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

Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 166

637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge.
701 - John VI of Greece begins his reign as Catholic Pope
942 - Alberic nominates Pope Marinus II (Martinus III)
1077 - German king Henry IV gives away bisdom Utrecht county Staveren
1137 - Battle of Rignano between Ranulf of Apulia and Roger II of Sicily.
1270 - 8th & last crusade is launched
1270 - The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily (brother to King Louis IX of France, who had died months earlier) and the sultan of Tunis.
1340 - Battle of Rio Salado.
1389 - French king Charles VI visits pope Clemens VII
1468 - Charles the Stout occupies & plunders Luik
1470 - Henry VI of England returns to the English throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle.
1485 - King Henry VII Tudor crowned "Yeomen of the Guard"
1485 - Henry VII of England crowned.
1489 - Peace of Tours, between emperor Maximilian I & Flemings
1502 - Vasco da Gama returns to Calicut for the second time.
1503 - Queen Isabella of Spain bans violence against indians
1534 - English Parliament passes Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the English church - a role formerly held by the Pope
1611 - Gustaaf II Adolf (17) becomes king of Sweden
1629 - King Charles I gives Bahamas to Sir Robert Heath
1697 - Germany signs French/English/Spanish/Neth/Brandenburgs peace treaty ending 9 year War
1739 - England declares war on Spain: War of Jenkin's Ear [NS=Oct 19]
1768 - 1st Methodist church in US initiated (Wesley Chapel, NYC)
1772 - Capt Cook arrives with ship Resolution in Capetown
1775 - 1st navy in US forms
1851 - Alfred de Mussets "Bettine," premieres in Paris
1862 - Dr Richard Gatling patents machine gun
1864 - Helena, Montana's capital, founded
1866 - Jesse James gang robs bank in Lexington Missouri ($2000)
1868 - John Menard of Louisiana is 1st black elected to Congress
1871 - Phila Athletics beat Chicago for 1st Natl Assn baseball pennant
1873 - P T Barnum's circus, "Greatest Show on Earth," debuts (NYC)
1883 - Austria-Hungary/Germany/Romania signs military treaty
1886 - Great-Britain/Germany divide boundaries in East-Africa
1888 - In London, Jack the Ripper murders his last victim
1888 - John J Loud patents ballpoint pen
1888 - Ndebele-king Lobengula grants Cecil Rhodes, Mashonaland £100 per month
1893 - Senate approves repealing Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
1894 - Daniel Cooper patents time clock
1894 - Domenico Melegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.
1896 - Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah becomes 1st female senator
1899 - Battle at Ladysmith Natal: Boers beat lt-general Whites army
1899 - British Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill reaches Capetown
1900 - 1st-ever US auto show opens in Madison Square Garden in NYC
1901 - Battle at Bakenlaagte: lt-col Bensons unit vs Boers
1905 - "October Manifesto" Russian Tsar Nicholas II grants civil liberties
1905 - GB Shaw's "Mrs Warren's Profession," premieres in NYC
1905 - Tsar of Russia accepts 1st Duma (Parliament)
1911 - Clark Griffith is named manager of Wash Senators
1914 - Allied offensive at Ypres (Belgium) begins
1917 - British govt gives final approval to Balfour Declaration
1918 - Slovakia asks for creation of Czechoslovakian state
1919 - Baseball league presidents call for abolishment of spitball
1920 - The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
1922 - Anxious to compete with the Yankees, the NY Giants pay $65,000 & 3 players for Jack Bentley (hits .349 & is 13-1 as pitcher in 1922)
1922 - Mussolini forms govt in Italy
1925 - KUT-AM in Austin TX begins radio transmissions
1929 - The Stuttgart Cable Car is constructed in Stuttgart, Germany.
