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

Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 160

754 - Pope Stefanus II arrives in Ponthion
1325 - Afonso IV succeeds Dionysius as king of Portugal
1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
1558 - Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by French
1566 - Antonio "Michele" Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V
1566 - Michaele Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V
1579 - England signs an offensive & defensive alliance with Netherland
1584 - Last day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia & Holy Roman empire
1598 - Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodore I
1601 - Robert, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth
1608 - Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia
1610 - Galileo discovers 1st 3 Jupiter satellites, Io, Europa & Ganymede
1618 - Francis Bacon becomes English lord chancellor
1622 - Germany & Transylvania sign Peace of Nikolsburg
1630 - Composer Pier Cavalli marries rich widow Maria Sosomeno
1654 - Fire after heavy storm destroys 2/3 of De Rijp Neth, 1 dies
1698 - Russian Czar Peter the Great departs Neth to England
1714 - Typewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years later)
1761 - Battle at Panipat India: Afghan army beats Mahratten
1782 - 1st US commercial bank, Bank of North America, opens in Philadelphia
1784 - 1st US seed business established by David Landreth, Philadelphia
1785 - 1st balloon flight across English Channel (Blanchard & Jeffries)
1797 - The modern Italian flag is first used.
1817 - 2nd Bank of US opens
1822 - 1st printing in Hawaii
1822 - Liberia colonized by Americans
1830 - 1st US Railroad Station opens (Baltimore)
1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off Chonos Archipelago
1842 - Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Stabat Mater" premieres in Paris
1861 - Florida troops takeover Ft Marion at St Augustine
1862 - Battle of Manassas Junction, VA
1862 - Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, WV
1868 - Arkansas constitutional convention meets in Little Rock
1868 - Mississippi constitutional convention meets in Jackson
1879 - Dutch King Willem II marries Emma von Waldeck-Pyrmont
1888 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Valley of Fear" (BG)
1890 - W B Purvis patents fountain pen
1892 - Mine explosion kills 100, Krebs, Okla-blacks trying to help rescue white survivors, driven away with guns
1893 - Hermann Sudermanns "Heimat," premieres in Berlin
1894 - Motion picture experiment of comedian Fred Ott filmed sneezing
1896 - Fanny Farmer publishes her 1st cookbook
1899 - Walter Camp publishes his 1st All-American football team in Collier's
1903 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Blanched Soldier" (BG)
1903 - Vincent d'Indy's opera "L'etranger," premieres in Brussel
1904 - Marconi Co establishes "CQD" as 1st intl radio distress signal
1907 - Clyde Fitch' "Truth," premieres in NYC
1908 - England beat Australia by one wicket at the MCG
1910 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Senators sweep Galt (Ont) in 2 games
1911 - 1st airplane bombing experiments with explosives, SF
1911 - Dutch Scouts Organization established in Amsterdam
1913 - William M Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum
1914 - 1st steamboat passes through Panama Canal
1916 - German troops conquer Fort Vaux at Verdun
1923 - Baltimore Sun warns of Ku Klux Klan
1925 - Musical "Big Boy" with Al Jolson premieres in NYC
1927 - Coml transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between NY & London
1927 - Harlem Globetrotters play 1st game (Hinckley, Illinois)
1929 - "Buck Rogers," 1st sci-fi comic strip, premieres
1929 - "Tarzan," one of the 1st adventure comic strips, 1st appears
1929 - 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & East Indies
1930 - Edwin Justus Mayer's "Children of Darkness," premieres in NYC
1931 - Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
1932 - 1st game played at Orchard Lake Curling Club, Mich
1933 - 1st edition of People & Fatherland published in Netherlands
1934 - "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts
1934 - Princess Juliana marries German prince Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld
1935 - Zoe Akins' "Old Maid," premieres in NYC
1936 - Tennis champs Helen Moody & Howard Kinsley volley 2,001 times (1h18m)
1939 - US worker's union leader Tom Mooney freed (jailed since 1916)
1942 - WW II siege of Bataan starts
1944 - Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59
1945 - Lord Haw-Haw reports total German victory at Ardennen
1946 - Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union
