cathedral.
- 1915 – First World War: Britain, France and Russia signed a secret treaty promising territory to Italy if it joined the war on their side.
- 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established.
- 1989 – A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh and killed an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado in history.
- 1994 – Just before landing at Nagoya Airport, Japan, the copilot of China Airlines Flight 140 inadvertently triggered the takeoff/go-around switch, causing the aircraft to crash and killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
- Marcus Aurelius (b. 121)
- Alice Ayres (d. 1885)
- S. J. V. Chelvanayakam (d. 1977)
April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands
Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn
- 630 – Shahrbaraz usurped the throne of the Sasanian Empire from Ardashir III, but was himself killed six weeks later.
- 1650 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Covenanter forces defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Carbisdale near the village of Culrain, Scotland.
- 1945 – World War II: The photograph Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn (pictured) was taken after German troops withdrew to Norway at the end of the Lapland War.
- 1965 – Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation: British forces repelled a surprise Indonesian attack on a base at Plaman Mapu in Sarawak.
- 2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight from Toulouse, France.
- Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822)
- Sheila Scott (b. 1922)
- Olivier Messiaen (d. 1992)
April 28: Workers' Memorial Day
Mounted police maintaining order at the 1923 FA Cup final
- 1253 – The Japanese monk Nichiren declared the mantra Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, now a central part of Nichiren Buddhism.
- 1789 – Fletcher Christian, the acting lieutenant on board the Royal Navy ship Bounty, led a mutiny against the commander William Bligh in the South Pacific.
- 1923 – The FA Cup final (crowd and police pictured) between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was held on the opening day of the Empire Stadium in London.
- 1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini, the deposed fascist dictator of Italy, was executed by partisans in Giulino.
- 1983 – The West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.
- Bajirao I (d. 1740)
- Jane Cobden (b. 1851)
- Regina Martínez Pérez (d. 2012)
HMS Endeavour
- 1770 – On his first voyage, British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour (pictured) landed at Botany Bay, making the first recorded European landfall on the eastern coast of Australia.
- 1903 – A rockslide buried part of the Canadian mining town of Frank under 110 million tonnes of rock, killing around 70 people.
- 1944 – Second World War: British agent Nancy Wake parachuted into Auvergne, France, becoming a liaison between the Special Operations Executive and the local Maquis group.
- 1968 – The controversial Broadway musical Hair, a product of the counterculture of the 1960s, opened, with its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
- 2006 – Cyclone Mala made landfall near Thandwe, Myanmar, causing 37 deaths.
- George Farquhar (d. 1707)
- Marietta Blau (b. 1894)
- Giacomo dalla Torre (d. 2020)
Evacuees on the USS Midway
- 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians officially ended in the eastern Roman Empire.
- 1943 – Second World War: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph began Operation Mincemeat to deceive Germany about the upcoming invasion of Sicily.
- 1963 – A refusal by the Bristol Omnibus Company and the Transport and General Workers' Union to permit the employment of black bus crews led to a bus boycott in Bristol, England.
- 1975 – American forces completed a helicopter evacuation (aircraft and evacuees pictured) of U.S. citizens, South Vietnamese civilians and others from Saigon, just before North Vietnamese troops captured the city and ended the Vietnam War.
- 2021 – A crowd crush killed 45 people during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Israel.
- Marie of the Incarnation (d. 1672)
- Emily Stowe (d. 1903)
- Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for May
[edit]May 1: Beltane and Samhain in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Maharashtra Day in Maharashtra, India (1960); International Workers' Day, Law Day and Loyalty Day in the United States
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Empire State Building
- 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retired as co-rulers of the Roman Empire, being succeeded by Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.
- 1794 – War of the Pyrenees: France regained nearly all the land it lost to Spain the previous year with its victory in the Second Battle of Boulou.
- 1931 – New York City's Empire State Building (pictured), at the time the tallest building in the world, opened.
- 1974 – Argentine president Juan Perón expelled Montoneros from a demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, forcing the group to become a clandestine organization.
- Alexander William Williamson (b. 1824)
- Anna Jarvis (b. 1864)
- Eldridge Cleaver (d. 1998)
May 2: National Day of Prayer in the United States (2024); Flag Day in Poland
Mireya Moscoso in 2012
- 1559 – Presbyterian clergyman John Knox returned from exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.
- 1889 – The Treaty of Wuchale was signed, ending the Italo-Ethiopian War, but differences in translation later led to another war.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion attributed to Viet Cong commandos caused the escort carrier USNS Card to sink in the port of Saigon.
- 1999 – Mireya Moscoso (pictured) became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
- 2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at least 350 people.
- Marutha of Tikrit (d. 649)
- Mary Moser (d. 1819)
- Giacomo Meyerbeer (d. 1864)
- Engelbert Humperdinck (b. 1936)
May 3: World Press Freedom Day; Constitution Memorial Day in Japan (1947); Constitution Day in Poland (1791)
Benty Grange helmet
- 1481 – The largest of a series of earthquakes struck the island of Rhodes, causing an estimated 30,000 casualties.
- 1848 – The Benty Grange helmet (pictured), a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was discovered in Derbyshire, England.
- 1939 – Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence.
- 1999 – A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 135 m/s (302 mph; 486 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma.
- Elizabeth Bacon (d. 1621)
- Jacob Riis (b. 1849)
- Bob McCallister (b. 1934)
- Ron Hextall (b. 1964)
May 4: Youth Day in China; Literary Day in Taiwan; Star Wars Day
Pope Alexander VI
- 1493 – Pope Alexander VI (pictured) issued the papal bull Inter caetera, establishing a line of demarcation dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal.
- 1776 – American Revolution: The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown.
- 1942 – World War II: Aircraft from Imperial Japanese Navy vessels attacked Allied naval forces, beginning the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval action in which the participating ships never sighted or fired directly at each other.
- 1974 – An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu in the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level.
- 1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom.
- John Nevison (d. 1684)
- Nettie Stevens (d. 1912)
- Audrey Hepburn (b. 1929)
May 5: Easter (Eastern Christianity, 2024); Lixia begins in China (2025); Children's Day in Japan; Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
- 1646 – First English Civil War: Charles I surrendered himself to Scottish Covenanter leader David Leslie near Newark, England.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness in Spotsylvania County.
- 1891 – Carnegie Hall (interior pictured) in New York City, built by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
- 1980 – The British Special Air Service recaptured the Iranian embassy in London following a six-day siege after Iranian Arab separatists had seized it.
- 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all 114 people aboard.
- Samuel Cooper (d. 1672)
- William George Beers (b. 1841)
- Irene Gut Opdyke (b. 1918)
The Grand Palace in the 1860s
- 1536 – Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Sapa Inca emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui's army began a ten-month siege of Cusco against a garrison of Spanish conquistadors and Indian auxiliaries led by Hernando Pizarro.
- 1782 – Construction began on the Grand Palace (pictured) in Bangkok, the official residence of the king of Thailand.
- 1915 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew.
- 2004 – The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
- 2013 – Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, home of her captor, Ariel Castro, having been held there with two other women for ten years.
- Henry David Thoreau (d. 1862)
- Martin Brodeur (b. 1972)
- Reg Grundy (d. 2016)
Maximilien Robespierre
- 1487 – Granada War: Forces of Aragon and Castile began a siege of Málaga, a Muslim city in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
- 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre (pictured) established the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
- 1798 – War of the First Coalition: A British garrison repelled a French attack on the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the Normandy coast, inflicting heavy losses.
- 1937 – Employees at Fleischer Studios in New York City went on strike in the animation industry's first major labor strike.
- 1946 – Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded the telecommunications corporation Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, later renamed Sony.
- Mary of Modena (d. 1718)
- Tore Wretman (b. 1916)
- Willard Boyle (d. 2011)
May 8: Anniversary of the birth of Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico (1753); Victory in Europe Day (1945)
Lady Blanche Arundell
- 1643 – First English Civil War: The first siege of Wardour Castle ended after six days with the surrender of the Royalist garrison under Lady Blanche Arundell (pictured).
- 1842 – A train derailed and caught fire near Versailles, France, killing at least 52 people.
- 1927 – French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard the biplane L'Oiseau Blanc took off from Paris, attempting to make the first non-stop flight to New York, only to disappear before arrival.
- 1963 – In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers opened fire into a crowd of Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Phật Đản, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
- 1972 – Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to demand the release of 315 Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges.
- Thomas Drury (b. 1551)
- Helena Blavatsky (d. 1891)
- Beatrice Worsley (d. 1972)
May 9: Europe Day in the European Union; Liberation Day in the Channel Islands (1945)
Hotel Polen fire
- 1877 – An earthquake struck northern Chile, leading to the deaths of 2,385 people, mostly victims of the ensuing tsunami, as far away as Hawaii and Fiji.
- 1944 – World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of troops from China to New Guinea.
- 1977 – The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire (pictured), leaving 33 people dead.
- 1980 – Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a pier was struck by the MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people.
- 2001 – Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that killed 126 people.
- Al-Adid (b. 1151)
- John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (d. 1747)
- Yukiya Amano (b. 1947)
One World Trade Center
- 28 BC – Chinese astronomers during the Han dynasty made the first precisely dated observation of a sunspot.
- 1833 – Siamese–Vietnamese wars: Lê Văn Khôi escaped from prison to begin a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, primarily to avenge his adoptive father, Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt.
- 1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five companions arrived at South Georgia, completing a 1,300 km (800 mi) lifeboat voyage over 16 days to obtain rescue for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
- 1940 – World War II: German forces commenced their invasion of Belgium.
- 2013 – One World Trade Center (pictured) in New York City, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, was topped out at a height of 1,776 feet (541 m).
- Leonhart Fuchs (d. 1566)
- Karl Barth (b. 1886)
- Arthur Kopit (b. 1937)
Frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra
- 868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in Tang-dynasty China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book (frontispiece pictured).
- 1889 – Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona Territory, stealing more than $28,000.
- 1970 – Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people dead.
- 2010 – Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
- 2022 – Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed civilians in Mondaingbin.
- Richard Feynman (b. 1918)
- Judy Ann Santos (b. 1978)
- Zenna Henderson (d. 1983)
B-17 bombers intercepting the Rex
- 1743 – War of the Austrian Succession: Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia after Austrian forces drove French troops from the territory.
- 1938 – During an exercise to demonstrate air power, United States Army Air Corps bomber aircraft intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex (pictured) 620 nautical miles (1,100 km) off the US Atlantic coast.
- 1948 – The United Kingdom publicly announced that it was independently developing nuclear weapons, after the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended cooperation on the matter.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the war for the Australian Army.
- 1998 – Four students were shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which led to widespread riots and the resignation of President Suharto nine days later.
- Thomas Palaiologos (d. 1465)
- Otto Frank (b. 1889)
- Moto Hagio (b. 1949)
May 13: Yom HaZikaron in Israel (2024)
Aftermath of the Enschede explosion
- 1909 – The inaugural edition of the Giro d'Italia, a long-distance multiple-stage bicycle race, began in Milan; the Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna was the eventual winner.
- 1958 – US vice president Richard Nixon's motorcade was attacked by a mob in Caracas, Venezuela.
- 2000 – An explosion (aftermath pictured) at a fireworks factory in Enschede, Netherlands, resulted in 23 deaths and approximately €450 million in damage.
- 2008 – Nine bombs placed by the Indian Mujahideen, then an unknown terrorist group, exploded in a 15-minute period in Jaipur, India, killing 80 people and injuring more than 200 others.
- Maria Theresa (b. 1717)
- John Littlejohn (d. 1836)
- Alicja Iwańska (b. 1918)
- Gary Cooper (d. 1961)
May 14: Feast day of Saint Matthias (Catholicism); Independence Day in Israel (2024)
Monument to the Battle of Lewes
- 1264 – Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle of Lewes (monument pictured) and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
- 1857 – Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Union troops captured Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.
- 1931 – Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
- 1948 – David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.
- Fanny Imlay (b. 1794)
- Mary Seacole (d. 1881)
- Miranda Cosgrove (b. 1993)
- Taruni Sachdev (b. 1998; d. 2012)
May 15: Feast day of Saint Carthage (Catholicism); Nakba Day in Palestinian communities
Statue of Valentinian II
- 392 – Roman emperor Valentinian II (pictured) was found hanged in his residence in Vienne, in present-day France.
- 1855 – Thieves stole 224 pounds (102 kg) of gold from a train travelling from London to Folkestone, England.
- 1864 – American Civil War: A small Confederate force, which included cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, forced the Union Army out of the Shenandoah Valley.
- 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima sank after striking several mines off Port Arthur, China.
- 1916 – Jesse Washington, a teenage African-American farmhand, was lynched in Waco, Texas.
- Hilary of Galeata (d. 558)
- Emily Dickinson (d. 1886)
- K. M. Cariappa (d. 1993)
May 16: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2024)
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Junko Tabei
- 1426 – Mohnyin Thado captured Sagaing to become the king of Ava, in present-day Myanmar.
- 1605 – After a scuffle in which one cardinal received broken bones, a papal conclave convened in Rome elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V.
- 1929 – The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
- 1975 – Japanese climber Junko Tabei (pictured) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- Pietro da Cortona (d. 1669)
- William H. Seward (b. 1801)
- Amanda Asay (b. 1988)
May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia
Anne of Denmark
- 1590 – Anne of Denmark (pictured) was crowned the queen consort of Scotland in a ceremony at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.
- 1863 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeated a Confederate rearguard and captured around 1,700 men.
- 1900 – The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed.
- 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and therefore unconstitutional.
- 1987 – An Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate USS Stark, killing 37 personnel and injuring 21 others.
