- 1066 Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
- 1066 King Harald of England crowned
- 1066 UK hist Edward the Confessor dies – Harold II reigned for 9 months
- 1099 Henry V crowned German king
- 1205 Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
- 1227 Ferrand of Portugal freed from the Louvre
- 1352 French king Jean II introduces Order of the Star
- 1449 Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI is crowned at Mistra.
- 1453 Emperor Frederik III becomes archduke of Austria
- 1494 First Mass celebrated in the New World at La Isabela, Hispaniola.
- 1496 Moorish fortress Alhambra, near Grenada, surrenders to the Christi
- 1535 City of Lima Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro
- 1540 King Henry VIII of England married his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
- 1540 UK hist Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, the 'Flanders Mare', wife #4
- 1579 Artois/Hainault/Dowaai sign pro-Spanish Union of Arras
- 1579 The Union of Atrecht was signed.
- 1622 Pope Gregory XV forms Congregatio the Propagande Fide
- 1639 Virginia is first colony to order surplus crops (tobacco) destroyed
- 1643 Near Montreal, Quebec Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, plants a wooden cross on Mount Royal to offer thanks to God for saving the settlement of Ville Marie from flooding.
- 1649 The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial
- 1661 The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
- 1663 Great earthquake in New England
- 1681 First recorded boxing match (Duke of Albemarle's butler vs his butcher)
- 1690 Emperor Leopold's son Jozef chosen Roman Catholic king
- 1690 Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
- 1720 The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
- 1773 Massachusetts slaves petition legislature for freedom
- 1781 Battle of Jersey (Island in the UK)
- 1781 In the Battle of Jersey on 6 January the British defeated the last attempt by France to invade Jersey militarily.
- 1784 Turkey & Russia sign treaty in Constantinople
- 1786 In Saint John, New Brunswick the first sitting of the New Brunswick legislature takes place at Saint John.
- 1806 Horatio Nelson laid to rest in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London
- 1832 New England Anti-Slavery Society organizes (Boston)
- 1838 Samuel F.B. Morse makes the first public demonstration of the telegraph, in Morristown, New Jersey.
- 1838 Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.
- 1839 2 day storm off Irish & English coast immortalized as "The Big Wind"
- 1842 4,500 British & Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before India
- 1845 Protestants and Catholics riot in Stratford, Ontario following the council election; eighty men fight in the streets
- 1853 American President-Elect Franklin Pierce and family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts.
- 1857 Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill, Pennsylvania
- 1861 Florida troops seize Federal arsenal at Apalachicola
- 1861 New York City NY mayor proposes New York become a free city, trading with N & S
- 1870 The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
- 1873 Pope Pius IX encyclical "On the Church in Armenia"
- 1873 US Congress begins investigating Crédit Mobilier scandal
- 1880 America's greatest silent-film cowboy star, Tom Mix, was born!
- 1880 Record snow cover in Seattle-120cm
- 1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union forms
- 1887 `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II.
- 1893 Great Northern Railway connects Seattle with east coast
- 1893 Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
- 1896 Cecil Rhodes resigns as premier of Cape colony
- 1896 The first US women's 6-day bicycle race starts, Madison Square Garden
- 1898 The first telephone message from a submerged submarine, by Simon Lake
- 1900 Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa - over 1,000 people killed
- 1903 Dutch Press museum opens in Amsterdam
- 1907 Maria Montessori opens her first (Montessori) school (Rome)
- 1912 New Mexico becomes 47th state
- 1914 Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded
- 1915 In France, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry go into action in France
- 1918 Over France, Canadian Captain J. Hedley of the Royal Flying Corps sucked from his seat and out of the plane while diving to escape German fighters; slipstream pulled him back to the plane when it levelled out.
- 1919 Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the U.S., dies in Oyster Bay, New York at age 60.
- 1920 Winnipeg, Manitoba T. A. Crerar chairs a meeting of Ontario and Prairie farmers' organizations to establish the National Progressive Party
- 1922 Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments
- 1924 Poulenc/Nijinska's ballet "Les Biches," premieres in Monte Carlo
- 1926 Kees Boeke opens first comprehensive school in Holland
- 1927 US marines sent to Nicaragua
- 1928 Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Mortalium animos (against oecumene)
- 1929 Alexander I establishes a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia
- 1929 King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, estojanuarska diktatura.)
