Rosetta Stone
196 BC The Rosetta Stone and others like it are inscribed with the Decree of Memphis proclaiming the rule of the King of Ptolemaic Egypt, Ptolemy V
- 1003 Peace deal is signed between Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and the pagan Wends (Slavs)
- 1309 Pope Clement V excommunicates Venice and its population after Venice seized the papal city of Ferrara
- 1329 Pope John XXII issues the papal bull "In Agro Dominico," condemning the writings of German mystic Meister Eckhart as heretical
- 1351 Battle of the Thirty: 30 English and 30 Breton knights and squires square off using swords, maces, lances and daggers - considered one of the most chivalrous battles in history
Ponce de León Sights Florida
1513 SpaniardJuan Ponce de León and his expedition first sight Florida
- 1642 Sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Joseph, takes office an unusual 18 months after his predecessor passed away
Bombay to East India Company
1668 English KingCharles II grants Royal Charter giving control of Bombay, India to the English East India Company
- 1706 Tekle Haymanot I takes the throne as Emperor of Ethiopia, upon the retirement and/or abdication of his father, Iyasu I, at 21
- 1708 James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, and pretender to the Great British throne James III flees to Dunkirk after failed invasion attempt
- 1709 Dike at Hardinxveld breaks, flooding Alblasserwaard in the Netherlands
- 1713 Spain loses Menorca and Gibraltar to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht
- 1721 France and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid
Marquess of Rockingham Prime Minister
1782Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain
US Navy Founded
1794 Naval Act of 1794 is signed by PresidentGeorge Washington, authorizing the building of six frigates and establishing a permanent US Navy
Die Schopfung
1808Joseph Haydn's oratorio "Die Schopfung" premieres in Vienna
Battle at Horseshoe Bend
1814 Battle at Horseshoe Bend: GeneralAndrew Jackson defeats the Red Sticks, part of the Creek Indian tribe near Dadeville, Alabama
- 1836 First Mormon temple is dedicated in Kirtland, Ohio
- 1836 Mexican Army executes over 425 Texian Army prisoners of war in Goliad, Republic of Texas[1]
- 1841 First US steam fire engine is tested in New York City
- 1848 John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster
- 1849 Joseph Couch patents steam-powered percussion rock drill
Gesner Patents Kerosene
1855 Canadian geologistAbraham Gesner patents kerosene
- 1860 M. L. Byrn patents a "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle," more popularly known as a corkscrew
Day of Fasting and Prayer
1863 American Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis calls for a day of fasting & prayer
Johnson Vetoes Civil Rights Bill
1866 US PresidentAndrew Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th amendment
- 1868 Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York
- 1871 First international rugby union match, Scotland beats England 1-0 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
- 1879 Longest championship fight (136 rounds)
- 1881 Rioting takes place in Basingstoke, Hampshire in England, to protest against the Salvation Army's daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance
- 1884 First long-distance telephone call, Boston to New York
- 1890 A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200.
- 1900 Recognising that the war in South Africa is going to take a major commitment, Parliament passes the War Loan Act, calling for £35 million to support the fight against the Boers.
- 1906 Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba
- 1910 Fire during a barn-dance in Ököritófülpös, Hungary, kills 312
- 1912 US First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, plant two Yoshino cherry trees on the bank of the Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C.[1]
- 1914 First successful non-direct blood transfusion is performed by Dr. Albert Hustin in Brussels
Typhoid Mary Arrested
1915Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is arrested and returned to quarantine on North Brother Island, New York after spending five years evading health authorities and causing several further outbreaks of typhoid
Chaplin Legion of Honor
1931Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor
- 1931 John McGraw says night baseball will not catch on
- 1932 De Bataven soccer team forms in Gendt
- 1933 Farm Credit Administration (US) authorized
- 1933 Japan leaves League of Nations
- 1933 Polythene discovered by Reginald Gibson & Eric William Fawcett
- 1936 WOS-AM in Jefferson City Missouri goes off the air
- 1937 Feijenoord Stadion, home ground of Dutch football club Feyenoord Rotterdam and nicknamed De Kuip opens after 2 years in construction
- 1938 The Battle of Taierzhuang takes place.
