Events Pre-1600 619 – A qaghan of the Western Turkic Khaganate is assassinated in a Chinese palace by Eastern Turkic rivals after the approval of Tang emperor Gaozu. 1410 – The Peace of Bicêtre suspends hostilities in the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War.
1601–1900 1675 – Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow leads a colonial militia against the Narragansett during King Philip's War. 1707 – Four British naval vessels run aground on the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. In response, the first Longitude Act is enacted in 1714. 1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created. 1868 – Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally. 1882 – The great fire destroys a large part of Oulu's city center in Oulu Province, Finland. 1889 – North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states. 1899 – The Boers begin their 118-day siege of British-held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.
1901–present 1912 – Bulgaria defeats the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lule Burgas, the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War, which opens her way to Constantinople. 1914 – World War I: The Russian Empire declares war on the Ottoman Empire and the Dardanelles is subsequently closed. 1917 – The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" with the clear understanding "that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". 1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting. 1920 – The Ocoee massacre commences in Orange County, Florida on the day of the 1920 United States presidential election. 1920 – In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the result of the 1920 United States presidential election. 1936 – The BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service begins. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day. 1940 – World War II: First day of Battle of Elaia–Kalamas between the Greeks and the Italians. 1947 – In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017. 1949 – The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia. 1951 – Canada in the Korean War: A platoon of The Royal Canadian Regiment defends a vital area against a full battalion of Chinese troops in the Battle of the Song-gok Spur. The engagement lasts into the early hours the next day. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: Nikita Khrushchev meets with leaders of other Communist countries to seek their advice on the situation in Hungary, selecting János Kádár as the country's next leader on the advice of Josip Broz Tito. 1956 – Suez Crisis: Israel occupies the Gaza Strip. 1959 – Quiz show scandals: Twenty-One game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance. 1959 – The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway. 1960 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, the Lady Chatterley's Lover case. 1963 – South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm is assassinated following a military coup. 1964 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal. 1965 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, sets himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war. 1966 – The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States. 1967 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war. 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 19 is hijacked and diverted to Vnukovo International Airport, where the aircraft is stormed by authorities. 1982 – Channel 4, the British free-to-air public broadcast television channel funded by its commercial activities, starts broadcasting. 1983 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 1984 – Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962. 1986 – Lebanon hostage crisis: U.S. hostage David Jacobsen is released in Beirut after 17 months in captivity. 1988 – The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT. 1988 – LOT Polish Airlines Flight 703 crashes in Białobrzegi, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland, killing one person and injuring several more. 1990 – British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television plc merge to form BSkyB as a result of massive losses. 1997 – Tropical Storm Linda makes landfall in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, causing more than 3,000 deaths. 1999 – Honolulu shootings: In the worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii, a gunman shoots at eight people in his workplace, killing seven. 2000 – Expedition 1 arrived at the International Space Station for the first long-duration stay onboard. From this day to present, a continuous human presence in space on the station remains uninterrupted. 2008 – Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by one point ahead of Felipe Massa at the Brazilian Grand Prix, after a pass for fifth place against the Toyota of Timo Glock on the final lap of the race. 2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years. 2020 – In Vienna's Innere Stadt district, an ISIL sympathizer shoots and kills four people and injures 23 more, before being shot and killed by the police. 2022 – A peace agreement is signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, ending the Tigray War.
