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Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 205

1267 - Vienna's church orders all Jews to wear a distinctive garb
1278 - Jews of England imprisoned on charges of coining
1291 - Scottish nobles recognize authority of English king Edward I
1427 - Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland
1497 - Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci leaves for 1st voyage to New World
1503 - Columbus discovers Cayman Islands
1525 - Church reformer John Pistorius caught in the Hague
1534 - French navigator Jacques Cartier reaches Newfoundland
1559 - Scottish Protestants under John Knox uprise against queen-mother Mary
1570 - Czar Ivan IV becomes Protestant
1624 - Jacob Willekens & Piet Heyn conquer Salvador, Civil rights activist
1652 - John Johnson, a free black, is granted 550 acres in Northampton, Va
1655 - Jamaica captured by English
1676 - Bacon's Rebellion, frontiersmen vs Virginia govt begins
1752 - Benjamin Franklins 1st tests the lightning rod
1768 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
1774 - Louis XVI ascends to throne of France
1774 - Louis XVI becomes King of France.
1775 - 2nd Cont Congress convenes in Pa issues paper currency for 1st time
1775 - 2nd Continental Congress names George Washington, supreme commander
1775 - Green Mountain Boys capture Ft Ticonderoga NY-American Revolution
1787 - Parliament impeaches Warren Hastings
1796 - French govt arrest 10 utopists
1796 - Napoleon defeats Austria in Battle of Lodi Bridge
1796 - Riot after disagreement of patriotic demand in Amsterdam
1797 - 1st Navy ship, the "United States," is launched
1801 - First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
1816 - English steamship "Defiance" arrives at Rotterdam harbor
1823 - 1st steamboat to navigate the Mississippi River arrives at Ft Snelling
1824 - The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
1849 - Pack destroys Astor Place opera house in NYC (22 killed)
1857 - Indian Mutiny begins with revolt of Sepoys of Meerut
1857 - Sepoy-revolt in Meerutkazerne, Delhi
1861 - Union troops march on state militia in St Louis, MI
1862 - Battle of Plum Run Bend, TN (Plum Point Bend)
1864 - Battles at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia
1864 - Skirmish at Ny River Virginia
1865 - Jefferson Davis captured at Irwinsville Georgia
1865 - Surrender of Sam Jones
1869 - Golden Spike driven, completes Promontory Pt Ut-Transcontinental RR
1870 - Jem Mace & defends his heavyweight crown against Irish champ Joe Coburn, it lasts 1 hr & 17 minutes, & neither is struck by a punch
1871 - German-French peace treaty signed: France cedes Elzas
1871 - Peace of Frankfurt-am-Main concluded between France & Germany
1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes 1st woman nominated for US president
1876 - Centennial Fair opens in Philadelphia
1879 - Meteor falls near Estherville, Iowa
1880 - General Wolseley opens new legislative council in Pretoria
1881 - Lighthouse on Ameland begins operation
1889 - 17th Preakness: W Anderson aboard Buddhist wins in 2:17.5
1893 - 19th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Kunze aboard Lookout wins in 2:39.25
1893 - Imperial Institute in London opens
1905 - 31st Kentucky Derby: Jack Martin aboard Agile wins in 2:100.75
1906 - Russia's Duma (Parliament) meets for 1st time
1907 - Paul Dukas' opera "Ariane et Barbe Bleue," premieres in Paris
1908 - 1st Mother's Day observed (Phila)
1909 - Winchester's Fred Toney no-hits Lexington for 17 inning
1910 - 1st aircraft air display held (Hendon, England)
1910 - 36th Kentucky Derby: Fred Herbert aboard Donau wins in 2:06.4
1910 - Comet Halley's closest approach to Earth in 1910 pass
1913 - 39th Kentucky Derby: Roscoe Goose aboard Donerail wins in 2:04.8
1913 - Yanks commit 8 errors & still beat Tigers 10-9 in 10 innings
1915 - Zeppelin drops hundred of bombs on Southend-on-Sea
1916 - Disastrous fire in Ellendale, ND
1916 - Historic Shipport Museum opens in Amsterdam
1917 - Atlantic ships get destroyer escorts to stop German attacks
1918 - HMS Vindictive sunk to block entrance of Ostend Harbor
1919 - 45th Kentucky Derby: Johnny Loftus aboard Sir Barton wins in 2:09.8
1919 - Race riot in Charleston SC, 2 blacks killed
1921 - Luigi Pirandello's "Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore," premieres
1922 - Dr Ivy Williams is 1st woman to be called to the English Bar
1922 - WHB-AM in Kansas City MO begins radio transmissions
1922 - The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.
