Events Pre-1600 312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross. 1275 – Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam. 1524 – French troops lay siege to Pavia. 1553 – Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.
1601–1900 1644 – Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War. 1674 – The French garrison in Grave surrenders the town to a Dutch army after a difficult siege. 1682 – Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1726 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata. 1775 – King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament. 1795 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S. 1806 – The French Army under Napoleon enters Berlin following the Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. 1810 – United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida. 1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be killed. 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces led by General William F. Smith defeat Confederate forces in the Battle of Brown's Ferry, opening up a supply line to the besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Marshal Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at the conclusion of the Siege of Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers.
1901–present 1907 – Fifteen people are killed in Hungary when gendarmes opened fire on a crowd gathered at a church consecration. 1913 – A rail workers' strike in Chile escalates into a general strike, organized by the Regional Workers' Federation of Chile. 1914 – World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin. 1916 – Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu I. 1919 – The Fourth Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Oleksandrivsk. 1922 – A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country's annexation to the South African Union. 1924 – The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union. 1930 – Ratifications are exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories. 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne. 1944 – World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end. 1948 – A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands. 1954 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. 1958 – Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier. 1961 – NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1. 1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile. 1962 – By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war. 1964 – Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing". 1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire. 1979 – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains its independence from the United Kingdom. 1980 – The Chun Doo-hwan government forcibly arrests and investigates monks and personnel of the Jogye Order. 1981 – Cold War: The runs aground on the east coast of Sweden. 1986 – The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang. 1988 – Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspends construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices in the building structure. 1991 – Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that results in the United States' "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy. 1993 – Widerøe Flight 744 crashes in Overhalla Municipality, Norway, killing six people. 1994 – Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified. 1997 – The 1997 Asian financial crisis causes a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 1999 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing the Prime Minister and seven others. 2014 – Britain withdraws from Afghanistan at the end of Operation Herrick, after 12 years four months and seven days. 2017 – Catalonia declares independence from Spain. 2018 – A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers. 2018 – Leicester City F.C. owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others after a Premier League match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England. 2019 – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria.
Births Pre-1600 892 – Emperor Ai of Tang, Chinese emperor (died 908) 921 – Chai Rong, Chinese emperor (died 959) 1156 – Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse (died 1222) 1335 – Taejo of Joseon (died 1408) 1401 – Catherine of Valois, Queen consort of England (died 1437) 1561 – Mary Sidney, English writer, patroness and translator (died 1621) 1572 – Marie Elisabeth of France, French princess (died 1578)
1601–1900 1615 – Christian I, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg, (died 1691) 1661 – Fyodor Apraksin, Russian admiral (died 1728) 1703 – Johann Gottlieb Graun, German violinist and composer (died 1771) 1744 – Mary Moser, English painter and academic (died 1819) 1760 – August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (died 1831) 1765 – Nancy Storace, English soprano (died 1817) 1782 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1840) 1806 – Juan Seguín, American colonel, judge, and politician, 101st Mayor of San Antonio (died 1890) 1811 – Stevens T. Mason, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan (died 1843) 1811 – Isaac Singer, American actor and businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (died 1875) 1814 – Daniel H. Wells, American religious leader and politician, 3rd Mayor of Salt Lake City (died 1891) 1838 – John Davis Long, American lawyer and politician, 34th United States Secretary of the Navy (died 1915) 1842 – Giovanni Giolitti, Italian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1928) 1844 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916) 1854 – William Alexander Smith, Scottish religious leader, founded the Boys' Brigade (died 1914) 1858 – Elliott Lewis, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Tasmania (died 1935) 1858 – Saitō Makoto, Japanese admiral and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1936) 1858 – Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919) 1865 – Charles Spencelayh, English painter and academic (died 1958) 1868 – William Gillies, Australian politician, 21st Premier of Queensland (died 1928) 1877 – Walt Kuhn, American painter and academic (died 1949) 1877 – George Thompson, English cricketer and umpire (died 1943) 1884 – Shirō Takasu, Japanese admiral (died 1944) 1885 – Sigrid Hjertén, Swedish painter (died 1948) 1890 – Toshinari Shōji, Japanese general (died 1974) 1894 – Agda Helin, Swedish actress (died 1984) 1894 – Oliver Leese, English-Welsh general (died 1978) 1894 – Fritz Sauckel, German sailor and politician, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (died 1946) 1894 – Ye Shengtao, Chinese writer, educator, and politician (died 1988)
1901–present 1904 – Riho Lahi, Estonian journalist and author (died 1995) 1906 – Peter Blume, Belarusian-American painter and sculptor (died 1992) 1906 – Earle Cabell, American banker and politician, Mayor of Dallas (died 1975) 1906 – Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer and educator (died 2010) 1908 – Lee Krasner, American painter (died 1984) 1910 – Jack Carson, Canadian-American actor and singer (died 1963) 1910 – Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau, American chemical engineer (died 2000) 1911 – Leif Erickson, American actor (died 1986) 1913 – Joe Medicine Crow, American anthropologist, historian, and author (died 2016) 1913 – Luigi Piotti, Italian race car driver (died 1971) 1914 – Ahmet Kireççi, Turkish wrestler (died 1979) 1914 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and playwright (died 1953) 1915 – Harry Saltzman, Canadian-French production manager and producer (died 1994) 1917 – Augustine Harris, English bishop (died 2007) 1917 – Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer and politician (died 1993) 1918 – Mihkel Mathiesen, Estonian engineer and politician (died 2003) 1918 – Teresa Wright, American actress and singer (died 2005) 1920 – Nanette Fabray, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2018) 1920 – K. R. Narayanan, Indian lawyer and politician, 10th President of India (died 2005) 1922 – Poul Bundgaard, Danish actor and singer (died 1998) 1922 – Ruby Dee, American actress and poet (died 2014) 1922 – Michel Galabru, French actor and playwright (died 2016) 1922 – Ralph Kiner, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2014) 1923 – Roy Lichtenstein, American painter and sculptor (died 1997) 1923 – Ned Wertimer, American actor (died 2013) 1924 – Bonnie Lou, American singer-songwriter (died 2015) 1925 – Warren Christopher, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 63rd United States Secretary of State (died 2011) 1925 – Jane Connell, American actress and singer (died 2013) 1925 – Paul Fox, English broadcaster (died 2024) 1925 – Monica Sims, English radio host and producer (died 2018) 1926 – Boris Chetkov, Russian painter (died 2010) 1926 – Henri Fertet, French Resistance fighter (died 1943) 1926 – H. R. Haldeman, American businessman and diplomat, 4th White House Chief of Staff (died 1993) 1926 – Takumi Shibano, Japanese author and translator (died 2010) 1927 – Dominick Argento, American composer and educator (died 2019) 1928 – Gilles Vigneault, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet 1929 – Myra Carter, American actress (died 2016) 1929 – Bill George, American football player (died 1982) 1929 – Maurice Robert Johnston, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire 1930 – Leo Baxendale, English cartoonist (died 2017) 1930 – Barry Supple, English historian and academic 1931 – Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian physician, psychiatrist, and author (died 2021) 1931 – Anatoliy Zayaev, Ukrainian footballer and manager (died 2012) 1932 – Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (died 2007) 1932 – Harry Gregg, Northern Irish footballer and manager (died 2020) 1932 – Dolores Moore, American baseball player (died 2000) 1932 – Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (died 1963) 1933 – Floyd Cramer, American singer and pianist (died 1997) 1933 – Ryō Hanmura, Japanese author (died 2002) 1934 – Giorgos Konstantinou, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter