Events
Pre-1600 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman emperor by the Senate. 750 – In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to the overthrow of the dynasty. 1327 – Fourteen-year-old Edward III ascends the throne of England after his father the king is forced to abdicate by Queen Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer. 1348 – A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome. 1479 – The Treaty of Constantinople ends the 16-year-long First Ottoman–Venetian War. 1494 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. 1515 – Coronation of Francis I of France takes place at Reims Cathedral, where the new monarch is anointed with the oil of Clovis and girt with the sword of Charlemagne. 1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. 1554 – São Paulo, Brazil, is founded by Jesuit priests. 1573 – Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu. 1575 – Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais. 1585 – Walter Raleigh is knighted, shortly after renaming a North American region as "Virginia", in honour of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
1601–1900 1650 – As part of the purges following the Great Potosí Mint Fraud of 1649 Francisco Gómez de la Rocha, a rich former corregidor of Potosí, is executed. 1704 – The Apalachee massacre: A combined British and Muscogee force from the Province of Carolina destroys the main fortified mission of Ayubale, breaking Spain's hold on Spanish Florida. 1787 – Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, results in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty. 1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada. 1792 – The London Corresponding Society is founded. 1819 – University of Virginia chartered by Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders. 1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding processional. 1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded. 1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company. 1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
1901–present 1909 – Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera. 1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco. 1917 – Sinking of the SS Laurentic after hitting two German mines off the coast of northwest Ireland. 1918 – The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Soviet Russia. 1918 – The Finnish Defence Forces (The White Guards) are established as the official army of independent Finland, and Baron C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed its Commander-in-Chief. 1924 – The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games. 1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins the defense of Harbin. 1932 – Alt Llobregat insurrection suppressed in Central Catalonia, Spain. 1937 – The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until September 18, 2009. 1941 – Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. 1942 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom. 1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends. 1946 – The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor. 1946 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1 relating to Military Staff Committee is adopted. 1947 – Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game. 1949 – The first Emmy Awards are presented in the United States; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club. 1960 – The National Association of Broadcasters in the United States reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records. 1961 – In Washington, D.C., US President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference. 1961 – Walt Disney Productions released the animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians, based on Dodie Smith's 1956 children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. 1964 – Blue Ribbon Sports, which would later become Nike, is founded by University of Oregon track and field athletes. 1967 – South Vietnamese junta leader and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky fires rival, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Nguyen Huu Co, while the latter is overseas on a diplomatic visit. 1969 – Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him ten machine guns and 63 rifles. 1971 – Charles Manson and four "Family" members (three of them female) are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders. 1971 – Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president. 1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. 1980 – Mother Teresa is honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. 1986 – The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda. 1990 – Avianca Flight 052 crashes in Cove Neck, New York, killing 73. 1993 – Five people are shot outside the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two are killed and three wounded. 1994 – The spacecraft Clementine by BMDO and NASA is launched. 1995 – The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile. 1996 – Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the United States. 1998 – During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country. 1998 – A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others. 1999 – A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000. 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations. 2005 – A stampede at the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India kills at least 258. 2006 – Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza is arrested in connection with the serial killing of at least ten elderly women. 2010 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Na'ameh, Lebanon, killing 90. 2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes. 2013 – At least 50 people are killed and 120 people are injured in a prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. 2015 – A clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in the Philippines kills 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF), at least 18 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. 2018 – An Ariane 5 rocket is launched carrying SES-14, Al Yah 3, and NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, but the satellites end up in the wrong orbit. 2019 – A mining company's dam collapses in Brumadinho, Brazil, a south-eastern city, killing 270 people.
Births Pre-1600 750 – Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine emperor (died 780) 1408 – Katharina of Hanau, German countess regent (died 1460) 1459 – Paul Hofhaimer, Austrian organist and composer (died 1537) 1477 – Anne of Brittany (probable; died 1514) 1509 – Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (died 1580) 1526 – Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (died 1586)
1601–1900 1615 – Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (died 1660) 1627 – Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish chemist and physicist (died 1691) 1634 – Gaspar Fagel, Dutch politician and diplomat (died 1688) 1635 – Daniel Casper von Lohenstein, German writer, diplomat and lawyer (died 1683) 1640 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and politician, Lord Steward of the Household (died 1707) 1736 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian-French mathematician and astronomer (died 1813) 1739 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (died 1823) 1743 – Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, German philosopher and author (died 1819) 1750 – Johann Gottfried Vierling, German organist and composer (died 1813) 1755 – Paolo Mascagni, Italian physician and anatomist (probable; died 1815) 1759 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and songwriter (died 1796) 1783 – William Colgate, English-American businessman and philanthropist, founded Colgate-Palmolive (died 1857) 1794 – François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist, physician, physiologist, and lawyer (died 1878) 1796 – William MacGillivray, Scottish ornithologist and biologist (died 1852) 1813 – J. Marion Sims, American gynecologist and physician (died 1883) 1816 – Anna Gardner, American abolitionist and teacher (died 1901) 1822 – Charles Reed Bishop, American businessman, philanthropist, and politician, founded the Bishop Museum (died 1915) 1822 – William McDougall, Canadian lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories (died 1905) 1823 – José María Iglesias, Mexican politician and interim President (died 1891) 1824 – Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Indian poet and playwright (died 1873) 1841 – John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, English admiral (died 1920) 1858 – Mikimoto Kōkichi, Japanese businessman (died 1954) 1860 – Charles Curtis, American lawyer and politician, 31st Vice President of the United States (died 1936) 1864 – Julije Kempf, Croatian historian and author (died 1934) 1868 – Juventino Rosas, Mexican violinist and composer (died 1894) 1874 – W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (died 1965) 1878 – Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-American engineer (died 1975) 1882 – Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer, and critic (died 1941) 1885 – Kitahara Hakushū, Japanese poet and author (died 1942) 1886 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor and composer (died 1954) 1886 – Dean Ivan Lamb, American pioneer pilot and mercenary (died 1955) 1894 – Aino Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (died 1949) 1895 – Florence Mills, American singer, dancer, and actress (died 1927) 1899 – Sleepy John Estes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1977) 1899 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 46th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1972) 1900 – István Fekete, Hungarian author (died 1970) 1900 – Yōjirō Ishizaka, Japanese author and educator (died 1986) 1900 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Russian-American geneticist and pioneer of evolutionary biology (died 1975)
1901–present 1901 – Mildred Dunnock, American actress (died 1991) 1905 – Maurice Roy, Canadian cardinal (died 1985) 1905 – Margery Sharp, English author and educator (died 1991) 1905 – Sava Kovačević, Yugoslav Partisan divisional commander and People's Hero of Yugoslavia (died 1943) 1906 – Toni Ulmen, German racing driver and motorcycle racer (died 1976) 1908 – Hsieh Tung-min, Taiwanese politician and Vice President of the Republic of China (died 2001) 1910 – Edgar V. Saks, Estonian historian, author, and politician, Estonian Minister of Education (died 1984)