- Caroline of Brunswick (b. 1768)
- Little Gerhard (b. 1934)
- Maggie Laubser (d. 1973)
May 18: Haitian Flag Day in Haiti (1803); Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Crimean Tatar Genocide in Ukraine
The Bath School after the explosions
- 1302 – Armed insurrectionists massacred the occupying French garrison in Bruges, Flanders, killing approximately 2,000 people.
- 1695 – An earthquake measuring Ms7.8 struck Shanxi Province in northern China, resulting in at least 52,600 deaths.
- 1927 – Disgruntled school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe set off explosives with timers and a rifle (aftermath pictured), causing the Bath School disaster in the Bath Consolidated School in Michigan, killing 44 people in the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.
- 2009 – The Sri Lanka Army killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader and founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to bring an end to the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War.
- Thomas Midgley Jr. (b. 1889)
- Ester Boserup (b. 1910)
- Jean-François Théodore (d. 2015)
May 19: Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
- 1655 – Anglo-Spanish War: England invaded Spanish Jamaica, capturing it a week later.
- 1743 – French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer using the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the melting point of water and 100 its boiling point.
- 1828 – The United States Congress passed the largest tariff in the nation's history, which resulted in severe economic hardship in the American South.
- 1915 – First World War: Australian and New Zealand troops repelled the third attack on Anzac Cove, inflicting heavy casualties on the attacking Ottoman forces.
- 2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (both pictured) took place at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, England.
- Alcuin (d. 804)
- Claude Vignon (b. 1593)
- Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
- John Gorton (d. 2002)
May 20: National Day of Remembrance in Cambodia (1975); National Awakening Day in Indonesia (1908); Victoria Day in Canada (2024)
Schlosskirche Weimar
- 794 – According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia was beheaded on the orders of Offa of Mercia.
- 1714 – Johann Sebastian Bach directed the first performance of his Pentecost cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder at the chapel of Schloss Weimar (pictured).
- 1927 – With the signing of the Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognized the sovereignty of Ibn Saud over Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become Saudi Arabia.
- 1941 – World War II: German paratroopers began the Battle of Heraklion on the island of Crete, capturing the airfield and port in Heraklion ten days later.
- William Fargo (b. 1818)
- Gertrude Guillaume-Schack (d. 1903)
- Nizamuddin Asir Adrawi (d. 2021)
May 21: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right)
- 1138 – The Crusades: The siege of Shaizar ended, and the Emir of Shaizar became a vassal of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The inconclusive Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia ended with combined Union and Confederate casualties totaling around 31,000.
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the world's largest navigation canal at the time.
- 1924 – University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out of a desire to commit a "perfect crime".
- 2014 – A Taiwanese man carried out a stabbing spree on a Taipei Metro train, killing four people and injuring 24 others.
- Feng Dao (d. 954)
- Tommaso Campanella (d. 1639)
- Armand Hammer (b. 1898)
- Linda Laubenstein (b. 1947)
May 22: National Maritime Day in the United States
Prayut Chan-o-cha
- 1766 – A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck Constantinople and was followed by a tsunami that caused significant damage.
- 1874 – Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem was first performed in the San Marco church in Milan to commemorate the first anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni's death.
- 1998 – In Public Prosecutor v Taw Cheng Kong, the Court of Appeal of Singapore overruled a High Court decision in the only time a statute in Singapore had been ruled unconstitutional.
- 2014 – Prayut Chan-o-cha (pictured), the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launched a coup d'état against the caretaker government following six months of political crisis.
- Jovan Vladimir (d. 1016)
- John Forest (d. 1538)
- Charles Aznavour (b. 1924)
- Apolo Ohno (b. 1982)
May 23: Aromanian National Day
Louis of Nassau
- 1568 – The Dutch Revolt broke out when rebels led by Louis of Nassau (pictured) invaded Friesland at the Battle of Heiligerlee.
- 1873 – The North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was established to bring law and order to and assert Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Territories.
- 1934 – During a strike against the Electric Auto-Lite company in Toledo, a fight began between nearly 10,000 American strikers and sheriff's deputies, later involving the Ohio National Guard.
- 1999 – Professional wrestler Owen Hart died immediately before a World Wrestling Federation match after dropping 70 feet (21 m) onto the ring during a botched entrance.
- Ignaz Moscheles (b. 1794)
- Franz Xaver von Baader (d. 1841)
- David Lewis (d. 1981)
- Luis Posada Carriles (d. 2018)
May 24: Aldersgate Day (Methodism)
Eric XIV of Sweden
- 1567 – The mentally ill King Eric XIV of Sweden (pictured) and his guards murdered five incarcerated nobles, including some members of the influential Sture family.
- 1689 – The Act of Toleration became law, granting freedom of worship to English nonconformists under certain circumstances, but deliberately excluding Catholics.
- 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 began, with battles beginning in County Kildare and fighting later spreading across the country.
- 1963 – United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met with African American author James Baldwin in an unsuccessful attempt to improve race relations.
- 2014 – A gunman involved in Islamic extremism opened fire at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people.
- Robert Hues (d. 1632)
- Philip Pearlstein (b. 1924)
- Magnus Manske (b. 1974)
- Stormé DeLarverie (d. 2014)
May 25: Africa Day (1963); Independence Day in Jordan (1946)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- 1816 – The poems Kubla Khan and Christabel by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (pictured) were published.
- 1944 – The Wehrmacht and their collaborationist allies launched Operation Rösselsprung, a failed attempt to assassinate the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito.
- 1961 – A fire broke out at a squatter settlement in Bukit Ho Swee, Singapore, rendering approximately 16,000 people homeless.
- 1979 – During takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, an engine detached from American Airlines Flight 191, causing a crash that killed 273 people in the deadliest aviation accident in United States history.
- 2009 – North Korea conducted a nuclear test and several other missile tests that were widely condemned internationally and led to sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.
- Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi (d. 1607)
- Anna Maria Rückerschöld (d. 1805)
- Gustav Holst (d. 1934)
- Cillian Murphy (b. 1976)
May 26: National Sorry Day in Australia; Independence Day in Georgia (1918), Lag BaOmer (Judaism, 2024)
Damage to the Interstate 40 bridge
- 1644 – Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claimed victory at the Battle of Montijo.
- 1894 – Germany's Emanuel Lasker defeated Wilhelm Steinitz to become the world chess champion, beginning a record 27-year reign.
- 1999 – Manchester United won the UEFA Champions League final to become the first English football club to win three major championships in the same season.
- 2002 – Barges being towed destroyed part of a bridge (aftermath pictured) near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, causing vehicles to fall into the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River.
- Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604)
- Isaac Franklin (b. 1789)
- Jeremy Corbyn (b. 1949)
- Elizabeth Peer (d. 1984)
May 27: Memorial Day in the United States
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Manchu Prince Dorgon
- 1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon (depicted) defeated rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing.
- 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeated the French Army of the Danube, capturing the strategically important Swiss town of Winterthur.
- 1954 – The security clearance of American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of Project Y, was revoked.
- 1967 – Australians voted overwhelmingly to include Indigenous Australians in population counts for constitutional purposes and to allow the federal government to make special laws affecting them in states.
- 1997 – A destructive F5 tornado moved through Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people and injuring a further 12.
- Diego Ramírez de Arellano (d. 1624)
- Julia Ward Howe (b. 1819)
- Cilla Black (b. 1943)
- Gérard Jean-Juste (d. 2009)
May 28: Republic Day in Armenia (1918); Independence Day in Azerbaijan (1918)
Mozaffar ad-Din
- 585 BC – According to the Greek historian Herodotus, a solar eclipse, accurately predicted by Thales of Miletus, abruptly ended the Battle of Halys between the Lydians and the Medes.
- 1644 – English Civil War: Royalist troops stormed and captured the Parliamentarian stronghold of Bolton, leading to a massacre of defenders and local residents.
- 1754 – French and Indian War: Led by 22-year-old George Washington, a company of Virginia colonial militiamen ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens at the Battle of Jumonville Glen.
- 1901 – Mozaffar ad-Din (pictured), Shah of Persia, granted exclusive rights to prospect for oil in the country to William Knox D'Arcy.
- 1937 – The rise of Neville Chamberlain culminated with his accession as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, being summoned to Buckingham Palace to "kiss hands".
- 2002 – An independent commission appointed by the Football Association voted two-to-one to allow Wimbledon F.C. to relocate from London to Milton Keynes.
- Robert Baldock (d. 1327)
- Francis Gleeson (priest) (b. 1884)
- Carroll Baker (b. 1931)
- Kylie Minogue (b. 1968)
May 29: Feast day of Saint Paul VI (Catholicism)
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Hawthorne Bridge
- 1233 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols entered and began looting Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty of China, after a 13-month siege.
- 1416 – A squadron of the Venetian navy captured many Ottoman ships at the Battle of Gallipoli, confirming Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades.
- 1913 – During the premiere of the ballet The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a near-riot in the audience.
- 1999 – Charlotte Perrelli, representing Sweden, won the Eurovision Song Contest, the first edition not to feature an orchestra or live accompaniment.
- 2011 – Residents of Portland, Oregon, held a rally called Hands Across Hawthorne in response to an attack against a gay couple holding hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge (pictured).
- Benedetto Pistrucci (b. 1783)
- G. K. Chesterton (b. 1874)
- Hubert Opperman (b. 1904)
- Uroš Drenović (d. 1944)
May 30: Statehood Day in Croatia (1990)
Johann Sebastian Bach
- 1431 – Hundred Years' War: After being convicted of heresy, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
- 1723 – Johann Sebastian Bach (pictured) assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden sollen essen in St. Nicholas Church.
- 1922 – The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the sixteenth U.S. president Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, opened.
- 1963 – Buddhist crisis: A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination was held outside the National Assembly of South Vietnam in Saigon, the first open demonstration against President Ngô Đình Diệm.
- 2008 – The Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, was adopted.
- Ma Xifan (d. 947)
- Colin Blythe (b. 1879)
- Norris Bradbury (b. 1909)
- Wynonna Judd (b. 1964)
May 31: Dragon Boat Festival in China and Taiwan (2025); World No Tobacco Day
Bessarion
- 455 – Petronius Maximus, ruler of the Western Roman Empire, was stoned to death by a mob as he fled Rome ahead of the arrival of a Vandal force that sacked the city.
- 1223 – Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus': Mongol forces defeated a Kievan Rus' army at the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine.
- 1468 – Cardinal Bessarion (pictured) announced his donation of 746 Greek and Latin codices to the Republic of Venice, forming the Biblioteca Marciana.
- 1935 – An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw struck Balochistan in British India, now part of Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people.
- 2013 – A tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing 8 people and injuring more than 150.
- Albertino Mussato (d. 1329)
- Joseph Grimaldi (d. 1837)
- Dina Boluarte (b. 1962)
- Mbaye Diagne (d. 1994)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for June
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Wreckage of American Airlines Flight 1420
- 1676 – Scanian War: The Swedish warship Kronan, one of the largest ships in the world at the time, sank at the Battle of Öland with the loss of around 800 men.
- 1857 – The Revolution of the Ganhadores, the first general strike in Brazil, began in Salvador, Bahia.
- 1974 – In an informal article in a medical journal, Henry Heimlich introduced the concept of abdominal thrusts, commonly known as the Heimlich maneuver, to treat victims of choking.
- 1988 – Group representation constituencies were introduced to the parliament of Singapore.
- 1999 – On landing at Little Rock National Airport in the U.S. state of Arkansas, American Airlines Flight 1420 overran the runway and crashed (wreckage pictured), resulting in 11 deaths.
- Kitabatake Chikafusa (d. 1354)
- Louisa Caroline Tuthill (d. 1879)
- Tom Holland (b. 1996)
- Faizul Waheed (d. 2021)
June 2: Festa della Repubblica in Italy (1946)
Luigi Galleani
- 1802 – Henry Hacking killed the Aboriginal Australian resistance fighter Pemulwuy after Philip Gidley King ordered that he be brought in dead or alive.
- 1919 – First Red Scare: The anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani (pictured) set off eight bombs in eight cities across the United States.
- 1953 – Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1973 – Della Aleksander co-presents a groundbreaking episode of Open Door on transgender women's lives.
- 2023 – A collision between two passenger trains and a parked freight train near the city of Balasore, Odisha, in eastern India resulted in 296 deaths and more than 1,200 people injured.
- William Salmon (b. 1644)
- Gilbert Baker (b. 1951)
- Alexander Shulgin (d. 2014)
- Radoje Pajović (d. 2019)
June 3: Martyrs Day in Uganda; King's Official Birthday in New Zealand (2024); Western Australia Day (2024)
Silhouette of Jack Jouett
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett (pictured) rode 40 miles (64 km) to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of British cavalry who had been sent to capture them.
- 1892 – Liverpool F.C., one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded.
- 1937 – Half a year after abdicating the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in France.
- 1969 – During a SEATO exercise in the South China Sea, a collision between HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans resulted in the latter vessel being cut in two and the deaths of 74 personnel.
- 1982 – A failed assassination attempt was made on Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, which event was later used as justification for the First Lebanon War.
- Garret Hobart (b. 1844)
- Eric A. Havelock (b. 1903)
- Franz Kafka (d. 1924)
- Pierre Poilievre (b. 1979)
June 4: Trianon Treaty Day in Romania (1920)
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German submarine U-505
- 1784 – Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, covering a distance of 4 km (2.5 mi) and reaching an estimated altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).
- 1944 – World War II: A United States Navy task group captured German submarine U-505 (pictured).
- 1974 – Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians hosted Ten Cent Beer Night, but had to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers due to rioting by drunken fans.
- 1989 – Following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be Supreme Leader of Iran.
- Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1489)
- Benjamin Huntsman (b. 1704)
- Miguel de Azcuénaga (b. 1754)
- Chester Nez (d. 2014)
June 5: World Environment Day; Jerusalem Day in Israel (2024)
Antonio Luna
- 1897 – The Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law was passed, instituting the protection of structures and artifacts in Japan designated National Treasures.
- 1899 – Antonio Luna (pictured), Commanding General of the Philippine Army, was assassinated in the midst of the Philippine–American War.
- 1997 – Anticipating a coup attempt, President Pascal Lissouba of the Republic of the Congo ordered the detention of his rival Denis Sassou Nguesso, initiating a second civil war.
- 2004 – Noël Mamère, the mayor of Bègles, conducted a marriage ceremony for two men, even though same-sex marriage in France had not yet been legalised.
- 2009 – After almost two months of civil disobedience, at least 31 people were killed in clashes between the National Police and indigenous people in Bagua Province, Peru.
- Ivy Compton-Burnett (b. 1884)
- Theippan Maung Wa (b. 1899)
- Elizabeth Gloster (b. 1949)
- Megumi Nakajima (b. 1989)
June 6: National Day of Sweden
Shivaji
- 1674 – Shivaji (pictured), who led a resistance to free the Maratha from the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, was crowned the first chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire.
- 1749 – A plot by Muslim slaves in Malta to assassinate Manuel Pinto da Fonseca of the Knights Hospitaller was uncovered.
- 1813 – War of 1812: The British ambushed an American encampment near present-day Stoney Creek, Ontario, capturing two senior officers.
- 1912 – The largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century began, forming the volcano Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula.
- 1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history, began with Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy in France.
- Norbert of Xanten (d. 1134)
- Patrick Henry (d. 1799)
- John A. Macdonald (d. 1891)
- David Scott (b. 1932)
Monument of Branimir
- 879 – Pope John VIII officially recognised Croatia as an independent state, and Branimir (monument pictured) as its duke.
- 1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document that set out specific liberties of individuals, received royal assent from King Charles I.
- 1917 – First World War: The British Army detonated 19 ammonal mines under German lines, killing perhaps 10,000 in the deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history during the Battle of Messines.
- 1948 – Anti-Jewish riots broke out in the French protectorate in Morocco, during which 44 people were killed and 150 injured.
- 1969 – In their only UK concert, the rock supergroup Blind Faith, featuring Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker, debuted in London's Hyde Park in front of 100,000 fans.
- Roderigo Lopes (d. 1594)
- Paul Gauguin (b. 1848)
- Louise Erdrich (b. 1954)
- Mike Pence (b. 1959)
Margaret Bondfield
- 1826 – In York, Upper Canada, members of the Family Compact destroyed William Lyon Mackenzie's printing press in the Types Riot after Mackenzie accused them of corruption.
- 1929 – Margaret Bondfield (pictured) became the first female member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom when she was named Minister of Labour by Ramsay MacDonald.
- 1941 – World War II: The Allies commenced the Syria–Lebanon campaign against Vichy French possessions in the Levant.
- 1953 – An F5 tornado struck Flint and Beecher, Michigan, causing 116 fatalities, 844 injuries and $19 million in damage during a larger tornado outbreak sequence.
- William of York (d. 1154)
- Cora Agnes Benneson (d. 1919)
- Lauren Burns (b. 1974)
- Omar Bongo (d. 2009)
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Abraham Whipple
- 1549 – The first Book of Common Prayer was legally mandated by Parliament, introducing a fully vernacular Protestant liturgy to the Church of England.
- 1772 – In an act of defiance against the Navigation Acts, American colonists led by Abraham Whipple (pictured) attacked and burned the British schooner Gaspee.
- 1928 – Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew landed the Southern Cross in Brisbane, completing the first transpacific flight.
- 1954 – During hearings investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy, Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch asked McCarthy: "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
- 1999 – Yugoslav Wars: The Kumanovo Agreement was signed, bringing an end to the Kosovo War the next day.
- William Feiner (d. 1829)
- Doveton Sturdee (b. 1859)
- Wolfdietrich Schnurre (d. 1989)
- Brian Williamson (d. 2004)
John Diefenbaker
- 1624 – Thirty Years' War: France and the Dutch Republic concluded the Treaty of Compiègne, a mutual defence alliance.
- 1786 – Ten days after being formed by an earthquake, a landslide dam on the Dadu River in China was destroyed by an aftershock, causing a flood that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
- 1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate Army only suffered eight casualties in its victory at the Battle of Big Bethel in York County, Virginia.
- 1957 – Led by John Diefenbaker (pictured), the Progressive Conservative Party won a plurality of House of Commons seats in the Canadian federal election.
- 1987 – Mass protests demanding direct presidential elections broke out across South Korea.
- Isabella Andreini (d. 1604)
- Gustave Courbet (b. 1819)
- Ninian Comper (b. 1864)
- Alexandra Stan (b. 1989)
George Wallace protesting desegregation at the University of Alabama
- 1594 – Philip II of Spain recognized the sovereign rights of the principalía, local Philippine nobles and chieftains who had converted to Catholicism.
- 1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach directed his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20 in Leipzig on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his chorale cantata cycle.
- 1914 – Around 2,000 members of European society attended a ball at Kenwood House, England, in one of the last major social events before the outbreak of the First World War.
- 1963 – The University of Alabama was desegregated as Governor George Wallace stepped aside after defiantly blocking the entrance to an auditorium (pictured).
- Roger Bresnahan (b. 1879)
- Sheila Heaney (b. 1917)
- A. Thurairajah (d. 1994)
- Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (d. 2014)
June 12: First day of Shavuot (Judaism, 2024); Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Loving Day in the United States (1967)
Boeing 777
- 1798 – Following the successful French invasion of Malta, the Knights Hospitaller surrendered Malta to Napoleon, initiating two years of occupation.
- 1864 – Union general Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia, ending one of the bloodiest, most lopsided battles in the American Civil War.
- 1914 – As part of the Ottoman Empire's policies of ethnic cleansing, Turkish irregulars began a six-day massacre in the predominantly Greek town of Phocaea.
- 1954 – Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at his death in 1857, was canonized by Pope Pius XII, making him one of the youngest non-martyred saints in the Catholic Church.
- 1994 – The Boeing 777 (pictured), the world's largest twinjet, made its maiden flight.
- Æthelflæd (d. 918)
- Samuel Cooper (b. 1798)
- Eugénie Brazier (b. 1895)
- Malekeh Malekzadeh Bayani (d. 1999)
USS Jeannette
- 1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, beginning the practice of clerical marriage in Protestantism.
- 1881 – The Jeannette expedition to reach the North Pole from the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait came to an end when the USS Jeannette (pictured) was finally crushed and sank after having been trapped in ice for almost two years.
- 1952 – Soviet aircraft shot down a Swedish military plane carrying out signals-intelligence gathering operations, followed three days later by the shootdown of a second plane searching for the first one.
- 1969 – Preston Smith, Governor of Texas, signed a law converting a research arm of Texas Instruments into the University of Texas at Dallas.
- 2013 – Some of the closest advisors and collaborators of Czech prime minister Petr Nečas were arrested for corruption.
- Henry Middleton (d. 1784)
- Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (b. 1804)
- Charles Algernon Parsons (b. 1854)
- Fran Allison (d. 1989)
June 14: Flag Day in the United States
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Killing of Sudbury and Hales
- 1381 – During the Peasants' Revolt in England, rebels stormed the Tower of London, killing Simon Sudbury, Lord Chancellor, and Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer (both pictured).
- 1644 – First English Civil War: Prince Maurice abandoned his siege of Lyme Regis in Dorset after learning of the approach of a Parliamentarian relief force.
- 1934 – The landmark Australian Eastern Mission concluded after a three-month diplomatic tour of East and South-East Asia.
- 2014 – War in Donbas: An Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down by forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, killing all 49 people on board.
- Qalaherriaq (d. 1856)
- Emmeline Pankhurst (d. 1928)
- Heike Friedrich (b. 1976)
- Moon Tae-il (b. 1994)
June 15: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2024); King's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom (2024)
Sallie Gardner at a Gallop
- 1215 – King John of England and a group of rebel barons agreed on the text of Magna Carta, an influential charter of rights.
- 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: The signing of the Convention of Alessandria brought temporary peace between France and Austria.
- 1878 – Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation pictured), which became the basis of motion pictures.
- 1944 – World War II: The United States Army Air Forces began its first air raid on the Japanese archipelago, although little damage was caused.
- 1996 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.
- Lisa del Giocondo (b. 1479)
- Adam Eckfeldt (b. 1769)
- James K. Polk (d. 1849)
- Oliver Kahn (b. 1969)
June 16: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2024)
James Joyce
- 632 – The final king of the Sasanian Empire of Iran, Yazdegerd III, ascended the throne at the age of eight.
- 1819 – A strong earthquake in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India, caused a local zone of uplift that dammed the Nara River, which was later named the Allah Bund ('Dam of God').
- 1904 – Irish author James Joyce (pictured) began a relationship with Nora Barnacle, and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his 1922 novel Ulysses, commemorated as Bloomsday.
- 1936 – A Junkers Ju 52 aircraft of Norwegian Air Lines crashed into a mountainside near Hyllestad, Norway, killing all seven people on board.
- 1997 – The English rock band Radiohead released their landmark third album OK Computer in the United Kingdom.
- John Cheke (b. 1514)
- Tomás Yepes (d. 1674)
- Helen Traubel (b. 1899)
- Tony Gwynn (d. 2014)
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Mumtaz Mahal
- 1579 – Explorer Francis Drake landed in a region of present-day California, naming it New Albion and claiming it for England.
- 1631 – Mumtaz Mahal (pictured), wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
- 1919 – Hundreds of Canadian soldiers rioted in Epsom, England, leading to the death of a British police officer.
- 1952 – Guatemalan Revolution: The Guatemalan Congress passed Decree 900, redistributing unused land greater than 224 acres (0.91 km2) in area to local peasants.
- M. C. Escher (b. 1898)
- Richard Gagnon (b. 1948)
- Amari Cooper (b. 1994)
- Mohamed Morsi (d. 2019)
Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon
- 1898 – The Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon (pictured) in Bar-le-Duc, France, was designated a monument historique.
- 1958 – English composer Benjamin Britten's one-act opera Noye's Fludde was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival.
- 1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology, made its maiden flight.
- 1994 – The Troubles: Ulster Volunteer Force members attacked a crowded bar in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland, with assault rifles, killing six people.
- 2022 – A disputed party massacres over 500 Amhara civilians in Gimbi, Ethiopia.
- Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464)
- Ambrose Philips (d. 1749)
- Lou Brock (b. 1939)
- Stephanie Kwolek (d. 2014)
June 19: Juneteenth in the United States (1865)
Lou Gehrig baseball card
- 1785 – The proprietors of King's Chapel, Boston, voted to adopt James Freeman's Book of Common Prayer, thus establishing the first Unitarian church in the Americas.
- 1838 – The Maryland province of the Jesuits contracted to sell 272 slaves to buyers in Louisiana in one of the largest slave sales in American history.
- 1939 – American baseball player Lou Gehrig (pictured) was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now commonly known in the United States as "Lou Gehrig's disease".
- 1987 – The Basque separatist group ETA detonated a car bomb at a Hipercor shopping centre in Barcelona, killing 21 people and injuring 45 others.
- 2009 – War in Afghanistan: British forces began Operation Panther's Claw, in which more than 350 troops made an aerial assault on Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan.
- Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (d. 1844)
- Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (d. 1864)
- Aage Bohr (b. 1922)
- Clayton Kirkpatrick (d. 2004)
Queen Victoria
- 1837 – Queen Victoria (pictured) acceded to the British throne, beginning a 63-year reign.
- 1921 – British Army officer Thomas Stanton Lambert was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army near Moydrum, Ireland.
- 1959 – The extratropical remnants of an Atlantic hurricane reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, causing 22 fishing boats to capsize and killing 35 people.
- 1979 – Bill Stewart, an American journalist, was executed by Nicaraguan Guardia forces.
- 1982 – The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, the first major conference in genocide studies, opened despite Turkish attempts to cancel it due to the inclusion of presentations on the Armenian genocide.
- John of Lancaster (b. 1389)
- Fritz Koenig (b. 1924)
- Edith Windsor (b. 1929)
- Ulf Merbold (b. 1941)
June 21: Fête de la Musique; International Day of Yoga; National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada; Xiazhi in China (2025)
Replica of the Manchester Baby
- 217 BC – Second Punic War: The Carthaginians under Hannibal ambushed a Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene, capturing or killing 25,000 men.
- 1848 – In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell proclaimed a new republican government in present-day Romania.
- 1898 – In a bloodless event during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam from Spain.
- 1919 – During a general strike in Winnipeg, Canada, members of the Royal North-West Mounted Police attacked a crowd of strikers, armed with clubs and revolvers.
- 1948 – The Manchester Baby (replica pictured), the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first program.
- Claude Auchinleck (b. 1884)
- Maureen Connolly (d. 1969)
- William, Prince of Wales (b. 1982)
- Wong Ho Leng (d. 2014)
George V and Mary after their coronation
- 1593 – Habsburg troops defeated a larger Ottoman force at the Battle of Sisak in the Kingdom of Croatia, triggering the Long Turkish War.
- 1911 – King George V and Queen Mary (both pictured) were crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
- 1941 – World War II: As Axis troops began their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
- 1979 – Former British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted of conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, who had accused Thorpe of having a relationship with him.
- 2002 – A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck northwestern Iran, killing at least 230 people and injuring 1,300 others; the official response, perceived to be slow, later caused widespread public anger.