1930 - Turkey & Greece sign a treaty of friendship
1931 - W2XB TV channel 1 in NYC, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1938 - Orson Welles panics a nation with broadcast of "War of the Worlds"
1939 - USSR & Germany agree on partitioning Poland, Hitler deports Jews
1939 - German U boat fails on attack of English battleship Nelson with Winston Churchill, Dudley Pound & Charles Forbes aboard
1940 - Cole Porters musical "Panama hattie," premieres in NYC
1941 - USS Reuben James torpedoed by Germans, even though US is not in war
1942 - 8th day of battle at El Alamein: new Australian assault
1942 - US aircraft carrier Enterprise reaches Noumea
1943 - Italian director Federico Fellini marries actress Giulietta Masina
1943 - Molotov-Eden-Cordell Hull accord over operations at UN
1943 - Soviet forces under Tolbuchin stick Sivash-bay about
1944 - Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring," premieres in Wash DC
1944 - Anne Frank (of Diary fame) is deported from Auschwitz to Belsen
1944 - Last transport for Auschwitz arrives in Birkenau
1944 - Scottish Highlanders liberate Waalwijk
1944 - Sweden announces intention to stay neutral & refuse sanctuary in WW II
1944 - Tholen Island freed
1945 - Branch Rickey signs Jackie Robinson to a Montreal Royals
1945 - US government announces end of shoe rationing
1947 - 23 countries sign GATT agreement in Geneva
1947 - Darius Milhauds 3rd Symphony "Hymnus Ambrosianus," premieres in Paris
1948 - 20 die & 6,000 made ill by smog in Donora Pennsylvania
1948 - Operation Hiram: Israelis take control of Galilee
1949 - "Lost in the Stars" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 281 perfs
1949 - Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson's musical premieres in NYC
1950 - David Diamond's 3rd Symphony, premieres
1950 - Pope Pius XII witnesses "The Miracle of the Sun" while at the Vatican.
1951 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1952 - Clarence Birdseye sells 1st frozen peas
1953 - Dr Albert Schweitzer & Gen George C Marshall win Nobel Peace Prize
1954 - Defense Department announces elimination of all segregated regiments
1954 - Linus Pauling won the Nobel prize in chemistry
1954 - US Armed Forces end segregation of races
1955 - Imtiaz Ahmed scores 209 v NZ, the record for a no 8 batsman
1956 - Israel captures Egyptian militay post at El-Thamad
1956 - Dodgers sell Ebbets Field to a real estate group They agree to stay until 1959, with an option to stay until 1961
1957 - Dmitri Sjostakovitch's 11th Symphony premieres in Moscow
1957 - Soviet Union launches, Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika
1957 - WLWI (now WTHR) TV channel 13 in Indianapolis, IN (ABC) 1st broadcast
1957 - WYTV TV channel 33 in Youngstown, OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
1960 - Guatemala's "La Hora" reports plan for invasion on Cuba
1960 - Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 245

1218 - Emperor Chukyo of Japan (d. 1234)
1391 - Eduard, [Dom Duarte], King of Portugal (1433-38)/author
1576 - Enrico C Davila, Padua Italy, writer (Storia delguerre civili Francia)
1620 - Michael de Ronghe, composer
1624 - Paul Pellisson, French writer (d. 1693)
1632 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, playwright (School for Scandal) (or 1751)
1668 - Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, queen in Prussia (d. 1705)
1683 - George II [August], King of Great-Britain (1727-60)
1712 - Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, German painter
1735 - Edward Miller, composer
1735 - John Adams, Braintree (Quincy) Mass, 2nd president USA (1797-1801)
1741 - Angelica Kauffmann, Swiss painter
1751 - Richard Sheridan, Irish playwright (d. 1816)
