Events Pre-1600 221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. 589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility. 756 – Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain.Ahmed ibn Muhammad al-Maqqari. The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, 96. Al-Maqqari quotes from historian Ibn Hayyan's Muktabis when detailing Abd al-Rahman's flight from Syria. 908 – Constantine VII is crowned Byzantine co-emperor. 1194 – Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century. 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer are defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire. 1532 – The English church submits to the king of England in passing a convocation in which it surrenders a number of rights, such as to make provincial ecclesiastic laws independently of the king. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury. 1567 – The wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell, the chief instigator of the murder of her previous husband Lord Darnley, takes place. 1571 – Venice, Spain, Naples, the Papal States, and other Italian states establish the Holy League to fight the Ottomans, resulting in the victory at Lepanto later that year.
1601–1900
1602 – Cape Cod is sighted by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. reprinted in 1648 – The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty. 1725 – Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. 1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance. 1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1849 – The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished. 1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina. 1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching.
1901–present 1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up. 1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales. 1916 – A seventeen-year-old farmworker, Jesse Washington, is lynched in Waco, Texas, USA, after being convicted of rape and murder. 1918 – The Finnish Civil War ends when the Whites take over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from Russian troops. 1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades. 1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 – In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan, Inukai Tsuyoshi, is assassinated. 1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany are officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe. 1934 – A self coup by prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis succeeds in Latvia, suspending its constitution and dissolving its Saeima. 1940 – is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus. 1940 – World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation. 1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant. 1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39, the first British and Allied jet aircraft. 1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe, is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel, thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone. 1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington as the first female United States Army generals. 1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since their conquest in 1945, revert to Japanese control. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren. 1976 – Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes near Viktorivka, Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, killing 52. 1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister. 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. 1997 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir. 2001 – A CSX EMD SD40-2 8888 rolls out of a train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars, including some tank cars with flammable chemical, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south driverless for 66 miles (106 km) until it is brought to a halt near Kenton. The incident became the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable. 2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles". 2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional. 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days. 2024 – Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and critically injured while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.
Births
Pre-1600
1397 – Sejong the Great, Korean king of Joseon (died 1450) 1531 – Maria of Austria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (died 1581) 1565 – Hendrick de Keyser, Dutch sculptor and architect (died 1621) 1567 – Claudio Monteverdi, Italian priest and composer (died 1643)
1601–1900
1608 – René Goupil, French-American missionary and saint (died 1642) 1645 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, British judge (died 1689) 1689 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (died 1762)Grundy, Isobel. Lady Mary Wortley Montague, p. 5. Oxford University Press, 1999. Print. 1720 – Maximilian Hell, Hungarian priest and astronomer (died 1792) 1749 – Levi Lincoln Sr., American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Attorney General (died 1820) 1759 – Maria Theresia von Paradis, Austrian pianist and composer (died 1824) 1770 – Ezekiel Hart, Canadian businessman and politician (died 1843) 1773 – Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire (died 1859) 1786 – Dimitris Plapoutas, Greek general and politician (died 1864) 1803 – Juan Almonte, son of José María Morelos, was a Mexican soldier and diplomat who served as a regent in the Second Mexican Empire (died 1869) 1805 – Samuel Carter, English railway solicitor and Member of Parliament (MP) (died 1878) 1808 – Michael William Balfe, Irish composer and conductor (died 1870) 1817 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher and author (died 1905) 1841 – Clarence Dutton, American commander and geologist (died 1912) 1845 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian zoologist (died 1916) 1848 – Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter and illustrator (died 1926) 1848 – Carl Wernicke, German neuropathologist. (died 1905) 1854 – Ioannis Psycharis, Ukrainian-French philologist and author (died 1929) 1856 – L. Frank Baum, American novelist (died 1919) 1856 – Matthias Zurbriggen, Swiss mountaineer (died 1917) 1857 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish-American astronomer and academic (died 1911) 1859 – Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1906) 1862 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and playwright (died 1931) 1863 – Frank Hornby, English businessman and politician, invented Meccano (died 1936) 1869 – Paul Probst, Swiss target shooter (died 1945) 1869 – John Storey, Australian politician, 20th Premier of New South Wales (died 1921) 1873 – Oskari Tokoi, Finnish socialist and the Chairman of the Senate of Finland (died 1963)Tokoi, Oskari (1873–1963) – Kansallisbiografia (in Finnish) 1882 – Walter White, Scottish international footballer (died 1950) 1890 – Katherine Anne Porter, American short story writer, novelist, and essayist (died 1980) 1891 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright (died 1940) 1891 – Hjalmar Dahl, Finnish journalist, translator and writer (died 1960)Hjalmar Dahl – Svenskt översättarlexikon (in Swedish) 1891 – Fritz Feigl, Austrian-Brazilian chemist and academic (died 1971) 1892 – Charles E. Rosendahl, American admiral (died 1977) 1892 – Jimmy Wilde, Welsh boxer (died 1969) 1893 – José Nepomuceno, Filipino filmmaker, founder of Philippine cinema (died 1959) 1894 – Feg Murray, American hurdler and cartoonist (died 1973) 1895 – Prescott Bush, American captain, banker, and politician (died 1972) 1895 – William D. Byron, American lieutenant and politician (died 1941) 1898 – Arletty, French model, actress, and singer (died 1992) 1899 – Jean Étienne Valluy, French general (died 1970) 1900 – Ida Rhodes, American mathematician, pioneer in computer programming (died 1986)
1901–present
1901 – Xavier Herbert, Australian author (died 1984) 1901 – Luis Monti, Argentinian-Italian footballer and manager (died 1983) 1902 – Richard J. Daley, American lawyer and politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (died 1976) 1902 – Sigizmund Levanevsky, Soviet aircraft pilot of Polish origin (died 1937)