- Howard Staunton (d. 1874)
- Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (d. 1937)
- Elizabeth Warren (b. 1949)
- Meryl Streep (b. 1949)
June 23: Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg
Pierre de Coubertin
- 1594 – Anglo-Spanish War: During the Action of Faial, an English attempt to capture a Portuguese carrack, reputedly one of the richest ever to set sail from the Indies, caused it to explode with all the treasure lost.
- 1894 – Led by French historian Pierre de Coubertin (pictured), an international congress at the Sorbonne in Paris formed the International Olympic Committee to revive the ancient Olympic Games.
- 1944 – The Holocaust: After a closely supervised visit to Theresienstadt Ghetto in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, Red Cross official Maurice Rossel reported that conditions there were "almost normal".
- 2014 – Under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 2118, the last of Syria's declared chemical weapons were shipped out for destruction.
- Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (d. 1324)
- Len Hutton (b. 1916)
- Bill Torrey (b. 1934)
- Joss Whedon (b. 1964)
Julia Gillard
- 1374 – An outbreak of dancing mania, in which crowds of people danced themselves to exhaustion, began in Aachen (in present-day Germany) before spreading to other parts of Europe.
- 1717 – The first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, the Premier Grand Lodge of England, was founded in London.
- 1724 – On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach led the first performance of Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, the third cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.
- 1943 – Amid racial tensions, U.S. Army military police shot and killed a black serviceman after a confrontation at a pub in Bamber Bridge, England.
- 2010 – Julia Gillard (pictured) was sworn in as the first female prime minister of Australia after incumbent Kevin Rudd declined to contest a leadership spill in the Labor Party.
- William Arnold (b. 1587)
- Matthew Thornton (d. 1803)
- John Lloyd Cruz (b. 1983)
- Rodrigo (d. 2000)
June 25: Eid al-Ghadir (Shia Islam, 2024)
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- 1658 – Anglo-Spanish War: The largest battle ever fought on Jamaica, the three-day Battle of Rio Nuevo, began.
- 1910 – The United States Congress passed the Mann Act, which prohibited the interstate transport of females for "immoral purposes".
- 1944 – World War II: U.S. Navy and Royal Navy ships bombarded Cherbourg, France, to support U.S. Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg.
- 1950 – The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 82 condemning the North Korean invasion of South Korea.
- 2009 – Singer Michael Jackson (pictured) died as a result of the combination of drugs in his body.
- Giovanni Battista Riccioli (d. 1671)
- Eloísa Díaz (b. 1866)
- George Michael (b. 1963)
- Farrah Fawcett (d. 2009)
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Julia Gardiner Tyler
- 1409 – The Council of Pisa elected Peter of Candia as Alexander V, becoming the third simultaneous claimant of the papacy during the Western Schism.
- 1844 – Julia Gardiner (pictured) married U.S. President John Tyler at the Church of the Ascension in New York, becoming the first lady.
- 1889 – Bangui, the capital and largest city of the present-day Central African Republic, was founded in French Congo.
- 1907 – Organized by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, among others, Bolshevik revolutionaries robbed a bank stagecoach in Tiflis, present-day Georgia.
- 1997 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first book in the Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling, was published.
- Marie Thérèse Geoffrin (b. 1699)
- Mary van Kleeck (b. 1883)
- Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1899)
- Olive Morris (b. 1952)
A. E. J. Collins
- 1864 – American Civil War: General Sherman's frontal assault against the Confederate Army of Tennessee failed, but did not stop the Union Army from advancing on Atlanta.
- 1899 – A. E. J. Collins (pictured) scored 628 runs not out, the highest recorded score in cricket until being surpassed in 2016.
- 1954 – Jacobo Árbenz resigned as President of Guatemala following a CIA-led coup against his administration.
- 1957 – Hurricane Audrey made landfall near the Texas–Louisiana border, killing over 400 people, mainly in and around Cameron, Louisiana, U.S.
- 2017 – Websites of Ukrainian organizations were swamped by a massive cyberattack, blamed on Russian military hackers, using the malware Petya.
- Thomas Erpingham (d. 1428)
- George Vincent (bap 1796)
- Rosalie Allen (b. 1924)
- Violet Milstead (d. 2014)
Gavrilo Princip
- 572 – Alboin, the king of the Lombards, was assassinated in Verona in a coup d'état instigated by the Byzantines.
- 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip (pictured), a Yugoslav nationalist, sparking the outbreak of World War I.
- 1969 – In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, groups of gay and transgender people began demonstrations, a watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement.
- 1989 – President Slobodan Milošević gave a speech at Gazimestan in which he described the possibility of "armed battles" in the future of Serbia's national development.
- Paul Broca (b. 1824)
- Don Baylor (b. 1949)
- Vannevar Bush (d. 1974)
- Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan (b. 1994)
June 29: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (Western Christianity)
Engraving of the Woldegk tornado
- 1764 – One of the strongest tornadoes in history (pictured) struck Woldegk in present-day northeastern Germany, killing one person.
- 1864 – A passenger train fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River near present-day Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, killing as many as 99 people and injuring 100 others in Canada's worst railway accident.
- 1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships voted to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest city by area in the United States and the second-largest by population.
- 1927 – The United States Army Air Corps aircraft Bird of Paradise landed at Wheeler Field on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to complete the first transpacific flight.
- 1995 – Atlantis became the first U.S. Space Shuttle to dock with the Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle–Mir program.
- Nestor Binabo (d. 2023)
- Elisabet Ney (d. 1907)
- David Rubinger (b. 1924)
- Jane Birdwood (d. 2000)
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Tower Bridge in 2009
- 1894 – Tower Bridge (pictured), a combined bascule and suspension bridge over the River Thames in London, was inaugurated.
- 1934 – German chancellor Adolf Hitler began a purge of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and other political rivals, executing at least 85 people.
- 1974 – Municipal workers in Baltimore, Maryland, went on strike seeking higher wages and better conditions.
- 1985 – Ryan White, an HIV/AIDS patient in the U.S., was denied re-admission to his school after he had contracted the disease from hemophilia treatments.
- John Quelch (d. 1704)
- Frederick Bligh Bond (b. 1864)
- Alberta Williams King (d. 1974)
- Margaret (b. 1991)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for July
[edit]July 1: Eid al-Mubahalah (Shia Islam, 2024); Canada Day (1867)
Brown 10-centime Belgian epaulette
- 692 – Berhtwald was elected Archbishop of Canterbury.
- 1849 – Belgium introduced its first series of postage stamps, known as epaulettes (example pictured).
- 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate general Robert E. Lee launched a series of disjointed and ultimately unsuccessful assaults on the nearly impregnable Union position on Malvern Hill in Henrico County, Virginia.
- 1874 – The Remington No. 1, the first commercially successful typewriter, went on sale.
- 1999 – Legislative powers in Scotland were first devolved from the Scottish Office in London to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
- John Early (b. 1814)
- DeLancey W. Gill (b. 1859)
- Tanya Savicheva (d. 1944)
- Learie Constantine (d. 1971)
James A. Garfield
- 626 – Li Shimin led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of Tang China.
- 1644 – First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the Battle of Marston Moor.
- 1724 – On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach led the first performance of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, based on the German Magnificat.
- 1881 – U.S. president James A. Garfield (pictured) was fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
- 1964 – The Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the general public in the United States.
- Walter Potter (b. 1835)
- Erich Topp (b. 1914)
- Joseph Fielding Smith (d. 1972)
- Sam Hornish Jr. (b. 1979)
French destroyer Mogador burning after British shellfire
- 324 – Civil wars of the Tetrarchy: Roman emperor Constantine the Great defeated his former colleague Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople.
- 1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity in Pennsylvania, the only military surrender in his career.
- 1940 – Second World War: The Royal Navy attacked the French fleet at Mers El Kébir (pictured), fearing that the ships would fall into Axis hands after the French–German armistice.
- 1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashed into the slopes of the Montseny Massif in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
- 1979 – U.S. president Jimmy Carter signed a presidential finding, authorizing covert operations to aid the mujahideen against the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
- Leoš Janáček (b. 1854)
- Bo Xilai (b. 1949)
- Lew Hoad (d. 1994)
- Lisa Kahn (d. 2013)
July 4: Independence Day in the United States (1776); Republic Day in the Philippines (1946); Liberation Day in Rwanda (1994)
Crab Nebula
- 414 – Byzantine emperor Theodosius II proclaimed his elder sister Aelia Pulcheria as Augusta.
- 1054 – Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula (pictured).
- 1863 – American Civil War: Confederate forces failed in an attempt to recapture the Union-occupied Helena, Arkansas.
- 1954 – In what is known as "The Miracle of Bern", West Germany defeated Hungary 3–2 to win the FIFA World Cup.
- 1954 – CIA officers arrived in Guatemala City to begin Operation PBHistory in an attempt to justify the overthrowing of Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz one week earlier.
- Brian Twyne (d. 1644)
- Jack Warhop (b. 1884)
- Koko (b. 1971)
- Victor Chang (d. 1991)
July 5: Fifth of July in New York
Artefacts from the Staffordshire Hoard
- 1841 – Thomas Cook, the founder of the British travel company Thomas Cook & Son, organised his first excursion, escorting about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough.
- 1922 – Brazilian Army rebels took over Fort Copacabana and launched a rebellion in Rio de Janeiro against President Epitácio Pessoa and President-elect Artur Bernardes.
- 1969 – Two days after the death of their founder Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones performed at a free festival in Hyde Park, London, in front of more than a quarter of a million fans.
- 2009 – The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items (examples pictured), was found near Hammerwich in Staffordshire.
- W. T. Stead (b. 1849)
- Thomas Playford IV (b. 1896)
- Kate Gynther (b. 1982)
- Ted Williams (d. 2002)
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Jadranka Kosor
- 1614 – The Ottoman Empire made a final attempt to conquer the island of Malta, but were repulsed by the Knights Hospitaller.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American troops at Fort Ticonderoga in New York completed a retreat from advancing British forces, causing an uproar among the American public.
- 1809 – Napoleon's French forces defeated Archduke Charles' Austrian army at the Battle of Wagram, the decisive confrontation of the War of the Fifth Coalition.
- 1936 – A major breach of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in England sent millions of gallons of water cascading 300 feet (90 m) into the River Irwell.
- 2009 – Jadranka Kosor (pictured) became the first female prime minister of Croatia.
- Goar of Aquitaine (d. 649)
- William Jackson Hooker (b. 1785)
- Sophie Blanchard (d. 1819)
- Barry Winchell (d. 1999)
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Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
- 1456 – Joan of Arc was declared innocent of heresy in a retrial twenty-five years after her death.
- 1798 – Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its treaties with France, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War, fought entirely at sea.
- 1907 – Inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris, American impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (pictured) staged the first of his Ziegfeld Follies.
- 1963 – The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis.
- 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The signing of the Brioni Agreement ended the Ten-Day War between SFR Yugoslavia and Slovenia.
- Camillo Golgi (b. 1843)
- Joe Sakic (b. 1969)
- Francis Hagai (d. 1974)
- Eduard Shevardnadze (d. 2014)
July 8: Islamic New Year (2024, 1446 AH)
John Clarke
- 1663 – Baptist minister John Clarke (pictured) was granted the Rhode Island Royal Charter, described as the "grandest instrument of human liberty ever constructed".
- 1874 – Members of the North-West Mounted Police at Fort Dufferin began their March West, their first journey to the Canadian Prairies.
- 1947 – Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military stated that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
- 1966 – King Mwambutsa IV of Burundi was deposed in a coup d'état by his son, Prince Charles Ndizi.
- 2014 – German citizen Lars Mittank disappeared from Varna Airport, Bulgaria; his last known movements were widely watched on YouTube.
- Ælfwynn (d. 983)
- Giorgio Pullicino (b. 1779)
- Yarden Gerbi (b. 1989)
- Tom Veryzer (d. 2014)
Wolfgang and Maria Anna Mozart
- 1763 – The Mozart family grand tour began, presenting child prodigies Maria Anna and Wolfgang (both pictured) in Western Europe.
- 1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championship, the world's oldest tennis tournament, began in London.
- 1896 – Politician William Jennings Bryan made his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism, considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.
- 1958 – An earthquake struck Lituya Bay, Alaska; the subsequent megatsunami, the largest in modern times, reached an elevation of 1,720 ft (524 m).
- 1962 – In a seminal moment for pop art, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
- Ann Radcliffe (b. 1764)
- Anna Morandi Manzolini (d. 1774)
- Courtney Love (b. 1964)
- Fernando de la Rúa (d. 2019)
July 10: Independence Day in the Bahamas (1973)
Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1645 – English Civil War: The Parliamentarians destroyed the last Royalist field army at the Battle of Langport, ultimately giving Parliament control of the west of England.
- 1942 – A downed Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero was discovered on Akutan Island, Alaska; it was later rebuilt and flown to devise tactics against the aircraft during World War II.
- 1966 – Martin Luther King Jr. (pictured) led a rally in support of the Chicago Freedom Movement, one of the most ambitious civil-rights campaigns in the northern United States.
- 1999 – The United States defeated China in the final match of the third FIFA Women's World Cup, setting records in both attendance and television ratings for women's sports.
- 2006 – Typhoon Ewiniar made landfall in South Korea, causing damages across the country amounting to 2.06 trillion won (US$1.4 billion).
- Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey (b. 1614)
- Eva Ekeblad (b. 1724)
- Bobo Brazil (b. 1924)
- Calogero Vizzini (d. 1954)
July 11: Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide in Poland (1943)
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Leicester balloon riot, 1864
- 1405 – An expeditionary fleet led by Zheng He set sail for foreign regions of the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, marking the start of Ming China's treasure voyages.
- 1846 – British soldier Frederick John White died after a flogging, leading to a campaign to end the practice in the British Army.