1947 - Aust v Eng at MCG drawn in 6 days, 1st cricket draw in Aust since 1882
1948 - US president Truman raises taxes for Marshall-plan
1949 - 1st photo of genes taken at U of S Calif by Pease & Baker
1950 - "Happy as Larry" closes at Coronet Theater NYC after 3 performances
1950 - Hank Snow's 1st appearance on "Grand Ole Opry"
1950 - Mental health wing of Mercy Hospital burns, kills 41 (Davenport Ia)
1952 - French Plevin govt falls
1953 - Pres Truman announces development of hydrogen bomb
1954 - Georgetown-IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
1955 - Marian Anderson becomes 1st black singer to perform at Met (NYC)
1955 - WCIQ TV channel 7 in Mt Cheaha, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 - Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy
1958 - USSR shrinks army to 300,000
1959 - US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban govt
1961 - 1st NFL Playoff Bowl (runner-up bowl)-Detroit beats Cleveland 17-16
1961 - Trucial States (now UAE) issue their 1st postage stamps
1962 - AFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 47-27
1962 - Assassination attempt on Indonesian president Sukarno, fails
1962 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to John Hall Wheelock
1963 - 1st class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents
1964 - Bahamas becomes self-governing
1964 - Dick Weber rolls highest bowling game in air (Boeing 707)
1965 - France announces it will convert $150 million of its currency to gold
1966 - Dance Theatre of Harlem debuts
1966 - Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA champ
1967 - "Newlywed Game" premieres on ABC TV
1968 - "GE College Bowl" quiz show premieres on NBC TV

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 245

1355 - Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III of England (d. 1397)
1528 - Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarra/mother of French King Henry IV
1539 - Sebastian de Covarrubias Horozco, Spanish lexicographer
1611 - James Harrington, England, political author (Commonwealth of Oceans)
1612 - Paul de La Pierre, composer
1634 - Adam Krieger, German composer
1647 - Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)
1652 - Pavao Vitezovic, Croatia, writer/historian
1653 - Bernhard Albinus, Germany, court-physician (Frederick of Prussia)
1685 - Gerard George Clifford, Dutch director of East India Company
1685 - Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (d. 1761)
1706 - Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (d. 1751)
1710 - Josef Antonin Sehling, composer
1718 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1790)
1768 - Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples (d. 1844)
1786 - John Catron, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1865)
1796 - Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (d. 1817)
1799 - Daniel Tyler, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1882
1800 - Millard Fillmore, Locke NY, (Whig) 13th president (1850-53)
1808 - Jacob Ammen, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1894
1816 - Stephen Miller, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1881
1821 - Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell, Brig General (Confed Army), died in 1891
1822 - Lucius C M Bakker, Frisian physician/author (Goethe)
1822 - Theodor Aufrecht, German indologist (Rigveda's Hymns)
1824 - James Morrison Hawes, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1889
1827 - Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)
1830 - (Samuel) Emerson Opdycke, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1830 - Albert Bierstadt, Germany, painter (US landscapes)
1832 - James Munro, Premier of Victoria (d. 1908)
1834 - Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and inventor (d. 1874)
1842 - Johan Lindegren, composer
1844 - Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, [St Bernadette of Lourdes], saint/visionary
1845 - Louis III, last king of Bavaria (1913-18)
1845 - Paul Deusen, German philosopher (Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft)
1853 - Nikolai Arkas, composer
1858 - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, key figure in the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language (d. 1922)
1860 - Emanuil Mandlov, composer
1868 - Abraham M "Mark" Lidzbarski, Polish/German orientalist
1870 - Lord Gordon Hewart, British judge (d. 1943)
1871 - Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician (d. 1956)
1873 - Adolph Zukor, Hungary, movie producer/director/executive (Paramount)
1875 - Thomas Hicks, English/US marathon runner: (Olympic-gold-1904)
1875 - Gustav Flatow, German gymnast (d. 1945)
1876 - William Yeates Hurlstone, composer
