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Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 207

649 - Theodore I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1027 - Robert II, the Vrome, names son Henry I, king of France
1264 - Baron's War fought in England
1264 - Battle at Lewes: Simon van Leicester beats English king Henry III
1483 - Coronation of Charles VIII of France ("Charles l'Affable").
1509 - Battle of Agnadello, French beat Venitians in Northern Italy
1576 - Dutch Council of State replaced by Council of Beroerten
1590 - Battle at Ivry: French king Henri IV beats Catholic League
1607 - 1st permanent English settlement in New World, Jamestown, Va
1608 - The Protestant Union is founded in Auhausen.
1610 - Assassination of Henri IV of France, bringing Louis XIII to the throne.
1638 - Admiral Adam Westerwolt conquerors Batticaloa, Ceylon
1643 - Louis XIV (4) becomes king of France
1664 - Turkish great Kiprulu attacks 120,000 Donau soldiers
1702 - England & Netherlands declares war on France & Spain
1702 - Swedish troops under King Charles XII occupy Warsaw
1747 - A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre.
1767 - British government disbands Americans import duty on tea
1787 - Delegates gather in Phila to draw up US constitution
1796 - 1st smallpox inoculation administered, by Edward Jenner
1800 - Friedrich von Schiller's "Macbeth," premieres in Weimar
1804 - Lewis & Clark set out from St Louis for Pacific Coast
1811 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain (Natl Day)
1832 - Felix Mendelssohn's "Hebrides," premieres
1835 - Charles Darwin reaches Coquimbo in Northern Chile
1842 - 1st edition of London Illustrated News
1845 - Utrecht-Arnhem Railway opens
1853 - Gail Borden patents her process for condensed milk
1861 - The Canellas meteorite, an 859-gram chondrite-type meteorite, strikes the earth near Barcelona, Spain.
1862 - Adolphe Nicole of Switzerland patents chronograph
1863 - Battle of Jackson, MS
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Jackson takes place.
1864 - Battle of Reseca, GA -Atlanta-
1868 - Japanese Boshin War: end of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō.
1874 - 1st admission charge at a football game, Harvard beats McGill 3-0
1874 - Harvard beats U of McGill (Montreal) in football, 3-0
1878 - Vaseline is 1st sold (registered trademark for petroleum jelly)
1879 - The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
1884 - Anti-Monopoly party forms in US
1885 - 11th Kentucky Derby: Babe Henderson aboard Joe Cotton wins in 2:37.25
1886 - 12th Kentucky Derby: Paul Duffy aboard Ben Ali wins in 2:36.50
1888 - 14th Kentucky Derby: George Covington aboard MacBeth II wins in 2:38.00
1889 - The children's charity the NSPCC is launched in London.
1890 - 16th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Riley wins in 2:45
1892 - Vitesse 1892 soccer team forms in Arnhem
1894 - Fire in Boston bleachers spreads to 170 adjoining buildings
1896 - Lowest US temperature in May recorded (-10°F-Climax, Colo)
1897 - Great-Britain signs treaty with emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt visits SF
1904 - 1st Olympics in US are held (St Louis)
1905 - 2nd official intl soccer match, Neth beats Belg 4-0
1906 - Flagpole at the White Sox ballpark breaks during pennant-raising
1908 - 1st passenger flight in an airplane
1910 - Canada authorizes issuing of silver dollar coins
1913 - French Hals museum opens in Harleem Netherlands
1913 - Wash Senator Walter Johnson ends record scorless streak at 56 innings
1914 - Chic Jim Scott no-hits Cleve, gives up 2 hits in 10th & loses 1-0
1918 - Indians' Stan Coveleski sets club record for most innings pitched (19)
1918 - Sunday baseball is made legal in Wash DC
1919 - 45th Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard Sir Barton wins in 1:53
1919 - Pope Benedictus XV publishes encyclical In hac tanta
1920 - Wash Senator Walter Johnson wins his 300th game vs Detroit
1920 - Giants inform Yankees that the lease allowing them to play in the Polo Grounds will not be renewed at end of 1920 season
1921 - Florence Allen is 1st woman judge to sentence a man to death
1921 - Mussolini's fascists obtains 29 parliament seats
1925 - Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway is published.
