Battle of Bosworth Field
1485 Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor's forces defeat English King Richard III during last battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard is killed, the last English monarch to die in battle.
Capture of Maastricht
1632 Prince Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange occupies Maastricht
- 1639 Madras (now Chennai), India, founded by the British East India Company on sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers
- 1642 English Civil War begins between Royalists and Parliament
- 1654 Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam (modern day Manhattan) aboard the Peartree, one of the first Jewish colonists
- 1707 Prince Eugenius van Savoye siege of Toulon
- 1707 Sweden & Prussia sign military treaty
- 1717 Spanish troops land on Sardinia
- 1762 1st female (Ann Franklin) US newspaper editor, Newport, Rhode Island, Mercury
- 1766 British expedition to find Terra Australis departs Plymouth, England with two ships captained by Samuel Wallis and Philip Carteret (becomes two separate voyages when ships lose each other entering the Pacific Ocean) [1]
Cook Claims NSW
1770 British explorer James Cook's claims the east coast of Australia for the British crown and names it New South Wales [1]
Proclamation of Rebellion
1775 King of Great Britain and Ireland, George III proclaims the American colonies to be in open rebellion and orders his officials to suppress it
- 1780 HMS Resolution, without Captain James Cook, returns to England
- 1782 Fire in Cibali, Istanbul, destroys 7,000 homes
- 1787 John Fitch's steamboat completes its tests, years before Fulton
- 1788 Sierra Leone settled by British as a haven for former slaves
- 1791 Haitian Slave Revolution begins under voodoo priest Boukman
Irish Rebellion of 1798
1798 French troops land in Kilcummin harbour in County Mayo, Ireland, to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion
- 1812 Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt is the 1st European to rediscover the Nabataean city of Petra (modern Jordan)
- 1826 Colonies under Jedediah Strong Smith move near Salt Lake Utah
- 1827 José de La Mar becomes President of Peru
- 1848 The United States annexes New Mexico
- 1849 The first air raid in history; Austria launches pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice
- 1851 100 Guineas Cup is raced around Isle of Wight; US schooner 'America' beats British cutter 'Aurora' by 24 minutes; first competition for the America's Cup yachting trophy
- 1851 Gold fields discovered in Australia
- 1862 Battle of Catlett's Station, VA
- 1862 Santee Sioux indian attack Fort Ridgely
Event of Interest
1862 US Civil War: Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart captures the dress coat of Union Major General John Pope at Catlett Station, Virginia [1]
First Geneva Convention
1864 First Geneva Convention adopted in Geneva "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field" signed by 12 nations
- 1865 William Sheppard is issued the first US patent for liquid soap
- 1872 Australia's Overland Telegraph Line connected - one of Australia's greatest logistical and engineering feats, allowed fast communications between Australia and the world for the first time [1]
- 1875 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
Natal Indian Congress
1894 Mahatma Gandhi forms the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in order to fight discrimination against Indian traders in the British Colony of Natal in South Africa
- 1901 Cadillac Motor Company is founded
Teddy Goes for a Spin
1902 US President Theodore Roosevelt became 1st US chief executive to ride in a car
- 1906 1st Victor Victrola manufactured
- 1910 Japan annexes Korea after 5 years as a protectorate
- 1912 England defeat Australia to win the Triangular Tournament
- 1914 1st encounter between British & German troops (in Belgium)
- 1914 Battle at Charleroi begins: Gen von Bulows troops beat French
- 1914 Battle in Ardennen: Neufchateau, Rossignal, Tintigny & Virton
- 1914 Canada's Finance Act, 1914, receives assent
- 1914 General Martos' troops occupy Soldau/Neidenburg, East Prussia
- 1914 German troops execute 384 inhabitants of Tamines, Belgium
Event of Interest
1914 WW1: Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg move into East Prussia enroute to Russia
- 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates play 4th straight extra inning game; left fielder Carson Bigbee sets MLB record of 11 at-bats in 22 inning, 6-5 loss to Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field
Rise of J. Edgar Hoover
1921 J. Edgar Hoover appointed Assistant Director of the Bureau of Investigation
Event of Interest
1922 William T. Cosgrave replaces Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State after the later was ambushed and killed in a shoot out with anti-Treaty forces
- 1926 Gold discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 1926 Greek dictator Gen Pangulos driven out
- 1932 BBC begins experimental regular TV broadcasts
- 1933 18th International Zionists Congress opens in Prague, Czechoslovakia
- 1933 Chicago Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. urges MLB to incorporate midsummer inter-league games and a split season
- 1939 Dutch border guards take positions for German invasion
- 1939 Premier De Geer recalls Dutch holidaymakers in Black Forest
- 1941 Nazi troops reach Lenningrad
- 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan & Italy
- 1943 Soviet troops free Karkov
Event of Interest
1944 Adolf Hitler orders Paris to be destroyed [or 23rd]
- 1944 Last transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1945 Bob Cristofani scores 110 for Aust Services at Old Trafford
Music History
1945 Noël Coward's revue "Sigh no More" premieres in London
Coup d'état
1945 Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup
Sports History
1950 Althea Gibson becomes 1st black competitor in a US national tennis competition
Event of Interest
1953 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to Tehran
F1 World Champion
1954 Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina clinches his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by winning Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten in a Maserati
- 1954 WPTV TV channel 5 in Palm Beach, FL (NBC) begins broadcasting
Music History
1956 Elvis Presley begins filming "Love Me Tender" (The Reno Brothers)
Presidential Convention
1956 US President Eisenhower and VP Richard Nixon renominated by Republican convention in San Francisco
Boxing Title Fight
1957 Olympic heavyweight boxing champion Pete Rademacher becomes first to contest the world title in his first professional bout; knocked out by Floyd Patterson in 6th round at Sicks' Stadium, Seattle
- 1958 Great Britain performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
- 1958 Toronto's Boyd Carter (15 yards) and Dave Mann (116 yards) combine for CFL record for the longest punt return in 15-14 win over Montreal Alouettes in Toronto
- 1959 American Football League officially named at a meeting in Dallas, Texas; charter members Dallas, NY, Houston, Denver, LA and Minneapolis-Saint Paul
Baseball Record
1959 Cincinnati Reds future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson hits 3 consecutive HRs (6 RBIs) in 11-4 win over St. Louis Cardinals at Crosley Field
Baseball Record
1960 Gil Hodges set NL right handed HR record with #352
Baseball Record
1961 New York Yankee Roger Maris hits his 50th of 61 homers
Assassination Attempt
1962 Failed assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle
- 1962 Savannah, world's 1st nuclear-powered ship, completes maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va, to Savannah, Ga
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 NASA civilian test pilot Joe Walker in the X-15 rocket plane achieves a world record altitude of 354,200 feet (107,960 m, 67 miles)
Is This America?
1964 Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer speaks at the US Democratic National Convention about her terrifying experiences with voter registration as a Black woman in Mississippi [1]
- 1964 Guinee, Liberia & Ivory Coast form joint market
- 1964 Supreme's "Where Did Our Love Go" reaches #1
- 1965 San Francisco Giants pitcher Juan Marachal hits LA Dodger catcher John Roseboro on the head with his bat causing a 14 minute brawl
- 1966 The Beatles arrive in New York City and hold two press conferences, one for the press and one for their fans
- 1968 The Society of Labour Lawyers (SLL) publishes an 'interim report' about alleged discrimination in Northern Ireland; the report is heavily criticised by unionists.
