Event-a-Day

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1812, War of 1812: The Battle of Fort Dearborn is fought between United States troops and Potawatomi at what is now Chicago.

1914, A servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright murders seven people and sets fire to the living quarters of Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin.

1914, The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

1939, The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grumman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.

1944, World War II: Operation Dragoon: Allied forces land in southern France.

1945, Effective surrender of Japan in World War II, Korea gains Independence from Japan.

1947 , India gains Independence from British rule after near 190 years of Crown rule and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1948, The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.

1965, The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock.

2013, The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivores species found in the Americas in 35 years.

2015, North Korea moves its clock back half an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 8½ hours ahead of UTC.

1513, Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat.

1841, U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.

1858, U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.

1920, Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.

1930, The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.

1945, Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.

1954, The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

1962, The famous lineup of The Beatles is formed when drummer Pete Best is discharged from the band, and Ringo Starr is brought on.

1498, Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate. On the same day, King Louis XII of France names him Duke of Valentines.

1560, The Roman Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.

1585, A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

1943, World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

1958, Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.

1959, Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

1959, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.

1977, The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

2008, American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.

1783, A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.

1838, The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads.

1868, French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

1920, The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1940, World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain. At that point, the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.

1963, American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1561, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was 18 years old, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.

1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan: The start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as 'the 45'.

1839, The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift 'free to the world'.

1848, California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).

1909, The first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1919, Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

1944, World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

1960, Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.

1960, Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Streak, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.

1964, Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, was launched.

1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.

1882, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.

1920, The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.

1926, Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.

1938, Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.

1940, World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line 'Never was so much owed by so many to so few'.

1975, Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

1977, Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

1991, Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

1770, James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

1883, An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.

1918, World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

1959, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.

1968, James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.

1979, Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.

1991, Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.

1991, Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

1993, NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

1485, The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III, the final overthrow of the House of York, the end of the House of Plantagenet, and the accession of the House of Tudor.

1642, Charles I raises his standard in Nottingham, which marks the beginning of the English Civil War.

1849, The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.

1902, Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1910, Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.

1941, World War II: German troops begins the Siege of Leningrad.

1942, World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.

1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing a major shift in US welfare policy.

2007, The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history. The combined run total is also Major League record.

30 BC, After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antilles, eldest son of Mark Antony, and Caesarian, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and only child of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

79, Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman God of fire.

1305, Sir William Wallace is executed for high treason at Smithfield in London.

1775, American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.

1784, Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.

1799, Napoleon I of France leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.

1923, Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

1939, World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.

1942, World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

1990, West Germany and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.

2011, Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.

79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabile are buried in volcanic ash. (note: Wikipedia says that this traditional date has been challenged, and many scholars believe that the event occurred on October 24).

1200, King John of England marries Isabella of Angoulême in Bordeaux Cathedral.

1215, Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.

1682, William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

1814, British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House, the Capitol and many other buildings are set ablaze.

1891, Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.

1909, Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.

1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).

1950, Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

1989, Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.

1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

1995, Microsoft Windows 95 was released to the public in North America.

2006, The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term 'planet' such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

1543, The first Europeans and firearms arrive in Japan.

1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

1916, The United States National Park Service is created.

1944, World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.

1945, Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.

1980, Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.

1981, Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.

1989, Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.

2012, Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

1346 – Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armored knights is established at the Battle of Crécy, resulting in a decisive English victory.

1768, Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavor.

1791, John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat.

1813, War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Prussian-Russian forces accidentally run into each other near Lignite, Prussia (now Legnica, Poland).

1920, The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.

1172, Henry the Young King (Son of Henry II) and Margaret of France are crowned as junior king and queen of England.

1810, Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbor of Grand Port on Île de France.

1813, French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1832, Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.

1859, Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

1916, The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations.

1962, The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.

2003, Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years.

1789, William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus.

1810 – Battle of Grand Port: The French accept the surrender of a British Navy fleet.

1830, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in US railroads.

1833, The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most of the British Empire.

1909, A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.

1916, World War I: Germany declares war on Romania. Italy declares war on Germany.

1955, Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent Civil Rights Movement.

1968, Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.

1993, The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon, later named Dactyl, around 243 Ida, the first known asteroid moon.

1756, Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.

1807, British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.

1825, Kingdom of Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.

1831, Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.

1910, The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.

1922, The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.

1946, USS Nevada is decommissioned.

1949, Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1958, United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

1965, The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic ocean.

1966, The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1991, Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

1835, Melbourne is founded.

1836, The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base. The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being. In Vietnam, the August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.

1962, Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

1963, The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.

1967, Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1984, STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

1991, Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.