- 1066 Edward the Confessor, King of England dies.
- 1349 Margaretha of Bavaria names her son Willem V Earl of Holland/Zealand
- 1438 Pope Eugenius IV deallocated council of Basel to Ferrara
- 1463 French poet François Villon banished from Paris
- 1463 Poet Franois Villon is banned from Paris.
- 1477 Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed along with over 7,000 more and Burgundy becomes part of France.
- 1500 Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
- 1527 Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zrich, was executed by drowning.
- 1531 Pope Clemens VII forbids English king Henry VIII to re-marry
- 1554 A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
- 1554 Great fire in Eindhoven Netherlands
- 1589 In 1589, Catherine de Medici, Queen of France dies at age 69.
- 1593 William Louis of Nassau becomes Governor/Viceroy of Drenthe
- 1638 Petition in Recife Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues
- 1649 Francesco Cavalli's opera "Giasone" premieres in Venice
- 1675 Battle at Turkheim (Colmar) French army beats Brandenburg
- 1675 Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
- 1709 Sudden extreme cold kills 1000s of Europeans
- 1717 Prussian King Frederik Willem I buys conscript for nobles
- 1719 England/Hannover/Saxony-Poland/Austria sign anti-Prussian/Russian pact
- 1757 Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by RobertFranois Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of Capital punishment used for regicides.
- 1759 George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
- 1776 Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state constitution
- 1781 British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond VA
- 1795 First Assembly of Lower Canada imposes licensing requirements on taverns, retailers of wine and spirits, and peddlars.
- 1800 1st Swedenborgian temple in US holds 1st service, Baltimore MD
- 1800 First Swedenborgian temple in US holds first service, Baltimore MD
- 1802 John Murray names Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia.
- 1804 Ohio legislature passes 1st laws restricting free blacks movement
- 1809 Treaty of Dardanelles concluded between Britain & France
- 1822 Central America proclaims annexation to Mexican Empire
- 1825 Alexandre Dumas pare fights his 1st duel; his pants fall down
- 1828 1st edition of Amsterdam General Trade Journal (Algemeen Handelsblad)
- 1828 First edition of Amsterdam General Trade Journal (Algemeen Handelsblad)
- 1834 Kiowa Indians record this as the night the stars fell
- 1836 Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo
- 1840 Records show 95,820 licensed public houses in England on this date
- 1841 James Clark Ross (UK) is 1st to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf
- 1850 California Exchange opens
- 1854 Steamship San Francisco wrecked-300 die
- 1854 The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
- 1855 USS Plymouth crew skirmish with Chinese troops
- 1859 1st steamboat sails, Red River
- 1859 The first steamboat sails, Red River
- 1861 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Fort Sumter
- 1861 Alabama troops seize Forts Morgan & Gaines at Mobile Bay
- 1871 A group of Chinese find a nugget at Dunolly, Victoria, called The Precious, which yields 50.418 kg of pure gold.
- 1874 The city of Winnipeg holds first civic election. Only 304 voters were registered, but 331 ballots are cast. go figure
- 1875 CDR Edward Lull begins expedition to locate best ship canal route across Panama.
- 1875 Charles Garnier's new Opera opens in Paris
- 1875 President Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg MS
- 1887 1st US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University
- 1888 Dutch Heidemaatschappij established
- 1892 1st successful auroral photograph made
- 1895 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
- 1895 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, publicly stripped of his rank; later declared innocent
- 1895 Henry James' play "Guy Domville" opens in London
- 1895 Victor Trumper makes first-class debut for New South Wales 17 years 64 days
- 1896 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- 1896 Austrian newspaper "Wiener Presse" publishes 1st public account of
- 1896 German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen's discovers x-rays
- 1896 Isaac Albeniz' opera "Pepita Jiminez" premieres in Barcelona
- 1900 Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
- 1903 San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable opens for public use
- 1904 -34ºF (-36.7ºC), River Vale NJ (state record)
- 1904 -42ºF (-41.1ºC), Smethport PA (state record)
- 1905 Charles Perrine announces discovery of Jupiter's 7th satellite, Elara
- 1905 National Association of Audubon Society incorporates
- 1909 Colombia recognizes Panama's independence
- 1911 Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. founded.