- 1929 Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a legacy of work amongst India's poorest and diseased people
- 1930 Bradman scores 452* for New South Wales against Queensland, 377 minutes, 49 fours
- 1930 The first diesel engine automobile trip (in a Packard sedan) completed from Indianapolis, IN to New York City - 792 miles. The total cost for diesel was $1.38.
- 1931 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- 1931 Visitor posting - Mary Alice (nee Butler) Byrnes was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, sister of James Michael, Jr. and the only - and beloved - daughter of proud parents James Michael, Sr. and Grace (nee Meagher) Butler - USA
- 1936 Barbara Hanley became Canada's first woman mayor (Webbwood, Ontario)
- 1936 Supreme Court of the United States rules the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional in the case United States v. Butler et al..
- 1937 Bradman scores 270 Australia vs England at the MCG, including 110 singles
- 1938 Bronze memorial statue of Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx
- 1940 Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Pozna, Warthegau.
- 1941 FDR's "4 Freedoms" speech (speech, worship, from want & from fear)
- 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
- 1941 Keel of USS Missouri (BB-63) is laid at New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn
- 1942 Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
- 1942 The first around world flight by a Pan Am flying boat the "Pacific Clipper"
- 1943 Visitor posting - Jesse Ward is born at Paris , Indiana . USA
- 1945 George Bush, later to become U.S. vice-president and president, marries Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York.
- 1945 HMS WALPOLE, damaged off the Scheldt Estuary, Holland by German mine.
- 1946 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Quemadmodum
- 1946 Visitor posting - I was born in Louisville, Ky. and given the name Sandra Lee Curry which I had for a year before I was put up for adoption and my name became Sandra Christine Sanner - USA
- 1947 Ray Lindwall smashes 100 vs England in MCG Test
- 1947 Visitor posting - William McKinley Price born Chicago,IL:
- 1950 Music Chart Toppers: Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Dinah Shore, A Dreamer's Holiday - Perry Como, The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson, Mule Train - Tennessee Ernie Ford
- 1950 The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
- 1952 Charles Schulz' comic strip Peanuts first appeared in Sunday newspapers.
- 1953 The start of Vancouver's longest wet spell on record; ends 29 days later, with rain recorded on every one of 29 days; and you wonder why X files is filming in California
- 1957 Elvis Presley makes his 7th & final appearance on Ed Sullivan Show
- 1957 Yeshiva Kol Ya'ackov opens in Moscow Russia
- 1958 Gibson patents the Flying V Guitar
- 1958 Music Chart Toppers: At the Hop - Danny & The Juniors, Stood Up/Waitin' in School - Ricky Nelson, Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis, The Story of My Life - Marty Robbins
- 1961 A fire at the Thomas Hotel in San Francisco kills 20 people.
- 1963 "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins begins on NBC
- 1964 Charlie Finlay announces he wants to move Kansas City A's to Louisville
- 1964 Rolling Stones' first tour as headline act (with Ronettes)
- 1965 Canada part of new NATO anti-submarine destroyer squadron operating in the Atlantic
- 1966 Music Chart Toppers: The Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel, We Can Work It Out - The Beatles, Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers, Buckaroo - Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
- 1967 "Milton Berle Show" last airs on ABC-TV
- 1967 Two homemade buses collided on a mountain road in Terpate, Philippines plunging off a cliff, killing 84, injuring 140
- 1967 United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
- 1968 Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 8 weeks
- 1968 Dr N E Shumway performs the first US adult cardiac transplant operation
- 1968 Surveyor 7 (last of series) launched by US for soft-landing on Moon
- 1969 Supremes release "I'm Livin' In Shame"
- 1971 Berkeley chemists announces the first synthetic growth hormones
- 1971 In Vancouver BC, Neil Young returns to Canada for his first concerts since pre-stardom days; named best male singer and best composer this year
- 1972 Vladimir Bukovski is exiled from USSR
- 1973 "Schoolhouse Rock," premieres on ABC-TV with Multiplication Rock
- 1974 "CBS Mystery Theater," premieres on radio
- 1974 England begins 3 day work week during mine strike
- 1974 Music Chart Toppers: Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce, The Joker - Steve Miller Band, Show and Tell - Al Wilson, If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
- 1975 "Wheel Of Fortune," debuts on NBC-tv
- 1975 AM America premieres on ABC-TV with Bill Beutel as host
- 1976 China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's Republic of China
- 1976 Ted Turner purchases Atlanta Braves for reported $12 million
- 1977 EMI records drop punk rock group Sex Pistols
- 1977 Prince Andrew starts attending Lakefield College School near Peterborough, Ontario for two terms; second in line to the British throne
- 1977 The music publisher EMI ends its contract with the notorious punk rock group Sex Pistols after reports of abusive behaviour at Heathrow Airport, London.
