- 657 Battle of Siffin occurs during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside the Euphrates River
- 811 Battle of Pliska: Bulgarians under Khan Krum beat a Byzantine army, killing the Emperor Nicephorus, whose skull Krum has made into a drinking cup
- 920 Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona
Pizarro Receives Royal Charter
1519Francisco Pizarro receives a royal charter for the west coast of South America
- 1529Francisco Pizarro appointed Governor of Peru
Death of Atahualpa
1533Francisco Pizarro orders the death of the last Sapa Inca Emperor, Atahualpa
- 1576 Spanish troops conquer Aalst
Rembrandt Declares Insolvency
1656 Dutch painterRembrandt van Rijn declares he is insolvent after living beyond his means and spending too much on artwork and rare items. Leads to the most experimental and exuberantly creative period of his career.
Casanova Imprisoned
1755Giacomo Casanova is arrested in Venice for affront to religion and common decency and imprisoned in the Doge's Palace
- 1757 Battle at Hastenbeck: French army beats Duke of Cumberland
Siege of Louisbourg Ends
1758 British battle fleet under generalJames Wolfe conquers Louisbourg
United States Post Office
1775 US Continental Congress creates United States Post Office (U.S.P.O.) in Philadelphia underBenjamin Franklin
NY Ratifies Constitution
1788 New York becomes 11th state to ratify US constitution
Bolívar Meets San Martin
1822 Secret meeting ofSimón Bolívar and Jose de San Martin
- 1826 Riots in Vilnius, Lithuania, cause the death of many Jews
- 1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Montevideo
- 1835 First sugarcane plantation starts in Hawaii
- 1847 Moses Gerrish Farmer builds first miniature train for children to ride
- 1847 The Liberian Declaration of Independence is signed making Liberia a sovereign nation, independent from the American Colonization Society
- 1858 Baron Lionel de Rothschild becomes the first Jewish person to be elected to the British Parliament
Battle of Salineville
1863 Battle of Salineville: Confederate cavalry leaderJohn Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrender to Union forces after a 17-day unauthorized raid through Indiana and Ohio
- 1864 US Civil War: Union Brigadier General Edward McCook leads unsuccessful cavalry raids at Lovejoy's Station, Georgia
- 1864 US Civil War: Union General George Stoneman leads unsuccessful raid in Macon, Georgia
- 1865 Patrick Francis Healy is the first African American awarded a PhD from the University of Leuven, Belgium
- 1865 The capital of New Zealand moves from Auckland to Wellington
- 1866 The Royal Canoe Club, founded by John MacGregor, opens in England
- 1878 In California, poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box is found later with a taunting poem inside.
- 1881 French marines occupy the Tunisian harbor city of Sfax
Parsifal
1882Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal" premieres in Bayreuth, Germany
- 1887 First Esperanto book is published
- 1891 France annexes Tahiti
- 1891 Henry James's "American" premieres in London
- 1896 Vitascope Hall, the first permanent for-profit movie theater, opens in New Orleans
- 1897 37.5 cm of rainfall is recorded at Jewell, Maryland (state record)
- 1902 Australia defeats England by three runs at Old Trafford
- 1903 Horatio Nelson Jackson, Sewall K. Crocker, and a bulldog named Bud complete the first automobile trip across the United States, traveling from San Francisco to New York in a two-cylinder Winton in 63 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes
- 1908 US Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation)
- 1914 Britain attempts to organize a conference among major European powers to resolve the dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia; France, Italy, and eventually Russia agree to participate, but Germany refuses
Churchill Orders British Fleet Ready
1914 First Lord of the Admiralty (British Minister of Navy)Winston Churchill orders British fleet to remain in state of readiness as threat of war in Europe grows
- 1914 Irish Volunteers unload a shipment of 1,500 rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition from Germany aboard Erskine Childers' yacht, the Asgard; British troops fire on a jeering crowd on Bachelors Walk, Dublin, killing three citizens
- 1916 The US protests the "Blacklist" issued by the British, forbidding trade with some 30 US firms
Rise of J. Edgar Hoover
1917J. Edgar Hoover gets job in US Department of Justice
- 1918 Race riot in Philadelphia kills three white people and one black person