1927 - "Ain't She Sweet?" hits #1 on the pop singles chart by Ben Bernie
1927 - 53rd Kentucky Derby: Linus McAtee aboard Whiskery wins in 2:06
1927 - Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg.
1927 - The University of Chicago's local collegiate organization, Phi Sigma, becomes incorporated under Illinois law as Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Classical Fraternity.
1928 - John McGraw is knocked down by a taxicab & suffers a broken leg
1931 - Ådalen shootings: five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
1932 - "We Want Beer!" parade in NY
1935 - Griffith Planetarium opens in LA
1935 - LA's Griffith Planetarium opens, 3rd in US
1935 - Plebiscite in Philippines ratifies independence agreement
1935 - Northamptonshire County Cricket Club gains (over Somerset at Taunton by 48 runs) what proved to be their last victory for 99 matches, a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win was not until May 29, 1939.
1938 - 64th Preakness: Maurice Peters aboard Dauber wins in 1:59.8
1938 - English soccer team beats Nazi-Germany, 6-3
1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1940 - Admiral Furstner departs to England
1940 - Boston's Jimmie Foxx HR goes over Comiskey Park's left field roof
1940 - German breakthrough at Sedan
1940 - Lord Beaverbrook appointed British minister of aircraft production
1940 - Nazi bombs Rotterdam (600-900 dead), Netherlands surrender to Germany
1940 - World War II: The Netherlands surrenders to Germany.
1941 - 3,600 Parisian Jews arrested
1942 - US Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) forms
1943 - Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.
1944 - 91 German bombers harass Bristol
1944 - British troops occupy Kohima
1944 - Gen Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler
1945 - Kamikaze-Zero strikes US aircraft carrier Enterprise
1945 - US offensive on Okinawa, Sugar Loaf conquered
1946 - Paul Hindemith's "For Those We Love," premieres
1948 - Israel declares independence from under British administration
1948 - Israeli Radio Station Kol Yisrael's 1st broadcast
1948 - Jordan's Arab League captures Atarot, north of Jerusalem
1948 - US grants Israel de facto recognition
1948 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 265

1316 - Charles IV, King of Bohemia (1346-78)/emperor (1355-78)
1316 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1378)
1553 - Margaret of Valois, wife of Henry IV (d. 1615)
1652 - Johann Philipp Fortsch, composer
1666 - Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia (d. 1732)
1679 - Peder [Nielsen] Horrebow, Danish astronomer
1686 - Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Prussia, inventor (thermometer) [NS=5/24]
1699 - Hans Joachim von Zieten, Prussian field marshal (d. 1786)
1701 - William Emerson, English mathematician (d. 1782)
1707 - Antonio Teixeira, composer
1710 - Adolf Frederik, king of Sweden (1751-70)
1725 - Ludovico Manin, last Doge of Venice (d. 1802)
1727 - Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (Blue Boy), baptized
1737 - George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, British statesman (d. 1806)
1752 - Albrecht Thaer, German agronomist (d. 1828)
1752 - Timothy Dwight, American theologian (d. 1817)
1771 - Robert Owen, England, factory owner/socialist
1781 - Friedrich von Raumer, German historian/parliamentarian
1798 - Frantisek Palacky, Czech historian
1805 - Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann, composer
1814 - Charles Beyer, German-British locomotive engineer (d. 1876)
1816 - Gualtiero Sanelli, composer
