Events Pre-1600 484 – The Arian Vandal Kingdom ceases its persecution of Nicene Christianity. 558 – Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks. 583 – Maya queen Yohl Ik'nal is crowned ruler of Palenque. 962 – The Sack of Aleppo as part of the Arab–Byzantine wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo. 1299 – The Ilkhanate ruler Ghazan defeats a Mamluk army that opposes his invasion into Syria in the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar near Homs. 1598 – Arauco War: Governor of Chile Martín García Óñez de Loyola is killed in the Battle of Curalaba by Mapuches led by Pelantaru.
1601–1900 1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris after being deposed in favor of his son-in-law and nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary. 1773 – Moscow State Academy of Choreography is founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. 1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland. 1793 – The Battle of Savenay: A decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution. 1815 – The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published. 1823 – The poem "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," is published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel. 1876 – First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans. 1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.
1901–present 1905 – The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland. 1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System. 1914 – World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt. 1914 – World War I: During the Battle of Sarikamish, Ottoman forces mistook one another for Russian troops. The following friendly fire incident leaves 2,000 Ottomans dead and many more wounded.Olcen, Mehmet Arif, Vetluga Memoir,(Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995),21. 1916 – World War I: Battle of Magdhaba: Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula. 1919 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom, allowing women to serve as lawyers, civil servants, and in other professions, as well as to serve on juries. 1936 – Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Spanish Republic legalizes the Regional Defence Council of Aragon. 1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island. 1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories. 1948 – Seven Japanese military and political leaders convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed by Allied occupation authorities at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan. 1950 – Korean War: General Walton Walker dies in a jeep accident and is replaced by General Matthew Ridgway in the Eighth United States Army.Negotiations At The 38th Parallel 1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray. 1955 – The first film adaptation of Väinö Linna's novel The Unknown Soldier, directed by Edvin Laine, premieres. 1960 – Hilkka Saarinen née Pylkkänen is murdered in the so-called "oven homicide" case in Krootila, Kokemäki, Finland.Hannes Markkula: Kuusi suomalaista murhaa. (Gummerus, 1997) (in Finnish) 1968 – The 82 sailors from the are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea. 1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at , making it the tallest building in the world. 1970 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a one-party state. 1972 – The Immaculate Reception is caught by Franco Harris to win the Pittsburgh Steelers their first ever playoff victory, after defeating the Oakland Raiders. 1972 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000. 1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, surviving by cannibalism. 1978 – Alitalia Flight 4128 crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea while on approach to Falcone Borsellino Airport in Palermo, Italy, killing 108. 1979 – Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital. 1984 – After experiencing an engine fire, Aeroflot Flight 3519 attempts to make an emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport but crashes, killing 110 of the 111 people on board. 1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling. 1990 – History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia's overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia. 2002 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft. 2003 – An explosion at the PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field in Kai County, Chongqing, China, kills at least 234. 2005 – An Antonov An-140, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan, heading across the Caspian Sea, crashes, killing 23 people.Azerbaijan plane crash 'kills 23' 2007 – An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state. 2008 – A coup d'état occurs in Guinea hours after the death of President Lansana Conté. 2015 – A bomb explodes at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing one airport cleaner. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack four days later. 2023 – A series of massacres targeting Berom civilians unfold in the Plateau State in Nigeria, killing over 200 people and further injuring over 500. No group claims responsibility. 2025 – The crash of Harmony Jets Flight 185 killed all eight people on board, including the Libyan Army chief Mohammed al-Haddad in Ankara, Turkey.