Peter Fraser Prime Minister
1940Peter Fraser becomes Prime Minister of New Zealand after the death of his predecessor Michael Joeseph Savage from cancer
Directive 27
1941Adolf Hitler signs Directive 27 (assault on Yugoslavia)
- 1941 Britain leases defense bases in Trinidad to US for 99 years
- 1941 Yugoslavian coup gets rid of pro-German Prince Paul
- 1942 -28] Allies raid German submarine base in St Nazaire
- 1942 Japan forces Java to use "Tokyo time" 1½ hour forward
Blue Ribbon Town
1943 Blue Ribbon Town (withGroucho Marx) 1st heard on CBS Radio
- 1943 WWII: Dutch resistance fighters burn and bomb the Amsterdam civil registry office in effort to destroy records and prevent the Nazis from identifying Jews and others marked for persecution; about 15% of records destroyed and 12 of the 19 known participants were tried and executed by the Nazi occupiers
- 1943 WWII: US begins assault on Fondouk Pass, Tunisia
- 1944 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
- 1944 40 Jewish policemen in Riga, Latvia, ghetto are shot by the Gestapo
- 1944 Children's Aktion-Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno
Churchill Crosses Rhine
1945 British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill sails to eastern banks of Rhine
- 1945 DePaul beats Bowling Green for NIT title
It's Only a Paper Moon
1945Ella Fitzgerald and Delta Rhythm Boys record theHarold Arlen-Yip Harburg-Billy Rose song "It's Only a Paper Moon"
German Defenses Broken
1945 GeneralEisenhower declares German defenses on Western Front broken
- 1945 US 20th Army corps captures Wiesbaden
- 1945 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
Billie Holiday Plays Carnegie
1948 Just 11 days after being released from prison, jazz singerBillie Holiday plays in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall, NYC
- 1948 The Second Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea is convened
Erroll Garner Concert
1950 Jazz pianistErroll Garner performs a solo recital at Cleveland Music Hall, a venue for traditionally classical concerts, in Cleveland, Ohio
- 1950 Netherlands recognizes People's Republic of China
- 1950 WHAS TV channel 11 in Louisville, Kentucky (CBS) begins broadcasting
I'm a Fool to Want You
1951Frank Sinatra records "I'm a Fool to Want You"
Singin' in the Rain
1952 "Singin' in the Rain," a musical comedy film directed byGene Kelly and Stanley Donen and starring Gene Kelly andDebbie Reynolds, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in NYC
Assassination Attempt
1952 Failed assassination attempt of West German ChancellorKonrad Adenauer
The Chivington Raid
1955Steve McQueen makes his network TV debut (Goodyear Playhouse, episode "The Chivington Raid")
- 1955 WPRI TV channel 12 in Providence, Rhode Island (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 French commandos land in Algeria
Academy Awards
1957 29th Academy Awards: "Around World in 80 Days",Ingrid Bergman,Yul Brynner win
- 1958 CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records
- 1958 Havana Hilton opens in Cuba, later HQ for Fidel Castro
Event of Interest
1958Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
NHL Record
1962 NHL Montreal Canadiens goaltenderJacques Plante ties record winning 6th NHL Vezina trophy
The Leopard
1963 Historical film "The Leopard" directed by Luchino Visconti, starringBurt Lancaster,Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale premieres in Rome, based on the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
- 1963 Richard Beeching issues a report known as the "Beeching Axe," calling for significant cuts to the UK rail network
- 1964 Great Train Robbers sentenced to a total of 307 years behind bars
- 1964 The Great Alaska Earthquake (9.2 magnitude) and resulting tsunami kill 139 people in the largest US earthquake and second largest ever recorded
- 1964 UN troops arrive in Cyprus
- 1968 Japanese Trade & Cultural Center (Japan Center) dedicated in San Francisco
- 1969 Black Academy of Arts & Letters forms in Boston
- 1969 Launch of Mariner 7, flies 2,190-mi above southern Mars
Sentimental Journey
1970Ringo Starr releases his 1st solo album "Sentimental Journey", a collection of pre-rock standards
- 1970 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1971 David Heneker and John Taylor's musical "Charlie Girl" close at the Adelphi Theatre, London, after 2,202 performances
- 1971 The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) holds its first Annual Conference in the Ulster Hall in Belfast
- 1972 Adolph Rupp retires after 42 years of coaching University of Kentucky
- 1972 Ulster Vanguard organise industrial strike against the imposition of direct rule on Northern Ireland by Westminster
- 1972 Venera 8 launches to explore Venus
- 1972 Wyoming officially names "Curt Gowdy State Park", in honor of the nationally recognized broadcaster