1762 - André Chénier, French writer (d. 1794)
1786 - Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, French Canadian writer (d. 1871)
1787 - Karl Guhr, composer
1790 - Karol Joseph Lipinski, composer
1790 - Rinse Posthumus, Frisian writer
1799 - Ignace Bourget, bishop of Montreal (d. 1885)
1807 - James Samuel Wadsworth, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1817 - Hermann Kopp, German chemist (Jahresbericht of Chemistry)
1821 - Cenobio Paniagua y Vasques, composer
1821 - Fjodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski, Russian novelist (Idiot) [NS=11/11]
1829 - Roscoe Conkling, MC (Union), died in 1888
1830 - John Stevens Bowen, Major General (Confederate Army) died in 1863
1839 - Alfred Sisley, French impressionist painter
1840 - Carlotta Patti, Italian soprano
1840 - William G Sumner, US sociologist/political analyst
1843 - A G Henri Regnault, French water colors painter
1844 - Harvey W. Wiley, American chemist (d. 1930)
1845 - Gustav Weber, composer
1848 - Zinovi P Rozhestvensky, Russian vice-admiral
1849 - Johan Willem, son of Dutch princess Marianne & coachman
1857 - John H Aberson, 1st chancellor (Dutch Agricultural University)
1861 - Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d. 1929)
1864 - Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, composer
1869 - Lawrence Grant, Bournemouth England, actor (Bulldog Drummond)
1871 - Buck Freeman, American baseball player (d. 1949)
1873 - Francisco Madero, Mexico, revolutionary, president (1911-13)
1879 - Eily Malyon, London, actress (Jane Eyre, I Married a Witch, Devotion)
1880 - Abram F Joffe, Russian physicist (crystal)
1881 - Lena Christ, writer
1881 - Elizabeth Madox Roberts, American poet and author (d. 1941)
1882 - William "Bull" F Halsey, US vice-admiral (WW II Pacific)
1884 - Rudolf Forster, Grobming Austria, actor (Threepenny Opera)
1885 - Ezra Loomis Pound, Hailey Idaho, poet (Cantos)
1886 - Zoe Akins, American playwright (d. 1958)
1887 - Eduardo Ciannelli, Italy, actor (Waldo-Johnny Staccato)
1887 - Georg Heym, writer
1888 - Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek Olympic champion (d. 1913)
1893 - Charles Atlas, [Angelo Siciliano], US, bodybuilder
1893 - Jan M Romein, Dutch historian (Low Countries at Sea)
1893 - Willi Apel, German/US musicologist (Harvard dictionary of music)
1893 - Roland Freisler, German Nazi politician (d. 1945)
1894 - Peter Warlock, composer
1894 - Jean Rostand, French biologist (d. 1977)
1895 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)
1895 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
1896 - Anatoly Grigor'yevich Novikov, composer
1896 - Ruth Gordon, Mass, actress (Rosemary's Baby, Harold & Maude)
1896 - Kostas Karyotakis, Greek poet (d. 1928)
1897 - Rex Cherryman, American actor (d. 1928)
1898 - Bill Terry, baseball player (d. 1989)
1899 - Ernst H Ridder van Rappard, Dutch SS officer/founder (NSNAP)
1900 - Augustin Lara, composer
1900 - Ragnar Granit Finnish neuroscientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1991)
1902 - Armin Kaufmann, composer
1903 - Konrad Friedrich Noetel, composer
1904 - Alfred Gradstein, composer
1904 - Paul D Stoop, US vice-admiral (WW II-Coral Sea)
1905 - Christian Darnton, composer
1906 - Alexander Gode, German-American linguist (d. 1970)
1906 - Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver and one-time F1 world champion (d. 1966)
1907 - Albert Rice Leventhal, publisher (Little Golden Books)
1907 - Renzo Cesana, Rome Italy, TV host (First Date, Continental)
1907 - Sol Tax, American anthropologist (d. 1995)
1908 - Franco Margola, composer
1908 - Stuart Hamblen, Texas, singer/composer (This Old House)
1909 - Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (d. 1966)