Births
Pre-1600 968 – Emperor Zhenzong of Song, emperor of the Song dynasty (died 1022) 1173 – Louis I, duke of Bavaria (died 1231) 1513 – Thomas Smith, English scholar and diplomat (died 1577) 1525 – John Albert I, duke of Mecklenburg (died 1576) 1573 – Giovanni Battista Crespi, Italian painter, sculptor and architect (died 1632) 1582 – Severo Bonini, Italian organist and composer (died 1663) 1544 – Anna of Saxony, only child and heiress of Maurice, Elector of Saxony (died 1577) 1597 – Martin Opitz, German poet and composer (died 1639)
1601–1900 1605 – Tianqi Emperor, Chinese emperor (died 1627) 1613 – Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Swedish field marshal and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (died 1676) 1621 – Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (died 1682) 1621 – Edmund Berry Godfrey, English lawyer and judge (died 1678) 1689 – Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French composer (died 1755) 1690 – Pamheiba, Indian emperor (died 1751) 1713 – Maruyama Gondazaemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 3rd Yokozuna (died 1749) 1732 – Richard Arkwright, English businessman and inventor, invented the Water frame and Spinning frame (died 1792) 1750 – Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (died 1827) 1758 – Nathan Wilson, American soldier and politician (died 1834) 1766 – Wilhelm Hisinger, Swedish physicist and chemist (died 1852) 1777 – Alexander I of Russia (died 1825) 1782 – William Armstrong, American lawyer, civil servant, politician, and businessperson (died 1865) 1790 – Jean-François Champollion, French philologist, orientalist, and scholar (died 1832) 1793 – Dost Mohammad Khan, emir of Afghanistan (died 1863) 1804 – Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French author, critic, and academic (died 1869) 1805 – Joseph Smith, American religious leader, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (died 1844) 1807 – Anthony Mary Claret, Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop and missionary (died 1870) 1810 – Edward Blyth, English zoologist (died 1873) 1810 – Karl Richard Lepsius, German Egyptologist (died 1884) 1812 – Samuel Smiles, Scottish-English author (died 1904) 1812 – Henri-Alexandre Wallon, French historian and statesman (died 1904) 1819 – Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch pastor and poet (died 1889) 1822 – Wilhelm Bauer, German engineer (died 1875) 1828 – Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet and author (died 1902) 1839 – János Murkovics, Slovene-Hungarian author and educator (died 1917) 1843 – Richard Conner, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1924) 1854 – Henry B. Guppy, English botanist and author (died 1926) 1861 – Edgar P. Rucker, American lawyer, politician, and businessman (died 1908) 1865 – James M. Canty, American educator, school administrator, and businessperson (died 1964) 1867 – Madam C. J. Walker, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 1919) 1870 – John Marin, American painter (died 1953) 1878 – Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-American engineer and academic (died 1972) 1885 – Pierre Brissaud, French illustrator, painter, and engraver (died 1964) 1894 – Arthur Gilligan, English cricketer (died 1976) 1895 – Nola Luxford, New Zealand-American actress and broadcaster (died 1994) 1896 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian lieutenant and author (died 1957) 1900 – Merle Barwis, American-Canadian supercentenarian (died 2014) 1900 – Marie Bell, French actress and stage director (died 1985) 1900 – Otto Soglow, American cartoonist (died 1975)
1901–present 1901 – Viktor Gutić, Croatian fascist official (died 1947) 1902 – Norman Maclean, American author and academic (died 1990) 1902 – Charan Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of India (died 1987) 1907 – Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean author and poet (died 2005) 1907 – James Roosevelt, American general and politician (died 1991) 1907 – Avraham Stern, Polish Zionist leader (died 1942) 1908 – Gertrude Bancroft, American economist (died 1985)Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Births, 1860-1906. FamilySearch. Retrieved April 10, 2021.United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011. FamilySearch. Retrieved April 10, 2021. 1908 – Yousuf Karsh, Armenian-Canadian photographer (died 2002) 1910 – Kurt Meyer, German SS general and convicted war criminal (died 1961) 1911 – James Gregory, American actor (died 2002) 1911 – Niels Kaj Jerne, English-Danish physician and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) 1912 – Anna J. Harrison, American organic chemist and academic (died 1998) 1916 – Dino Risi, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2008) 1918 – José Greco, Italian-American dancer and choreographer (died 2000) 1918 – Helmut Schmidt, German soldier, economist, and politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany (died 2015) 1919 – Kenneth M. Taylor, American general and pilot (died 2006) 1921 – Guy Beaulne, Canadian actor and director (died 2001) 1922 – Micheline Ostermeyer, French discus thrower, shot putter, and pianist (died 2001) 1923 – Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (died 1954) 1923 – Günther Schifter, Austrian journalist and radio host (died 2008) 1923 – James Stockdale, American admiral and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2005) 1924 – Bob Kurland, American basketball player and politician (died 2013) 1925 – Duncan Hallas, English author and politician (died 2002) 1925 – Rayner Unwin, English publisher (died 2000) 1926 – Robert Bly, American poet and essayist (died 2021) 1926 – Harold Dorman, American singer-songwriter (died 1988) 1929 – Chet Baker, American jazz trumpet player, flugelhorn player, and singer (died 1988) 1929 – Dick Weber, American professional bowler (died 2005)