Academy Awards
1973 45th Academy Awards: "TheGodfather",Marlon Brando & Liza Minnelli win; Brando declines the Oscar for Best Actor to protest Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film, in a speech by activist Sacheen Littlefeather[1]
- 1973 Dennis Amiss out for 99 v Pakistan, 3rd 99 in Test Cricket
Music History
1973Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) stopped for speeding and found in possession of LSD
- 1976 Washington, D.C. underground Metro opens
Tenerife Airport Disaster
1977 583 die in aviation's worst ever disaster when two Boeing 747s collide at Tenerife airport in Spain
Sports History
1977 American tennis starChris Evert wins her 4th and final WTA Tour Championship 2–6, 6–1, 6–1 against England's Sue Barker at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Mount St. Helens Erupts
1980 Mount St. Helens becomes active after 123 years
- 1980 Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212
Blizzard of Ozz
1981 "Blizzard of Ozz", the debut solo album by English rock singerOzzy Osbourne, is released in the United States
Watching the Wheels
1981John Lennon's single "Watching the Wheels" released posthumously in UK
- 1982 Imran takes 14-116 for cricket match v Sri Lanka at Lahore
- 1982 Randy Holt sets Wash Cap record of 34 penalty minutes
Boxing Title Fight
1983Larry Holmes beats Lucien Rodriguez in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
Film & TV History
1983Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" premieres in NYC
Starlight Express
1984Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's rock musical "Starlight Express" opens at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London's West End
- 1984 Beginning of "tanker war": over the next 9 months, 44 ships, including Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti tankers, are attacked by Iraqi or Iranian warplanes or damaged by mines
Film & TV History
1985 American actorBilly Dee Williams receives a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 1985 Bus transporting school children from Vorentoe High School plunges into Westdene Dam, Johannesburg, South Africa, killing 42[1]
Film & TV History
1985 Professional wrestlerHulk Hogan acquiesces to put interviewerRichard Belzer in a hold, resulting in Belzer passing out, hitting his head on the floor, and requiring 9 stitches; Belzer sues Hogan for $5 million in damages for personal injury, they settle out of court, and Belzer buys a home in France
- 1986 Disney-MGM Studio Tour groundbreaking
Victory in Battle
1987 Chadian PresidentHissène Habré's troops reconquer Faya Largeau in Chad
- 1988 Ice Dance Championship at Budapest won by Bestemianova & Bukin (URS)
- 1988 Ice Pairs Championship at Budapest won by E Valova & O Vasiliev (URS)
Sports History
1988 Men's Figure Skating Champions in Budapest won byBrian Boitano (USA)
- 1988 Ok-Hee Ku wins Standard Register Turquoise Classic Golf Tournament
- 1989 1st African American soap opera, "Generations" premieres on NBC-TV
- 1989 Delhi beat Bengal by innings & 210 to win Cricket's Ranji Trophy
- 1990 Bus accidentally touches high voltage wire in Karagpur India; 21 die
- 1990 US begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime
- 1991 NCAA bans U of Minn football team from postseason play in 1992
- 1991 New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, arrested on arson charges in Kentucky
Hockey Hall of Fame
1991Scotty Bowman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a "builder" of the game
Human Touch
1992 Columbia Records releasesBruce Springsteen's 9th and 10th studio albums - "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" - on the same day; musicians other than the E-Street Band are used
Appointment of Interest
1993Jiang Zemin appointed President of the People's Republic of China
- 1994 Church in Piedmont Alabama collapses in tornado, 19 killed
- 1994 Ice Dance Championship at Chiba Japan won by Gritschuk & Platov (RUS)
- 1994 Ice Pairs Championship at Chiba won by Shishkova/Vadim Naumov (RUS)
- 1994 The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Manching, Germany
Academy Awards
1995 67th Academy Awards: "Forrest Gump",Jessica Lange &Tom Hanks win
- 1995 Two-month ceasefire agreed by Government of Sudan in its civil war, to treat health conditions such as Guinea worm and river blindness, lasts six months, the longest-ever health ceasefire[1]
Meeting of Interest
1997 Martin Luther King's son meetsJames Earl Ray, his father's killer
- 1998 Chicago Bulls - Atlanta Hawks matchup at Georgia Dome in Atlanta, draws a crowd of 62,046, largest in any game in NBA history; Bulls win, 89-74
- 2000 Phillips explosion kills 1 and injures 71 in Pasadena, Texas.
- 2002 Passover Massacre: Suicide bomber kills 29 people in Netanya, Israel
- 2004 HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.
