- 0041 After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
- 0844 Gregory IV begins & ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1139 Godfried II the Young becomes duke of Brabant
- 1327 Edward III becomes King of England.
- 1327 King Edward III accedes to British throne
- 1348 Earthquake destroys Villach, killing 5,000
- 1494 Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
- 1554 Founding of So Paulo city, Brazil.
- 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt gathers an army in Kent, rebels against Queen Mary
- 1565 Battle at Talikota India Moslems destroy Vijayanagar's army
- 1573 Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
- 1579 Treaty of Utrecht signed, marks beginning of Dutch Republic
- 1721 Czar Peter the Great ends Russian-orthodox patriarchy
- 1755 Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.
- 1775 Americans drag cannon up hill to fight British (Gun Hill Road, Bronx)
- 1787 American Daniel Shays leads rebellion to seize Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.
- 1787 Shays' Rebellion suffers a setback when debt-ridden farmers, led by Captain Daniel Shays, fail to capture an arsenal at Springfield MA
- 1791 British Parliament approves bill splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
- 1792 The London Corresponding Society is founded.
- 1799 The first US patent for a seeding machine, Eliakim Spooner, Vermont
- 1802 Napoleon elected President of the Italian (Cisalpine) Republic
- 1817 Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" premieres in Rome
- 1825 The first US engineering college opens, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Troy NY
- 1835 Vincenzo Bellini's opera "I Puritani," premieres in Paris
- 1848 Last convict ship to Port Phillip in Victoria, the Marion, disembarks passengers.
- 1851 Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women's Rights Convention (Akron)
- 1856 Battle of Seattle; skirmish between settlers & Indians
- 1858 Mendelssohn's Wedding March is performed for the first time in public, as the daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria marries the Prussian Crown Prince.
- 1858 Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" first played, at wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria, to crown prince of Prussia
- 1858 The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.
- 1863 Battle of Kinston NC
- 1863 General Joseph Hooker replaces Burnside as head of Army of Potomac
- 1865 The CSS Shenandoah arrives in Melbourne, Australia
- 1868 Senufe, Abyssinia, Canadian soldier Alexander Dunn killed when his hunting rifle accidentally went off; born at York, Upper Canada Sept. 15, 1833; first Canadian awarded the Victoria Cross, for bravery as a lieutenant in the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Regiment of Hussars at the 1854 charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava
- 1870 Soda fountain patented by Gustavus Dows
- 1875 Anti-slavery society formed in NY
- 1877 Congress determines presidential election between Hayes-Tilden
- 1878 Turkish steamer becomes the first ship to be sunk by a torpedo, fired from a Russian boat
- 1879 The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
- 1881 Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
- 1882 Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms
- 1890 National Afro-American League forms in Chicago
- 1890 Nellie Bly beats Phileas Fogg's time around world by 8 days (72 days)
- 1890 New York World reporter Nellie Bly returns home after completing an around the world journey in just 72 days, six hours and eleven minutes.
- 1890 United Mine Workers of America forms
- 1894 James J Corbett KOs Charley Mitchell in 3 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1902 Aleksandr Skriabin's 2nd Symphony in C premieres in St Petersburg
- 1904 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick PA
- 1907 Julia Ward Howe is first woman elected to National Institute of Arts & Letters
- 1909 Richard Strauss' opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
- 1910 Children initiate idea of planting trees in Jerusalem
- 1915 Giordano, Sardou & Moreau's opera "Madame Sans Gêne" premieres in New York City NY
- 1915 Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (New York to San Francisco)
- 1916 Montenegro surrenders to Austria-Hungary
- 1917 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
- 1918 Russia declared a republic of Soviets
- 1919 Founding of League of Nations, first meeting 1 year later
- 1923 NVV donates ƒ100,000 to mine workers of Ruhrgebied
- 1924 The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
- 1929 Bradman scores 340* for New South Wales vs Victoria, 488 minutes, 38 fours
- 1931 Visitor posting - Wilmot Arthur Sullivan born - USA
- 1932 Bradman scores 167 New South Wales vs Victoria, 224 minutes, 22 fours
- 1932 Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough speaks to the Lieutenant Governor of each province, to inaugurate the Trans-Canada telephone system.