- 1911 Portuguese expel Jesuits
- 1911 San Francisco has it's 1st air meet
- 1912 1st National Hockey Assn game (Victoria)
- 1912 Prague Party Conference.
- 1913 First Balkan War: During the Naval Battle of Lemnos Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
- 1913 Inspector-General of Imperial Forces Ian Hamilton arrives in Quebec to inspect Canadian troops.
- 1914 Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
- 1914 James Cox of Ford Motor Co announces wages will jump from $2.40/9-hour day to $5.00/8-hour day
- 1916 Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro
- 1918 British premier Lloyd George demand for unified peace
- 1919 Free Committee for a German Workers Peace founded, which would become the Nazi party.
- 1919 National Socialist Party (Nazi) forms as German Farmers Party
- 1919 Spartacus uprising in Berlin state of siege
- 1920 Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to New York Yankees
- 1925 French Baseball Federation awards silver medals to John McGraw, Charlie Comiskey, & Hugh Jennings
- 1925 James Gleason & Richard Tabers "Is zat so?" premieres in New York City NY
- 1925 Nellie T. Ross becomes the first female governor in the US, succeeding her late husband as governor of Wyoming.
- 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- 1925 Under Polish control, Danzig establishes Port Gdansk post office
- 1927 Fox Studios exhibits Movietone
- 1927 Judge Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges that 4 games played between Chicago & Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to White Sox
- 1929 Coup by King Alexander in South Slavia
- 1930 Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire"
- 1931 1st woman to purchase a baseball team Lucille Thomas purchases Topeka franchise in the Western League
- 1933 Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the US, dies in Northampton, Massachusetts, at age 60.
- 1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
- 1933 Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, on Marin County side
- 1934 Fenway Park catches fire for 2nd time
- 1934 National & American baseball leagues select a uniform ball
- 1937 Fingleton & Bradman make record stand of 346 for 6th wicket
- 1937 Only unicameral state legislature in US opens 1st session (Nebraska)
- 1940 FCC hears 1st transmission of FM radio with clear, static-free signal
- 1940 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
- 1940 Finnish offensive at Suomossalmi against Russia
- 1941 British/Australian troops conquer Bardia Lybia
- 1942 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
- 1943 Scientist/educator George Washington Carver dies in Tuskegee, Alabama, at age 81.
- 1943 Teams agrees to start season later due to WWII
- 1943 USS Helena (CL-50) fired first proximity fused projectile in combat and shot down Japanese divebomber in southwest Pacific.
- 1943 William H Hastie, civilian aide to secretary of war, resigns to protest segregation in armed forces
- 1944 The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- 1945 Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Bros cartoon "Odor-able Kitty"
- 1945 Surprise attack on Liese-Aktion-office on Marnix St, Amsterdam
- 1945 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
- 1946 "Show Boat" opens at Ziegfeld Theater New York City NY for 417 performances
- 1948 Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
- 1949 General Spoor orders cease-fire on Sumatra
- 1949 President Harry S Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal"
- 1950 Carson McCuller's "Member of the Wedding" premieres in New York City NY
- 1951 Visitor posting - John O'Neal born - USA
- 1952 Flying Enterprise sinks
- 1953 Passenger ships Willem Ruys & Orange collide in the Red Sea
- 1953 Samuel Beckett's "En Attendant Godot" premieres in Paris
- 1955 KMSP TV channel 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul MN (IND) 1st broadcast
- 1957 Dodgers' Jackie Robinson retires rather than be traded to New York Giants
- 1957 Eisenhower asks Congress to send troops to the Mid East
- 1959 "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres on TV
- 1959 Buddy Holly releases his last record "It Doesn't Matter"
- 1960 Continental League, a proposed third major league, gets an assurance of congressional support from New York Senator Kenneth Keating
- 1961 The television series Mr. Ed debuts, the first of what would be six seasons of mirth and mayhem centered around a horse that talked but only to his owner, Wilbur Post.
- 1961 US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
- 1962 A replica of the miraculous statue, the Holy Infant of Good Health, is presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.
