• Home
• Articles
• Dates
• Days
• Today in History
• Topics
• Quiz

Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 171

362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
1173 - Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket Absp of Canterbury
1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1431 - England begins trial against Joan of Arc
1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1564 - Philip II routes cardinal Granvelle to Franche-Comte
1574 - Spanish garrison of Middelburg Neth surrenders
1583 - Groningen Neth begins using Gregorian calendar
1598 - Boris Godunov crowned tsar
1613 - Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected Russian tsar
1673 - Michiel A de Ruyter appointed lt-admiral-general of Dutch fleet
1675 - Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Gelderland
1764 - John Wilkes thrown out of Engl House of Commons for "Essay on Women"
1777 - English ambassador Joseph Yorke demands dismissal of Governor John de Graaff for saluting US flag
1782 - US congress resolves establishment of a US mint
1792 - Congress passes Pres Succession Act
1795 - Freedom of worship established in France under constitution
1797 - Trinidad, West Indies surrenders to British
1804 - 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick's, runs for 1st time, in Wales
1828 - 1st American Indian newspaper in US, "Cherokee Phoenix," published
1842 - 1st known sewing machine patented in US, John Greenough, Wash DC
1846 - 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley, Lowell, Mass
1853 - US authorizes minting of $3 gold pieces
1857 - Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in US
1857 - US issues flying eagle cents
1858 - Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston, Mass)
1861 - Navaho indians elect Herrero Grande as chief
1862 - Confederate Constitution & presidency are declared permanent
1862 - Texas Rangers win Confederate victory at Battle of Val Verde, NM
1864 - -22] Battle at Okolona, Mississippi
1864 - 1st US Catholic parish church for blacks dedicated, Baltimore
1866 - Lucy B Hobbs (Taylor) becomes 1st US woman to earn a DDS degree
1874 - Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier
1874 - Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication
1878 - 1st telephone book issued, 50 subscribers (New Harbor, Connecticut)
1882 - NYC's 24 hour race begins, winner with most mileage in 24 hours
1883 - 2nd French government of Ferry begins
1885 - Washington Monument dedicated (Wash DC)
1887 - 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)
1887 - Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday
1895 - NC Legislature, adjourns for day to mark death of Frederick Douglass
1902 - Dr Harvey Cushing, 1st US brain surgeon, does his 1st brain operation
1903 - Cornerstone laid for US army war college, Washington, DC
1904 - National Ski Association forms in Ishpeming Mich
1907 - SS Berlin sinks off Hoek van Holland Neth (142 dead)
1909 - John Galsworthy's "Strife," premieres in London
1910 - John Galsworthy's "Justice," premieres in London
1911 - Gustav Mahler conducts his last concerto (Berceuse élégique)
1914 - White Wolf troops attack Zhanjiang China
1915 - 20th Russian Army corps surrenders
1915 - World's Fair in SF opens
1916 - Battle of Verdun in WW I begins (1 million casualties)
1917 - British Mendi sinks off Isle of Wight, 627 die
1917 - Train near Chirurcha Romania catches fire & explodes; 100s die
1918 - Australians chase Turkish troop out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine
1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1919 - German National Meeting accepts Anschluss: incorporation of Austria
1919 - Revolutionary strike in Barcelona
1920 - Darius Milhaud & Jean Cocteau's ballet, premieres in Paris
1921 - Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1922 - Airship Rome explodes at Hampton Roads Virginia; 34 die
1922 - Great Britain grants Egypt independence
1922 - WHK-AM in Cleveland OH begins radio transmissions
1923 - Andre Charlot's musical "Rats," premieres in London
1925 - 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published
1925 - Mass meeting of SPD's Reichsbanner Black-Red-Gold in Magdeburg
1927 - Franz Lehr's opera "Zarewitsch," premieres
1930 - Marc Connelly's "Green Pastures," premieres in NYC
1931 - Alka Seltzer introduced
1931 - Chicago White Sox & NY Giants play 1st exhibition night game
1932 - Andre Tardieu becomes premier of France
1932 - Camera exposure meter patented, WN Goodwin
1934 - Nicaraguan patriot Augusto Cesar Sandino assassinated by Natl Guard
1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1939 - Belgian govt of Pierlot forms
