Events Pre-1600 537 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off. 986 – Louis V becomes the last Carolingian king of West Francia after the death of his father, Lothaire. 1331 – Fall of Nicaea to the Ottoman Turks after a siege. 1444 – Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë. 1458 – George of Poděbrady is chosen as the king of Bohemia. 1476 – Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel. 1484 – The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England. 1498 – Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
1601–1900 1657 – The Great Fire of Meireki begins in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, causing more than 100,000 deaths before it exhausts itself three days later. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in and around the Savannah River by a small fleet of the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Rice Boats. 1791 – Claude Chappe demonstrates the first semaphore line near Paris. 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte is appointed to command the Army of Italy. 1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes. 1807 – The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country. 1811 – Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate. 1815 – Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy. 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted. 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia. 1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, once thought to be the largest such auction in United States history, begins. 1864 – Ulysses S. Grant is promoted to lieutenant general, giving him command of all Union Armies. 1865 – East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand. 1867 – The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act. 1877 – Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote. 1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick Maclean in Windsor.
1901–present 1901 – United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion. 1901 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops. 1903 – In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women. 1917 – The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship. 1919 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow. 1932 – Finnish president P. E. Svinhufvud gives a radio speech, which four days later finally ends the Mäntsälä Rebellion and the far-right Lapua Movement that started it.P. E. Svinhufvud – Tasavallan presidentin julistus (in Finnish) 1933 – The film King Kong premieres in Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in New York City. 1937 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry. 1939 – Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII. 1941 – World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact. 1943 – World War II: During the Battle of the Bismarck Sea Allied aircraft defeat a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea. 1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute. 1955 – Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit. 1962 – In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état. 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points. 1965 – The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. 1968 – Baggeridge Colliery closes, marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country. 1969 – In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted. 1970 – Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown. 1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets. 1977 – Libya becomes the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People's Congress adopts the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People". 1978 – Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Soviet or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28. 1978 – The late iconic actor Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from his grave in Switzerland. 1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan. 1986 – Aeroflot Flight F-77 crashes near Bugulma Airport, killing all 38 people aboard. 1989 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century. 1990 – Nelson Mandela is elected deputy president of the African National Congress. 1991 – Establishment of Kuwait Democratic Forum, center-left political organization in Kuwait. 1991 – Battle at Rumaila oil field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War. 1992 – Start of the war in Transnistria. 1992 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all of which (except San Marino) were former Soviet republics, join the United Nations. 1995 – Researchers at Fermilab announce the discovery of the top quark. 1995 – Space Shuttle Endeavour launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-67, carrying the ASTRO-2 spacelab observatory. 1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice. 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities). 2004 – War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500. 2006 – In Monterrey, Mexico, a man identified as Diego Santoy Riveroll commits a double murder against two children, followed by an attempted murder of his ex-partner, Erika. The incident is popularly known as the Cumbres case. 2012 – A tornado outbreak occurs over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities. 2014 – The Oscar Selfie, regarded as one of the most influential and important images of all time, is taken at the 86th Academy Awards. 2017 – The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson are officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia. 2022 – Russian forces capture the city of Kherson during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which subsequently began the start of the Russian occupation and military-civilian administration in Kherson. Kherson is the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russia captured. 2026 – The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launches several projectiles into northern Israel as a response to the assassination of Ali Khamenei, formally initiating the 2026 Lebanon War.
Births Pre-1600 480 – Benedict of Nursia, Italian Christian saint (died 543 or 547) 1316 – Robert II of Scotland (died 1390) 1409 – Jean II, Duke of Alençon (died 1476) 1432 – Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach, countess consort of Hanau (died 1457) 1453 – Johannes Engel, German doctor, astronomer and astrologer (died 1512) 1459 – Pope Adrian VI (died 1523) 1481 – Franz von Sickingen, German knight (died 1523) 1545 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (died 1613) 1577 – George Sandys, English traveller, colonist and poet (died 1644)
1601–1900 1628 – Cornelis Speelman, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (died 1684) 1651 – Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (died 1730) 1705 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1793) 1740 – Nicholas Pocock, English naval painter (died 1821) 1760 – Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (died 1794) 1769 – DeWitt Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of New York (died 1828) 1770 – Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (died 1826) 1779 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American physician and politician, 15th United States Secretary of War (died 1851) 1793 – Sam Houston, American soldier and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Texas (died 1863) 1800 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian-Italian poet and philosopher (died 1844) 1810 – Pope Leo XIII (died 1903) 1816 – Alexander Bullock, American lawyer and politician, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1882) 1817 – János Arany, Hungarian journalist and poet (died 1882) 1820 – Multatuli, Dutch writer (died 1887) 1824 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech pianist and composer (died 1884) 1829 – Carl Schurz, German-American general, lawyer, and politician, 13th United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1906) 1836 – Henry Billings Brown, American lawyer and judge (died 1913) 1842 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, art collector, and philanthropist (died 1914) 1846 – Marie Roze, French soprano (died 1926) 1849 – Robert Means Thompson, American commander, lawyer, and businessman (died 1930) 1859 – Sholem Aleichem, Ukrainian-American author and playwright (died 1916) 1860 – Susanna M. Salter, American activist and politician (died 1961) 1862 – John Jay Chapman, American lawyer, author, and poet (died 1933) 1866 – Margaret Sibella Brown, Canadian bryologist (died 1961) 1869 – Julien Félix, French military officer and aviator (died 1914)"La Mort Du Commandant Félix" La Revue Aérienne (June 25, 1914, p. 342) via BnF; retrieved April 7, 2021 1876 – James A. Gilmore, American businessman and baseball executive (died 1947) 1876 – Pope Pius XII (died 1958) 1880 – René Vallon, French aviator (died 1911) 1886 – Willis H. O'Brien, American animator and director (died 1962) 1886 – Kurt Grelling, German logician and philosopher (died 1942) 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer (died 1950)
1901–present 1901 – Grete Hermann, German mathematician and philosopher (died 1984) 1902 – Moe Berg, American baseball player and spy (died 1972) 1902 – Edward Condon, American physicist and academic (died 1974) 1904 – Dr. Seuss, American children's book writer, poet, and illustrator (died 1991) 1905 – Marc Blitzstein, American composer and songwriter (died 1964) 1905 – Geoffrey Grigson, English poet and critic (died 1985) 1908 – Walter Bruch, German engineer (died 1990) 1909 – Mel Ott, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (died 1958) 1912 – Henry Katzman, American pianist, composer, and painter (died 2001) 1913 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch television host and author (died 1971) 1913 – Mort Cooper, American baseball player (died 1958) 1914 – Martin Ritt, American actor and film director (died 1990) 1915 – John Burton, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon (died 2010)