1924 - J Edgar Hoover appointed head of FBI
1926 - 52nd Preakness: John Maiben aboard Display wins in 1:59.8
1928 - WGY, Schenectady begins regular TV programming
1929 - 55th Preakness: Louis Schaefer aboard Dr Freeland wins in 2:01.6
1929 - 64th British Golf Open: Walter Hagen shoots a 292 at Muirfield Gullane
1930 - 1st US planetarium opens (Adler-Chicago)
1930 - Clarrie Grimmett takes 10 for 37 v Yorkshire at Sheffield
1931 - Golf ball size hail falls in Burlington NJ
1932 - Government declares "Wilhelmus" Neth national anthem
1932 - Senate chairman Albert Lebrun becomes president of France
1933 - Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF) forms
1933 - Nazis stage public book burnings in Germany
1933 - Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
1933 - Suriname worker's union leader A de Come banish to Netherlands
1936 - Manuel Azaña elected president of Spain
1936 - Nahas Pasja becomes premier of Egypt
1937 - Busmen strike in London
1938 - Banning speech on anti-fascism demonstration in Amsterdam
1940 - British Local Defense Volunteers (Home Guard) forms
1940 - Dutch torpedo boat Johan van Galen sinks
1940 - Dutch-Indies Gov Van Starkenborch proclaims end to state of siege
1940 - French marines stationed on Aruba
1940 - French troops arrive in Zealand/Brabant Netherlands
1940 - Nazi armies attack Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg
1940 - Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British PM
1940 - World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
1941 - 67th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Whirlaway wins in 1:58.8

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 282

1265 - Emperor Fushimi of Japan (d. 1317)
1536 - Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk, English Earl Marshall
1604 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (d. 1686)
1697 - Jean Marie I'aine Leclair, composer
1705 - Gallus Zeiler, composer
1724 - Johan A Zoutman, Dutch lt-admiral (battle of Doggersbank)
1727 - Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, French minister of Finance (17.. -76)
1730 - George Ross, US judge (signed Declaration of Independence)
1741 - Johann Michael Schmidt, composer
1746 - Gaspard Monge, French mathematician (d. 1818)
1754 - Asmus Jakob Carstens, painter
1760 - Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, soldier/author/composer (Marseillaise)
1760 - J P Hebel, writer
1769 - Jean Lannes, duc de Montebello, Marshal of France
1770 - Louis Nicholas Davout, French fieldmarshal (defeated Prussians)
1775 - Robert Gray, Sea Captain (d. 1806)
1776 - George Thomas Smart, composer
1780 - Peter Lichtenthal, composer
1783 - Niccola Benvenuti, composer
1788 - Augustin-Jean Fresnel, optics pioneer/physicist
1788 - Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, German queen (d. 1819)
1795 - Jacques-Nicolas-Augustin Thierry, historian
1800 - Nikolay Alexeyevich Titov, composer
1810 - James Shields, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1879
1813 - Montgomery Blair, Franklin County Ky, lawyer (Dred Scot V Sandford)
1822 - August Ritter von Pettenkofen, painter
1823 - John Sherman, MC (Union), died in 1900
1824 - Charles Henry Van Wyck, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1895
1825 - Rudolf Viole, composer
1830 - Francois M Raoult, French physicist/chemist (law of Raoult)