- 1926 National Bar Association incorporates
- 1926 Philippines government asks USA for a plebiscite on independence
- 1928 Gene Tunney scores an 11-round TKO win over Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium, NYC, in only his second and final defense of his world heavyweight boxing title
- 1928 New York Yankees score 11 runs in 12th inning, defeating Tigers 12-1 in Detroit
DiMaggio Hitting Streak Ends
1933Joe DiMaggio ends 61-game hitting streak in Pacific Coast League
- 1936 International communist conference members in Prague arrange create International Brigades to help the Republican Government in the Spanish Civil War
- 1937 End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War
- 1938 First radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC
- 1939 Yankee catcher Bill Dickey hits three consecutive home runs
- 1941 First group of the Dutch Volunteer Legion departs from Den Haag Central train station in The Hague for the Eastern Front to fight on the side of Germany[1]
- 1941 US embargo on oil export to Japan
- 1942 Roman Catholic churches protest as Dutch bishops stand against the spread of Judaism
- 1943 120°F (49°C) in Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record)
- 1943 Otto Skorzeny's commando group arrives in Rome
- 1944 Japanese suicide attack on US lines in Guam
- 1944 Soviet troops arrive in Weichsel
- 1944 The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain (nicknamed "gasometer")
- 1944 US offensive at St-Lô/2nd Armored Division occupies St. Gilles
Prime Minister Clement Attlee
1945 After a Labour landslide in the general election,Clement Attlee becomes the British Prime Minister
- 1945 Japanese government disregards US ultimatum
Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki
1945 PhysicistRaemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva depart Kirtland Army Air Field to transport the plutonium core for the Fat Man bomb (bombing of Nagasaki) to the island of Tinian, where the bomb is assembled
- 1945 US cruiser Indianapolis reaches Tinian with atomic bomb
Potsdam Declaration
1945 US, Britain, and China demand the unconditional surrender of Japan during World War II in the Declaration of Potsdam
- 1945Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's Prime Minister after election defeat
- 1946 Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport
National Security Act
1947 USPresident Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, establishing the Department of Defense, the CIA, the National Security Council, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- 1948 First Black host of a network show: Bob Howard Show on CBS
Durocher Returns
1948Leo Durocher returns to Ebbets Field as manager of the New York Giants
- 1948 President Harry Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 to desegregate the US armed forces, directing "equality of treatment and opportunity" in the military
- 1949 WCPO TV channel 9 in Cincinnati, OH (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1950 Dodgers' Jim Russell is the first to switch-hit home runs twice in a game
- 1950 KNIL (Royal Dutch East Indies Army) unites
- 1951 Netherlands ends state of war with Germany
Sports History
1952 Baseball playerMickey Mantle hits his first grand slam for the New York Yankees
- 1952 King Farouk I of Egypt abdicates (Black Saturday)
- 1953 Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid
- 1953 Cuban pirate radio station's first transmission in Santiago de Cuba
Castro Attack Fails
1953Fidel Castro leads a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, intended to spark a revolution in Cuba
Suez Crisis Begins
1956 Egyptian PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser announces a plan to nationalize the Suez Canal, initiating the Suez Crisis
- 1957 Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator and president of Guatemala, is assassinated by a palace guard with leftist sympathies
- 1957Mickey Mantle hits career home run number 200
- 1958 Army launches fourth successful US satellite, Explorer IV
Baseball History
1959 Chicago White Sox'sLarry Doby plays his final MLB game and retires in 1962 after playing for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan
Baseball Record
1962 Milwaukee BraveWarren Spahn sets home run record of 31 by a pitcher
- 1963 Skopje in Yugoslavia is destroyed by an earthquake, killing 1,000+
- 1963 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan
- 1963 US Syncom 2, the first geosynchronous communications satellite, launches
- 1964 Teamsters President and US union leader Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud and conspiracy