1877 - Johannes F Buziau, Dutch cabaret performer (1 great dog)
1879 - St Bernadette (Marie-Bernarde Soubirous), 1844(?), religious visionary
1883 - Andrew Browne, Irish/British admiral (WW II)
1890 - Henny Porten, Magdeburg Germany, silent screen star (Deception)
1890 - Maurice E McLoughlin, tennis champ (US Open-1912)
1891 - Zora Neale Hurston, American writer (d. 1960)
1892 - Rudolf Moser, composer
1894 - Jose Rozo Contreras, composer
1895 - Marie-Dominique Chenu, French Roman Catholic theologist
1895 - Clara Haskil, Romanian pianist (d. 1960)
1895 - Sir Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and co-founder of QANTAS (d. 1974)
1896 - Arnold Ridley, Bath England, actor/dramatist (The Ghost Train)
1898 - Art Baker, NYC, TV host (You Asked For It)
1898 - Geronimo Baqueiro Foster, composer
1898 - Al Bowlly, British jazz singer (d. 1941)
1899 - Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc, Paris, composer/pianist (Les Biches)
1899 - Kenneth Thomson, Pitts, actor (Broadway Melody, Little Giant)
1900 - John Brownlee, Australian tenor (d. 1969)
1903 - Alan Napier, Birmingham England, actor (Alfred-Batman)
1903 - Albrecht Haushofer, writer
1903 - Shalva Azmayparashvili, composer
1903 - Vladimir Alexandrovich Vlasov, composer
1905 - Francis Taylor, builder
1907 - Nicanor Zabaleta, San Sebastian, Spain, harpist
1908 - Red Allen, American musician (d. 1967)
1910 - Alain JG de Rothschild, France, banker/baron
1910 - Jack Lovelock, NZ/US surgeon/runner (Olympic-gold-1936)
1910 - Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet (d. 1984)
1910 - Orval Faubus, Governor of Arkansas (d. 1994)
1911 - Merv Waite, cricketer (S Australian all-rounder)
1912 - Charles Addams, cartoonist (New Yorker, Addams Family)
1912 - Günter Wand, German conductor, composer (d. 2002)
1913 - Francis De Wolff, England, actor (From Russia With Love)
1913 - Shirley Ross, Omaha NE, actress (Cafe Society, Prison Farm)
1913 - Johnny Mize, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1915 - Herman Musaph, Dutch psychiatrist/sexologist/founder (NVSH)
1916 - Gerrit Schulte, [Le Fou Pedalant], Dutch 6 day bicyclist
1916 - Paul Keres, USSR, chess grandmaster (1950)
1917 - Ulysses Sipmson Kay, composer
1918 - Alessadro Natta, Italian political leader (Communist Party)
1918 - Colin Snedden, cricketer (Test NZ v England 1947, 0-46, did not bat)
1920 - Albert Meltzer, anarchist
1920 - Aubrey Brabazon, jockey/trainer
1920 - Lionel Alexander Bethune [Alastair] Pilkington, engineer/Industrialist
1921 - John Lanigan, tenor
1922 - Jean-Pierre [Louis] Rampal, Marseilles France, flautist
1922 - Vincent Gardenia, Naples Italy, actor (All in the Family, LA Law)
1923 - Charles Russell Woolen, composer
1923 - Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary critic (d. 2003)
1924 - Roloff Beny, Alberta, painter/photographer (A Time of Gods)
1924 - Pablo Birger, Argentine racing driver (d. 1966)
1925 - Gerald Malcolm Durrell, Britain, zoologist/writer (Mockery Bird)
1928 - Rajindranath, cricketer (4 stumpings in his only Test for India)
1928 - William Peter Blatty, NYC, author/director (The Exorcist)
1929 - Douglas Kiker, NBC newsman (1970 Peabody Award)
1929 - Kenneth Henry, US, 500m speed skater (Olympic-gold-1952)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 100 of 144

312 - Lucianus of Antioch, theologist/saint, dies
1130 - Baldricus Burgoliensis, French historian/archbishop, dies at about 83
1285 - Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples/bro of King Louis IX, dies at 58
1325 - Dionysius, the justified, King of Portugal (1279-1325), dies
1400 - Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, English politician (b. 1374)
1451 - Amadeus VIII, last anti-pope Felix V (1439-49), dies at 67
1529 - Peter Vischer, the Old, German count of Sebaldus, dies
1536 - Catherine of Aragon, 1st wife of England's King Henry VIII, dies
1537 - Alessandro de' Medici, Italian monarch of Florence, assassinated
1566 - Ludovicus Blosius, [Louis de Blois "Dacrianus"], wrtier, dies
1590 - Jacob Andreae, German theologist (Formulae Concordiae), dies at 61
1591 - Jacobus de Kerle, French/Flemish composer, dies at about 59
1598 - Theodorus I, [Fedor Ivanovitch], czar of Russia (1584-98), dies at 40
1619 - Nicholas Hilliard, English painter (bc. 1547)
1625 - Ruggiero Giovannelli, Italian composer (bc. 1560)
1655 - Innocentius X, [Giambattista Pamfili], pope (1644-55), dies at 80
1655 - Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
1658 - Theophilus Eaton, American colonist (b. 1590)
1678 - Johannes Flittner, composer, dies at 59
1694 - Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, English general (bc. 1618)
1695 - Mary II Stuart, queen of England, dies at 32 [OS=Dec 28 1694]