- 1969 Gloria O Smith (NY) crowned 2nd Miss Black America
Famous Photo
1969 The Beatles last official group photo session, at John & Yoko's home 'Tittenhurst Park', near Ascot
- 1971 Approximately 130 non-Unionist councillors announce their withdrawal from participation on district councils across Northern Ireland in protest against Internment (allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial)
- 1971 Bolivian military coup led by army Col. Hugo Banzer, drives out leftist President Juan José Torres
- 1971 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and US Attorney General John Mitchell announce arrest of 20 of the "Camden 28", a religious-left anti-war activist group intent on disrupting the military draft in Camden, New Jersey [1] [2] [3]
- 1972 IRA bomb explodes prematurely at a customs post at Newry, County Down - 9 people, including three members of the IRA and five Catholic civilians, are killed in the explosion
- 1972 Rhodesia is expelled by the International Olympic Committee for its racist policies.
- 1973 Chilean parliament accuses pres Allende violating laws
- 1975 McNichols Sports Arena in Denver opens
- 1978 Left-wing Sandinistas revolutionaries occupy National Palace in Managua, Nicaragua
- 1979 200 black leaders meet in NY to support Andrew Young
Agreement of Interest
1980 Bill Veeck agrees to sell MLB Chicago White Sox to Eddie DeBartolo Sr for $20,000,000, AL owners block the sale
- 1980 Leaders of Port Elizabeth's Black secondary school children in South Africa decided to end a four month boycott of classes
Israeli History
1982 Israeli General Ariel Sharon urges Palestinians to discuss peaceful coexistence
- 1984 Evelyn Ashford of US ties world women's mark for 100 m, 10.76 sec
- 1984 Last Volkswagen Rabbit produced
Baseball Record
1984 Met pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes 11th rookie to strikeout 200
Republicans Renominate Ronald Reagan
1984 Republican convention in Dallas renominates President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush
- 1984 The United Democratic Front, an internal coalition of anti-apartheid groups in South Africa, organizes a highly successful boycotts of the Colored and Indian elections to parliament
- 1985 Airtours Boeing-737 crashes at Manchester airport, 55 killed
Stand By Me
1986 "Stand By Me" film based on the novella by Stephen King, directed by Rob Reiner and starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell is released
- 1986 NASA announces tests designed to verify ignition pressure dynamics
Baseball Record
1989 Nolan Ryan strikes out his 5,000th batter (Rickey Henderson)
Event of Interest
1990 US President George H. W. Bush calls up military reserves
Cricket History
1992 Greg Matthews (4/76) & Shane Warne (3/11) spin Australia to a famous 16-run win v Sri Lanka in 1st cricket Test in Colombo
Murder of Interest
1994 DNA testing links O.J. Simpson to murder of Nicole Simpson & Ron Goldman
- 1994 Wim Cook government forms in Netherlands
- 1996 ANC makes its first submission to Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
- 1998 South Africa beats Australia, 29-15 in Johannesburg to win their first Tri Nations Rugby Series with an unbeaten record; Springboks fullback Percy Montgomery lands 5 penalties and 2 conversions
- 2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building
Theft of The Scream
2004 "The Scream" (1910 painted version) and "Madonna", two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.