Grey's Anatomy
2005 TV medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" created byShonda Rhimes starringEllen Pompeo andSandra Oh debuts on ABC
Betrayal
2012Danielle Steel’s novel “Betrayal” is published
- 2012 On This Day launches a sister site in Spanish, Hoy en la Historia
- 2013 12 people are killed in the Philippines after a mini-tornado causes a boat to capsize
- 2014 UN General Assembly condemns Russia's annexation of Crimea
- 2015 Russia's Soyuz TMA-16M launches to deliver three crew members to the international space station to research the long-term effects of micro gravity
- 2016 Suicide bomb kills more than 70 people at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban connected Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claim responsibility
- 2019 British indie-rock duo "Her's" - English guitarist-singer Stephen Fitzpatrick (24) and Norwegian bassist Audun Laading (25), and American manager Trevor Engelbrektson (37) killed in car crash in Arizona
- 2019 Facebook bans white nationalism and white supremacy following criticism that Christchurch terrorist able to live-stream his attack
Event of Interest
2019 Former president of the GambiaYahya Jammeh stole almost 1 billion from his country before his exile in 2017 according to a corruption report
Event of Interest
2019 Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi announces the country is now a "space power" after successfully shooting down a satellite from space in a ballistic missile test
- 2019 UK Prime Minister Theresa May promises to stand down if parliament accepts her Brexit plan
- 2019 US Special Council Robert S. Mueller writes a letter to US Attorney William Barr regarding Barr's summary of the Mueller Report stating Barr's letter "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the findings. "There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations."
Event of Interest
2020 $2.2 trillion stimulus package, largest in US history, signed into law by PresidentDonald Trump saying "I never signed anything with a 'T' on it"
COVID-19 Pandemic
2020 UK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson announces he has contracted COVID-19 but will continue to lead the country "thanks to the wizardry of modern technology" while in self-isolation
- 2021 114 people including children killed in one day by armed forces in Myanmar, with more than 420 killed since protests began against the military coup[1]
- 2021 Iran and China sign major agreement guaranteeing Chinese investment of $400 billion and Iranian oil supply in return in Tehran[1]
- 2021 Militants attack the town of Palma, northern Mozambique, killing dozens in an escalation of violence in the area
Academy Awards
2022 94th Academy Awards: "CODA" wins best film, best directorJane Campion, best actressJessica Chastain, best actorWill Smith who also controversially slaps hostChris Rock live on stage[1]
- 2022 China announces Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days affecting 25 million people to carry out COVID-19 testing[1]
Event of Interest
2022 Duke andDuchess of Cambridge end an eight-day tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas that highlighted issues of decolonization and calls for slave reparations[1]
- 2022 El Salvador's parliament declares a state of emergency after 62 gang killings in one day[1]
- 2023 At least 40 people are killed and 28 injured in a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican US border, amid large numbers of migrants gathering on the Mexican border[1]
- 2023 Convicted rapist fakes his own death by pretending to set himself alight (in reality kills someone else) to escape from prison in South Africa, sparking large manhunt[1]
- 2023 Female shooter kills three children and three adults at private Christian school Convent Elementary, in Nashville, Tennessee, before being shot and killed - 19th US school shooting in three months[1]
- 2023 Germany experiences one of its largest strikes in decades, bringing public transport comes to an almost complete halt, amid calls for higher wages[1]
- 2023 Humza Yousaf elected leader of Scottish SNP party as first ethnic minority leader of a devolved government and first Muslim to lead a major UK party
Netanyahu Pauses Judicial Reform
2023 Israeli PMBenjamin Netanyahu announces pause of key part of controversial plans to overhaul the justice system after massive protests and the country's largest trade union goes on strike[1]
- 2023 Possibility of bases on the Moon becomes greater possibility after 300 billion tonnes of water, stored in glass beads on Moon's surface, identified in lunar soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5[1]
- 2023 World's oldest tartan confirmed as up to 500 years old, after testing on material found 40 years earlier in Glen Affric bog, by experts at National Museums Scotland[1]
- 2024 Harvard University says it will remove a 19th century book binding of human skin, originally taken without consent from a deceased French mental patient[1]
- 2024 New analysis confirms climate change is slowing the rotation of Earth due to melting ice caps and will probably delay the next leap second by three years[1]
- 2025 European space telescope Gaia is shut down after a decade of charting the Milky Way and collecting data on nearly two billion stars and other celestial objects[1]
- 2025 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces a major restructure of the US Department of Health, including laying off 33 % of its workforce, about 10,000 employees[1]
- 2134 32nd predicted perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