1837 - Pinckney B S Pinchback, Lt gov (Louisiana)
1838 - James, 1st Viscount Bryce, historian/statesman
1838 - John Wilkes Booth, American stage actor and assassin (President Lincoln)
1840 - Hadzhi Dimitar, Bulgarian revolutionist (d. 1868)
1841 - James Gordon Bennett Jr., American publisher (d. 1918)
1843 - Kaufmann Kohler, reform rabbi/theologian
1843 - Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (d. 1920)
1847 - Wilhelm Killing, German mathematician (d. 1923)
1850 - Thomas Johnstone Lipton, Glasgow, yachtsman/tea magnate (Lipton Tea)
1855 - Anatoli Liadov, St Petersburg, Russia, composer (Enchanted Lake) [NS]
1857 - Hendrik Zwaardemaker, Dutch physiologist (olfactometer)
1858 - Frederick Zech Jr, composer
1866 - Léon Bakst, Russian artist (d. 1924)
1867 - Jim Kelly, cricket wicket-keeper (Australian 1896-1905)
1868 - Ed Barrow, American baseball manager (d. 1953)
1872 - Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (d. 1950)
1873 - Carl J Eldh, Swedish sculptor
1873 - Jan Kalf, literary/art historian (Preservation of museums)
1874 - Moses Schorr, Polish rabbi, senator, historian and orientalist (d. 1941)
1876 - Ivan Cankar, Slavs author (Hlapec Jernej-Njegova Pravica)
1877 - Roderich Mojsisovics-Mojsvar, composer
1878 - Gustav Stresemann, German chancellor (1923, Nobel 1926)
1879 - Symon Petlura, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1926)
1882 - Thurston Hall, Boston MA, actor (Roaming Lady, In Society)
1885 - Fritz v Unruh, writer
1885 - Mae Murray, [Girl with bee-stung lips], VA, actress (High Stakes)
1885 - Marie Benavente, [Maria Wissink], actress (Scapegoat)
1886 - Karl Barth, Basel Switzerland, theologian/author (Action in Waiting)
1886 - Olaf Stapleton, British religious sci-fi writer (Star Maker)
1886 - Felix Manalo, Founder and 1st Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo (d. 1963)
1887 - Jacobus C Bloem, Dutch poet (Sintels)
1888 - Max[imilian Raoul Walter] Steiner, Vienna, composer (Gone With Wind)
1889 - Mae Murray, American actress (d. 1965)
1894 - Dimitri Tiomkin, Russia, composer (Acad Award 1954-High & Mighty)
1897 - Dalton Parry Conyngham, cricketer (one Test S Africa v England 1923)
1897 - Ewart Levy
1897 - Einar Gerhardsen, Prime minister of Norway (d. 1987)
1898 - Ariel Durant, writer (Story of Civilization)
1898 - Herbert Elwell, Minneapolis Minnesota, composer (Happy Hypocrite)
1899 - Fred Astaire, Omaha Neb, tap dancer/actor (Easter Parade, Swingtime)
1899 - Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
1901 - Albert Dondeyne, Belgian philosopher/theologist
1902 - David O Selznick, Pittsburgh Pa, producer (Gone With the Wind)
1902 - Joachim Prinz, author/Rabbi of Berlin (1926-37)
1902 - Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born film director (d. 1974)
1903 - Kay Petre, early racing driver
1903 - Otto Bradfisch, Nazi leader (d. 1994)
1904 - David Brown, CEO (Aston Martin Lagonda)
1905 - Angus Paton, civil engineer
1905 - Markos Vamvakaris, Greek rebetiko musician and songwriter (d. 1972)
1907 - Harilaos Perpessas, composer
1908 - Carl Albert, (D) speaker of the House
1908 - Henry Diamond, Irish Nationalist MP
1909 - Harold Francis Collison, trade Unionist
1909 - Lord Collison, British union leader (agriculture workers)
1909 - Maybelle Carter, Nickelsville Va, country singer (Johnny Cash Show)
