Events Pre-1600 96 – Emperor Domitian is assassinated as a result of a plot by his wife Domitia and two Praetorian prefects. Nerva is then proclaimed as his successor. 324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire. 1048 – Battle of Kapetron between a combined Byzantine-Georgian army and a Seljuq army. 1066 – Norwegian king Harald Hardrada lands with Tostig Godwinson at the mouth of the Humber River and begins his invasion of England. 1180 – Philip Augustus becomes king of France at the age of fifteen. 1454 – Thirteen Years' War: In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic knights. 1544 – The expedition of Juan Bautista Pastene makes landfall in San Pedro Bay, southern Chile, claiming the territory for Spain.
1601–1900 1618 – The twelfth baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar begins. 1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, whereby Austria cedes lands south of the Sava and Danube rivers to the Ottoman Empire. 1759 – French and Indian War: The Articles of Capitulation of Quebec are signed. 1809 – The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, opens. 1810 – First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only during the Peninsular War in Spain, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such. 1837 – Tiffany & Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium". 1838 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden. 1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. 1860 – Second Opium War: Battle of Zhangjiawan: Now heading towards Beijing after having recently occupied Tianjin, the allied Anglo-French force engages and defeats a larger Qing Chinese army at Zhangjiawan. 1860 – Wars of Italian Unification: Battle of Castelfidardo: Royal Sardinian Army defeats forces of the Papal States, resulting in the conquest of Umbria and Marche by the Kingdom of Italy. 1862 – The Confederate States celebrate for the first and only time a Thanksgiving Day. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga begins between Confederate and Union forces. It involves the second highest amount of casualties for any American Civil War battle apart from Gettysburg.The NPS battle description by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission and Kennedy, p. 227, cite September 18–20. 1864 – American Civil War: John Bell Hood begins the Franklin–Nashville Campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to draw William Tecumseh Sherman back out of Georgia.Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 2, The Western Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. , p. 583. 1867 – The first provincial election for the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly after Canada's Confederation returns a large majority for the Anti-Confederation Party, led by William Annand, who becomes Premier. 1867 – The fourth and current State Constitution of Maryland is ratified by voters. 1870 – During an expedition to the Wyoming Territory, Henry D. Washburn observes and names the Old Faithful Geyser. 1873 – The U.S. bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, contributing to the Panic of 1873. 1882 – The Pacific Stock Exchange opens. 1885 – Five Chinese people were lynched outside of Pierce City in the Idaho Territory of the United States. 1898 – The Fashoda Incident triggers the last war scare between Britain and France.
1901–present 1906 – The 1906 Hong Kong typhoon kills an estimated 10,000 people. 1910 – In Washington, D.C., George Owen Squier demonstrated the first system to allow multiplexing of telephone transmissions, sending a message between two laboratories of the U.S. Signal Corps. 1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I. 1915 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the short story "Extricating Young Gussie" by P.G. Wodehouse, featuring the first appearance of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. 1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros. 1919 – In the Netherlands, a law granting full voting rights to women is granted royal assent by Queen Wilhelmina. 1921 – Rif War: In Ajdir, Spanish Morocco, a secessionist group of Berbers led by Abd el-Krim proclaim the Republic of the Rif, in rebellion against the Sultan of Morocco and the Spanish Army. French and Spanish forces suppress the Republic by May 1926. 1922 – The Kingdom of Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations. 1924 – The U.S. ends its military occupation of the Dominican Republic, after invading in May 1916 to force the Dominican government to pay its debts to European creditors. 1926 – A hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, killing 372 people. 1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air. 1928 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first Autogyro crossing of the English Channel. 1931 – Imperial Japan instigates the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria. 1932 – The body of actress Peg Entwistle is discovered by police, two days after her suicide by jumping off of the Hollywoodland sign. 1934 – The Soviet Union is admitted to the League of Nations. 1939 – World War II: The Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania. 1939 – World War II: The radio show Germany Calling begins transmitting Nazi propaganda. 1941 – World War II: The Soviet Union introduces conscription for all males between the ages of 16 and 50. 1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews. 1944 – World War II: The British submarine torpedoes Jun'yō Maru, killing 5,600, mostly slave labourers and POWs. 1944 – World War II: Operation Market Garden results in the liberation of Eindhoven. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Arracourt begins. 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his general headquarters from Manila to Tokyo. 1947 – The National Security Act reorganizes the United States government's military and intelligence services. 