- 2004 After winning the doubles tennis gold medal at the Athens Olympics, Chile's Nicolás Massú wins the men's singles gold 6–3, 3–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 over American Mardy Fish
Olympic Gold
2004 American sprinter Justin Gatlin wins the coveted Olympic 100m gold medal in Athens in 9.85 ahead of Francis Obikwelu of Portugal & American Maurice Greene
- 2004 Athens Olympic marathon is run on same route as 1896 Games, start at site of the Battle of Marathon to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens: Mizuki Noguchi of Japan wins women's gold in 2:26:20
Olympic Gold
2004 Justine Henin of Belgium wins the women's singles tennis gold medal at the Athens Olympics 6-3, 6-3 over Amélie Mauresmo of France
- 2004 The rowing program at the Athens Olympics ends with the United States winning the men's eights, and Romania taking the gold in the women's eights
- 2007 The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day
- 2007 The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
- 2008 American decathlete Brian Clay wins 4 of the 10 events and finishes 2nd in 2 others to dominate field and take the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics
- 2008 Anne-Caroline Chausson of France and Māris Štrombergs of Latvia win the inaugural gold medals in BMX, winning the women's and men's events respectively at the Beijing Olympics
- 2008 Ethiopian distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba wraps up the women's 5,000/10,000m double at the Beijing Olympics when she takes gold in the 5k in an Olympic record 15:41.40
- 2008 Maurren Higa Maggi wins the women's long jump with a leap of 7.04m at the Beijing Olympics; Brazil's first ever gold medal in any women's individual event
- 2008 Russia wins the women's 4 × 100 m relay ahead of Belgium & Nigeria at the Beijing Olympics; disqualified in 2016 when reanalysis of Yulia Chermoshanskaya’s samples result in positive test for prohibited substances
- 2008 Steven Hooker wins the men's pole vault with 5.96m at the Beijing Olympics; Australia's first gold medal in men's athletics since 1968
Olympic Games
2008 The Jamaican team led by Usain Bolt smashes the world 4 x 100m relay record in the final at the Beijing Olympics; disqualified in 2017 as Nesta Carter tests positive for prohibited substance
- 2012 47 people are killed in the Syrian civil war
- 2012 48 people are killed in Kenyan tribal wars between the Pokomo and Orma
- 2012 Russia and Vanuatu become members of the World Trade Organization
- 2013 14 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Western Iraq
- 2014 2nd Ebola death in Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country
- 2015 A vintage Hawker Hunter plane crashes onto the A27 dual carriageway road during the Shoreham airshow in Britain killing at least 11
- 2017 India's highest court outlaws instant divorce for Muslim men (talaq, talaq, talaq)
- 2017 Missouri Governor Eric Greitens grants stay of execution for Marcellus Williams in light of possible new DNA eividence
- 2018 Australia's House of Representatives is closed down early because of the Liberal Party leadership battle
- 2018 Discovery of a bone of a 90,000 hybrid human, half Neanderthal, half Denisovan from Anuy River, Siberia published in "Nature"
Film & TV History
2018 Forbes say George Clooney made more money in a single year ($239 million) than any actor ever ($239m), due to sale of alcohol company, followed by Dwayne Johnson ($124m)
- 2018 Longest ever bull market for Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index at 3,453 days (using 19.9 percent decline in 1990 as the start, usually 20%)
- 2019 Bielefeld in Germany offers €1m prize to anyone in who can prove the town doesn't exit to disprove 25-year-old conspiracy theory
- 2019 Russia launches Fedor, the first life-sized robot, into space to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
- 2019 South Korea says it is leaving an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan in an escalation of the rift between the two countries
- 2020 13 people die in a stampede at an illegal disco in Lima, Peru, during a police raid to shut it down
- 2020 Fires burning in Northern California declared Major Disaster with LNU Lightning Complex Fire (341,243 acres) and SCU Lightning Complex Fire (339,968) among the 3 largest wildfires in state history
- 2020 Mexican COVID-19 death toll passes 60,000, world's third highest
Music History
2021 Josephine Baker will be the first black woman to be interred in the Panthéon in Paris, according to the French government
- 2021 Tropical storm Henri makes landfall near Westerly, Rhode Island
Kamala Harris Visits South East Asia
2021 US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in Singapore to begin a short visit to South East Asia
House of the Dragon
2022 "House of the Dragon", prequel to "Game of Thrones" premieres on HBO, starring Paddy Considine, Matt Smith and Emma D'Arcy
Fauci Steps Down
2022 Dr. Anthony Fauci announces he will step down as chief medical advisor to the US President and as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [1]
- 2022 One of world's longest school closures ends in the Philippines as schools reopen for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic after only online learning [1]
- 2023 Eight people dramatically rescued from a cable car after 14 hours in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwest Pakistan [1]
- 2023 Thailand's parliament picks real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin as Prime Minister after a three-month delay [1]