- 1962 Tony Sheridan & Beatles produce "My Bonnie" & "The Saints"
- 1963 "Camelot" closes at Majestic Theater New York City NY after 873 performances
- 1963 "Carnival!" closes at Imperial Theater New York City NY after 719 performances
- 1963 San Diego beats Boston 51-10 in AFL championship game
- 1964 Pope Paul VI visits Jordan & Israel
- 1964 San Diego Chargers win AFL-championship
- 1967 KLXA (now KTBN) TV channel 40 in Fontana-San Ana CA (IND) begins
- 1967 US folk singer Jesse Winchester crosses Canadian border after being served draft papers for military service; applies to became a Canadian citizen..
- 1968 Alexander Dubek comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
- 1968 Dr Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law
- 1968 Dubcek succeeds President Novotny as party leader of Czechoslovakia
- 1969 "Maggie Flynn" closes at ANTA Theater New York City NY after 82 performances
- 1969 Bollingen prize for poetry presented to John Berryman & Karl Shapiro
- 1969 Neville Williams' "Chronology of the Expanding World" completed
- 1969 USSR Venera 5 launched for 1st successful planet landing (Venus)
- 1970 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
- 1970 Joseph Yablonski, presidential candidate for the United Mine Workers, is found murdered at home with his wife and daughter.
- 1970 KPTS TV channel 8 in Hutchinson-Wichita KS (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1970 Soap Opera "All My Children" premieres on ABC
- 1970 Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
- 1971 1st one-day international, Australia vs England at the MCG
- 1971 Australia's first one-day international cricket matched played, against England.
- 1971 Harlem Globetrotters lose 100-99 to New Jersey Reds, ending 2,495-game win streak
- 1971 US heavyweight "Sonny" Liston's (36) corpse found
- 1972 Largest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavaliers vs Lakers-11,178)
- 1972 NASA announces development of space shuttle
- 1972 US president Richard Nixon gives the go-ahead for the NASA space shuttle program.
- 1972 West-Pakistani sheik Mujib ur-Rahman freed
- 1973 Mali & Niger break diplomatic relations with Israel
- 1973 Ottawa protests US air raids on Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam.
- 1974 An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
- 1974 Raul Julia appears on Bob Newhart Show in "Oh, Brother"
- 1975 "The Wiz," a musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, opens on Broadway.
- 1975 "Wiz" opens at Majestic Theater New York City NY for 1672 performances
- 1975 14 die when British freighter "Lake Illawarra" rams pylon bridge between Derwent & Hobart, Tasmania & ship sinks
- 1975 A ship called the Lake Illawarra hits the Tasman Bridge across Hobart's Derwent River; seven ship's crew and five motorists die.
- 1975 Charlie Smalls' "Wiz" premieres in New York City NY
- 1975 Salyut 4 with crew of 2 is launched for 30 days
- 1975 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
- 1976 "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" premieres on PBS
- 1976 Cambodia is renamed "Democratic Kampuchea"
- 1976 Greg Chappell scores 182* at SCG against West Indies
- 1976 Halifax born journalist Robert MacNeil teams up with Jim Lehrer to co-host the first MacNeil-Lehrer Report on PBS.
- 1977 Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta disbands parliament
- 1978 Visitor posting - Orin Jacob Neal is born
- 1978 Visitor posting - Shamsuddin David Ahmad Kitz is born. - USA
- 1979 Jazz bassist Charles Mingus dies of a heart attack at age 56.
- 1981 "Nightline" with Ted Koppel extended from 20 minutes to 30 minutes
- 1981 Attorney General Guidelines were issued concerning FBI undercover Agents involving the investigation of bribery of public officials. The FBI's successful ABSCAM investigation had raised concerns that undercover efforts might lead to entrapment. This was not the case in the ABSCAM investigation. The courts upheld the convictions.
- 1981 Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, arrested in England
- 1981 Visitor posting - Kimberly Noel Wright was born in Manassas, Va, USA
- 1982 Arkansas judge rules against obligatory teaching of creation
- 1982 Elizabeth Bagshaw dies at age 100; one of Canada's first female doctors
- 1982 Ottawa bans hiring skilled foreign workers in several mining, manufacturing and construction sectors; to protect Canadian jobs.
- 1983 Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada release New Year's message attacking government economic policy.