- 1932 The first commencement exercises at Hebrew University in Jerusalem
- 1937 Miami-to-Tampa bus overturned in a canal, kills 13
- 1937 Soap Opera "Guiding Light" premieres on NBC radio
- 1937 The Guiding Light airs on radio for the first time. Also went to television making this show the longest running broadcast program in United States radio and television history.
- 1939 Earthquake hits Chillán Chile, 10,000 killed
- 1939 Joe Louis KOs John Henry Lewis in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1940 Nazi decrees the establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz Poland
- 1941 Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
- 1942 Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
- 1945 Battle of the Bulge ends.
- 1945 Grand Rapids MI becomes first US city to fluoridate its water
- 1945 Japanese occupiers of Batavia arrest Indo-European youths
- 1945 West Africa 82nd division occupies Myohaung, Burma
- 1946 United Mine Workers union rejoins American Federation of Labor
- 1947 Mobster Al Capone dies at age 48.
- 1948 Investors Syndicate of Canada incorporates Investors Mutual of Canada Ltd.; Canada's first public mutual fund will be first sold to the public in 1950
- 1949 At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented.
- 1949 The first Israeli election - Ben-Gurion's Mapai party wins
- 1950 73ºF (23ºC) highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in January
- 1951 UN begins counter offensive in Korea
- 1952 Test debut of Richie Benaud, vs West Indies at the SCG
- 1953 In Liverpool, the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Canada destroyed in a dockside fire; used as a troop ship during World War II.
- 1955 Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years
- 1955 Jill Kinmont hits a tree & breaks her back in Snow Cup Ski Race
- 1955 Russia ends state of war with Germany
- 1955 Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
- 1955 US & Panama sign canal treaty
- 1956 96.5 cm (38.0") of rainfall, Kilauea Plantation, HI (state record)
- 1957 FBI arrests Jack & Myra Sobel, charged with spying for the USSR
- 1959 American Airlines beings the first scheduled transcontinental U.S. passenger air service, featuring the new Boeing 707 jetliner.
- 1959 Pope John XXIII proclaims 2nd Vatican council
- 1961 In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
- 1961 Military coup in El Salvador
- 1961 President John F. Kennedy makes history by holding the first presidential news conference simulcast live on radio and TV.
- 1961 The first live, nationally televised Presidential news conference (JFK)
- 1961 Walt Disney's "101 Dalmations" released
- 1962 The Bank of Montreal acquires Newfoundland Savings Bank0
- 1963 Wilson Kettle who lived in Newfoundland dies at age 102, he has 582 living descendants
- 1964 Beatles first US #1, "I Want to Hold your Hand" (Cashbox)
- 1964 Echo 2, US communications satellite launched
- 1968 Robert Anderson's "I Never Sang for My Father," premieres in New York City NY
- 1969 US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris
- 1970 Robert Altman's "M*AS*H," premieres
- 1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders
- 1971 Himachal Pradesh becomes 18th Indian state
- 1971 Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.
- 1971 Military coup in Uganda under General Idi Amin Dada
- 1971 Philadelphia mint's first trial strike of the Eisenhower dollar
- 1972 Visitor posting - Latoya Whitaker born - USA
- 1973 On the British Columbia coast the Freighter Irish Stardust grounds north of Vancouver Island., spilling 378,000 litres of fuel oil, spill spreads 320 km south
- 1974 Christian Barnard transplants first human heart without removal of old
- 1974 Start of major flooding in Brisbane in which 13 die
- 1975 Number one hit on UK music charts - Tymes - Ms Grace
- 1976 Surinder Amarnath scores 124 on Test debut India vs New Zealand Auckland
- 1977 In New York Rene Levesque 1922-1987 tells Wall Street audience at the Economic Club of New York that 'separation is inevitable'
- 1978 Muriel Humphrey (D-MN) appointed to fill late husband's Senate seat
- 1979 22.2-km Oshimizu railroad tunnel holed through, central Honshu, Japan
- 1979 Jean-Luc Pepin and John Robarts release the Report of the Task Force on Canadian Unity; recommend that Quebec should have the power to maintain its language and culture, and that federal powers be reduce
- 1979 Pope John Paul II's first overseas trip as supreme pontiff
- 1980 Bani Sadr elected President of Iran
- 1980 Dutch Government demands boycott of Olympics
- 1980 Finance Minister Abolhassan Bani-Sadr is elected president of Iran.