- 1964 Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal, derails near Oporto, killing 94
- 1965 Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain (National Day)
- 1966 Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent
- 1966 WRLH TV channel 31 in Lebanon, NH (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1967 Minnesota Twins defeat the Yankees 3-2 in 18 innings
- 1969 Sharon Sites Adams, 39, becomes the first woman to solo sail the Pacific
Baseball Record
1970 Reds catcherJohnny Bench, playing for the day in the outfield, goes 4-for-5 with seven RBIs, including three consecutive home runs off St. Louis Cardinals'Steve Carlton in a 12-5 win at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati
- 1971 Apollo 15 launches (Scott and Irwin) for the fourth manned landing on the Moon
Elvis and Pricilla Split
1972Priscilla andElvis Presley file for legal separation
- 1972 Rockwell receives NASA contract to construct Space Shuttle
Equus
1973Peter Shaffer's musical "Equus" premieres in London
- 1974 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
- 1974 USSR's Soyuz fails to dock with Salyut 3
- 1975 Soviet Soyuz 18B returns to Earth
- 1977 The Committee of Ten, formed by prominent Soweto residents, issues a program for the election of a new community board to have total autonomy in Soweto, South Africa
- 1977 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1978 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
- 1978Johnny Bench hits his 300th career home run
- 1979 Estimated 109 cm (43 inches) of rain falls in Alvin, Texas (national record)
- 1979 Pioneer 11 transmits images of Saturn and its rings
- 1981 Two climbers fall 550 m down cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela
- 1982 Canada's Anik D1 Comsat is launched by a US Delta rocket
Amitabh Bachchan Injured
1982 Indian film starAmitabh Bachchan is seriously injured filming a fight scene for the movie "Coolie"
- 1983 Challenger moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for mating for STS-8
- 1983 Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech sets 800 m woman's record (1:53.28)
- 1983 Light flashes are seen on Jupiter's moon Io
- 1983 US threatens action to preserve navigation in Persian Gulf
Sports History
1984Bowie Kuhn announces pitcherVida Blue is suspended for the rest of 1984 due to cocaine conviction
Baseball Record
1988Mike Schmidt sets an NL record by appearing in 2,155 games at third base as the Phillies and NY Mets end the game at 2:13 am
- 1990 General Hospital records its 7,000th episode
- 1990 US defeats Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at Goodwill Games
Americans With Disabilities Act
1990 US PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush signs Americans With Disabilities Act
Baseball Record
1992Nolan Ryan strikes out his 100th batter for the 23rd consecutive season
- 1993 Boeing 737-500 crashes in South Korea, killing 66
- 1993 The first of four photos of Mars is taken by the Mars Observer just under a month before the spacecraft fails in flight
- 1994 Cambodia's Khmer Rouge surprise attack on train kills 13
- 1994 Turkish Air Force bombs Kurds in Iraq, killing 70
- 1999 Fighting ceases between India and Pakistan in the Kargil War, Kashmir, after two months of fighting
- 2005 Mumbai, India receives 99.5 cm (39.17 inches) of rain within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days
- 2005 Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces (LF) leader, is released after spending 11 years in solitary confinement; his release comes after Syria ends its occupation of Lebanon
- 2005 Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission - Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia disaster in 2003
- 2012 At least 200 people are killed in a day of violence in Syria
- 2012 Insurgent attack kills 19 people and destroys a helicopter in Baqubah, Iraq
- 2012 North Korea is hit by Tropical Storm Khanun, killing 88 people and leaving 60,000 people homeless
- 2013 57 people are killed in a market bombing in Parachinar, Pakistan
Sports History
2014Brian Ortega makes his UFC debut against Mike De La Torre on UFC on Fox 12
- 2014Brian Ortega's victory over Mike De La Torre is overturned to "No Contest" after testing positive for drostanolone
- 2014 Taghrooda wins the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes
- 2014 The Chinese government suspends a Shanghai meat dealer and makes arrests after the company sold out-of-date meat to fast food chains, including McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken
- 2014 While Israel rejects a long-term ceasefire that does not include destroying the Hamas tunnels, they agree to a 12-hour ceasefire; the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip now exceeds 1,000
- 2017 Great Britain announces it will ban gasoline and diesel cars by 2040
- 2017 Three live king cobras are found inside potato chip cans by customs officials in Los Angeles
Trump Transgender Policy
2017 US PresidentDonald Trump announces a policy to ban transgender people from the military, overturningObama-era changes
- 2018 Authorities in Stung Treng province, Cambodia, evacuate 25,000 below collapsed Laos dam as waters rise
- 2018 Facebook has the single worst day of any public company on the stock market, losing 19% or $119 billion market value
Gravitational Redshift
2018 Observation of a black hole by the Very Large Telescope in Chile provesAlbert Einstein's prediction of "gravitational redshift," published in "Astronomy & Astrophysics"
- 2018 Over 700 immigrant children still separated from their parents in the US as the court-imposed deadline to reunite them passes
McCartney's Secret Gig
2018 SirPaul McCartney performs a "secret" gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles began
- 2019 Australian cricket captain Meg Lanning records a T20 International world record individual score of 133 off 63 balls in a 93-run win against England at Chelmsford; Southern Stars clinch Women's Ashes
John Lewis Honored in Selma
2020 Body of civil rights activistJohn Lewis crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for the last time, beaten there 55 years ago, with a military honor guard as part of a remembrance ceremony
Juventus Wins 9th Straight Serie A
2020 Italian football giants Juventus win their ninth straight Serie A title with goals fromCristiano Ronaldo and Federico Bernardeschi in a 2-0 win over Sampdoria
Adam Peaty Wins Gold
2021 Dominant British breaststroke swimmerAdam Peaty successfully defends his 100 m title at the Tokyo Olympics, defeating Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands and Italian Nicolò Martinenghi
- 2021 Ship carrying migrants wrecks off the coast of Al-Khums, Libya, killing at least 57 and bringing the death toll in the central Mediterranean to 987 for 2021[1]
- 2021 Tunisian government is in crisis after President Kais Saied sacks Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspends parliament with the help of the army due to its handling of COVID-19
- 2021 Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz becomes the first athlete from the Philippines to win gold at the Olympics in the 55 kg class at the Tokyo Games
- 2022 Russia announces it will leave the International Space Station at the end of 2024[1]
- 2022 Two new studies published in "Science" confirm COVID-19 most likely began in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China[1]
Kevin Spacey Cleared
2023 ActorKevin Spacey is cleared of sex assault charges at a court in London[1]
- 2023 Cambodia's authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power since 1985, announces he will resign and pass his office to his son[1]
- 2023 Coup in Niger as presidential guards seize President Mohamed Bazoum and ministerial buildings in Niamey[1]
- 2023 Former military intelligence officer David Grusch testifies to a US House committee that the US government is being kept in the dark about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs or UFOs)[1]
- 2023 World's largest office building, Surat Diamond Bourse, at 660,000 square meters (bigger than the Pentagon), is unveiled in Surat, India, by architectural studio Morphogenesis[1]
Film & TV History
2024 Marvel film "Deadpool and Wolverine," starringRyan Reynolds andHugh Jackman, opens with the highest earnings of the year: $233.3 million in the US and $438 million globally[1]
Olympic Games
2024 Opening ceremony for the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris is held outside for the first time along the River Seine, with 85 boats carrying the athletes and performances byLady Gaga andCeline Dion[1]
- 2024 XXXIII Summer Olympic Games officially open along the River Seine and at Jardins du Trocadéro, in front of the Eiffel Tower, Paris
- 2025 Almost 140,000 civilians in Thailand and an estimated 38,000 in Cambodia flee their homes as fighting between the two countries intensifies[1]
- 2025 Australian Defense Secretary Richard Marles and British Defense Secretary John Healey sign a 50-year bilateral Nuclear-Powered Submarine Partnership and Collaboration Treaty in Geelong, Australia