- 1864 – A riot broke out in Leicester, England, at the failed launching of a gas balloon (pictured).
- 1928 – Archaeologist Ivan Borkovský discovered a medieval skeleton at Prague Castle; competing factions claimed the skeleton as Germanic or Slavic in origin.
- 1936 – New York City's Triborough Bridge, the "biggest traffic machine ever built", opened to traffic.
- Nicole Oresme (d. 1382)
- Thomas Bowdler (b. 1754)
- Eugenia Tadolini (d. 1872)
- Lady Bird Johnson (d. 2007)
The Rolling Stones in 2015
- 927 – King Æthelstan of England secured the submission of four northern rulers: Constantine II of Scotland, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred I of Bamburgh, and Owain ap Dyfnwal of Strathclyde, leading to seven years of peace.
- 1488 – Choe Bu, an official of the Joseon dynasty, returned to Korea after months of shipwrecked travel in China.
- 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A squadron of British ships of the line defeated a larger squadron of Spanish and French vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar.
- 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Israel Defense Forces officer Yitzhak Rabin signed an order to expel Palestinians from the towns of Lydda and Ramle.
- 1962 – The English rock band the Rolling Stones (pictured) played their first concert at the Marquee Club in London.
- Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804)
- George Eastman (b. 1854)
- Gertrude Bell (d. 1926)
- Anne-Sophie Pic (b. 1969)
July 13: Kashmir Martyrs' Day in Pakistan
Harold Macmillan
- 1586 – Anglo–Spanish War: A convoy of English ships from the Levant Company repelled a fleet of Spanish and Maltese galleys at the Battle of Pantelleria.
- 1831 – Wallachian officials adopted the Regulamentul Organic, which engendered a period of reforms that provided for the westernization of the local society.
- 1943 – World War II: Operation Fustian, an Allied operation to capture the Primosole Bridge in Sicily, was launched.
- 1962 – In an unprecedented reshuffle, British prime minister Harold Macmillan (pictured) dismissed seven members of his cabinet.
- 1992 – Croatian War of Independence: The Croatian Army concluded Operation Tiger, advancing 17 kilometres (11 miles) into the Dubrovnik hinterland.
- Stan Coveleski (b. 1889)
- Kate Sheppard (d. 1934)
- Ernő Rubik (b. 1944)
- Frida Kahlo (d. 1954)
July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy
Machu Picchu
- 1791 – The Priestley Riots, targeting religious dissenters such as Joseph Priestley, began in Birmingham, England.
- 1874 – A fire destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people in Chicago, leading to reforms in the city's fire-prevention and firefighting efforts.
- 1902 – An expedition led by Peruvian explorer and farmer Agustín Lizárraga discovered the Incan city of Machu Picchu (pictured).
- 1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops began attacking the headquarters of the American 24th Infantry Division in present-day Daejeon, South Korea.
- 2003 – Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative was leaked to and published by journalist Robert Novak.
- Roy Inwood (b. 1890)
- Paul Kruger (d. 1904)
- Samir Handanović (b. 1984)
- César Tovar (d. 1994)
July 15: Marine Day in Japan (2024), Statehood Day in Ukraine (2022)
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Psy
- 1799 – French soldiers at Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid, uncovered the Rosetta Stone, which was essential in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.
- 1870 – Following the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, Manitoba was established as a province of Canada.
- 1943 – The all-female Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed in the Soviet Union's First Polish Army.
- 2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard.
- 2012 – South Korean rapper Psy (pictured) released his hit single "Gangnam Style".
- Almira Lincoln Phelps (b. 1793; d. 1884)
- Anton Chekhov (d. 1904)
- Livia Gouverneur (b. 1941)
- Christine Chubbuck (d. 1974)
Impact site on Jupiter of a Shoemaker–Levy 9 fragment
- 1377 – The ten-year-old Richard II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
- 1782 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premiered in Vienna, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally remarked that it had "too many notes".
- 1950 – Korean War: A Korean People's Army unit massacred 31 prisoners of war of the U.S. Army on a mountain near the village of Tuman.
- 1994 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began colliding with the planet Jupiter (impact site pictured), with the first impact causing a fireball that reached a peak temperature of 24,000 kelvin.
- 2004 – Millennium Park, a public park in Chicago, Illinois, and one of the world's largest rooftop gardens, opened to the public.
- Fulrad (d. 784)
- al-Nasir Ahmad, Sultan of Egypt (d. 1344)
- Ellen Oliver (b. 1870)
- Gareth Bale (b. 1989)
July 17: Constitution Day in South Korea (1948); World Emoji Day
Russian imperial family, 1913
- 1850 – William Cranch Bond and John Adams Whipple took a daguerreotype of Vega, the first astrophotograph of a star other than the Sun.
- 1862 – The garrotting and robbery of James Pilkington, a British member of Parliament, led to a moral panic in London.
- 1918 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II and his family (pictured) were murdered by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg.
- 1944 – Laden with munitions for World War II, two ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, killing 320 people and injuring more than 400 others.
- 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
- Edward the Elder (d. 924)
- Jadwiga of Poland (d. 1399)
- Angela Merkel (b. 1954)
- Otto Piene (d. 2014)
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Coronation of Pedro II of Brazil
- 1806 – An explosion at a gunpowder magazine in Birgu, Malta, killed an estimated 200 people.
- 1841 – Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil, was crowned (depicted) at the Old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
- 1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, the chief of the Guatemalan armed forces, was killed in a shootout with supporters of President Juan José Arévalo.
- 1984 – A gunman massacred 21 people and injured 15 others at a McDonald's restaurant in the district of San Ysidro of San Diego, California.
- 2019 – An arson attack at the studio of Kyoto Animation in Japan led to the deaths of 36 people.
- Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat (d. 924)
- Philip Snowden (b. 1864)
- James E. Boyd (b. 1906)
- Inge Sørensen (b. 1924)
Remains of the Mary Rose
- 1333 – Second War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily defeated by the English at the Battle of Halidon Hill while trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed.
- 1545 – The English warship Mary Rose sank outside Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent; it was raised from the seabed in 1982 (remains pictured).
- 1916 – First World War: The "worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces unsuccessfully attacked German defences at Fromelles, France.
- 1957 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published.
- 2014 – Gunmen ambushed an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert near Farafra, killing 22 soldiers.
- William McSherry (b. 1799)
- Khawaja Nazimuddin (b. 1894)
- Kgalema Motlanthe (b. 1949)
- Sylvia Daoust (d. 2004)
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Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the Moon
- 1651 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: After crossing the Firth of Forth, English Commonwealth forces defeated a Scottish army at the Battle of Inverkeithing, opening the rest of the country to occupation.
- 1867 – The United States Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to seek peace treaties with a number of Native American tribes.
- 1917 – Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić and Yugoslav Committee president Ante Trumbić signed the Corfu Declaration, agreeing to seek the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
- 1969 – The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later (bootprint pictured).
- Clements Markham (b. 1830)
- Wiley Rutledge (b. 1894)
- Anna Vyrubova (d. 1964)
- Chris Cornell (b. 1964)
July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)
Depiction of the Ciompi Revolt
- 625 – Paulinus was consecrated as the first bishop of York by Justus, the archbishop of Canterbury.
- 1378 – Unrepresented labourers revolted and violently took over the government of the Republic of Florence (depicted), demanding that they be granted political office.
- 1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
- 1959 – The inaugural International Mathematical Olympiad, the leading mathematical competition for pre-university students, began in Romania.
- 1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.
- John Atta Mills (b. 1944)
- Claus von Stauffenberg (d. 1944)
- Jimmie Foxx (d. 1967)
- Lettice Curtis (d. 2014)
July 22: Feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene (Christianity)
Jules-Albert de Dion
- 838 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The forces of the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Byzantine troops led by Emperor Theophilos at the Battle of Anzen, near present-day Dazman, Turkey.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces unsuccessfully attacked Union troops at the Battle of Atlanta.
- 1894 – Jules-Albert de Dion (pictured) finished first in the world's first motor race, but did not win as his steam-powered car was against the rules.
- 1944 – World War II: In opposition to the government-in-exile based in London, the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation was proclaimed to govern territory recaptured from Germany.
- 1954 – A limited state of martial law was declared in Russell County, Alabama, due to organized crime.
- Thomas Macnamara Russell (d. 1824)
- James Whale (b. 1889)
- Louise Fletcher (b. 1934)
- Johann Breyer (d. 2014)
July 23: Seventeenth of Tammuz (Judaism, 2024), Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)
Wilfred Rhodes in 1906
- 1860 – The trial of the Eastbourne manslaughter, which later became an important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of corporal punishment in schools, began in Lewes.
- 1927 – Wilfred Rhodes (pictured) of England and Yorkshire became the only person to play in 1,000 first-class cricket matches.
- 1942 – The Holocaust: The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp began operation, killing 6,500 Jews who had been transported from the Warsaw Ghetto the day before.
- 1995 – Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, was independently discovered by astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
- 1999 – In Tulia, Texas, 47 people were arrested for dealing cocaine; years later, 35 of the 47 were pardoned by the Governor of Texas.
- John Day (d. 1584)
- Bonaventura Peeters the Elder (b. 1614)
- Daniel Radcliffe (b. 1989)
- Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)
July 24: Pioneer Day in Utah, United States (1847)
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Konstantinos Karamanlis
- 1411 – Scottish clansmen led by Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, fought the Battle of Harlaw near Inverurie, Scotland.
- 1959 – Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. vice president Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
- 1974 – The Metapolitefsi period began with Konstantinos Karamanlis (pictured) taking office as Prime Minister of Greece after the collapse of the military junta.
- 1980 – The Australian swimming team, nicknamed the Quietly Confident Quartet, won the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics.
- 2014 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 disappeared from radar shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; its wreckage was found the following day in Mali with no survivors.
- Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1689)
- John William Finn (b. 1909)
- Ada Baker (d. 1949)
- James Chadwick (d. 1974)
July 25: National Day of Galicia, Saint James's Day
Pratibha Patil
- 306 – Constantine the Great was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops after the death of Constantius Chlorus.
- 1788 – Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40, one of his two extant symphonies in a minor key.
- 1898 – Spanish–American War: After more than two months of sea-based bombardment, the United States invaded Puerto Rico.
- 1943 – The Grand Council of Fascism voted a motion of no confidence against Benito Mussolini, who was arrested the same day by King Victor Emmanuel III and replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
- 1976 – The orbiting spacecraft Viking 1 took a photograph of an apparent face on Mars in a classic example of pareidolia.
- 2007 – Pratibha Patil (pictured) was sworn in as the first female president of India.
- Elliott Fitch Shepard (b. 1833)
- Enriqueta Legorreta (b. 1914)
- Nestor Makhno (d. 1934)
- Beji Caid Essebsi (d. 2019)
July 26: Independence Day in the Maldives (1965), Kargil Vijay Diwas in India
L. L. Zamenhof
- 1759 – French and Indian War: Troops led by French brigadier general François-Charles de Bourlamaque attempted to blow up Fort Carillon, near present-day Ticonderoga, New York, rather than defending it against approaching British forces.
- 1887 – L. L. Zamenhof (pictured) published Unua Libro, the first publication to describe Esperanto, a constructed international language.
- 1936 – The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, dedicated to Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed in the First World War, was unveiled in Pas-de-Calais, France.
- 1953 – The Battle of the Samichon River, the last engagement of the Korean War, ended a few hours before the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
- 2007 – After widespread controversy throughout Wales, Shambo, a black Friesian bull that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, was slaughtered due to concerns about bovine tuberculosis.
- Winsor McCay (d. 1934)
- Betty Davis (b. 1944)
- Liz Truss (b. 1975)
- Ed Gein (d. 1984)
Comet 1 prototype
- 1054 – During his invasion of Scotland, Siward, Earl of Northumbria, defeated Macbeth, King of Scotland, in an engagement north of the Firth of Forth.
- 1214 – Philip II of France decisively won the Battle of Bouvines, the conclusive battle of the 1213–1214 Anglo-French War.
- 1916 – First World War: British mariner Charles Fryatt was executed in Bruges, Belgium, after a German court-martial found him guilty of being a franc-tireur.
- 1949 – The de Havilland Comet (prototype pictured), the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production, made its maiden flight.
- 1990 – Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group, began a coup attempt against the government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages, including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering five days later.
- Iwane Matsui (b. 1878)
- Kenneth Bainbridge (b. 1904)
- Ferruccio Busoni (d. 1924)
- Maya Ali (b. 1989)
Reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo helmet
- 1540 – King Henry VIII of England had his chief minister Thomas Cromwell executed for treason and heresy.
- 1866 – Aged 18, Vinnie Ream became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a United States government commission for a statue—that of Abraham Lincoln currently in the Capitol rotunda.
- 1911 – The Australasian Antarctic Expedition began with the departure of SY Aurora from London.
- 1939 – During the excavation of a 7th-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, archaeologists discovered a helmet (reconstruction pictured) that is widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia.
- 2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced the formal end of its armed campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland and create a united Ireland.
- Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (d. 1794)
- Lucy Burns (b. 1879)
- Vida Blue (b. 1949)
- Zach Parise (b. 1984)
July 29: Torch Festival in China (2024)
Cape Cod Canal
- 1014 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Byzantine forces defeated troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion in the mountains of Belasica near present-day Klyuch.
- 1693 – Nine Years' War: French troops defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance led by William III of England at the Battle of Landen in present-day Neerwinden, Belgium.
- 1818 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel submitted a memoir on the diffraction of light to the Royal Academy of Sciences, providing strong support for the wave theory of light.
- 1914 – The Cape Cod Canal (pictured), connecting Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, opened on a limited basis.
