Events Pre-1600 534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage. 1248 – Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile. 1499 – Seven days after being convicted of treason, Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne of England, is hanged for attempting to escape from the Tower of London; his supporter John Atwater is executed with him.
1601–1900 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship. 1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies. 1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at Battle of Tudela. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and counter-attack Confederate troops. 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish Republican Brotherhood members from custody. 1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain. 1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him.
1901–present 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair. 1921 – Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, signs the Willis–Campbell Act into law, prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.President Harding signed “anti-beer bill” 1923 – Thousands of Irish Republicans end the 1923 Irish hunger strikes, five die from starvation. 1924 – Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times. 1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis. 1939 – World War II: is sunk by the German battleships and . 1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces. 1944 – World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War.Jukka Paakki: Arto Salomaa: Mathematician, Computer Scientist, and Teacher: A Thematic Biography, p. 14. (2019) 1946 – French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians. 1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia. 1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals". 1963 – The first episode of Doctor Who ("An Unearthly Child") is broadcast by the BBC, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama. 1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time. 1972 – The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket. 1974 – Sixty Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government. 1976 – Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of undersea without breathing equipment. 1978 – Cyclone kills about 1,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka. 1978 – The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect, realigning many of Europe's longwave and mediumwave broadcasting frequencies. 1980 – The 6.9 Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 2,483–4,900, and injuring 7,700–8,934. 1981 – Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua. 1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid. 1991 – Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury announces in a statement that he is HIV-positive. He dies the following day. 1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125. 2001 – The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary. 2002 – Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-113 to the International Space Station carrying the Expedition 6 crew and the P1 truss. 2003 – Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections. 2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated. 2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country. 2006 – A series of bombings kills at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. 2007 – , a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities. 2009 – The Maguindanao massacre occurs in Ampatuan, Philippines; 58 opponents of Andal Ampatuan Jr. are kidnapped and killed. 2010 – Bombardment of Yeonpyeong: North Korean artillery attack kills two civilians and two marines on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. 2011 – Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity. 2015 – Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing. 2018 – Founders of Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana issue an apology following a series of offensive advertisements on social media promoting a fashion show in Shanghai, China, which was canceled. 2019 – The last Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia, Imam, dies, making the species officially extinct in the country.
Births Pre-1600 870 – Alexander, Byzantine emperor (died 913) 912 – Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 973) 1190 – Pope Clement IV (died 1268) 1221 – Alfonso X of Castile (died 1284) 1402 – Jean de Dunois, French soldier (died 1468) 1417 – William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel, English politician (died 1487) 1496 – Clément Marot, French poet (died 1544) 1508 – Francis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, youngest son of Henry the Middle (died 1549) 1553 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (died 1617)
1601–1900 1632 – Jean Mabillon, French monk and scholar (died 1707) 1641 – Anthonie Heinsius, Dutch lawyer and politician (died 1720) 1687 – Jean Baptiste Senaillé, French violinist and composer (died 1730) 1705 – Thomas Birch, English historian and author (died 1766) 1715 – Pierre Charles Le Monnier, French astronomer and author (died 1799) 1719 – Spranger Barry, Irish actor (died 1777) 1749 – Edward Rutledge, American captain and politician, 39th Governor of South Carolina (died 1800) 1760 – François-Noël Babeuf, French journalist and activist (died 1797) 1781 – Theodor Valentin Volkmar, German lawyer and politician, 1st Mayor of Marburg (died 1847) 1785 – Jan Roothaan, Dutch priest, 21st Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (died 1853) 1803 – Theodore Dwight Weld, American author and activist (died 1895) 1804 – Franklin Pierce, American general, lawyer, and politician, 14th President of the United States (died 1869) 1820 – Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician and author (died 1884) 1837 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist and thermodynamicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1923) 1838 – Stephanos Skouloudis, Greek banker and politician, 97th Prime Minister of Greece (died 1928) 1858 – Albert Ranft, Swedish actor and director (died 1938) 1860 – Hjalmar Branting, Swedish journalist and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Sweden, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1925) 1864 – Henry Bourne Joy, American businessman (died 1936) 1868 – Mary Brewster Hazelton, American painter (died 1953) 1869 – Valdemar Poulsen, Danish engineer (died 1942) 1869 – Johan Scharffenberg, Norwegian psychiatrist (died 1965) 1871 – Signe Salén, Swedish doctor (died 1963) 1871 – William Watt, Australian accountant and politician, 24th Premier of Victoria (died 1946) 1875 – Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian journalist and politician (died 1933) 1876 – Sara Prinsep, British salon organiser (died 1959) 1876 – Manuel de Falla, Spanish pianist and composer (died 1946) 1878 – Frank Pick, English lawyer and businessman (died 1941) 1883 – José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter (died 1949) 1886 – Eduards Smiļģis, Latvian actor and director (died 1966) 1887 – Boris Karloff, English actor (died 1969) 1887 – Henry Moseley, English physicist and chemist (died 1915) 1888 – Harpo Marx, American comedian and musician (died 1964) 1889 – Harry Sunderland, Australian-English journalist and businessman (died 1964) 1890 – El Lissitzky, Russian photographer and architect (died 1941) 1892 – Erté, Russian-French illustrator and designer (died 1990) 1896 – Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovak politician, President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (died 1953) 1896 – Tsunenohana Kan'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 31st Yokozuna (died 1960) 1897 – Nirad C. Chaudhuri, British-Indian historian, author, and critic (died 1999) 1897 – Karl Gebhardt, German physician and war criminal (died 1948) 1899 – Manuel dos Reis Machado, Brazilian martial artist and educator (died 1974)
1901–present 1901 – Bennie Osler, South African rugby player (died 1962) 1902 – Aaron Bank, American colonel (died 2004) 1902 – Victor Jory, Canadian-American actor (died 1982) 1903 – Joe Nibloe, Scottish footballer (died 1976)(SFL player) Joe Nibloe , London Hearts Supporters Club 1905 – K. Alvapillai, Sri Lankan civil servant (died 1979) 1906 – Betti Alver, Estonian author and poet (died 1989) 1907 – Lars Leksell, Swedish physician and neurosurgeon (died 1986) 1907 – Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist, founded Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB (died 2014) 1908 – Nelson S. Bond, American author and playwright (died 2006) 1909 – Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (died 2000) 1912 – George O'Hanlon, American actor and screenwriter (died 1989) 1914 – Donald Nixon, American businessman (died 1987) 1914 – Wilson Tucker, American projectionist and author (died 2006) 1915 – Anne Burns, British aeronautical engineer and glider pilot (died 2001) 1915 – John Dehner, American actor (died 1992) 1915 – Marc Simont, French-American illustrator (died 2013) 1916 – Michael Gough, Malaysian-English actor (died 2011) 1916 – P. K. Page, English-Canadian author and poet (died 2010) 1920 – Paul Celan, Romanian-French poet and translator (died 1970) 1921 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (died 1960) 1921 – Elyakim Schlesinger, Austrian-born British Orthodox rabbi (died 2026) 1922 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish politician, 3rd President of the Xunta of Galicia (died 2012) 1922 – Võ Văn Kiệt, Vietnamese soldier and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Vietnam (died 2008) 1923 – Daniel Brewster, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (died 2007)