1941 - US Senate accepts Omar Bradley's demotion to brig-general
1942 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Jane Vaughn
1942 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Bobby Specht
1943 - Dutch RC bishops protest against persecution of Jews
1943 - German offensive at Western Dorsalgebergte Tunisia
1944 - "War As It Happens" news show premieres on NBC TV (NYC only)
1945 - Archbishop De Jong calls for help with war casualties
1945 - British Army captures Goch
1945 - US 10th Armour division overthrows Orscholz line
1946 - Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt
1947 - 1st broadcast of 1st US TV soap opera "A Woman to Remember"
1947 - 1st instant developing camera demonstrated in NYC, by E H Land
1947 - Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champ
1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
1950 - WOI TV channel 5 in Ames-Des Moines, IA (ABC/PBS) begins broadcasting
1951 - SC House urges "Shoeless Joe" Jackson be reinstated
1952 - Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement)
1952 - Dick Button performs 1st figure skating triple jump in competition
1952 - Liz Taylor's 2nd marriage (Michael Wilding)
1953 - "Maggie" closes at National Theater NYC after 5 performances
1953 - F Crick & J Watson discover structure of DNA-molecule
1953 - Longest collegiate basketball game (6 OTs) Niagara beats Siena 88-81
1957 - Dodgers (Ft Worth) & Cubs (LA) "trade" minor league franchises
1958 - "Portotino" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 3 performances

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 252

1417 - Louis IX, Duke of Bayern (University of Ingolstadt)
1484 - Joachim I Nestor, elector (Brandenburg, Constitution)
1556 - Sethus Calvisius, composer
1674 - Johann Augustin Kobelius, composer
1675 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)
1684 - Justus van Effen, writer/founder (Holland Spectator)
1690 - Christoph Stoltzenberg, composer
1705 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)
1710 - Willem van Haren, Frisian nobleman/poet (Human Life)
1721 - John McKinly, American physician (d. 1796)
1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
1728 - Peter III, Kiel Germany, Russian tsar (1762)/husband of Catherine
1730 - Charles L Fournier, Flemish writer/painter
1744 - Eise J Eisinga, Frisia, built planetarium Franeker
1776 - Vincenzo Lavigna, composer
1779 - Friedrich C von Savigny, German lawyer
1783 - Princess Catharina of Württemberg, Queen consort of Westphalia (d. 1835)
1785 - Karl A Varnhagen von Ense, German officer/author (Die Sterner)
1794 - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, president of Mexico (1833-36)
1795 - Francisco Manuel da Silva, composer
1800 - John Henry Winder, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1865
1801 - Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda, composer
1801 - John Henry Newman, England, cardinal/author (Dream of Gerontius)
1802 - George Douglas Ramsey, Bvt Major general (Union Army), died in 1882
1805 - David Tod, US diplomat/(Gov-R-Ohio, 1861-63)
1814 - Nicolo Gabrielli, composer
1815 - Ernest Meissonier, French painter/sculptor
1817 - Jose Zorrilla y Moral, Vallodolid Spain, poet/dramatist (El rey Loco)
1821 - Charles Scribner, US, music publisher (Scribner Catalog)
1829 - Johnson Hagood, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1831 - Eduard Rappoldi, composer
1836 - Clement-Philibert-Leo Delibes, composer
1836 - Emil Hartmann, composer
1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, Lyons France, composer/prof (Paris Conservatory)
1852 - [James] Burner Matthews, US playwright/critic (NY Times)
1855 - Alice Freeman Palmer, educator (Hall of Fame)
1856 - Hendrik P Berlage, architect (Stock exchange Amsterdam)
1857 - Jules de Trooz, baron/premier of Belgium (1907)
1860 - Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech journalist (d. 1927)
1860 - Goscombe John, Welsh sculptor (d. 1952)
1861 - Pierre Breville, composer
1865 - John Haden Badley, English school founder (d. 1967)
1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, Banker, organized Metropolitan Opera Co
1875 - Jeanne Louise Calment, France, world's oldest woman (died at 122)
1876 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian/French sculptor (Princesse X)
1876 - Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d. 1956)
1877 - Jacob D du Toit [Totius], South African poet/theologist
1878 - Fritz Cortolezis, composer
1878 - The Mother, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
1880 - Frank Orth, Phila Pa, actor (Boston Blackie, Brothers)
1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
