Event-a-Day

Post Reply New Topic

1179 – Philip II is crowned King of France.

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.

1604 – William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1611 – Shakespeare's play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.

1688 – William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution.

1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen Colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.

1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).

1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition.

1814 – Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars.

1848 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.

1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies. Thomas Edison films American sharpshooter Annie Oakley, which is instrumental in her hiring by Buffalo Bill for his Wild West Show.

1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

1973 – Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.

1944 - A United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) F-13 Superfortress conducts the first flight by an Allied aircraft over the Tokyo region of Japan since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942

1991 - My cousin is born to my mother's brother and his then-wife

1868 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally.

1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.

1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first

1936 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established. The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.

1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose or H-4 The Hercules; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.

1534 – English Parliament passes the first Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the Anglican Church, supplanting the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

1783 – The American Continental Army is disbanded.

1789 – The first District Court established by the Constitution opens in New York City.

1903 – With the encouragement of the United States, Panama separates from Colombia.

1911 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.

1918 – Austria-Hungary enters into the Armistice of Villa Giusti with the Allies, and the Habsburg-ruled empire dissolves. Poland declares its independence from Russia.

1957 – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.

1964 – Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time.

2014 – One World Trade Center officially opens.

2016 - November 2 into 3 - Chicago Cubs Win World Series for the first time in 108 years!

1501 – Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII's first wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII's older brother – they would later marry.

1677 – The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange; they later jointly reign as William III and Mary II.

1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the United States.

1939 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.

1942 – World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein: Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.

1952 – The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA.

1956 – Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution against the Soviet Union, that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first person of biracial or African descent to be elected President of the United States.

1605 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested.

1688 – William III of England lands with a Dutch fleet at Brigham.

1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

1872 – Women's suffrage in the United States: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100.

1895 – George B. Seldes is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1911 – After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica.

1912 – Woodrow Wilson is elected to the presidency of the United States.

1914 – World War I: France and the British Empire declare war on the Ottoman Empire.

1916 – The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of 5th November of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

2006 – Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for their roles in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi'a Muslims.

2007 – China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1, goes into orbit around the Moon.

2013 – India launches the Mars Orbiter Mission, its first interplanetary probe.

1528 – Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in the area that would become Texas.

1844 – The first Constitution of the Dominican Republic is adopted.

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1869 – In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

1943 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.

1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1965 – Cuba and the United States formally agree to begin an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans had made use of this program.

1995 – Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens, the first time the city had a football team since 1983 when they were the Baltimore Colts.

2012 – Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician to be elected to the United States Senate.

1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.

1885 – The completion of Canada's first transcontinental railway is symbolized by the Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, British Columbia.

1893 – Women's suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so.

1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.

1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.

1916 – Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.

1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America.

1967 – Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city. US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1973 – The United States Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.

1989 – Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States. David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City. East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet, is forced to resign after huge anti-government protests.

1990 – Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland.

1991 – Magic Johnson announces that he is infected with HIV and retires from the NBA.

1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.

2000 – Controversial US presidential election that is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.

1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.

1933 – Great Depression: New Deal: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.

1939 – In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

1940 – Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece fails as outnumbered Greek units repulse the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.

1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century to become the 35th president of the United States.

1966 – Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.

1977 – Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.

1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

1688 – Glorious Revolution: William of Orange captures Exeter.

1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming one of its three Consuls (Consulate Government).

1887 – The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.

1907 – The Culling Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.

1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.

1921 – The Italian National Fascist Party comes into existence.

1923 – In Munich, Germany, police and government troops crush the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The failed coup is the work of the Nazis.

1967 – Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is published.

1970 – Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.

1989 – Fall of the Berlin Wall. East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin.

1998 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.

005 – The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

1766 – The last colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College (later renamed Rutgers University).

1775 – The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas.

1871 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".

1942 – World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.

1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery.

1983 – Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0.

1989 – Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall.

2008 – Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after communications with the lander were lost.

1100 – Henry I of England marries Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland and a direct descendant of the Saxon king Edmund Ironside.

1500 – Treaty of Granada: Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Dürenstein: Eight thousand French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force.

1864 – American Civil War: General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta to the ground in preparation for his march to the sea.

1889 – The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.

1911 – Many cities in the Midwestern United States break their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front rolls through.

1918 – World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne. Emperor Charles I of Austria relinquishes power.

1966 – NASA launches Gemini 12.

2006 – Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

1439 – Plymouth, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

1892 – William Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1912 – King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.

1918 – Austria becomes a republic.

1936 – In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrives in Berlin to discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.

1941 – World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 °C as the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.

1942 – World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days and ends with an American victory.

1944 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers, which sink the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.

1948 – In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

1980 – The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings.

1981 – Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-2, utilizing the Space Shuttle Columbia, marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1553 – Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and four others, including Lady Jane Grey, are accused of high treason and sentenced to death under Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary I.

1864 – The new Constitution of Greece is adopted.

1918 – Allied troops occupy Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

1927 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1940 – Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia is first released, on the first night of a roadshow at New York's Broadway Theatre.

1954 – Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

1956 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1974 – Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murders his entire family in Amityville, Long Island in the house that would become known as The Amityville Horror.

1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor & Oudinot defeated by Wittgenstein.

1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA.

1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days.

1914 – The Ottoman Empire declares war against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro during the early months of World War I.

1918 – Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.

1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.

1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.

1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.

1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.

1914 – Harry Turner becomes the first player to die from game-related injuries in the "Ohio League", the direct predecessor to the National Football League.

1915 – Winston Churchill resigns from his Government, and soon commands the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front.

1920 – First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland.

1926 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations.

1939 – In Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.

1966 – Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1969 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".

1988 – In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.

1990 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38. The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.