1910 - Jimmy Demaret, winner of 44 golf tournaments, but not the Open
1910 - Margot Turner, matron-in-chief (Army Nursing Service)
1911 - Bel Kaufman, American author
1912 - Edward Gardner, Queen's Court/MP
1912 - Erik Jorgensen, composer
1912 - Harold Myers, film journalist
1914 - Charles McGraw, NYC, actor (Michael-Falcon, Smith Family)
1914 - Lord Smith, British surgeon
1915 - Bert van Dongen, [Abraham J Cohen], singer/impressionist/actor
1915 - Denis Thatcher, husband of British PM Margaret (1979-90)
1915 - Duke of Sutherland
1915 - Monica Dickens, author/founder (US Samaritians)
1915 - Salah Abou Seif, director
1916 - Milton Babbitt, US mathematician/composer (Widow's Lament)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 100 of 126

238 - Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus, the Thracian, Roman Emperor, murdered
995 - Boudouin, bishop of Utrecht
1290 - Duke Rudolph II of Austria (b. 1271)
1424 - Go-Kameyama, Emperor of Japan
1493 - Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, Scottish politician
1521 - Sebastian Brant, Alsatian humanist (b. 1457)
1566 - Leonhard Fuchs, German botanist, dies at 65
1569 - Juan the Avila, Spanish minister/writer
1637 - Susanna van Baerle, Dutch wife of Constantine Huygens, dies at 37
1641 - Johan Banér, Swedish soldier (b. 1596)
1653 - John Bicker, ship builder/merchant/regent, dies at 61
1657 - Gustaf Horn, Swedish soldier and politician (b. 1592)
1691 - Colonel John Birch, English soldier (b. 1615)
1696 - Jean de La Bruyère, French writer (b. 1645)
1710 - Georg Dietrich Leiding, composer, dies at 46
1717 - John Hathorne, American magistrate (b. 1641)
1726 - Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (b. 1670)
1733 - Barton Booth, English actor (b. 1681)
1737 - Nakamikado Emperor of Japan (b. 1702)
1760 - Johann Christoph Graupner, composer, dies at 77
1764 - Picander, [Christian Henrici], German writer (Die Weiberprobe), dies
1770 - Charles Avison, composer, dies at 61
1774 - Louis XV, king of France (1715-74), dies at 64
1785 - Etienne Joseph Floquet, composer, dies at 36
1787 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (b. 1715)
1789 - Guillaume Gommaire Kennis, composer, dies at 72
1792 - John Stevens, American delegate to the Continental Congress
1794 - Elisabeth PMH, princess of France, beheaded at 30
1798 - George Vancouver, British explorer, (Voyage of Discovery), dies at 40
1807 - Comte de Rochambeau, French soldier (b. 1725)
1818 - Paul Revere, American patriot, dies
1820 - Matthaus Stegmayer, composer, dies at 49
1826 - Giuseppe Sigismondo, composer, dies at 86
1829 - Thomas Young, physicist/decipherer of Egyptian hierogolyphics, dies
1833 - Francois GJS Andrieux, French writer/politician, dies at 74
1849 - Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese painter, dies at 89
1859 - Johan BJFS, archduke of Austria (Firechief & Housewife), dies
1863 - Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, Conf general (Civil War), dies
1864 - James Clay Rice, lawyer/Union brig-general, dies in battle at 34
1864 - Thomas Greeley Stevenson, Union brig-general, dies at about 27
1868 - Henry Bennett, American politician (b. 1808)
1869 - Bernhard Molique, composer, dies at 66
1869 - Wilhelm Bernard Molique, composer, dies at 66
1880 - John Goss, composer/organist, dies at 79
1885 - Edward Stephen, composer, dies at 62