1817 - Alexander Kaufmann, German poet (d. 1893)
1830 - George Pierce Doles, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1832 - Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (d. 1903)
1836 - James Patrick Major, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1877
1846 - Arnold Kerdijk, Dutch lib politician/founder (Social Weekly newspaper)
1846 - Pieter W A Cort van de Linden, Dutch premier (1913-18)
1864 - Eleanor Everest Freer, composer
1867 - Kurt Eisner, German premier of revolutionary Bavaria (1918-19)
1870 - Zygmunt Denis Antoni Stojowski, composer
1872 - Elia Dalla Costa, Italian cardinals (d. 1961)
1878 - James L. Wilkinson, American baseball executive (d. 1964)
1880 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal (d. 1971)
1881 - Ed Walsh, pitcher, lowest lifetime ERA (1.82)
1881 - G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)
1881 - Ed Walsh, American baseball player (d. 1959)
1883 - Jan Olieslagers, Belgian aviation pioneer (Antwerp Devil)
1883 - Julian Eltinge, Mass, vaudeville star/greatest female impersonator
1885 - Otto Klemperer, Breslau Germany, conductor/composer (Das Ziel)
1888 - Miles Mander, Wolverhampton England, actor (Tower of London)
1890 - Alex Pompez, American baseball executive (d. 1974)
1891 - Egon Kornauth, composer
1892 - Arthur Vincent Lourie, composer
1892 - Felix Petyrek, composer
1893 - Ivan Alexandrovich Vishnegradsky, composer
1893 - Louis Verneuil, French playwright (d. 1952)
1895 - Lew Lehr, Phila, comedian (Stop Me if I heard this One)
1895 - Renato Lunelli, composer
1897 - Sidney Bechet, US, jazz clarinetist/saxophonist/band leader
1897 - Ed Ricketts, American marine biologist (d. 1948)
1898 - Bonifacio Gil Garcia, composer
1898 - Zutty Singleton, US jazz drummer
1899 - Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist (d. 1993)
1899 - Earle Combs, American baseball player (d. 1976)
1900 - Billie Dove, [Lilian Bohny], NYC, actress (Black Pirate, Stolen Bride)
1900 - Leo Smit, composer
1900 - Hal Borland, American author (d. 1978)
1900 - Edgar Wind, German art historian (d. 1971)
1901 - Robert Ritter, German psychologist (d. 1951)
1903 - Billie Dove, American actress (d. 1997)
1904 - Hans Albert Einstein, American professor (d. 1973)
1904 - Marcel Junod, Swiss physician (d. 1961)
1905 - Jean Daniélou, French cardinal (d. 1974)
1906 - Hastings Kamuzu Banda, president of Malawi (1964-94)
1906 - James Flavin, Portland Me, actor (Man With a Camera)
1907 - Dick Bentley, entertainer
1907 - Mohammed Ayub Khan, general/premier/president (Pakistan)
1907 - Hans von der Groeben, German diplomat (d. 2005)
1907 - Johnny Moss, American poker player (d. 1995)
1909 - Vladimir Alatortsev, USSR, International Chess Master (1950)
1911 - Hans Vogt, composer
1911 - J Borremans, Belgian politician (communist)/MP
1912 - Marguerite Fawdry, museum curator
1915 - Harry Joseph Chick Daugherty, trombonist (Spike Jones & City Slickers)
1916 - Lance Dossor, British-born concert pianist (d. 2005)
1916 - Del Moore, American comedian (d. 1970)
1916 - Marco Zanuso, Italian architect
1917 - Herta Ryder, literary agent
1917 - Lou Harrison, Portland Oregon, composer (Rapunzel)
1917 - Lou Harrison, American composer (d. 2003)
1918 - Arthur McIntyre, cricket wicket-keeper (England 3 times early 50's)
1919 - Heloise Bowles, columnist Heloise's mother (Hints from Heloise)
1919 - Maarten Vrolijk, Dutch soc-dem party minister (CRM 1965-66)
1919 - Solange Chaput-Rolland, French-Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2001)
1919 - John Hope, American meteorologist (d. 2002)