1910 - Miguel Hernadez Gilabert, Spain, poet (Viento del Pueblo)
1911 - Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
1912 - Preston Lockwood, actor (House of Windsor, Black Candle)
1914 - Marion Ladewig, Mich, bowler (9 time woman bowler of year 1950-63)
1914 - Marius Hendrikus Flothuis, Dutch composer/author (Mozart biography)
1914 - Patsy Montana Ruby Blevins, singer
1914 - Richard E Holz, American composer
1915 - Pierre Wissmer, Swiss composer (Capitaine Bruno)
1915 - Fred Friendly, American journalist (d. 1998)
1916 - Leon Day, American baseball player (d. 1995)
1917 - Ruth Hussey, Providence RI, actress (Another Thin Man, Phila Story)
1917 - Bobby Bragan, American baseball player
1917 - Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (d. 1994)
1918 - Robert Feller, MLB pitcher (Red Sox, led AL in strikeouts 7 times)
1919 - Jane Randolph, singer, backup for Tony Orlando (Dawn)
1922 - Jane White, American actress and singer
1924 - Hannelore Weygrand, German FR, equestrian dressage (Oly-silver-1956)
1924 - Serge Golovine, French ballet choreographer (Death of Narcissus)
1925 - Gus Savage, (Rep-D-IL, 1981- )
1925 - Teo Macero, composer
1926 - Jacques Swaters, Belgian racing driver

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 100 of 101

1459 - Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini, chancellor of Florence, dies
1522 - Jean Mouton, French composer
1553 - Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer (b. 1489)
1583 - Pirro Ligorio, Italian architect/painter/archaeologist, dies at 83
1602 - Jean-Jacques Boissard, French poet (b. 1528)
1611 - Karl IX, King of Sweden (1604-11), dies
1626 - Willebord van Roijen, dutch mathematician, dies at 35
1626 - Willebrord Snellius, astronomer/mathematician, dies at about 46
1632 - Henri de Montmorency, French duke/plotter, beheaded
1654 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (b. 1633)
1661 - Alexander Adriaenssen, Flemish painter, dies at 74
1667 - Johann Jakob Wolleb, composer, dies at 54
1676 - Ahmed Koprulu, Turkish great vizer (siege of Candia, Kreta), dies
1680 - Antoinette Bourignon, Flemish mystic (b. 1616)
1685 - Michel le Tellier, French statesman (b. 1603)
1690 - Hieronymus van Beverningk, Duitch general, dies at 76
1757 - Osman III, sultan of Turkey (1754-57), dies
1785 - Gustaf P Creutz, Swedish diplomat/poet (Daphne), dies at 54
1787 - Ferdinando Galiani, Italian economist/philosopher/diplomat, dies at 58
1809 - William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
1816 - Frederick I of Württemberg (b. 1754)
1833 - Pieter G Witsen Geysbeek, historian/literary, dies at 58
1842 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and author (b. 1784)
1853 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (Potifar, Giacobbe), dies at 66
1862 - Ormsby Mcknight Mitchel, US astronomer/Union-general-major, dies at 53
1883 - Johann Vesque von Puttlingen, composer, dies at 80
1885 - Gustav Adolf Merkel, composer, dies at 57
1893 - John Abbott, PM of Canada (C) (1891-92), dies at 72
1894 - Honoré Mercier, politician, Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)
1896 - Charles Tupper, PM of Canada (C) (1896), dies
1898 - Yakov Petrovich Polonsky Russian poet (Stichotvorenija), dies at 78
1899 - William Henry Webb, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1816)
1901 - ... Opperman, South African Boer general (Spy), killed in battle
1901 - U Benson, British lt-col (Magers' fountain), killed in battle
1910 - J Henri Dunant, Swiss writer/founder (Red Cross, YMCA), dies
1912 - Jan Karol Gali, composer, dies at 56
1912 - Preston Lockwood, British(?) actor/writer, dies
1912 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
1914 - Ernst Stadler, writer, dies at 31