- 1954 – The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, was published by Allen & Unwin.
- Francisco Rodrigues da Cruz (b. 1859)
- Isidor Isaac Rabi (b. 1898)
- Jaojoby (b. 1955)
- Virginia S. Baker (d. 1998)
Portrait of Miguel Hidalgo by Antonio Fabrés
- 1724 – Bach's chorale cantata Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, a paraphrase of Psalm 124 based on a 1524 hymn by Justus Jonas, was first performed in Leipzig.
- 1811 – Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (depicted), a leader of the Mexican War of Independence, was executed by Spanish forces in Chihuahua City, Mexico.
- 1871 – The boiler of the Staten Island Ferry Westfield II exploded at South Ferry in New York City, killing at least 45 people.
- 1990 – British Conservative member of Parliament Ian Gow was killed outside his home in a car bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
- 2014 – More than 150 people died after heavy rains triggered a landslide in the village of Malin in Maharashtra, India.
- Tatwine (d. 734)
- Casey Stengel (b. 1890)
- Gerald Moore (b. 1899)
- C. T. Vivian (b. 1924)
July 31: Lā Hae Hawaiʻi (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii (1843)
The lunar surface as photographed by Ranger 7 approximately 17 minutes before impact
- 1874 – Patrick Francis Healy was inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, becoming the first African-American president of a predominantly white university in the United States.
- 1924 – A private senator's bill by Herbert Payne to introduce compulsory voting in Australia became law.
- 1954 – A team of Italian climbers became the first to reach the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain.
- 1964 – The space probe Ranger 7 captured thousands of close-up photographs of the Moon (example pictured) over its final minutes of flight and transmitted them to Earth before crashing on the lunar surface.
- 2014 – Gas explosions in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, killed 32 people and injured 321 others.
- Fred Keenor (b. 1894)
- David Norris (b. 1944)
- J. K. Rowling (b. 1965)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for August
[edit]August 1: Lughnasadh in the Northern Hemisphere; Buwan ng Wika begins in the Philippines; PLA Day in China (1927)
Joseph Priestley
- 30 BC – War of Actium: Octavian defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Alexandria, establishing Roman Egypt.
- 902 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid forces captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
- 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley (pictured) liberated oxygen gas, corroborating the discovery of the element by the German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1892 – Jef Denyn hosted the world's first carillon concert at St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium.
- 1911 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator certificate.
- Elizabeth Randles (b. 1800)
- Maria Mitchell (b. 1818)
- Lydia Litvyak (d. 1943)
- Abdalqadir as-Sufi (d. 2021)
August 2: Roma Holocaust Memorial Day
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Krishna Lal Adhikari
- 461 – Unpopular among the Senate aristocracy for his reforming efforts, Roman emperor Majorian was deposed by Ricimer and executed five days later.
- 1100 – While on a hunting trip in the New Forest, King William II of England was killed by an arrow through the lung loosed by one of his own men.
- 1790 – The first United States census was officially completed, with the nation's residential population enumerated to be 3,929,214.
- 1920 – Nepalese author Krishna Lal Adhikari (pictured) was sentenced to nine years in prison for publishing a book about the cultivation of corn alleged to contain attacks on the ruling dynasty.
- 1973 – A flash fire killed 50 people at a leisure centre in Douglas, Isle of Man.
- Pope Severinus (d. 640)
- Harriet Arbuthnot (d. 1834)
- Bertha Lutz (b. 1894)
- Simone Manuel (b. 1996)
Jesse Owens in the long jump at the 1936 Olympics
- 1347 – Hundred Years' War: The French town of Calais capitulated to English forces after an eleven-month siege, ending the Crécy campaign.
- 1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed a republic, which existed for ten days before Ottoman forces destroyed the town.
- 1936 – African-American athlete Jesse Owens won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, dashing Nazi leaders' hopes of Aryan domination at the games.
- 1971 – Fighting Dinosaurs, a fossil specimen featuring a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops in combat, was unearthed in the Djadochta Formation of Mongolia.
- 1997 – The Sky Tower, then the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 m (1,076 ft), opened in Auckland, New Zealand.
- Herbert Armitage James (b. 1844)
- Tony Bennett (b. 1926)
- Frumka Płotnicka (d. 1943)
- Alexander Mair (d. 1969)
Glassell's black marlin
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: A combined Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles captured Gibraltar from Spain.
- 1914 – World War I: Adhering to the terms of the Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium.
- 1953 – Alfred C. Glassell Jr. caught a black marlin weighing 1,560 lb (710 kg) (pictured) off the coast of Peru, setting the record for the largest bony fish caught by hand.
- 1997 – French supercentenarian Jeanne Calment died at the age of 122 years, 164 days, with the longest confirmed human lifespan in history.
- 2014 – Julieka Ivanna Dhu, an Aboriginal Australian woman, died in police custody after her deteriorating condition was mocked and ignored.
- John Venn (b. 1834)
- Joseph Calleia (b. 1897)
- Maurice Richard (b. 1921)
- Jessica Mauboy (b. 1989)
August 5: Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day in Croatia (1995)
Henry I of England
- 1100 – Henry I (pictured) was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
- 1716 – Austro-Turkish War: The Ottoman army were defeated in their attempt to capture the Habsburgs-controlled Petrovaradin Fortress despite having double the number of soldiers.
- 1816 – Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it "wholly unnecessary".
- 1888 – Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen.
- 1949 – An earthquake registering 6.4 Ms struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.
- 1984 – A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft crashed while attempting to land in Dhaka, killing 49 people in the deadliest aviation accident in Bangladeshi history.
- 2012 – An American white supremacist carried out a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding four others.
- Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (d. 1799)
- Tom Thomson (b. 1877)
- Pete Burns (b. 1959)
- Eddie Nolan (b. 1988)
Street fighting during the Battle of Saint-Malo
- 686 – Second Fitna: Pro-Alid forces defeated the Umayyad Caliphate in the Battle of Khazir, allowing them to take control of Mosul in present-day Iraq.
- 1623 – After the death of Gregory XV, a papal conclave in Rome elected Maffeo Barberini as Pope Urban VIII.
- 1944 – World War II: Allied forces attacked German fortifications at Saint-Malo, France, beginning the Battle of Saint-Malo (pictured).
- 1979 – An earthquake struck along the Calaveras Fault near Coyote Lake, California, injuring sixteen people.
- 1997 – Korean Air Flight 801 crashed into a hill on approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam, killing 228 of the 254 people aboard.
- 2011 – A series of riots broke out in several London boroughs and in cities and towns across England in response to the shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police officers.
- Ludwig Ross (d. 1859)
- George Kenney (b. 1889)
- Lucille Ball (b. 1911)
- Edsger W. Dijkstra (d. 2002)
August 7: Assyrian Martyrs Day (1933)
Harvard Mark I input/output and control
- 1744 – Prussia declared its intervention in the War of the Austrian Succession on behalf of Charles VII, beginning the Second Silesian War.
- 1909 – Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey arrived in San Francisco to become the first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.
- 1944 – IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I (pictured).
- 1998 – Car bombs exploded simultaneously at the American embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.
- Hugh Foliot (d. 1234)
- Joseph Marie Jacquard (d. 1834)
- Sidney Crosby (b. 1987)
- Jane Withers (d. 2021)
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
- 1264 – Reconquista: In the early stages of the Mudéjar revolt, Muslim rebels captured the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera in present-day Spain, holding it for about two months.
- 1919 – The Third Anglo-Afghan War ended with the United Kingdom signing a treaty to recognise the independence of the Emirate of Afghanistan.
- 1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin (pictured) departed Lakehurst, New Jersey, on a flight to circumnavigate the world.
- 2009 – Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- 2014 – The World Health Organization declared the Western African Ebola epidemic, which began in December 2013, to be a public health emergency of international concern.
- Christoph Ludwig Agricola (d. 1724)
- Esther Hobart Morris (b. 1814)
- Ernest Lawrence (b. 1901)
- S.Coups (b. 1995)
August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; National Women's Day in South Africa (1956)
First Smokey Bear poster
- 1821 – The statue of A'a from Rurutu was presented to members of the London Missionary Society on the south Pacific island of Ra'iatea.
- 1934 – The Blue Lotus, the fifth volume of The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé and noted for its emphasis on countering negative misconceptions of Chinese people, began serialisation.
- 1944 – The United States Forest Service authorized the use of Smokey Bear (pictured) as its mascot to replace Bambi.
- 1974 – On the verge of an impeachment and removal from office amid the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president of the United States to resign.
- 2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American man, was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in widespread protests and unrest.
- Stephen of Anjou (d. 1354)
- Ernst Haeckel (d. 1919)
- Brett Hull (b. 1964)
- Gay van der Meer (d. 2014)
August 10: Qixi Festival in China (2024)
Painting of the insurrection of 10 August 1792
- 1792 – French Revolution: Insurrectionists in Paris stormed the Tuileries Palace (depicted), effectively ending the French monarchy until it was restored in 1814.
- 1864 – José Antônio Saraiva announced that the Brazilian military would exact reprisals after Uruguay's governing Blanco Party refused Brazil's demands, beginning the Uruguayan War.
- 1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdrew its forces from Operation Camargue against the Việt Minh in central modern-day Vietnam.
- 2019 – Having already caused severe flooding in the Philippines, Typhoon Lekima made landfall in Zhejiang, China, killing 45 people in the province.
- William Lowndes Yancey (b. 1814)
- Adah Isaacs Menken (d. 1868)
- Marie-Claire Alain (b. 1926)
- Jennifer Paterson (d. 1999)
- 1309 – Reconquista: Aragonese forces led by King James II landed on the coast of Almería, beginning an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the city, then held by the Emirate of Granada.
- 1786 – Francis Light founded George Town (city hall pictured), the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and the present-day capital of the Malaysian state of Penang.
- 1979 – Two Aeroflot passenger jets collided in mid-air near Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, killing all 178 people on both aircraft.
- 1999 – Ken Levine's System Shock 2 was released to mediocre sales, but later received critical acclaim and influenced subsequent first-person shooter game design.
- 2012 – At least 306 people were killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.
- John Hunyadi (d. 1456)
- William W. Chapman (b. 1808)
- Kaname Harada (b. 1916)
- Clare Nott (b. 1986)
Quagga mare at London Zoo
- 1834 – A race riot in Philadelphia destroyed African-American businesses and killed two people.
- 1883 – The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam.
- 1914 – World War I: Belgian troops won a victory at the Battle of Halen, but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of Belgium.
- 1944 – World War II: In Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Italy, the Waffen-SS and the Brigate Nere murdered about 560 local villagers and refugees and burned their bodies.
- Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria (b. 1629)
- John C. Young (b. 1803)
- Carlos Mesa (b. 1953)
- Ladi Kwali (d. 1984)
Damage caused by Hurricane Charley
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led Allied forces to a crucial victory at the Battle of Blenheim.
- 1724 – Bach led the Thomanerchor in Leipzig in the first performance of the chorale cantata, Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101.
- 1999 – The Act on National Flag and Anthem was adopted, formally establishing the Hinomaru and "Kimigayo" as the Japanese national flag and anthem, respectively.
- 2004 – Merely 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie struck the U.S. state of Florida, Hurricane Charley inflicted further damage to the region (example pictured).
- Jules Massenet (d. 1912)
- Bobby Clarke (b. 1949)
- Ida McNeil (d. 1974)
- Tigran Petrosian (d. 1984)
August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
Roosevelt and Churchill
- 1264 – War of Saint Sabas: A Genoese fleet captured or sank most of the ships of a Venetian trade convoy off the Albanian coast.
- 1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
- 1941 – After a secret meeting in Newfoundland, British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (both pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post–World War II world.
- 2021 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck in Haiti, killing at least 2,248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damages and economic loss.
- Qian Hongzuo (b. 928)
- Anders Bure (b. 1571)
- Bobby Eaton (b. 1958)
- Magic Johnson (b. 1959)
August 15: Independence Day in India (1947); National Liberation Day of Korea (1945)
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Peter, King of Hungary
- 718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned a year-long siege of Constantinople, ending their goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
- 1038 – Upon the death of his uncle Stephen I, Peter (depicted) became the second king of Hungary.
- 1909 – A military coup against the government of Dimitrios Rallis began in the neighbourhood of Goudi in Athens, Greece.
- 1944 – World War II: Allied forces began Operation Dragoon, their invasion of southern France.
- 1998 – The Troubles: A car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army killed 29 people and injured approximately 220 others in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
- Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos (d. 1022)
- Charles Comiskey (b. 1859)
- Bernard Fanning (b. 1969)
- Hanna Greally (d. 1987)
San Sebastian Church in Manila
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces routed British and German troops at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
- 1819 – Around 15 people were killed and 400 to 700 others injured when cavalry charged into a crowd demanding the reform of parliamentary representation in Manchester, England.
- 1891 – San Sebastian Church (pictured), an all-iron church in Manila, was officially consecrated.
- 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was hit by a pitch and died the following day, becoming the only Major League Baseball player to die directly as a result of injuries sustained during a game.
- 1929 – A long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into a week-long period of violent riots throughout Palestine.
- George Meany (b. 1894)
- Robert Bunsen (d. 1899)
- James Cameron (b. 1954)
- Dorival Caymmi (d. 2008)
Richard Wagner
- 1668 – An earthquake struck the North Anatolia region, killing over 8,000 people.
- 1876 – The premiere of Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner (pictured) closed the first Bayreuth Festival.
- 1914 – World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia at the Battle of Stallupönen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front.
- 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the Peenemünde Army Research Center.
