Events Pre-1600 503 BC – Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrates a triumph for a military victory over the Sabines. 190 – Dong Zhuo has his troops evacuate the capital Luoyang and burn it to the ground.; 611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.; ; 619 – The Bijapur-Mumbai inscription is issued by Pulakeshin II, describing the Battle of Narmada. 801 – King Louis the Pious captures Barcelona from the Moors after a siege of several months. 1268 – A five-year Byzantine–Venetian peace treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. 1423 – Death of the Venetian Doge Tommaso Mocenigo, under whose rule victories were achieved against the Kingdom of Hungary and against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Gallipoli (1416). 1581 – Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
1601–1900 1609 – Moriscos are expelled from the Kingdom of Valencia. 1660 – Declaration of Breda by King Charles II of Great Britain promises, among other things, a general pardon to all royalists and opponents of the monarchy for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum. 1796 – Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture. 1814 – Napoleon abdicates (conditionally) for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French, followed by unconditional abdication two days later. 1818 – The United States Congress, affirming the Second Continental Congress, adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 at that time). 1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President. 1860 – The declaration on the introduction of the Finnish markka as an official currency is read in different parts of the Grand Duchy of Finland. 1865 – American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital. 1866 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Dmitry Karakozov in the city of Saint Petersburg. 1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States. 1894 – Foyot bombing by the Russian or French state during the Ère des attentats.
1901–present 1904 – Two ~7.1 earthquakes, among the largest in Europe, strike Bulgaria, killing over 200 people and causing destruction. 1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala. 1913 – First Balkan War: Greek aviator Emmanouil Argyropoulos becomes the first pilot to die in the Hellenic Air Force when his plane crashes. 1920 – The four-day Nebi Musa riots commence. 1925 – The Schutzstaffel (SS) is founded under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany. 1933 – U.S. Navy airship is wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather. 1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3,000 civilians. 1945 – World War II: United States Army troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany. 1945 – World War II: United States Army troops capture Kassel. 1945 – World War II: Soviet Red Army troops liberate Hungary from German occupation. 1946 – Greek judge and archeologist Panagiotis Poulitsas is appointed Prime Minister of Greece in the midst of the Greek Civil War. 1949 – Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 1958 – The CND peace symbol is displayed in public for the first time in London. 1960 – France agrees to grant independence to the Mali Federation, a union of Senegal and French Sudan. 1963 – Bye Bye Birdie, a musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney, was released. 1964 – The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. 1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church. 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6. 1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart. 1973 – The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated. 1973 – A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming. 1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1975 – Vietnam War: A United States Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people. 1977 – Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes in New Hope, Paulding County, Georgia, killing 72. 1979 – Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed. 1981 – Iran–Iraq War: The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force mounts an attack on H-3 Airbase and destroys about 50 Iraqi aircraft. 1983 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space on STS-6. 1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons. 1987 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 032 crashes at Medan Airport, killing 23. 1988 – Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office. 1990 – The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post-colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress. 1991 – Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania. 1991 – Forty-one people are taken hostage inside a Good Guys! Electronics store in Sacramento, California. Three of the hostage takers and three hostages are killed. 1994 – Three people are killed when KLM Cityhopper Flight 433 crashes at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. 1996 – Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous. 1997 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-83. However, the mission is later cut short due to a fuel cell problem. 2002 – The MPLA government of Angola and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War. 2009 – France announces its return to full participation of its military forces within NATO. 2010 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits south of the Mexico-USA border, killing at least two and damaging buildings across the two countries. 2011 – Georgian Airways Flight 834 crashes at N'djili Airport in Kinshasa, killing 32. 2013 – Seventy-four people are killed in a building collapse in Thane, India. 2017 – Syria conducts an air strike on Khan Shaykhun using chemical weapons, killing 89 civilians. 2020 – China holds a national day of mourning for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease outbreak. 2023 – Finland becomes a member of NATO after Turkey accepts its membership request. 2024 – Russo-Ukrainian war: The Battle of Chasiv Yar begins. 2025 – The impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in response to his declaration of martial law is unanimously upheld by the country's Constitutional Court, ending his presidency.