1915 - Gervys Rignold Hazlitt, cricketer (9 Tests for Aust 1907-12), dies
1915 - Charles Tupper, sixth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
1916 - Silas Gamaliel Pratt, composer, dies at 70
1923 - Andrew Bonar Law, English PM (C), dies at 64
1928 - Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, composer, dies at 55
1932 - Paul S Methuen, English baron/fieldmarshal/gov of Natal, dies at 87
1936 - Teddy Wynyard, cricketer (three Tests for England 1896-1906), dies
1944 - Paul Emile Ladmirault, composer, dies at 66
1957 - Fred Beebe, baseball player (b. 1880)
1958 - Rose Macaulay, writer, dies at 77
1959 - Blonde Dolly, [Sybille A J Niemans], society prostitute, dies at 33
1960 - Alfred Hill, composer, dies at 89
1961 - Luigi Einaudi, economist/1st president Italy, dies
1966 - Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (b. 1906)
1967 - Charles Trowbridge, actor (Mummy's Hand), dies at 85
1968 - Conrad Richter, US writer (Light in the Forest), dies at 78
1968 - Pert Kelton, actress (Cavalcade of Stars), dies at 61
1969 - Pops Foster, American musician (b. 1892)
1971 - Osvald Chlubna, composer, dies at 78
1972 - Alan Roth, orch leader (Milton Berle Show), dies at 68
1973 - Ernst-Lothar von Knorr, composer, dies at 77
1975 - Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
1977 - Ronnie Van Zant, rocker (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies in a plane crash at 29
1977 - Steve Gaines, rock guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies in air crash
1979 - Sir Barnes Wallis, British scientist, engineer and inventor (b. 1887)
1979 - Donna Rachele Mussolini, Italian, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)
1981 - Georges Brassens, French screenwriter, dies
1984 - June Duprez, actress (Calcutta, Tiger Fang), dies at 66
1984 - Mario Gallo, actor (Delvecchio), dies at 61
1985 - Kirby Grant, actor/singer (Sky King), dies in an auto accident at 74
1986 - Andrzej Markowski, composer, dies at 62
1988 - John Houseman, actor (Paper Chase), dies at 86
1988 - Sugar Geise, actress (Rhythm Parade), dies after brief illness at 71
1988 - T. Hee, American animator (b. 1911)
1990 - Craig Russell, female impersonator, dies of an AIDS-stroke at 42
1990 - Henry Lauter, actor (Tarzan's Fight), dies
1991 - Johan Mekkink, painter, dies
1991 - Ken Hardin, producer, dies at 62
1991 - William Shea, (Shea Stadium namesake), dies at 84
1993 - Hernan Heleno Castro, El Salvadorian guerilla leader, murdered
1993 - Paul Grégoire, Archbishop of Montreal (b. 1911)
1994 - Martyn Wiley, writer/broadcaster, dies at 40
1994 - Nyanaponika, [Siegmund Feniger), German scholar/author, dies at 93
1995 - Brian Easdale, composer, dies at 86
1995 - Terry Southern, writer, dies at 71
1996 - Alexander d'Arbeloff, entrepreneur, dies at 101
1996 - Leon Lewis, US radio talk show host (WMCA, 1970-80), dies at 81
1996 - Rohan Butler, historian, dies at 79
1997 - Sam Fuller, director/writer (Big Red One), dies at 86
2000 - Steve Allen, American comedian, author, and composer (b. 1921)
2002 - Jam Master Jay, American rapper and musician (Run DMC) (b. 1965)
2002 - Juan Antonio Bardem, Spanish director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
2004 - Peggy Ryan, American actress (b. 1924)
2005 - Al Lopez, American baseball player and manager (b. 1908)
2005 - Shamsher Singh Sheri, Indian communist leader (b. 1942)
2006 - Junji Kinoshita, Japanese playwright (b. 1914)
2006 - Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist (b. 1926)
2007 - Robert Goulet, American entertainer (b. 1933)
2007 - Linda Stein, Ramones manager and real estate broker (b. 1945)
2007 - Washoe, chimpanzee trained in American Sign Language (b. 1965)
2007 - John Woodruff, American athlete (b. 1915)