1700 - Raffaello Fabretti, Italian antiquarian (b. 1618)
1715 - François Fénelon, French-Catholic theologian and writer (b. 1651)
1721 - Rochus Aerts, Flemish sculptor, dies [or 1739]
1722 - Antoine Coypel, French painter/poet, dies at 60
1736 - Ceslav Vanura, composer, dies at 41
1755 - Gallus Zeiler, composer, dies at 49
1758 - Allan Ramsay Sr, Scottish poet (Gentle Shepherd), dies at 71
1767 - Thomas Clap, 1st president of Yale University (b. 1703)
1770 - Carl Gustaf Tessin, Swedish politician (b. 1695)
1783 - William Tans'ur, English hymnist (b. 1700)
1786 - Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715)
1790 - Antonio Corbisiero, composer, dies at 69
1810 - Joseph Lipavsky, composer, dies at 37
1830 - Charlotte J T, infant of Portugal's ex, dies at 53
1830 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter (b. 1769)
1833 - Ramon Felix Cuellar y Altarriba, composer, dies at 55
1843 - Franz Schoberlechner, composer, dies at 45
1858 - Willem Broes, vicar/theologist (Textenrol), dies at 91
1864 - Caleb Blood Smith, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior (b. 1808)
1868 - William Batchelder Bradbury, composer, dies at 51
1870 - Karl Schwencke, composer, dies at 72
1872 - James Fisk, American entrepreneur (b. 1834)
1876 - Juste Olivier, Swiss poet (b. 1807)
1878 - François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (b. 1794)
1887 - Abraham I van Lier, Dutch actor/director (Gran Theatre), dies at 74
1890 - Augusta Maria L Katharina, wife of Germ emperor Wilhelm I, dies at 78
1890 - Hans Matthison-Hansen, composer, dies at 82
1891 - Carl Gottfried Wilhelm Taubert, composer, dies at 79
1892 - Tewfik Pasja, viceroy of Egypt, dies at 39
1893 - Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist and mathematician (b. 1835)
1907 - Anton Urspruch, composer, dies at 56
1913 - Jack Boyle, American baseball player (b. 1866)
1920 - Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
1921 - Benno Erdmann, German philosopher (Logik I), dies at 69
1922 - Antonio Scontrino, composer, dies at 71
1929 - Henry Arthur Jones, English playwright (Silver King), dies at 77
1932 - Henri Stroethoff, Dutch actor (Bright Paradise), dies at 60
1936 - Howard Francis, cricketer (2 Tests S Af v Eng 1898-99, 39 runs), dies
1936 - Guy d'Hardelot, French composer, best known for Because (b. 1858)
1942 - Henry, Count of Baillet-Latour, pres of IOC (1925-42), dies at 63
1943 - Nikola Tesla, Yugoslavian physicist (tesla motor), dies at 86
1944 - J Verleun, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1944 - Lou Hoover, U.S. First Lady (b. 1874)
1944 - Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek poet (b. 1888)
1946 - Adamo Didur, Polish tenor (b. 1874)
1948 - Raoul Auernheimer, writer, dies
1951 - Johanna C H "Nelly" Bodenheim, painter (Luilekkerland), dies at 76
1951 - René Guénon, French-Egyptian author (b. 1886)
1953 - Osa Johnson, American explorer (b. 1894)
1955 - Gerald Hartigan, cricketer (S Afr batsman in 5 Tests 1911-14), dies
1957 - Al White, choreographer (NBC Comedy Hour), dies
1958 - Petru Groza, premier/president (Romania, 1945-58), dies at 74
1960 - Luis da Costa, composer, dies at 80
1960 - Dorothea Douglass Chambers (aka Katharine Lambert Chambers), UK tennis player (b. 1878)
1961 - Clarice Baright, 1st woman admitted to American Bar Assn, dies at 74
1963 - Arthur Moore, Premier of Queensland (b. 1876)
1964 - Colin C McPhee, composer (H2O, Mechanical Princibles), dies at 62
1964 - Cyril Davies, American musician (b. 1932)
1967 - Carl Schuricht, composer, dies at 86
1967 - Sid Emery, cricket leg-spinner (NSW & Aus, 5 wkt in 1912 series), dies
1967 - David Goodis, American writer (b. 1917)
1968 - Prof James Smith, South African ichthyologist (b. 1897)
1970 - Robert [Harriot] Barrat, actor (Bad Lands, Go West), dies at 81
1971 - Dick Kollmar, actor (Broadway Spotlight, Guess What), dies at 60
1971 - Madame Spivy [LeVoe], actress (All Fall Down), dies at 64
1972 - Clarence Passailaigue, cricketer (487 for 6th wkt for Jamaica), dies
1972 - John Berryman, US poet (Imaginary Jew), dies
1972 - Eftichia Papagianopoulos, Greek lyricist
1979 - Zbigniew Turski, composer, dies at 70
1980 - Carl White, rocker, dies
1980 - Sarah Selby, actress (Tower of London), dies at 74
1981 - Jose Ardevol, composer, dies at 69
1981 - Alvar Lidell, UK radio broadcaster (b. 1908)
1981 - Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
1982 - Bert Oosterhuis, Dutch motor racer (Paris-Dakar), dies in race crash
1983 - August Cool, Belgian trade union leader, dies at 79
1984 - Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
1985 - Johnny Guarnieri, jazz pianist (Morey Amsterdam Show), dies at 67
1985 - Mary Hardy, Australian radio and television presenter (b. 1931)