- Matthew Boulton (d. 1809)
- Gene Stratton-Porter (b. 1863)
- Margaret Hamilton (b. 1936)
- Gerri Major (d. 1984)
August 18: Ghost Festival in China (2024)
Blackwater Fire
- 684 – Second Fitna: Umayyad partisans defeated the supporters of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr near Damascus, cementing Umayyad control of Syria.
- 1823 – At least 9,000 enslaved people rebelled in the British colony in Demerara-Essequibo (in present-day Guyana), demanding emancipation.
- 1864 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Globe Tavern, Union forces attempted to sever the Weldon Railroad during the siege of Petersburg.
- 1937 – A lightning strike started the Blackwater Fire (pictured) in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, consuming 1,700 acres (7 km2) of old-growth forest and killing 15 firefighters.
- 2017 – Two people were fatally stabbed and eight others wounded by a rejected asylum seeker in an Islamist terrorist attack in Turku, Finland.
- Knut Alvsson (d. 1502)
- Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. 1911)
- Edward Norton (b. 1969)
- Evan Gattis (b. 1986)
August 19: Afghan Independence Day; National Aviation Day in the United States
Edward I of England
- 1274 – Shortly after his return from the Ninth Crusade, Edward I (pictured) was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, nearly two years after his father's death.
- 1934 – A referendum supported the recent merging of the posts of chancellor and president of Germany, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power.
- 2002 – Second Chechen War: A Russian Mil Mi-26 was brought down by Chechen separatists with a man-portable air-defense system near Khankala, killing 127 people in the deadliest helicopter crash in history.
- 2017 – Around 250,000 farmed non-native Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the wild near Cypress Island, Washington.
- Edward Boscawen (b. 1711)
- Gustave Caillebotte (b. 1848)
- Clay Walker (b. 1969)
- Donald William Kerst (d. 1993)
Pluto
- 917 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory at the Battle of Achelous.
- 1892 – Celtic Park, the largest football stadium in Scotland and home of Celtic F.C., opened.
- 1909 – Pluto (pictured) was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
- 1988 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding twenty-eight.
- 1989 – After colliding with the dredger Bowbelle on the River Thames in London, the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in thirty seconds, killing 51 people.
- James Prinsep (b. 1799)
- Rudolf Bultmann (b. 1884)
- Agnes Giberne (d. 1939)
- Amy Adams (b. 1974)
Mona Lisa
- 1689 – Jacobite clans clashed with a regiment of Covenanters in the streets of Dunkeld, Scotland.
- 1789 – The national colours of Italy first appeared on a tricolour cockade in Genoa.
- 1911 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (pictured) was stolen from the Louvre by museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia and was not recovered until two years later.
- 1944 – World War II: A combined Canadian–Polish force captured the town of Falaise, France, in the final offensive of the Battle of Normandy.
- 2007 – BioShock was released in North America, becoming a critical success and a demonstration of video games as an art form.
- Alphonse, Count of Poitiers (d. 1271)
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (d. 1762)
- Thomas S. Monson (b. 1927)
- Frederick Seguier Drake (d. 1974)
August 22: Madras Day in Chennai, India (1639)
Reconstruction of Fort Stanwix
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold used a ruse to convince the British that a much larger force was arriving, causing them to abandon the siege of Fort Stanwix (reconstructed fort pictured).
- 1864 – Under the leadership of Henry Dunant and the International Committee of the Red Cross, twelve European states signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing rules for the protection of victims of armed conflict.
- 1914 – First World War: German forces captured Rossignol in Belgium, taking more than 3,800 French prisoners.
- 1962 – An assassination attempt orchestrated by the OAS takes place against Charles de Gaulle, although he is uninjured.
- 2012 – A series of ethnic clashes between the Orma and the Pokomo in Kenya's Tana River District resulted in at least 52 deaths.
- Jan Kochanowski (d. 1584)
- Thomas Tredgold (b. 1788)
- Madame Nhu (b. 1924)
- Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (b. 1934)
Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking hands after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
- 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departed London.
- 1914 – In their first major action of the First World War, the British Expeditionary Force engaged German troops in Mons, Belgium.
- 1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (pictured), a ten-year mutual non-aggression treaty, which also secretly divided northern and eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
- 1954 – The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departed from Marseille, France.
- 1989 – Singing Revolution: Approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres (419.7 mi) across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics to demonstrate their desire for independence.
- Hamilton Disston (b. 1844)
- Sarah Yorke Jackson (d. 1887)
- Germán Busch (d. 1939)
- Mimis Papaioannou (b. 1942)
August 24: Feast day of Saint Bartholomew (Western Christianity); Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
Burning of Washington
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: An Anglo-Dutch fleet engaged a French naval force at the Battle of Málaga in the Mediterranean Sea.
- 1814 – War of 1812: British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting fire to various U.S. government buildings, including the White House (pictured).
- 1889 – The New Zealand Native football team, predominantly comprising Māori players, concluded their 107-game tour, the longest in rugby union history.
- 1914 – The Battle of Cer ended with the first Allied victory of World War I.
- 1954 – In the midst of a political crisis, Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas fatally shot himself in the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro.
- William Wilberforce (b. 1759)
- Antonio Stoppani (b. 1824)
- Odette Abadi (b. 1914)
- Cora Slocomb di Brazza (d. 1944)
Rings of Neptune
- 1258 – George Mouzalon, the regent of the Empire of Nicaea, was assassinated as part of a conspiracy led by nobles under the future emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
- 1758 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.
- 1914 – World War I: During the sack of Louvain in Belgium, German troops burned the town's Catholic university, destroying several medieval manuscripts.
- 1989 – The NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune and provided definitive proof of the existence of the planet's rings (pictured).
- 2011 – Mexican drug war: Fifty-two people were killed in an arson attack at a casino in Monterrey, Mexico.
- Velma Caldwell Melville (d. 1924)
- Babe Siebert (d. 1939)
- Theresa Andrews (b. 1962)
- Ray Jones (d. 2007)
August 26: Heroes' Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Day in the United States
Clashes between police and protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
- 683 – Second Fitna: The Battle of al-Harra was fought between Umayyad forces and the rebel defenders of Medina at a lava field northeast of the city.
- 1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was founded in Philadelphia.
- 1914 – First World War: The German colony of Togoland surrendered to French and British forces after a 20-day campaign.
- 1959 – The Coatzacoalcos earthquake struck near the Mexican state of Veracruz, killing 25 people.
- 1968 – The U.S. Democratic Party's National Convention opened in Chicago, sparking four days of clashes (pictured) between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police.
- James Franck (b. 1882)
- Sue Bailey Thurman (b. 1903)
- Barbara Toomer (b. 1929)
- Efren Reyes (b. 1954)
August 27: Independence Day in Moldova (1991)
Destroyed buildings after the attack in the Anglo-Zanzibar War
- 410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ended after three days.
- 1896 – In the shortest recorded war in history (pictured), the Sultanate of Zanzibar surrendered to the United Kingdom after less than an hour of conflict.
- 1955 – The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published.
- 1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, both of whom had been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
- 2009 – The Myanmar military junta and ethnic armies began three days of violent clashes in the region of Kokang.
- Henry Edwards (b. 1827)
- Rufus Wilmot Griswold (d. 1857)
- Don Bradman (b. 1908)
- Ieva Simonaitytė (d. 1978)
SMS Mainz (background) shortly before sinking in the Battle of Heligoland Bight
- 1542 – Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts: During the Battle of Wofla, the Portuguese commander Cristóvão da Gama was captured by the Adal Sultanate and executed the next day.
- 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833, officially abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire, received royal assent.
- 1914 – In the first naval battle of the First World War, British ships ambushed a German naval patrol in the Heligoland Bight (pictured).
- 1993 – The first direct Presidential election in Singapore was held.
- 2003 – A pizza delivery man in Erie, Pennsylvania, was killed during a complex bank robbery when a bomb that was locked around his neck exploded.
- He Gui (d. 919)
- Edward Dando (d. 1832)
- Vittorio Sella (b. 1859)
- Katharine Abraham (b. 1954)
August 29: Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist (Catholicism, Anglicanism)
Michael Faraday
- 1350 – Hundred Years' War: Led by King Edward III, a fleet of 50 English ships captured at least 14 Castilian vessels and sank several more at the Battle of Winchelsea.
- 1786 – Angered by high tax burdens and disfranchisement, farmers in western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays began an armed uprising against the U.S. federal government.
- 1831 – Michael Faraday (pictured) first experimentally demonstrated electromagnetic induction, leading to the formulation of the law of induction named after him.
- 1960 – Air France Flight 343 crashed while attempting to land at Yoff Airport, Dakar, killing all 63 occupants.
- 2016 – Chen Quanguo became the Chinese Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang, and in that role later oversaw the creation of the Xinjiang internment camps.
- Abu Taghlib (d. 979)
- Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville (b. 1785)
- Orval Grove (b. 1919)
- Kazi Nazrul Islam (d. 1976)
August 30: Victory Day in Turkey (1922)
Guru Ram Das
- AD 70 – First Jewish–Roman War: Roman forces led by Titus set fire to the Second Temple during the siege of Jerusalem.
- 1574 – Guru Ram Das (pictured) became the fourth of the Sikh gurus, the spiritual masters of Sikhism.
- 1594 – King James VI of Scotland held a masque at the baptism of Prince Henry, his first child.
- 1959 – South Vietnamese opposition figure Phan Quang Đán was elected to the National Assembly, despite soldiers being bussed in to vote multiple times for President Ngô Đình Diệm's candidate.
- 1974 – An express train carrying foreign workers from Yugoslavia to West Germany derailed in Zagreb, killing 153 people.
- 2007 – A heavy bomber that had been unintentionally loaded with nuclear missiles flew them from North Dakota to Louisiana before they were recognized.
- Albert Szenczi Molnár (b. 1574)
- Abishabis (d. 1843)
- Frieda Fraser (b. 1899)
- Seamus Heaney (d. 2013)
August 31: Independence Day in Malaysia (1957); Romanian Language Day in Moldova and Romania
Cartoon of Jack the Ripper as a phantom stalking Whitechapel
- 1218 – Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.
- 1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the alleged first victim of an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper (pictured), was found in Buck's Row, London.
- 1942 – The Matagorda hurricane, the most intense and costliest tropical cyclone of the 1942 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing $26.5 million in damages and eight deaths.
- 1969 – On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig in three years.
- 2019 – A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.
- Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651)
- Alma Mahler (b. 1879)
- Feng Tianwei (b. 1986)
- William McAloney (d. 1995)
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Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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Selected anniversaries for September
[edit]September 1: Labour Day in Canada and Labor Day in the United States (2025)
Illuminated Guru Granth Sahib folio
- 1145 – The main altar of Lund Cathedral, then the Catholic cathedral of all the Nordic countries, was dedicated to Saint Lawrence and the Virgin Mary.
- 1604 – The Guru Granth Sahib (folio depicted), the religious text of Sikhism, was installed in the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
- 1859 – A powerful solar flare caused a coronal mass ejection that struck Earth a few hours later, generating the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded and causing bright aurorae visible in the middle latitudes.
- 1911 – Construction began on the Saline Valley salt tram, which during its operation was the steepest tram in the United States.
- 1972 – In a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation, American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer became the 11th World Chess Champion with his victory over Soviet Boris Spassky.
- Yasuo Kuniyoshi (b. 1889)
- Alan Dershowitz (b. 1938)
- Doreen Valiente (d. 1999)
- Jang Jin-young (d. 2009)
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September 2: Labour Day in Canada and Labor Day in the United States (2024); National Day in Vietnam (1945)
Principality of Sealand
- 1789 – The United States Department of the Treasury was founded following financial concerns in the new nation.
- 1792 – French Revolution: Due to an overwhelming fear that foreign armies would attack Paris and prisoners would revolt, revolutionaries began the summary execution of more than a thousand prisoners.
- 1946 – The interim government of India, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, was formed to assist the transition of India from British rule to independence.
- 1957 – South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to the country.
- 1967 – Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand (pictured).
- Constantius III (d. 421)
- Liliʻuokalani (b. 1838)
- Horace Silver (b. 1928)
- Barbara McClintock (d. 1992)
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Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
- 36 BC – The Sicilian revolt against the Second Triumvirate of the Roman Republic ended when the fleet of Sextus Pompey, the rebel leader, was defeated at the Battle of Naulochus.
- 1411 – The Treaty of Selymbria was concluded between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman prince Musa Çelebi.
- 1901 – At the Royal Exhibition Building (pictured) in Melbourne, the flag of Australia flew for the first time.
- 1987 – While he was abroad, Burundian president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was deposed in a military coup d'état by Pierre Buyoya.
- 2017 – North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test at Punggye-ri, causing a magnitude-6.3 earthquake.
- Umar al-Aqta (d. 863)
- Ana Monterroso de Lavalleja (b. 1791)
- Sarah Orne Jewett (b. 1849)
- Ferdinand Rudow (d. 1920)
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Damage from the Canterbury earthquake in Christchurch
- 476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1800 – French Revolutionary Wars: Facing starvation and a death rate of 100 soldiers per day, the French garrison in Malta surrendered to British forces, ending a two-year siege.
- 1843 – The state wedding of Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil took place at the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
- 1977 – The Golden Dragon massacre occurred in Chinatown, San Francisco, leaving five dead and spurring police to end Chinese gang violence in the city.
- 2010 – A magnitude-7.1 earthquake (damage pictured) struck the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, causing two deaths and up to NZ$40 billion in damages.
- Maria of Castile (d. 1458)
- Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1588)
- Konstantin Kalser (b. 1920)
- Yoani Sánchez (b. 1975)
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Squeaky Fromme
- 1367 – Swa Saw Ke was crowned the ruler of the Kingdom of Ava in Upper Myanmar.
