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Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 196

451 - 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
843 - Vikings destroy Nantes
972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
1128 - Afonso I of Portugal defeats army of his mother Theresa
1298 - Rindfleish Persecutions-Jews of Ifhauben Austria massacred
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn; Scotland regains independence from England
1322 - Jews are expelled from France for 3rd time
1340 - Battle at Lock: English fleet beats France/Genuezen, 10-30,000 killed
1340 - In the Hundred Years War, British fleet destroys French at Sluys
1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1396 - Crusaders under earl of Nevers reach Vienna
1397 - Sultan Bajezid I release caught crusaders free, for ransom
1441 - Eton College founded by Henry VI
1472 - Zoe Paleologa departs Rome for Moscow
1497 - John Cabot claims eastern Canada for England (believes he found Asia in Nova Scotia)
1497 - Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London.
1509 - Henry VIII crowned King of England
1522 - Battle at La Bicocca: Emperor Karel V beats France
1522 - Portuguese Antonio de Brita signs treaty island of Ternate Molukkas
1527 - Gustaaf I begins Reformation in Sweden, taking RC possessions
1529 - Zurich & catholic kantons sign Peace of Kappel
1535 - Anabaptists Protestants conquered & disbanded
1535 - Hessische troops occupy Munster
1540 - Henry VIII divorces his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
1572 - 5 clergymen of Enkhuizen, hanged
1597 - Cornelis de Houtman's fleet reaches Bantam, West Java
1610 - Battle at Klushino: King Sigismund II beats Russia & Sweden
1619 - Tsar Michails father Filaret becomes patriarch of Moscow
1647 - Lord Baltimore's niece ejected requesting vote at Maryland Council
1648 - Cossacks slaughter 2,000 Jews & 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine
1658 - French fleet recaptures Duinkerk
1662 - Dutch invasion of Macau repulsed (Macau Day)
1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
1690 - King Willem III's army lands at Carrickfergus Ireland [OS=June 14]
1692 - Kingston Jamaica founded
1717 - 1st Free Masons' grand lodge founded in London
1748 - The Kingswood School is opened by John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley in Bristol. The school later moved to Bath.
1778 - David Rittenhouse observes a total solar eclipse in Philadelphia
1793 - 1st republican constitution in France adopted
1794 - Bowdoin College is founded.
1795 - US & Great Britain sign Jay Treaty, 1st US extradition treaty
1806 - English under commodore Popham/col Beresford reach Buenos Aires
1813 - Battle of Beaver Dam-British & Indian forces defeat US forces
1817 - 1st coffee planted in Hawaii on Kona coast
1821 - Battle of Carabobo; Bolívar defeats royalists outside of Caracas
1841 - Fordham University (then St John's College), opens in the Bronx
1843 - Vincenzo Soliva decrees no Jew can live outside of ghetto in Italy
1846 - Residency tax on Jews of Hungary abolished
1853 - Gadsden Purchase 29,670-square-mile (76,800 square km) from Mexico (now southern Arizona and New Mexico) for $10 million signed by President Franklin Pierce
1859 - Battle of Solferino, N-Italy: France/Sardinia-Austria
1861 - Battle of Mathias Point, VA-US attacks Confederate batteries
1861 - Tennessee becomes 11th (& last) state to secede from US
1863 - Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crosses Potomac
1866 - 2nd Battle at Custozza: Prussian-Austria beats Italian army
1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1881 - 200 drown as train runs off bridge near Cuautla Mexico
1882 - NL expels umpire Richard Higham for dishonesty
1884 - John Lynch is 1st black elected chairman of Republican convention
1885 - British government of Salisbury forms
1885 - Samuel David Ferguson becomes 1st US black bishop
1894 - Decision to hold modern Olympics every 4 years
1894 - Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
1897 - Hail injures 26 in Topeka Kansas
1898 - American troops, drive Spanish forces from La Guasimas Cuba
1900 - Dutch Social-Democratic Worker's party & Socialistenbond merge
1901 - 1st exhibition by Pablo Picasso, 19, opens in Paris
1901 - Jewish National Fund starts
1902 - King Edward VII develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1903 - Russia prohibits meetings dealing with Zionist
1908 - Yanks replace Clark Griffith with Kid Elberfeld as manager who is destined to have worse won-lost pct of any Yankee mgr 27-71 (.276)
1909 - 15th US Golf Open: George Sargent shoots a 290 at Englewood GC NJ
1910 - 50th British Golf Open: James Braid shoots a 299 at St Andrews Scot
1911 - 17th US Golf Open: John McDermott shoots a 307 at Chicago GC in Ill
1913 - 53rd British Golf Open: J H Taylor shoots a 304 at Hoylake Hoylake
1914 - King Peter I of Serbia names son Alexander the Prince-regent
1916 - Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.