- 1980 Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN hovercraft
- 1980 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported
- 1981 Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
- 1981 Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death
- 1981 The 52 American hostages held by Iran for 444 days arrive back in the U.S.
- 1981 Tose Proeski, Macedonian Mega Star was born in Prilep,Macedonia
- 1981 UK hist Launch of SDP by 'Gang of Four' in Britain
- 1982 9th American Music Award Kenny Rogers win
- 1982 Visitor posting - McKeata Franese Naylor was born - USA
- 1983 China's supreme court commutes Chiang Ch'ing's death sentence to life
- 1983 Infrared telescope satellite launched into polar orbit
- 1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
- 1983 UK hist Spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 released
- 1985 "We are the World" is recorded
- 1985 Test debut of Wasim Akram, vs New Zealand at Auckland (2-105)
- 1986 General Tito Okello's government flees Kampala Uganda
- 1986 Number one hit on UK music charts - A-ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV
- 1986 The National Resistance Movement topple the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
- 1988 15th American Music Award Anita Baker, Paul Simon & Whitney Houston
- 1988 Ramsewak Shankar sworn in as President of Suriname
- 1988 Vice President Bush & Dan Rather clash on "CBS Evening News" as Rather attempts to question Bush about his role in the Iran-Contra affair
- 1990 Actress Ava Gardner dies in London at age 67.
- 1990 Avianca Flight 52 crashes, killing 73 passengers.
- 1990 Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is transferred to a Miami jail
- 1990 Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1990 Seventy-three people are killed when an Avianca 707 jet crashes after running out of fuel in Cove Neck, New York.
- 1990 The Burns' Day storm hits northwestern Europe.
- 1990 West-Europe's strongest hurricane
- 1991 Manuel Noriega is given access to assets frozen by US government
- 1991 Mark Waugh scores ton in first Test Cricket innings, vs England Adelaide
- 1991 Soap opera "Generation" last episode after a 2 year run
- 1991 Visitor posting - Matthew Alan Gomez is born at Foothill Pres. Hospital in Glendora, CA
- 1993 20th American Music Award Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey win
- 1993 Mir Amir Kansi kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
- 1993 Puerto Rico adds English as its 2nd official language
- 1993 Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales department after 97 years
- 1994 Accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy, Michael Jackson settles a civil lawsuit out of court
- 1994 Mine fire at Asansol India, kills 55
- 1994 The Clementine space probe launches.
- 1994 US space probe Clementine launched
- 1994 Visitor posting - rebecca chez born - USA
- 1995 Lawyers for the defense make their opening statement in the murder trial of former pro football running back and sports commentator O.J. Simpson.
- 1995 The Norwegian Rocket Incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
- 1996 Leilani Muir awarded $750,000 by Alberta judge; she was wrongly diagnosed as mentally disabled and sterilized by the province's Eugenics Board in 1959
- 1997 71st Australian Women's Tennis Martina Hingis beat Mary Pierce (62 62)
- 1997 A cyclone sweeps across the island nation of Madagascar, spawning floods that leave 100 people missing and thousands homeless
- 1998 "Grease," closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater New York City NY after 1,503 performance
- 1998 Britain's Queen Mother, 97, gets an emergency hip replacement
- 1998 During a historic visit to Cuba Pope John Paul II demands the release of political prisoners and political reforms while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.
- 1998 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
- 1998 Spice Girl Victoria Adams (Posh) & soccer David Beckham gets engaged
- 1998 Two US tourists, Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, are left behind by a scuba diving operator on a reef off Port Douglas, north Queensland. They are never found
- 1999 A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
- 1999 More than one thousand people are killed when an eartquake rocks the South American country of Colombia.
- 1999 The first hand transplant in the U.S. takes place in Louisville, Kentucky.
- 2001 A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
- 2002 Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software ("Phase II") aka Magnus Manske Day.
- 2004 Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
- 2005 A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi in India kills at least 258.
- 2006 Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
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