1921 - Arve Opsahl, Norwegian actor (d. 2007)
1922 - Agha Hasan Abedi, banker
1922 - Richard Deacon, actor (Mel Cooley-Dick Van Dyke Show)
1922 - Franjo Tuđman, Croatian politician (d. 1999)
1923 - Diane Arbus, [Nemerov], NYC, photographer (Vogue/Harper's Bazaar)
1923 - Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi politician
1924 - Joly Braga Santos, composer
1925 - Patrice Munsel, Spokane Wash, soprano (Patrice Munsel Show)
1925 - Tristram Ogilvie Cary, composer
1925 - Al Porcino, American jazz trumpet player
1926 - Cestmir Gregor, composer
1926 - Eric Morecambe, London, comedian (Morecambe & Wise, Picadilly Palace)
1927 - Shirley Spork, LPGA golfer
1927 - Herbert W. Franke, Austrian writer

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 100 of 117

347 - Pachomius, Egyptian monastery founder/abbot (Coenobieten), dies
649 - Theodore, Greek Pope (642-49) (excommunicated by Paul II), dies
964 - John XII, [Octavianus], Pope (955-64), dies
964 - Pope John XII
1470 - Charles VIII of Sweden (b. 1409)
1565 - Nicolaus von Amsdorf, German reform theologist, dies
1574 - Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru (b. 1479)
1608 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
1610 - Henry IV, 1st Bourbon-king of France (1572, 89-1610), murdered at 56
1610 - Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
1643 - Louis XIII, king of France (1610-43), dies at 41
1649 - Friedrich Spanheim, Dutch theologian (b. 1600)
1669 - Georges de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1601)
1688 - Antoine Furetière, French writer (b. 1619)
1726 - John B Wellekens, poet/painter (Wedding Guests), dies
1726 - Moshe Darshan, Rabbi/author (Torat Ahsam), dies
1742 - Dominique Marie Valet, French RC/old-catholic bishop, dies at 64
1754 - Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (b. 1692)
1761 - Thomas Simpson, English mathematician (rule of Simpson), dies at 50
1801 - Johann Ernst Altenburg, composer, dies at 66
1818 - Matthew Gregory Lewis, English novelist (b. 1775)
1820 - Paul Friedrich Struck, composer, dies at 43
1832 - John van Speijk, Dutch heroic sailor, buried
1833 - Johann Wilhelm Cornelius von Konigslow, composer, dies at 88
1847 - Fanny Cacilia Mendelssohn Hensel, composer, dies at 41
1860 - Ludwig Bechstein, German writer (b. 1801)
1863 - Emile Racine Gauthier Prudent, composer, dies at 46
1864 - William N Green Jr, Union brig-general, dies
1870 - Ramon Vilanova y Barrera, composer, dies at 69
1873 - Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician and writer (b. 1797)
1877 - John Roberts, composer, dies at 54
1878 - Ookubo Toshimichi, Japanese statesman, samurai, and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration (b. 1830)
1887 - Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (b. 1808)
1889 - Volney E. Howard, American politician (b. 1809)
1893 - Earnest E Kummer, German mathematician (surface of Kummer), dies at 83
1893 - Johan T Buys, Dutch lawyer, dies at 65
1904 - Richard Hol, Dutch composer/organist/conductor, dies at 78
1906 - Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and statesman (b. 1829)
1912 - August Strindberg, Swedish writer (Deaddans), dies at 63
1912 - Frederik VIII C W K, King of Denmark (1906-12), dies at 68
1918 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
1919 - Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company (b. 1844)
1923 - Charles de Freycinet, French prime minister (b. 1828)
1925 - Henry Rider Haggard, English writer (Dawn, She), dies
1931 - David Belasco, American theatrical producer (b. 1853)
1931 - Denys Finch Hatton, English big-game hunter (b. 1887)