1948 – Operation Polo is terminated after the Indian Army accepts the surrender of the army of Hyderabad. 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate without completing another senator's term. 1950 – Korean War: U.S. Eighth Army and United Nations forces break out of the Pusan Perimeter in southeast Korea."Korean War (1950-1953)", in Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History, Larry M. Wortzel and Robin D. S. Higham, eds. (ABC-CLIO, 1999) p134 1950 – TV Tupi Difusora, the first television station to broadcast in Brazil, begins transmissions on Channel 3 in São Paulo.John Sinclair, Latin American Television : A Global View: A Global View (Oxford University Press, 1998) p64 1954 – Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi becomes the first Western head of state to be awarded the highest honor of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin. 1961 – United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1962 – Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations. 1962 – Aeroflot Flight 213 crashes into a mountain near Chersky Airport, killing 32 people. 1964 – The wedding of Constantine II of Greece and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark takes place in Athens. 1964 – The first television adaptation of Charles Addams's "The Addams Family" premieres on ABC Television. 1974 – Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people. 1980 – A fuel leak from a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile at a USAF base near Damascus, Arkansas, results in an explosion in a missile silo, killing one person and injuring 21 others. 1988 – The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar comes to an end. 1988 – General Henri Namphy, president of Haiti, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by General Prosper Avril. 1988 – The Magna Charta Universitatum, asserting key principles essential to the free operation of universities, is signed in Bologna by the rectors of 388 institutions of higher learning, to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the University of Bologna. 1989 – An attempted coup d'état against Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaoré is uncovered and foiled. 1990 – Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations. 1997 – The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is adopted. 2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks. 2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution. 2011 – The 2011 Sikkim earthquake is felt across northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and southern Tibet. 2013 – A VIA Rail train crashes into a double-decker bus at a train station in Ottawa, Canada, killing six people and injuring 35 others. 2014 – Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom, by 55% to 45%. 2015 – Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed during a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar. 2016 – The 2016 Uri attack in Jammu and Kashmir, India by terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed results in the deaths of nineteen Indian Army soldiers and all four attackers.
Births Pre-1600 AD 53 – Trajan, Roman emperor (died 117) 524 – Kan Bahlam I, ruler of Palenque (died 583) 1091 – Andronikos Komnenos, Byzantine prince and general (died 1130/31) 1344 – Marie of France, Duchess of Bar (died 1404) 1434 – Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress (died 1467) 1501 – Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (died 1563) 1554 – Haydar Mirza Safavi, Safavid prince (died 1576) 1587 – Francesca Caccini, Italian singer-songwriter and lute player (died 1640)
1601–1900 1606 – Zhang Xianzhong, Chinese rebel leader (died 1647) 1643 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish bishop, historian, and theologian (died 1715) 1676 – Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg (died 1733) 1684 – Johann Gottfried Walther, German organist and composer (died 1748) 1709 – Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer and poet (died 1784) 1711 – Ignaz Holzbauer, Austrian composer and educator (died 1783) 1733 – George Read, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Delaware (died 1798) 1750 – Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa, Spanish poet and playwright (died 1791) 1752 – Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician and theorist (died 1833) 1765 – Pope Gregory XVI (died 1846) 1779 – Joseph Story, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (died 1845) 1786 – Christian VIII of Denmark (died 1848) 1786 – Justinus Kerner, German poet and author (died 1862) 1812 – Herschel Vespasian Johnson, American lawyer and politician, 41st Governor of Georgia (died 1880) 1819 – Léon Foucault, French physicist and academic (died 1868) 1837 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, Portuguese archbishop (died 1880) 1838 – Anton Mauve, Dutch painter and educator (died 1888) 1844 – Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, American artist (died 1934) 1846 – Richard With, Norwegian captain, businessman, and politician, founded Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab (died 1930) 1848 – Francis Grierson, English-American pianist and composer (died 1927) 1857 – John Hessin Clarke, American lawyer and judge (died 1945) 1858 – Kate Booth, English Salvation Army officer (died 1955) 1859 – John L. Bates, American lawyer and politician, 41st Governor of Massachusetts (died 1946) 1859 – Lincoln Loy McCandless, American businessman and politician (died 1940) 1860 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian-American composer and educator (died 1942) 1870 – Clark Wissler, American anthropologist, author, and educator (died 1947) 1872 – Carl Friedberg, German-Italian pianist and educator (died 1955) 1872 – Adolf Schmal, Austrian fencer and cyclist (died 1919)