1885 - Ferdinand Hiller, composer, dies at 73
1889 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist (b. 1826)
1897 - William Thomas Best, composer, dies at 70
1897 - Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary leader (b. 1863)
1904 - Henry M Stanley, [John Rowlands], British explorer, dies
1909 - Johannes de Koo, journalist/playwright, dies
1910 - Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist, dies at 85
1910 - William Huggins, discoverer of stellar nature of Andromeda, dies
1915 - Albert Weisgerber, German painter/graphic artist, dies in battle
1920 - John Wesley Hyatt, inventor/plastics pioneer, dies
1923 - Vaslav Vorovsky, Russian delegate, assassinated
1924 - Adolfo Albertazzi, Italian writer (L'ave), dies at 58
1937 - William Tedmarsh, silent movie actor (b. 1876)
1938 - Percy McAlister, cricketer (8 Tests, punches Clem Hill in 1912), dies
1940 - Euphemia "Phemia" Molkenboer, Dutch author/poster artist, dies at 56
1942 - Joseph M Weber, comedian/singer (Weber & Lewis Fields), dies at 74
1943 - Andre Bertulot, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
1943 - Arnaud/Armand Fraiteur, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
1943 - Maurice-Albert Raskin, Belgian resistance fighter, hanged
1945 - Richard Glücks, German SS officer (b. 1889)
1950 - John G Fletcher, US poet (Burning Mountain), dies
1950 - Belle da Costa Greene, librarian, bibliographer, archivist (b. 1883)
1954 - George Hirst, cricketer (36,323 1st-class runs, 2739 wickets), dies
1955 - Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (b. 1881)
1955 - John Radecki, Australian stained glass artist (b. 1865)
1960 - Juri Olescha, writer, dies at 61
1960 - Yury Olesha, Russian novelist (b. 1899)
1963 - Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb, American football player (b. 1931)
1964 - Carol Haney, dancer (Pantomime Quiz), dies at 35
1964 - Ignace Lilien, composer, dies at 66
1964 - Mikhail Larionov, Russian painter (b. 1881)
1965 - Hubertus J van Mook, Dutch min of Colonization (1942-45), dies at 70
1967 - Lorenzo Bandini, Italian racing driver, (b. 1935)
1968 - Maurie Sievers, cricket medium-pacer (Austral v England 1936-37), dies
1968 - Philippa Bevans, dies at 55
1968 - Scotty Beckett, dies at 38
1971 - Mihail Jora, composer, dies at 79
1971 - Shukichi Mitsukuri, composer, dies at 75
1973 - Jack E Leonard, Chicago Ill, comedian, dies at 62
1973 - Loren Tindall, dies of heart attack at 51
1974 - Hal Mohr, Cinematographer, Husband of Evelyn Venable (b. 1894)
1976 - George Curzon, dies at 77
1976 - Elias Aslaksen, Leader of Smith's Friends (b. 1888)
1977 - Joan Crawford, actress (Mildred Pierce), dies at 69
1979 - John Cameron Andrieu Bingham Morton, satirist (Beachcomber), dies
1979 - Louis Paul Boon, Flemish writer (Eros & the Lonely Man), dies at 67
1982 - Jean C M Picart le Doux, French designer, dies
1982 - Peter Weiss, German playwright (Marat-Sade), dies at 65
1983 - John P Strijbos, writer (Called that Bird), dies at 92
1984 - Joaquin Agostinho, Portuguese cyclist, dies at 41
1984 - Robert Moore, actor (Marshall-Diana), dies at 56
1988 - Shen Congwen, Chinese writer (b. 1902)
1989 - Woody Shaw, American jazz musician (b. 1944)
1990 - Susan Oliver, actress (Disorderly Orderly), dies of cancer at 61
1990 - Walker Percy, physician/novelist (Lancelot), dies of cancer at 73