1917 - Russian Black Sea fleet mutiny at Sebastopol
1920 - Chuvash Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR
1922 - AFPA changes name to NFL, Chicago Staleys become Chicago Bears
1923 - Pope Pius XI speaks against allies occupying Ruhrgebied
1924 - 59th British Golf Open: Walter Hagen shoots a 301 at Hoylake Hoylake
1928 - 32nd US Golf Open: Johnny Farrell shoots a 294 at Olympia Fields Ill
1928 - With declining business, the Great Gorge and International Railway begins using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.
1930 - 1st radar detection of planes, Anacostia DC
1930 - Ground is broken for construction of Cleveland Stadium
1931 - USSR & Afghanistan sign neutrality treaty
1932 - Coup ends absolute monarchy in Thailand
1936 - Joe DiMaggio becomes 5th to hit 2 HRs in 1 inn, Yanks beat Browns 18-4
1936 - Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro Affairs in Natl Youth Adm
1938 - 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
1939 - Pan Am's 1st US to England flight
1940 - France signs an armistice with Italy during WW II
1941 - Entire Jewish male population of Gorzhdy Lithuania, exterminated
1941 - Germans advanced into Russia & took Vilna, Brest-Litovsk & Kaunas
1942 - Admiral Ernest King orders Tulagi (Solomon Island) reconquered
1942 - Africa Corps occupy Egypt
1943 - Allies begin 10-day bombing on Hamburg
1945 - Schermerhorn govt forms
1945 - The Moscow Victory Parade takes place.
1946 - 11.72" (29.77 cm) of rainfall at Mellen Wisc (state 24-hr record)

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 239

1244 - Hendrik I, the Child, 1st count of Hessen (1256-1308)
1322 - Johanna, duchess of Brabant/Limburg (Joyful Entry)
1343 - Jeanne de Valois, Queen of Navarre (d. 1373)
1386 - Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (d. 1456)
1485 - Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (d. 1558)
1499 - Johannes Brenz, German theologist (Dutch Brentians)
1519 - Theodore Beza, French theologian (d. 1605)
1533 - Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester/English commander-in-chief in Neth
1535 - Joan of Spain, queen consort of Portugal (d. 1573)
1542 - Juan de la Cruz, [de Yepes], Spanish Carmelet/poet/saint
1542 - St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet (d. 1591)
1546 - Robert Parsons, English jesuit (A Letter Disclosure)
1561 - Rombout Hogerbeets, lawyer/pension minister of Leiden
1572 - Jan Campanus, composer
1590 - Samuel Ampzing, poet (Taelbericht der Neth Spellinge)
1619 - Rijcklof Volckertsz van Goens, governor-general (Neth East Indies)
1663 - Jean Baptiste Massillon, French churchman (d. 1742)
1669 - Francois van Aerssen, Dutch vice-admiral (Suriname/Algeria)
1687 - Johann Albrecht Bengel, German scholar (d. 1757)
1694 - Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss publicist (d. 1748)
1704 - Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French writer (d. 1771)
1746 - Jean Baptiste Rochefort, composer
1747 - Johann Melchior Dreyer, composer
1762 - Johann Paul Wessely, composer
1771 - E I Du Pont, France, chemist/scientist (Du Pont)
1774 - François Nicolas Benoît, Baron Haxo, French general (d. 1838)
1777 - John Ross, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1856)
1795 - Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist (d. 1878)
1797 - John Hughes, archbishop, founded Fordham University in the Bronx
1803 - George James Webb, composer
1804 - Stephan L Endlicher, Austrian priest/botanist
1804 - Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
1808 - Anna Caroline Oury, composer
1811 - John Archibald Campbell, Asst Secy War (Confederacy), died in 1889
1813 - Henry Ward Beecher, Litchfield Ct, clergyman/orator (Independent)
1820 - Henry Rootes Jackson, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1822 - Birkett Davenport Fry, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1891
1825 - Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1844)
1826 - George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (d. 1898)
1832 - Edward Harland, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1915
1838 - Gustav von Schmoller, German economist (Lectern Socialism)
1839 - Gustavus Franklin Swift, founded Swift & Co
1840 - Louis Brassin, composer
1842 - Ambrose Bierce, US, satirist (Devil's Dictionary)
1847 - Gervais Bernard Gaston Salvayre, composer
1848 - Brooks Adams, US philosopher (Theory of Social Revolutions)
1850 - Horatio Herbert Kitchener, England, original Order of Merit member
1852 - Victor Adler, Austrian Foreign minister (1918)
1860 - Mercedes of Orleans, queen of Spain (d. 1878)
1873 - Thomas Carl Whitmer, composer
1877 - Aleksei M Remizov, Russian writer (Iveren)
1879 - Agrippina J Vaganova, Russian ballet dancer
1882 - Carl Diem, German Olympic official (d. 1962)
1882 - Athanase David, Canadian politician and businessman (d. 1953)
1886 - George Shiels, Northern Irish dramatist (d. 1949)
1888 - Gerrit T Rietveld, Dutch architect (Juliana Hall, Sonsbeek Pavillion)
1891 - Irving Pichel, Pitts PA, actor/director (Mme Butterfly, Oliver Twist)
1893 - Roy O. Disney, a founder of the Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)
1895 - Jack Dempsey, "Manassa Mauler", heavyweight boxing champion (1919-26)
1897 - Daniel K. Ludwig, American shipping magnate (d. 1992)
1899 - Bruce Marshall, writer
1899 - Chief Dan George, actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man. Smith!)