1934 - Lou Criger, American baseball player (b. 1872)
1936 - Edmond HH Allenby, English fieldmarshal in Egypt, dies at 74
1936 - Samuel Pl'h Naber, spy/librarian, dies at 71
1938 - Jacobus C J "Jacques" Hermans, actor (Ghetto), dies at 81
1940 - Eddy [Charles E] du Platform, writer/poet, dies
1940 - Emma Goldman, US anarchists/feminist/author (Living My Life), dies
1940 - Jacob van Gelderen, economist/sociologist/SDAP-2nd-Chamber, dies at 49
1940 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch writer (Forum, New Elite), suicide at 38
1943 - Henri La Fontaine, Belgian Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1854)
1945 - Heber J. Grant, seventh president of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1856)
1947 - John Ray Sinnock, US chief engraver (1925-47), dies at 59
1953 - Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Japans/US painter/etcher, dies at 59
1954 - Heinz Guderian, German General (b. 1888)
1955 - Betty Ann Davies, dies at 44
1957 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (b. 1884)
1959 - Sidney Bechet, US jazz clarinetist/saxophonist/bandleader, dies at 62
1962 - Florence Auer, American actress (b. 1880)
1965 - Frances Perkins, US 1st female minister of Labor (1933-45), dies at 83
1966 - Georgia BD Camp Johnson, US poet/playwright, dies at 88
1966 - Megan Lloyd George, English politician, dies at 64
1968 - Husband Edward Kimmel, commandant US Ocean fleet WW II, dies at 86
1969 - Enid Bennett, silent film actress (Skippy, Hairpins), dies at 75
1969 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1888)
1970 - Billie Burke, comedienne (Glinda-Wizard of Oz), dies at 84
1973 - Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist, and poet (b. 1905)
1976 - Keith Relf, rock vocalist (Yardbirds), electrocuted at 33
1978 - Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
1979 - Paul van 't Veeer, Dutch journalist/writer (Vrije Volk), dies at 57
1980 - Hugh Griffith, actor (Passover Plot, Ben Hur, Tom Jones), dies at 67
1980 - Wilhelm Weismann, composer, dies at 79
1982 - Baron Mariel-Henri Jaspar, Belgian minister/ambassador, dies
1982 - Hugh Beaumont, actor (Ward-Leave it to Beaver), dies at 73
1983 - Miguel Aleman Valdes, attorney/pres of Mexico (1946-52), dies at 80
1983 - Roger J. Traynor, American judge (b. 1900)
1984 - Larry Stock, songwriter (Blueberry Hill), dies
1984 - Walter Rauff, German colonel (b. 1906)
1985 - Mohammed Munir, Indonesian worker's union leader, executed
1987 - Rita Hayworth, actress (Gilda), dies of Alzheimer's disease at 68
1988 - Willem Drees, PM of Netherland (1948-58), dies at 101
1990 - Andre Ameller, composer, dies at 78
1991 - Ast Fonteyne, Flemish lecture artist, dies
1991 - Herman Niels, Flemish radio director, dies
1991 - Jiang Qing, widow of Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung, commits suicide
1991 - John Edward Craven, dies
1991 - Shintaro Abe, minister of Exterior of Japan (1982-86), dies
1992 - Lyle Alzado, NFL defense linesman (Raiders), dies of cancer at 43
1993 - Patrick Haemers, Belgian criminal, commits suicide at 40
1993 - William Randolph Hearst, US newspaper magnate (Pulitzer), dies at 85
1994 - Leonard Teale, Australian actor/reciter (Homicide), dies
1995 - Maezumi Hakuyu Taizan Koun, teacher (Zen Buddhism), dies at 64
1995 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American Nobel laureate (b. 1916)
1996 - Edqard John Gurney, politician, dies at 82
1996 - Qazaleh Alizadeh, writer, dies at 48
1996 - Sritharan Jeganathan, cricketer, 1st Sri Lankan Test player to die