Births
Pre-1600 188 – Caracalla, Roman emperor (died 217) 1436 – Amalia of Saxony, Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut (died 1501) 1490 – Vojtěch I of Pernstein, Bohemian nobleman (died 1534) 1492 – Ambrosius Blarer, German-Swiss theologian and reformer (died 1564) 1572 – William Strachey, English author (died 1621) 1586 – Richard Saltonstall, English diplomat (died 1661) 1593 – Edward Nicholas, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (died 1669)
1601–1900 1640 – Gaspar Sanz, Spanish guitarist, composer, and priest (died 1710) 1646 – Antoine Galland, French orientalist and archaeologist (died 1715) 1648 – Grinling Gibbons, Dutch-English sculptor (died 1721) 1676 – Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Italian composer (died 1760) 1688 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer and cartographer (died 1768) 1718 – Benjamin Kennicott, English theologian and scholar (died 1783) 1752 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Italian composer (died 1837) 1760 – Juan Manuel Olivares, Venezuelan organist and composer (died 1797) 1762 – Stephen Storace, English actor and composer (died 1796) 1772 – Nachman of Breslov, Ukrainian founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement (died 1810) 1780 – Edward Hicks, American minister and painter (died 1849) 1785 – Bettina von Arnim, German author, illustrator, and composer (died 1859) 1792 – Thaddeus Stevens, American lawyer and politician (died 1868) 1802 – Dorothea Dix, American nurse and activist (died 1887) 1818 – Thomas Mayne Reid, Irish-American author and poet (died 1883) 1819 – Maria II of Portugal (died 1853) 1821 – Linus Yale Jr., American engineer and businessman (died 1868) 1826 – Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer, invented the Gramme machine (died 1901) 1829 – Owen Suffolk, Australian bushranger, poet, confidence-man and author (died ?) 1835 – John Hughlings Jackson, English physician and neurologist (died 1911) 1842 – Édouard Lucas, French mathematician and theorist (died 1891) 1843 – William Henry Jackson, American painter and photographer (died 1942) 1846 – Comte de Lautréamont, Uruguayan-French poet and educator (died 1870) 1851 – James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, Irish lawyer and politician (died 1931) 1853 – Remy de Gourmont, French poet, novelist, and critic (died 1915) 1868 – Philippa Fawcett, English mathematician and educator (died 1948) 1869 – Mary Colter, American architect, designed the Desert View Watchtower (died 1958) 1875 – Pierre Monteux, Sephardic Jewish French-American viola player and conductor (died 1964) 1876 – Maurice de Vlaminck, French painter and poet (died 1958) 1878 – Walter Conrad Arensberg, American art collector, critic and poet (died 1954) 1878 – Stylianos Lykoudis, Greek admiral and historian (died 1958) 1879 – Gustav Goßler, German rower (died 1940) 1884 – James Alberione, Italian priest, founded the Society of St. Paul (died 1971) 1884 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (died 1943) 1886 – Frank Luther Mott, American historian and journalist (died 1964) 1888 – Tris Speaker, American baseball player and manager (died 1958) 1888 – Zdzisław Żygulski, Sr., Polish historian and academic (died 1975) 1889 – Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Indian journalist, poet, and playwright (died 1968) 1892 – Italo Mus, Italian painter (died 1967) 1892 – Edith Södergran, Swedish-Finnish poet (died 1923) 1895 – Arthur Murray, American dancer and educator (died 1991) 1896 – Robert E. Sherwood, American playwright and screenwriter (died 1955) 1897 – Pierre Fresnay, French actor and screenwriter (died 1975) 1898 – Agnes Ayres, American actress (died 1940) 1899 – Hillel Oppenheimer, German-Israeli botanist and academic (died 1971)
1901–present 1902 – Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, French journalist and author (died 1969) 1902 – Stanley G. Weinbaum, American author and poet (died 1935) 1905 – Eugène Bozza, French composer and conductor (died 1991) 1905 – Erika Nõva, Estonian architect and engineer (died 1987) 1906 – Bea Benaderet, Turkish-Irish-American television, radio, and voice actress (died 1968) 1906 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (died 1995) 1907 – Robert Askin, Australian sergeant and politician, 32nd Premier of New South Wales (died 1981) 1910 – Đặng Văn Ngữ, Vietnamese physician and academic (died 1967) 1913 – Dave Brown, Australian rugby league player (died 1974) 1913 – Rosemary Lane, American actress and singer (died 1974) 1913 – Frances Langford, American actress and singer (died 2005) 1913 – Jules Léger, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Governor General of Canada (died 1980)