- 1984 Adrian Dantly (Utah), ties NBA record of 28 free throws
- 1985 Bryan Trottier failed on 9th Islander penalty shot
- 1985 Discovery moves to launch pad for STS 51-C mission
- 1985 Visitor posting - Randy was born - USA
- 1987 Canadian author Margaret Laurence takes her own life at age 60, losing a battle with lung cancer;
- 1987 Surrogate Baby M case begins in Hackensack NJ
- 1988 Austrian President Waldheim's war record investigated
- 1989 2 French TV newsmen arrested for trying to plant fake bombs on 3 airlines at JFK airport in security test
- 1989 Baseball signs $400M with ESPN, showing 175 games in 1990
- 1990 J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
- 1991 "Oh, Kay!" closes at Richard Rodgers Theater New York City NY after 77 performances
- 1991 Edwin Jongejans of Netherlands wins 1-meter springboard diving title
- 1991 Kevin Bradshaw of US International scores NCAA Division 1 record 72 points
- 1992 "6 Degrees of Separation" closes at Vivian Beaumont New York City NY after 496 performances
- 1992 "Crucible" closes at Belasco Theater New York City NY after 32 performances
- 1992 "On Borrowed Time" closes at Circle in Square Theater New York City NY after 99 performances
- 1992 Ravi Shastri scores 206 at SCG before being Warne's 1st cricket Test wicket
- 1993 Brian Lara completes 277 vs Australia at cricket SCG
- 1993 Off the Shetland Islands, in Britain Liberian-registered oil tanker Braer, bound for Canada, hits a reef off Shetland and goes aground, spilling its 90 million litres of crude oil into the North Sea.
- 1993 Price is Right model Janice Pennington sues CBS for show accident
- 1993 Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame
- 1993 The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
- 1993 Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
- 1994 The start of a horror spell of New South Wales bushfires; four die, more than 100 hospitalised in one day, scores of homes destroyed; more than15,000 Sydneysiders flee advancing flames.
- 1994 Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, former speaker of the House, dies in Boston at age 81.
- 1994 Visitor posting - Oliver milner was born
- 1994 Yat Weiju swims world record 100m butterfly stroke (58.71)
- 1995 AFC beats NFC 41-13 in the pro bowl
- 1995 Lockheed C-140 Jetstar crashes at Isfahan Persia, 18 killed
- 1995 Rogers Cablesystems President Colin Watson says "'We now know we have made a mistake" as consumer revolt forces company to withdraw its negative option billing for seven new specialty cable-television channels
- 1995 Visitor posting - Michael Klajbor born - USA
- 1996 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- 1996 Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula announces his retirement
- 1996 Muralitharan no-balled for throwing in ODI vs West Indies at the Gabba
- 1996 The longest US government shutdown ends after 21 days when Congress passes an interim spending measure that allows federal employees to return to work.
- 1996 Yahya Ayyash, the "Engineer", the elusive mastermind behind a wave of Islamic suicide bombings against Israel, is killed in Gaza, apparently by a booby-trapped mobile phone.
- 1997 "Juan Darien-Carnival Mass" closes at Vivian Beaumont New York City NY
- 1997 "Love Thy Neighbor" closes at Booth Theater New York City NY
- 1997 "Show Boat" closes at Gershwin Theater New York City NY
- 1997 French trains are diverted to pick up stranded skiers and German rail stations are converted into homeless shelters as the death toll from Europe's longest cold spell in a decade passes 230.
- 1997 In ocean racing, Montreal solo sailor Gerry Roufs disappears at sea while circumnavigating the Globe.
- 1997 Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya.
- 1998 Ice storm knocks out electricity in Quebec & Ontario
- 1998 Sonny Bono, half of the Sonny and Cher pop duo and politician, dies in a skiing accident in Lake Tahoe, California at age 62.
- 1998 Vandals decapitate Copenhagen's Little Mermaid
- 1999 Four US jets fire on and miss four Iraqi MiGs testing the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq in the first air-to-air confrontation in more than six years.
- 2000 The first day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
- 2000 Visitor posting - Jessica Lee Thompson was born - Healdton, OK - USA
- 2001 The FBI publicly announced the National InfraGuard program in the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. The program centers on securely sharing information about computer intrusions and intrusion threats between business and law enforcement so that the confidentiality of potentially affected businesses is protected.
- 2005 Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, was discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
- 2006 Independence Air ceases operations.
- 2007 Taiwan High Speed Rail open between Taipei and Kaohsiung.
More historical events added daily - keep checking back