- 1816 – Facing rising discontent in France, Louis XVIII was forced to dissolve the Chambre introuvable, the legislature dominated by Ultra-royalists.
- 1887 – A fire that killed 186 people broke out at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, England.
- 1964 – Hurricane Cleo dissipated after causing 156 deaths, mainly in Haiti, and causing roughly US$187 million in damages across the Caribbean and southeastern United States.
- 1975 – Squeaky Fromme (pictured), a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.
- Katharina Zell (d. 1562)
- James Innes (d. 1759)
- Archie Jackson (b. 1909)
- Jean-Chrysostome Weregemere (b. 1919)
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September 6: Defence Day in Pakistan (1965)
Hurricane Irma
- 1492 – Christopher Columbus set sail from San Sebastián de La Gomera in the Canary Islands on his first voyage across the Atlantic, discovering the Americas.
- 1566 – Suleiman the Magnificent, the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, died at the age of 71.
- 1970 – Black September: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked four airliners, landing two at Dawson's Field in Jordan and one in Cairo, while the last hijacking attempt was foiled near London.
- 2017 – Hurricane Irma (pictured) reached peak intensity near the Caribbean islands of Barbuda, Saint Martin, and Virgin Gorda.
- 2022 – Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister following the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis.
- Isabella Leonarda (b. 1620)
- Geert Wilders (b. 1963)
- Jillian Hall (b. 1980)
- Clive Donner (d. 2010)
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The last thylacine
- 1652 – Chinese peasants on Formosa (now Taiwan) began a rebellion against Dutch rule which was suppressed four days later.
- 1778 – Anglo-French War: Having established an alliance with the United States, France invaded the Caribbean island of Dominica and captured its British fort.
- 1936 – The last thylacine (pictured) died in captivity in Hobart Zoo, Australia.
- 1940 – Second World War: The Luftwaffe changed their strategy in the Battle of Britain and began bombing London and other cities and towns.
- 2010 – A Chinese fishing trawler operating in disputed waters collided with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands, sparking a major diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
- Gregory Bicskei (d. 1303)
- John Shakespeare (d. 1601)
- Henry Sewell (b. 1807)
- Grandma Moses (b. 1860)
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September 8: Victory Day in Malta
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Queen Elizabeth II in 1959
- 617 – Li Yuan defeated a Sui army at the Battle of Huoyi, opening the path to his capture of the Chinese imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
- 1565 – St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States, was founded by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
- 1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1966 – The science fiction show Star Trek made its American premiere with "The Man Trap", launching a media franchise that has since created a cult phenomenon and has influenced the design of many current technologies.
- 2022 – Queen Elizabeth II (pictured) died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland; her eldest son Charles III acceded to the throne as King of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.
- Amy Robsart (d. 1560)
- John Aitken (d. 1831)
- Charles Hastings Judd (b. 1835)
- Pink (b. 1979)
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John Lennon
- AD 9 – Germanic Wars: An alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius engaged Roman forces at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, defeating three legions within a few days.
- 1141 – Yelü Dashi, the Liao general who founded the Qara Khitai, defeated Seljuq and Kara-Khanid forces at the Battle of Qatwan, near Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval engagement between French and British fleets off the coast of Sumatra ended inconclusively.
- 1954 – A magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck near Chlef, killing over 1,200 people and forcing the Algerian government to implement comprehensive reforms in building codes.
- 1971 – Imagine, the second solo album by John Lennon (pictured), was released.
- Honorius (b. 384)
- James Clark (d. 1885)
- Gan Eng Seng (d. 1899)
- Soňa Červená (b. 1925)
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Portland Vase
- 1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: Captain William Pickles of the Continental Navy boarded and captured the British sloop HMS West Florida at the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain.
- 1845 – John Doubleday completed a "masterly" restoration of the Portland Vase (pictured), which had been smashed into hundreds of pieces seven months prior.
- 1974 – After centuries of Portuguese rule, the country of Guinea-Bissau was formally recognized as independent.
- 2000 – British forces freed soldiers and civilians who had been held captive by the militant group the West Side Boys, contributing to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.
- Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797)
- Mortimer Wheeler (b. 1890)
- Boyd K. Packer (b. 1924)
- Jack Ma (b. 1964)
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September 11: National Day of Catalonia
Alexander Hamilton
- 1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth.
- 1789 – Alexander Hamilton (pictured), co-writer of The Federalist Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
- 1978 – British medical photographer Janet Parker became the last recorded person to die from smallpox, leading to a debate on whether the virus should be preserved.
- 1995 – Mir EO-19, the first expedition to the Russian space station Mir launched on an American Space Shuttle, returned to Earth after approximately 75 days in space.
- Stephen Hagiochristophorites (d. 1185)
- Paul Nahaolelua (b. 1806)
- Mary Watson Whitney (b. 1847)
- Issy Smith (d. 1940)
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning
- 379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I took the throne as the ruler (ajaw) of the Mayan city of Tikal.
- 1846 – The English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (both pictured) married in secret to avoid their disapproving families before moving to Italy.
- 1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
- 1948 – The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign, the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War.
- 1995 – Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.
- Parsley Peel (d. 1795)
- Alice Ayres (b. 1859)
- Ion Agârbiceanu (b. 1882)
- Steve Biko (d. 1977)
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Model of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
- 509 BC – According to Roman tradition, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (depicted), the most important temple in ancient Rome, was dedicated.
- 1567 – The siege of Inabayama Castle, the final battle in Oda Nobunaga's campaign to conquer Mino Province, began; it culminated in a decisive victory for Nobunaga.
- 1919 – The Boston police strike ended after four days of rule by the state militia, the deaths of nine people, and accusations that striking officers were "agents of Lenin".
- 2005 – A software bug caused a simulated pandemic in the online video game World of Warcraft, serving as a model for epidemiologists to understand how human interaction influences disease outbreaks.
- Kavad I (d. 531)
- Laura Secord (b. 1775)
- Arnold Schoenberg (b. 1874)
- Louis Laybourne Smith (d. 1965)
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HMAS AE1
- AD 81 – Domitian, the last Flavian emperor of Rome, was confirmed by the Senate to succeed his brother Titus.
- 919 – Viking activity in the British Isles: A coalition of native Irish, led by Niall Glúndub, failed in their attempt to drive the Vikings of the Uí Ímair from Ireland.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The Little Rock campaign ended with the Union Army capturing Little Rock, Arkansas.
- 1914 – HMAS AE1 (pictured), the Royal Australian Navy's first submarine, was lost at sea; its wreck was not found until 2017.
- 1989 – Typhoon Sarah dissipated after causing extensive damage along an erratic path across the Western Pacific, killing 71 in Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Gotō Islands.
- Drusus Julius Caesar (d. AD 23)
- Luke P. Blackburn (d. 1887)
- Romola Costantino (b. 1930)
- Mamadou N'Diaye (b. 1993)
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September 15: Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom (1940)
1831 illustration of the L&M Railway
- 1462 – The Ottoman conquest of Lesbos ended upon the surrender of commander Niccolò Gattilusio; the conquering Mehmed II executed 300 Italian soldiers by chopping them in half, claiming he was fulfilling a promise to "spare their heads".
- 1830 – The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&M) (depicted), the first locomotive-hauled railway to connect two major cities, opened with the Duke of Wellington in attendance.
- 1954 – The scene in The Seven Year Itch of Marilyn Monroe standing in a white dress over a subway grate was filmed by Billy Wilder.
- 2013 – The Belarusian serial killer Ivan Kulesh murdered two saleswomen in Lida.
- Stanisław Poniatowski (b. 1676)
- Ayscoghe Boucherett (d. 1815)
- Algernon Lee (b. 1873)
- Linnie Marsh Wolfe (d. 1945)
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Western terminus of the Northern Xinjiang railway
- 681 – At the Third Council of Constantinople, Pope Honorius I was posthumously excommunicated, with his support for monothelitism deemed to be heretical.
- 1844 – Felix Mendelssohn completed the score of his Violin Concerto, his final concerto.
- 1979 – Eight people escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a home-made hot air balloon.
- 1990 – Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway (terminus pictured) was completed between Ürümqi South and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of China and Kazakhstan and adding a sizeable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.
- Vitalis of Savigny (d. 1122)
- Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky (b. 1799)
- Vesta Tilley (d. 1952)
- Louis Ngwat-Mahop (b. 1987)
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September 17: Constitution Day in the United States
Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledges AIDS for the first time, beginning at the 7:12 mark.
- 1176 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: At the Battle of Myriokephalon in Phrygia, the Seljuq Turks prevented Byzantine forces from taking the interior of Anatolia.
- 1630 – Puritan settlers from England founded the city of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, naming it after Boston, Lincolnshire, the origin of several prominent colonists.
- 1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on the country from the west.
- 1985 – Four years after AIDS was first identified in the United States, Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged AIDS (video featured) for the first time.
- 2011 – Adbusters, a Canadian anti-consumerist publication, organized a protest against corporate influence on democracy at Zuccotti Park in New York City that became known as Occupy Wall Street.
- Li Jingsui (d. 958)
- Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (d. 1721)
- Periyar (b. 1879)
- Hank Williams (b. 1923)
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Interior of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden
- AD 96 – Nerva, the first of the "Five Good Emperors" of ancient Rome, came to power following the assassination of his predecessor Domitian.
- 1809 – The second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (interior pictured), opened in London after the original was destroyed by fire.
- 1875 – The Indianola hurricane dissipated over Mississippi after killing around eight hundred people in Texas.
- 1961 – An aircraft crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, resulting in the deaths of 16 people, including United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld.
- 1981 – While posing as an aristocrat, Belgian serial killer Nestor Pirotte murdered an antiques dealer in Brussels, for which crime he was sentenced to death.
- Trajan (b. AD 53)
- Liu Sheng (d. 958)
- Betty Cantor-Jackson (b. 1948)
- Jimi Hendrix (d. 1970)
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September 19: International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Statue of Our Lady of La Salette
- 1692 – Salem witch trials: Giles Corey was crushed to death for refusing to enter a plea to charges of witchcraft, reportedly asking the sheriff for "more weight" during his execution.
- 1846 – Near La Salette-Fallavaux in southeastern France, shepherd children Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud reported a Marian apparition, now known as Our Lady of La Salette (statue pictured).
- 1940 – World War II: Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be captured by German forces and sent to Auschwitz to gather intelligence.
- 1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, England.
- 1995 – Industrial Society and Its Future, the manifesto of American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, was published in The Washington Post almost three months after it was submitted.
- Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690)
- Paterson Clarence Hughes (b. 1917)
- Judith Kanakuze (b. 1959)
- Wu Zhonghua (d. 1992)
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Great Buddha of Kamakura
- 1498 – A tsunami caused by the Meiō earthquake washed away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha (pictured) at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Japan; the statue has since stood in the open air.
- 1792 – The French Army achieved its first major victory of the War of the First Coalition at the Battle of Valmy.
- 1967 – L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, announced the story of Xenu in a taped lecture sent to all Scientologists.
- 1997 – Hurricane Erika, the strongest and longest-lasting hurricane of the 1997 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing flooding and power outages throughout Puerto Rico.
- Susanna Rubinstein (b. 1847)
- Edith Rogers (b. 1894)
- Davidson Nicol (d. 1994)
- Victor Henry Anderson (d. 2001)
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September 21: International Day of Peace
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The Great Fire of New York
- 1170 – Norman invasion of Ireland: English and Irish forces conquered Dublin, forcing Ascall mac Ragnaill, the last Norse–Gaelic king of Dublin, into exile.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Fire of New York (depicted) broke out during the British occupation of New York City, destroying up to 1,000 buildings.
- 1918 – World War I: The Battle of Nazareth ended with the British Empire victorious over the Ottomans.
- 1958 – The first section of Interstate 80 in Iowa opened in the Des Moines metropolitan area.
- 2001 – Several British Muslim youths in Peterborough, England, murdered 17-year-old Ross Parker, leading to debate over whether the British media failed to cover racially motivated crimes with white victims.
- Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235)
- Barbara Longhi (b. 1552)
- Kay Ryan (b. 1945)
- Florence Griffith Joyner (d. 1998)
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François Duvalier
- 1236 – Livonian Crusade: The Livonian Brothers of the Sword were soundly defeated by pagan Samogitian and Semigallian troops at the Battle of Saule.
- 1789 – The office of United States Postmaster General was formally established.
- 1957 – François Duvalier (pictured), nicknamed Papa Doc, was elected President of Haiti as a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the rest of his life.
- 2003 – Dolphin, the first emulator for the GameCube that could run commercial video games, was released.
- 2013 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked by two suicide bombers who killed 127 people.
- Ibn Khallikan (b. 1211)
- Louise McKinney (b. 1868)
- Ice Box Chamberlain (d. 1929)
- Florence Merriam Bailey (d. 1948)
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September 23: Celebrate Bisexuality Day
Concordat of Worms
- 1122 – Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman emperor Henry V agreed the Concordat of Worms (pictured), ending the Investiture Controversy.
- 1642 – First English Civil War: The Battle of Powick Bridge, the first engagement between the primary field armies of the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, ended in a Royalist victory.
- 1884 – The French steamship Arctique ran aground on the northern coast of Cape Virgenes in Argentina; gold was discovered during the rescue effort, triggering the Tierra del Fuego gold rush.
- 1920 – The Louisiana hurricane dissipated over Kansas after forcing around 4,500 people to evacuate and causing $1.45 million in damages.
- 2010 – Teresa Lewis became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in the state to be executed by lethal injection.
- Augustus (b. 63 BC)
- Sir Richard Hughes, 1st Baronet (d. 1779)
- Émilie Gamelin (d. 1851)
- Zdenko Blažeković (b. 1915)
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