Births Pre-1600 971 – Mahmud of Ghazni (died 1030) 1418 – Gaspare Nadi, Italian builder and writer (died 1504) 1428 – Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine (died 1483) 1470 – Edward V, King of England (died 1483) 1475 – Anne of York, seventh child of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville (died 1511) 1549 – Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain (died 1580)
1601–1900 1636 – Edward Colston, English merchant and politician (died 1721) 1649 – Esmé Stewart, 2nd Duke of Richmond (died 1660) 1696 – Conrad Weiser, American soldier, monk, and judge (died 1760) 1699 – Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter and educator (died 1779) 1709 – Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (died 1759) 1734 – Daniel Boone, American hunter and explorer (died 1820) 1755 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian-French queen consort of Louis XVI of France (died 1793) 1777 – Fortunat Alojzy Gonzaga Żółkowski, Polish actor and translator (died 1822) 1795 – James K. Polk, American lawyer and politician, 11th President of the United States (died 1849) 1799 – John Light Atlee, American physician and surgeon (died 1885) 1808 – Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly, French author and critic (died 1889) 1815 – George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (died 1864) 1821 – George Bowen, Irish-English diplomat, 5th Governor-General of New Zealand (died 1899) 1837 – Émile Bayard, French illustrator and painter (died 1891) 1844 – Mehmed V, Ottoman sultan (died 1918) 1844 – John J. Loud, American inventor (died 1916) 1847 – Georges Sorel, French philosopher and author (died 1922) 1855 – Henrik Schück, Swedish historian, author, and academic (died 1947) 1865 – Warren G. Harding, American journalist and politician, 29th President of the United States (died 1923) 1877 – Joseph De Piro, Maltese priest and missionary (died 1933) 1877 – Aga Khan III, Indian 48th Shia Imam (died 1957) 1877 – Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (died 1915) 1878 – Ōkido Moriemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 23rd Yokozuna (died 1930) 1879 – Marion Jones Farquhar, American tennis player and violinist (died 1965) 1883 – Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve, Canadian cardinal (died 1947) 1885 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer and academic (died 1972) 1886 – Dhirendranath Datta, Pakistani lawyer and politician (died 1971) 1890 – Nishinoumi Kajirō III, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 30th Yokozuna (died 1933) 1890 – Moa Martinson, Swedish author (died 1964) 1892 – Alice Brady, American actress (died 1939) 1893 – Battista Farina, Italian businessman, founded the Pininfarina Company (died 1966) 1894 – Alexander Lippisch, German-American aerodynamicist and engineer (died 1976)
1901–present 1901 – James Dunn, American actor (died 1967) 1903 – Travis Jackson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1987) 1905 – Isobel Andrews, New Zealand writer (died 1990) 1905 – Georges Schehadé, Lebanese poet and playwright (died 1989) 1906 – Daniil Andreyev, Russian poet and mystic (died 1959) 1906 – Luchino Visconti, Italian director and screenwriter (died 1976) 1908 – Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (died 1983) 1908 – Bunny Berigan, American trumpet player (died 1942) 1910 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian lawyer and politician, Egyptian Minister of Interior (died 1999) 1911 – Odysseas Elytis, Greek poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996) 1911 – Raphael M. Robinson, American mathematician, philosopher, and theorist (died 1995) 1913 – Burt Lancaster, American actor (died 1994) 1914 – Johnny Vander Meer, American baseball player and manager (died 1997) 1914 – Ray Walston, American actor (died 2001) 1915 – Sidney Luft, American film producer (died 2005) 1917 – Ann Rutherford, American actress (died 2012) 1918 – Alexander Vraciu, American commander and pilot of Romanian descent (died 2015) 1919 – Warren Stevens, American actor (died 2012) 1920 – Bill Mazer, Ukrainian-American journalist and sportscaster (died 2013) 1921 – Shepard Menken, American actor (died 1999) 1921 – Bill Mosienko, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1994) 1922 – Michael Loewe, British historian, Sinologist and writer (died 2025) 1923 – Tibor Rosenbaum, Hungarian-born Swiss rabbi and businessman (died 1980) 1924 – David Bauer, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1988) 1924 – Rudy Van Gelder, American record producer and engineer (died 2016) 1926 – Myer Skoog, American basketball player (died 2019) 1926 – Charlie Walker, American country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and DJ (died 2008) 1927 – Steve Ditko, American author and illustrator (died 2018) 1927 – John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover, English businessman and politician (died 2022) 1928 – Gerry Alexander, Jamaican cricketer and veterinarian (died 2011) 1928 – Paul Johnson, English journalist, historian, and author (died 2023) 1928 – James Luisi, American basketball player and actor (died 2002) 1928 – Shulamith Shahar, Latvian-born Israeli historian (died 2025) 1929 – Amar Bose, American engineer and businessman, founded the Bose Corporation (died 2013) 1929 – Robert Gover, American journalist and author (died 2015) 1929 – Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, Pakistani judge and politician, 9th President of Pakistan (died 2022) 1929 – Richard E. Taylor, Canadian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018) 1931 – Phil Woods, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (died 2015) 1933 – Clarence D. Rappleyea Jr., American lawyer and politician (died 2016)