Events668 -
Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at
Syracuse, Italy.921 -
Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her
daughter-in-law at Tetin.1556 -
Vlissingen ex-
emperor Charles V returns to
Spain.1584 -
San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in
Madrid is finished.
1616 - The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in
Frascati,
Italy.1656 -
England and
France sign a
peace treaty.
1683 -
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded by 13 immigrant families.
1762 -
Battle of Signal Hill1776 -
American Revolutionary War:
British land at
Kip's Bay during the
New York Campaign.
1789 - The
United States Department of State is established (formerly known as
Department of Foreign Affairs).
1812 - The
French army under
Napoleon reaches
the Kremlin in
Moscow.
1820 -
Constitutionalist revolution in
Lisbon,
Portugal; (see Portugal's crises of the Nineteenth Century.
1821 -
Costa Rica,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras, and
Nicaragua jointly declare independence from
Spain.
1830 - The
Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (see also deaths, below).
1831 - The
locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in
New Jersey on the
Camden and Amboy Railroad.
1835 - The
HMS Beagle, with
Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the
Galápagos Islands.
1851 -
Saint Joseph's University is founded in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
1862 -
American Civil War:
Confederate forces capture
Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
1873 -
Franco-Prussian War: The last
German troops leave
France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
1883 - The
Bombay Natural History Society is founded in
Bombay (now
Mumbai),
India.
1894 -
First Sino-Japanese War:
Japan defeats
China in the
Battle of Pyongyang.
1914 -
World War I: The
Battle of Aisne begins between
Germany and
France.
1916 -
World War I:
Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the
Battle of the Somme.
1928 -
Sir Alexander Fleming notices a
bacteria-killing
mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as
penicillin.1928 -
Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an
English cricket season.
1931 - In
Scotland, the two-day
Invergordon Mutiny against
Royal Navy pay cuts begins.
1935 -
Nuremberg Laws deprive
German Jews of
citizenship.1935 -
Nazi Germany adopts a new
national flag with the
swastika.
1940 -
World War II: The climax of the
Battle of Britain, when the
Royal Air Force shoot down large numbers of
Luftwaffe.
1941 - The
U.S. Attorney General rules that the
Neutrality Act is not violated when
U.S. ships carry war materiel to
British territories, opening the door for the
Lend-Lease Act.
1942 -
World War II: The
U.S. aircraft carrier
USS Wasp is torpedoed at
Guadalcanal.
1944 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Winston Churchill meet in
Quebec as part of the
Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.
1945 - A hurricane in southern
Florida and the
Bahamas destroys 366 planes and 25 blimps at NAS Richmond.
1946 - The
Brooklyn Dodgers are beating the
Chicago Cubs, 2-0, in the 5th inning when a swarm of gnats causes the game to be postponed.
1947 - The
U.S. Air Force is separated from the
US Army to become a separate branch. 1947 -
RCA releases the
12AX7 vacuum tube.
1948 - The
F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.
1950 -
Korean War:
United States forces land at
Incheon,
Korea.
1952 -
United Nations gives
Eritrea to
Ethiopia.
1955 -
Vladimir Nabokov's
Lolita is published in
Paris by
Olympia Press.
1957 -
West Germany holds its third parliamentary election.
Konrad Adenauer remains
chancellor.
1958 - A
Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the
Newark Bay, killing 58.
1959 -
Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first
Soviet leader to visit the
United States.
1961 -
Hurricane Carla strikes
Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
1962 - The
Soviet ship
Poltava heads toward
Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963 - The
16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children at an
African-American church in
Birmingham, Alabama,
United States.
1966 -
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the
University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to the
United States Congress urging the enactment of
gun control legislation.
1968 - The
Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the
Moon and re-enter the
Earth's atmosphere.
1972 - A magnitude 4.5
earthquake shakes Northern
Illinois.1972 - An
SAS domestic flight from
Gothenburg to
Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.
1974 -
Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.
1975 - The
French department of
Corse (the entire island of
Corsica) is divided into two:
Haute-Corse and
Corse-du-Sud.1975 -
Progressive Rock artists
Pink Floyd release
Wish You Were Here.
1978 - Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks for the WBA heavywight championship becoming the first man to win the heavyweight title three times.
1981 - The
United States Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves
Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the
United States Supreme Court.1981 - The
John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the
Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside
Washington, DC.1981 -
Vanuatu becomes a member of the
United Nations.
1983 -
Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
1987 -
U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sign a treaty to establish centers to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
1989 - The
U.S. Congress recognizes
Terry Anderson's continued captivity in
Beirut.
1990 -
France announces it will send 4,000 troops to the
Persian Gulf1993 -
Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands
parliament.
1998 -
WorldCom and
MCI Communications finish their landmark merger, forming
MCI WorldCom which would later be renamed
WorldCom and become the largest
bankruptcy in
United States history.
2004 -
NHL commissioner
Gary Bettman announced
a lockout of the
players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
2007 - Over 3000
Taiwanese Americans and their supporters rallied in front of
UN in
New York City to demonstrate the dedication that UN should accept
Taiwan. At the same time, over 300,000
Taiwanese people rally in Taiwan to make the same plea.
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