1900 - Memphis Minnie, rocker
1900 - Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician (d. 1945)
1901 - Harry Partch, Oakland Calif, composer (Oedipus)
1903 - Ernest Leslie Bouts, motor-racing driver
1903 - Phil Harris, Linton In, actor (Anything Goes, Robin Hood)
1904 - Kurt Kusenberg, German writer (Wein Auf Lebenszeit)
1906 - Pierre Fournier, Paris France, violon cellist (Paris Conservatoire)
1906 - Willard Maas, American educator and experimental filmmaker (d. 1971)
1907 - Jose de Lima Siquiera, composer
1907 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (d. 1989)
1908 - Hugo Distler, composer
1908 - Guru Gopinath, Indian classical dancer (d 1987)
1908 - Alfons Rebane, Estonian military officer (d. 1976)
1909 - Milton Katims, NYC, conductor/violist (WOR-NYC)
1909 - William G Penney, British physicist (1st British Atom Bomb)
1910 - Denis Dowling, baritone
1911 - Juan Manuel Fangio, racing driver
1911 - Ernesto Sábato, Argentinian writer
1912 - Brian Johnston, cricketer (BBC radio commentator & cake connoisseur)
1912 - Norman Cousins, editor (Saturday Review)
1912 - Selwyn Powell, art editor
1913 - John Kubris, Czech resistance fighter
1913 - Max van Praag, Dutch singer
1914 - Pearl Witherington CBE, British WW II secret agent (d. 2008)
1915 - Charles James Dunn, Japanese scholar
1915 - Fred Hoyle, cosmologist (proposed steady-state universe theory)
1916 - John Ciardi, poet/critic (translated Dante)
1919 - Al Molinaro, Kenosha Wisc, actor (Murray-Odd Couple, Al-Happy Days)
1920 - Bernhard Krol, composer
1920 - James Eric Storrar, fighter Pilot
1921 - Billy Casper, golfer
1922 - Aadje [Alida WM] Lyre, Dutch twin daughter of Prince Hendrik(?)
1922 - Rietje [Maria SC] Lyre, Dutch twin daughter of Prince Hendrik(?)
1922 - Roy Elihu Travis, NYC, composer (Passion of Dedipus)
1922 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra)
1923 - Jack Carter, Bkln NY, comedian/actor (Amazing Dobermans, Octagon)
1924 - Ranasinghe Premadasa, president of Sri Lanka (1989-93)
1924 - Kurt Furgler, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 2008)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 84 of 84

803 - Higbald of Lindisfarne
1398 - Hongwu Emperor of China (b. 1328)
1439 - Duke Frederick IV of Austria (b. 1382)
1475 - Albrecht von Eyb, German parson (Bamberg & Eichstattt), dies at 54
1519 - Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander, dies at 39
1520 - Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1489)
1572 - Adrianus van Gouda, lay brother, hanged
1572 - Cornelis van Diest, lay brother, hanged
1572 - Daniel van Arendonck, clergyman, hanged
1572 - Joannes van Naarden, priest, hanged
1572 - Ludovicus Voets, priest, hanged
1604 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (b. 1550)
1629 - Carolus Scribani, Italian/Flemish jesuit/writer, dies at 67
1637 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (b. 1580)
1643 - John Hampden, English politician, dies of injuries at about 48
1652 - Andries Bicker, merchant/Amsterdam regent, dies at 65
1673 - John of Paffenrode, ruler of Ghussigny/poet, dies in battle
1707 - Kaspar von Stieler, German linguist/poet, dies at 74
1712 - Simon van der Stel, Dutch gov of Cape Colony (1679-99), dies at 72
1724 - Johann Theile, German composer (Adam und Eva), dies at 77
1766 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (b. 1678)
1778 - Peter Burmannus Secundus, [P Burman], Dutch classicist, dies at 64
1778 - Pieter Burmann the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
1803 - Matthew Thornton, Irish/US physician/signer (Decl of Ind), dies at 88
1817 - Thomas McKean, US attorney/signer (Decl of Independence), dies at 83
1835 - Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician, commander of Greek naval forces in Greek War of Independence (b. 1769)