1881 - Savilly Tartakower, Austrian/Polish/French chess player
1883 - J M M "Mick" Commaille, cricketer (dual S African cricket/soccer rep)
1885 - Sacha Guitry, France, actor/playwright (Story of a Cheat)
1887 - Savielly [Xavier] G Tartakower, Austrian/Polish/French chess player
1888 - Florence Bates, TX, actress (Moon & Sixpence, Love Crazy, San Antonio)
1888 - Willem Banning, Dutch theologist/sociologist (Religious Build Up)
1888 - Clemence Dane, British novelist and playwright (d. 1965)
1889 - Felix Aylmer, actor (Anastasia, Hamlet, Iron Duke, Macbeth, St Joan)
1893 - Andres Segovia, Linares Spain, classical guitarist
1893 - Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet film director/theorist (Mother, Deserter)
1893 - Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)
1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1976)
1896 - Sylvain Poons, Dutch cabaret performer (Blue Jackets)
1897 - Celia Lovsky, Vienna Aus, actress (Airport, Harlow, T'Pau-Star Trek)
1898 - Vassily Vainonen, Russian ballet dancers/choreographer (Gayaneh)
1900 - Madeleine Renaud, French actress/theater director (Plaisir)
1900 - Sydney Arnold, English comic/actor (Miss Jones & Son)
1902 - Arthur D Nock, English/US historian (St Paul)
1902 - Bob [Hijman] Scholte, Dutch vocalist [or 1909]
1902 - John Smallenbroek, Dutch minister of Internal Affairs [or 1909]
1903 - Eric Fogg, composer
1903 - Madeleine Renaud, Paris France, actress (Helene, Longest Day)
1903 - Raymond Queneau, [M Presle], French author (Un Enfant a Dit)
1903 - Thomas Yawkey, baseball owner (Boston Red Sox)
1903 - Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
1903 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
1904 - Armand Preud'homme, Flemish organist/poet
1907 - Wystan Hugh Auden, US, poet (Age of Anxiety-Pulitzer 1948)
1909 - George G F van Renesse, Dutch pianist/music director
1909 - Hans Erni, Switz, painter/sculptor
1909 - Helen O Dickens, [Henderson], US physician/gynaecologist
1910 - Douglas R S Bader, British pilot (WW II)
1910 - Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979)
1910 - Eddie Waring, British sports commentator (d. 1986)
1912 - Arline Judge, actress (Girls in Chains, Mad Wednesday, Age of Consent)
1912 - Nikita Magaloff, Russian/Swiss pianist (Arkadia 598-Schubert)
1912 - Patrick Murphy, English multi-millionaire
1913 - Glenn M Anderson, (Rep-D-CA, 1969- )
1913 - Roger Laurent, Belgian racing driver (d. 1997)
1914 - Arnold S Denker, NY, US chess champion (1944-46)
1914 - Hermanus P "Piet" Mulder, Dutch journalist (Parool/VARA)
1915 - Ann Sheridan, Denton Texas, actress (Dodge City, Another World)
1915 - Godfrey Brown, England, 4 X 400m runner (Olympic-gold-1936)
1917 - Victor G M Marijnen, Dutch premier (1963-65)
1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
1922 - Murray "the K" Kaufman, NYC DJ (5th Beatle)
1922 - Uros Krek, composer
1923 - Lola Flores, entertainer
1923 - Lucille Bremer, dancer/actress (Ruthless, Ziegfeld Follies)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 100 of 106

556 - Maximianus van Ravenna, bishop (Basilica S Stefano), dies
1437 - King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
1471 - John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop
1513 - Julius II, [Giuliano dellea Rovere], Pope (1503-13), dies at 69
1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German doctor (founder of modern botany), dies
1595 - Robert Southwell, English Jesuit/poet, hanged
1624 - Dirck van Baburen, Dutch painter (Sepulture), dies at about 28
1648 - Christian IV, king of Denmark/Norway, dies
1653 - Adriaen Pauw, master of Heemstede/Dutch Grand Pensionary, dies at 71
1668 - John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)
1677 - [Benedictus] Baruch Spinoza, philosopher, dies at 44
1684 - Pieter van den Abeelen, Dutch medallist/jeweller, dies at about 75
1689 - Isaacus Vossius, Dutch [Isaac Vos], librarian, dies
1711 - Joan van Hoorn, gov-gen of Neth-Indies (1707-09), dies at 57
1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)
1730 - Benedict XIII, [Pietro F Orsini], Pope (1724-30), dies at 81
1788 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
1790 - Johann Friedrich Kloffler, composer, dies at 64
1803 - Edward Despard, last person drawn & quartered in England
1821 - Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (b. 1756)
1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)
1842 - Wojciech Zywny, composer, dies at 85
1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan (b. 1800)
1862 - Justinus A C Kerner, German family doctor/poet/writer, dies at 75
1864 - Jeffery Forrest, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle
1872 - Pavel P Gagarin, Russian monarch/politician, dies at 82
1876 - Henry John Gauntlett, composer, dies at 70
1879 - Peter P van Bosse, Dutch liberal minister of Finance, dies at 69
1884 - John Pike Hullah, composer, dies at 71
1894 - Gustave Caillebotte, French shipbuilding designer/painter, dies at 45
1901 - George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
1919 - Giovanni Bolzoni, composer, dies at 77
1919 - Habib Ullah Chan, emir of Afghanistam (1901-19), murdered at 46
1919 - Karl von Hohenzollern, Prince of Belgium, dies
1919 - Kurt Eisner, premier Bayern (soc), murdered at 51
1920 - Jacinta Marto, witness of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima (b. 1910)
1924 - Salvatore Auteri Manzocchi, composer, dies at 78
1925 - Alfred Baldwin Sloan, composer, dies at 52
1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist (Nobel 1913), dies at 72
1938 - Albert Huybrechts, composer, dies at 39
1938 - George Ellery Hale, astronomer, dies
1941 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
1944 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
1945 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (Olympic-gold 1924), dies at 43
1946 - José Streel, Belgian World War II collaborator (b. 1911)
1948 - Frederick Archibald Lamond, composer, dies at 80
1949 - Ernest Walker, composer, dies at 78
1951 - Anton Roemer, Dutch actor (Gay Death), dies at 63
1956 - Edwin Franko Goldman, composer, dies at 78
1958 - Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
1961 - Blaise Cendrars, [Frederic Sauser-Hall], Switz, poet, dies at 73
1965 - Malcolm X, [Little], black Moslem leader, assassinated in NYC at 39
1966 - Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician (b. 1895)
1967 - Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
1968 - Anthony Asquith, British director (Court Martial), dies at 65
1968 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmocologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)
1969 - Jose de Capriles, Mexican-born US Olympic fencer, dies
1971 - Adolph Weiss, composer, dies at 79
1972 - Bronislava Nijinska, Polish-Russian ballet dancer (b. 1891)
1972 - Eugène Tisserant, French Catholic candinal (b. 1884)
1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1930)
1976 - Florence Ballard, rocker (Supremes), dies at 32
1976 - Frieda Inescort, Scottish actress (Meet Corliss Archer), dies at 74
1978 - Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish historian and priest (b. 1901)
1979 - Glendon Gibbs, cricketer (Test Cricket WI v Australia 1955), dies
1979 - Ray Whitley, composer, dies
1980 - Chester H Lauck, actor (2 Weeks to Live, Goin' to Town), dies at 78
1982 - Murray the K, American impresario and disc jockey (b. 1922)
1984 - Michail A Sholochov, Russian writer (Ocean Don, Nobel 1965), dies
1985 - Eric Herfst, Dutch cabaret performer (Floris), dies at 47
1985 - Ina Claire, actress/comedienne (3 Bdwy Girls), dies of stroke at 89
1985 - Louis Hayward, actor (Lone Wolf, Survivors), dies of lung cancer at 75
1986 - Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, also the world's oldest man ever (b. 1865)
1986 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
1989 - Alex Thépot, French footballer (b. 1906)
1991 - Margot Fonteyn, ballerina (1st lady of British Ballet), dies at 71
1991 - Roger Swaybill, actor/writer (Porky's II, Breaking Point), dies at 47
1992 - Eva A Jessye, US singer/actress (Eva Jessye Choir), dies at 97
1992 - Franc Holden, British astronomer (Binary Stars), dies
1992 - Jane Pickens Langley Hoving, singer, dies at 83
1992 - Roberto D'Aubuisson, El Salvadorian founder (ARENA), dies
1992 - William S Magginetti, dies at 98
1993 - Ferrucci Lamborghini, car maker (Lamborghini), dies at 76
1994 - Frederick Edward Nicklin, architect, dies at 68
1994 - William Elgin Swinton, child Psychiatrist, dies at 54
1995 - Robert Bolt, Brit playwright (Doctor Zhivago, Bounty), dies at 70
1996 - Horace Leonard Gold, sF writer/editor, dies at 81
1996 - Jean Burroughs, educationalist, dies at 67
1996 - Morton Gould, composer, dies at 82
1996 - Terence Edward Armstrong, polar geographer, dies at 75
1997 - Kenneth Rowntree, painter, dies at 81
1997 - Michael Hollings, catholic priest/crusader, dies at 75
1999 - Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b. 1930)
1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
2000 - Antonio Díaz-Miguel, Spanish basketball coach (b. 1933)
2002 - Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)
2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
2003 - Eddie Thomson, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1947)
2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)