- 1978 Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada announces plans to move head office from Montreal to Hog Town (Toronto)
- 1978 The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after the Second World War.
- 1978 The first postage stamp copyrighted by US (Carl Sandburg stamp)
- 1978 US hand over St Stephan crown to Hungary
- 1979 Number one hit on UK music charts - Village People - Y.M.C.A.
- 1980 Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins elections in India
- 1980 Philadelphia Flyers set NHL record of 35 straight games without a defeat
- 1981 50th hat trick in Islander history-John Tonelli scored 5 goals
- 1982 Music Chart Toppers: Physical - Olivia Newton-John, Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner, Let's Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire, Love in the First Degree - Alabama
- 1986 British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns
- 1986 Impala Platinum fires 20,000 black mine workers in Johannesburg
- 1986 Last day in Test cricket for Bob Holland
- 1986 STS 61-C scrubbed at T-31 seconds because of liquid oxygen valve problem
- 1986 Visitor posting - Myself, Imran Khan I was born 1986 06 January - India
- 1987 Astronomers at University of California observe the birth of a galaxy
- 1987 The 100th US Congress convenes
- 1990 Music Chart Toppers: Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins, Rhythm Nation - Janet Jackson, Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic featuring Felly, Who's Lonely Now - Highway 101
- 1990 New York Lotto pays $35 million to one winner (#s are 18-25-26-32-42-44)
- 1991 Jorge Serrano Elías elected President of Guatemala
- 1991 Qian Hong swims female world record 50m butterfly (27.30 seconds)
- 1991 Visitor posting - The death of six people in the city of Nag Hammadi in a dispute racist - Egypt [email protected]
- 1992 Shane Warne takes 1-150 in his first Test innings
- 1993 Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev dies in Paris at age 54.
- 1993 Bill Wyman announces he will leave Rolling Stones
- 1993 Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie dies in Englewood, New Jersey, at age 75.
- 1993 Jean Mueller discovers comet Mueller/1993a
- 1993 Visitor posting - Juan Manuel Molina was born! - USA
- 1994 Visitor posting - Jessica Thomas is born - USA
- 1994 Ice skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by Tonya Harding's bodyguard
- 1994 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
- 1995 A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
- 1995 Six people die trying to escape a fire in a 29-storey apartment building in North York near Toronto
- 1995 Visitor posting - Joe P was born in Pennsylvania
- 1996 Record $65.2 million British lottery won by 3 people (2-3-4-13-42-44)
- 2000 Quebec Central Railway takes over the former CPR Quebec Central Lines. Service between Sherbrooke and Vallee Jonction resumed 24 June 2000. The new Quebec Central is operated by Express Marco Inc.
- 2004 Costas Simitis Simitis announces his resignation as president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in Greece.
- 2004 Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate is declared the official anthem of Karnataka
- 2005 First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace begins in Brussels, Belgium.
- 2005 Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers.
- 2006 Tropical Storm Zeta (2005) dissipates, ending the notorious 2005 hurricane season.
- 2008 The Canadian national average gas price is $1.07 per litre
More historical events added daily - keep checking back