1882 - Joseph Joachim Raff, German opera composer (Cavatine), dies at 60
1891 - Ann Sheppard Mounsey, composer, dies at 80
1894 - M F Sadi Carnot, president of France (1887-94), murdered at about 56
1908 - Grover Cleveland, 22nd & 24th Pres (1885-89, 93-97), dies at 71
1909 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)
1913 - Frank Lynes, composer, dies at 55
1922 - Walter Rathenau, German foreign minister, killed by anti-semites at 54
1933 - Sissieretta Joyner Jones, "Black Patti", US singer, dies at about 64
1935 - Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer (airplane crash) (b. 1890)
1936 - Nandor Zsolt, composer, dies at 49
1938 - "Digger" Robertson, cricketer (Test for Australia 1885), dies
1944 - Rio Gebhardt, composer, dies at 36
1946 - Louise Whitfield Carnegie, American philanthropist (b. 1857)
1947 - Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (b. 1864)
1952 - Lodewijk Mortelmans, composer, dies at 84
1959 - Lou Bandy, Dutch revue-artist (Life Ain't Bad), commits suicide at 69
1962 - Lucile Watson, actress (Great Lie, Model Wife, Florian), dies at 83
1969 - Maria Belgado, entertainer, dies
1969 - Ted Hecht, actor (Time to Kill, Song of India, Gangster), dies
1969 - Willey Ley, US science writer, dies at 62
1971 - Jack Good, actor (Father Goose), dies
1971 - John Dunning, cricketer (4 Tests for NZ 1933-37), dies
1971 - Kenneth Washington, actor (Sgt Baker-Hogan's Heroes), dies at 53
1973 - Mary Carr, actress (Forbidden Trail, 2nd Wife), dies at 99
1977 - André-Gilles Fortin, Canadian politician (b. 1943)
1978 - Robert Charroux, French writer (b. 1909)
1984 - William Keighley, dir (Man who came to Dinner), dies of a stroke at 94
1984 - Clarence Campbell, Canadian NHL president (b. 1905)
1987 - Hophnie Hobah Hines Johnson, cricketer (3 Tests for WI), dies
1987 - Jackie Gleason, comedian (Honeymooners), dies of colon cancer at 71
1991 - Martin Rosenblatt, actor (Splitz, Annie Hall, NY Stories), dies at 74
1991 - Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter, dies at 91
1991 - Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian-born American novelist (b. 1917)
1992 - Juris Podnieks, cameraman/director (Commandant), drowns
1992 - Tom Alexander, model/actor (Kurt-Forbidden Dance), dies of AIDs
1992 - Tony LeMans, singer/songwriter, dies in a car crash at 29
1994 - Leonarda da Vinci MacLaren, founder of the LSE, dies at 83
1995 - Inshan Ali, cricketer (WI chinaman bowler 1971-77), dies
1995 - John Reginald "Nat" Allen, planning enforcement officer, dies at 66
1995 - John Richard Brinsley Norton, landowner, dies at 71
1996 - Quinton Hazell, businessman, dies at 76
1997 - Brian Keith, actor (Family Affair), commits suicide at 75
1997 - Don Hutson, American athlete (b. 1913)
2000 - Vera Atkins, Romanian-born British intelligence officer (b. 1908)
2000 - David Tomlinson, English actor (b. 1917)
2002 - Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
2003 - Vladimir Garin, Russian actor (b. 1987)
2004 - Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (b. 1957)
2005 - Paul Winchell, American voice actor and ventriloquist (b. 1922)
2005 - Hakham Yedidia Shofet, Former chief rabbi of Iran (b. 1908)
2006 - Patsy Ramsey, mother of JonBenét Ramsey (b. 1956)
2007 - Byron Baer, American politician (b. 1929)
2007 - Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1967)
2007 - Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1938)
2007 - Natasja Saad, Danish reggae and dancehall artist (b. 1974)
2008 - Gerhard Ringel, Austrian mathematician (b. 1919)
2009 - Ed Thomas, well-known high school football coach from Iowa (b. 1951)
2009 - Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada (b. 1927)