Events Pre-1600 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.Stevenson, J. A New Eusebius SPCK 1965, p. 296 1305 – Roger de Flor, leader of the mercenary Catalan Company, is murdered, leading to widespread pillaging by the mercenaries in Thrace. 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged at the instigation of Charles, Count of Valois. 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers. 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII. 1598 – Juan de Oñate begins the conquest of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. 1598 – Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
1601–1900 1636 – Eighty Years' War: Dutch Republic forces recapture a strategically important fort from Spain after a nine-month siege. 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States. 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation. 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana. 1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation. 1859 – Charles Dickens publishes the first edition of his literary magazine, All the Year Round, containing the first installment of his best-selling classic, A Tale of Two Cities. 1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fights a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico. 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces led by General E. Kirby Smith attack federal troops retreating across the Saline at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas. 1871 – The Camp Grant massacre takes place in Arizona Territory. 1885 – Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use. 1897 – J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London. 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
1901–present 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich. 1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc, is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity. 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States. 1937 – The Commonwealth of the Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative. 1939 – The 1939–40 New York World's Fair opens. 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address. 1943 – World War II: The British submarine surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans. 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. 1945 - World War II: Soviet soldiers raise the first Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Victory Banner will be raised the next day. 1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9,000 American and British airmen. 1947 – In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam. 1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established. 1956 – Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia. 1957 – Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery enters into force. 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned. 1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom. 1973 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon fires White House Counsel John Dean; other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resign. 1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh. 1979 – Eruption of Mount Marapi: Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, erupts. Between 80 and 100 people are killed. 1980 – Beatrix is inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands following the abdication of Juliana. 1980 – The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London. 1982 – The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India. 1989 – The Monkseaton shootings occur in Tyne and Wear, England. One is killed and 16 are injured. 1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free. 1994 – Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy. 1999 – Neo-Nazi David Copeland carries out the last of his three nail bombings in London at the Admiral Duncan gay pub, killing three people and injuring 79 others.; ; ; 2000 – Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide. 2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. 2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks. 2009 – Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2009 – Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix. 2012 – An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 108 people. At least 150 more are missing and presumed dead. 2013 – Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix. 2014 – A bomb blast in Ürümqi, China kills three people and injures 79 others. 2021 – Forty-five men and boys are killed in the Meron stampede in Israel.
Births Pre-1600 1310 – King Casimir III of Poland (died 1368) 1331 – Gaston III, Count of Foix (died 1391) 1383 – Anne of Gloucester, English countess, granddaughter of King Edward III of England (died 1438)The Complete Peerage, sourced from Camden, 3rd series, Vol.57, pp. 258–260 (1937) 1425 – William III, Landgrave of Thuringia (died 1482) 1504 – Francesco Primaticcio, Italian painter (died 1570) 1553 – Louise of Lorraine, Queen of France (died 1601)
1601–1900 1623 – François de Laval, French-Canadian bishop and saint (died 1708) 1651 – Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French priest and saint (died 1719) 1662 – Mary II, Queen of England and Scotland (died 1694) 1664 – François Louis, Prince of Conti (died 1709) 1710 – Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (died 1795) 1723 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and philosopher (died 1806) 1758 – Emmanuel Vitale, Maltese commander and politician (died 1802) 1770 – David Thompson, English-Canadian cartographer and explorer (died 1857) 1777 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician and physicist (died 1855) 1799 – Joseph Dart, American businessman and entrepreneur (died 1879) 1803 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (died 1879) 1829 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist and academic (died 1884) 1839 – Floriano Peixoto, Brazilian general and politician, 2nd President of Brazil (died 1895) 1848 – Eugène Simon, French naturalist (died 1924) 1857 – Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist (died 1940) 1857 – Walter Simon, German banker and philanthropist (died 1920) 1865 – Max Nettlau, German historian and academic (died 1944) 1866 – Mary Haviland Stilwell Kuesel, American pioneer dentist (died 1936) 1869 – Hans Poelzig, German architect, designed the IG Farben Building and Großes Schauspielhaus (died 1936) 1870 – Franz Lehár, Hungarian composer (died 1948) 1870 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1944) 1874 – Cyriel Verschaeve, Flemish priest and author (died 1949) 1876 – Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist and politician (died 1937) 1877 – Léon Flameng, French cyclist (died 1917) 1877 – Alice B. Toklas, American memoirist (died 1967) 1878 – Władysław Witwicki, Polish psychologist, philosopher, translator, historian (of philosophy and art) and artist (died 1948) 1879 – Richárd Weisz, Hungarian Olympic champion wrestler (died 1945) 1880 – Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, Scottish cartoonist (died 1967) 1883 – Jaroslav Hašek, Czech soldier and author (died 1923) 1883 – Luigi Russolo, Italian painter and composer (died 1947) 1884 – Olof Sandborg, Swedish actor (died 1965) 1888 – John Crowe Ransom, American poet, critic, and academic (died 1974) 1893 – Harold Breen, Australian public servant (died 1966) 1893 – Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician, 14th German Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, executed Nuremberg war criminal (died 1946) 1895 – Philippe Panneton, Canadian physician, academic, and diplomat (died 1960) 1896 – Reverend Gary Davis, American singer and guitarist (died 1972) 1896 – Hans List, Austrian scientist and businessman, founded the AVL Engineering Company (died 1996) 1897 – Humberto Mauro, Brazilian director and screenwriter (died 1983) 1900 – Erni Krusten, Estonian author and poet (died 1984)
1901–present 1901 – Simon Kuznets, Belarusian-American economist, statistician, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1985) 1902 – Theodore Schultz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) 1905 – Sergey Nikolsky, Russian mathematician and academic (died 2012) 1908 – Eve Arden, American actress (died 1990) 1908 – Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic professor of law and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Iceland (died 1970) 1908 – Frank Robert Miller, Canadian air marshal and politician (died 1997) 1909 – F. E. McWilliam, Irish sculptor and educator (died 1992) 1909 – Juliana of the Netherlands (died 2004) 1910 – Levi Celerio, Filipino pianist, violinist, and composer (died 2002) 1914 – Charles Beetham, American middle-distance runner (died 1997) 1914 – Dorival Caymmi, Brazilian singer-songwriter, actor, and painter (died 2008) 1916 – Paul Kuusberg, Estonian journalist and author (died 2003) 1916 – Claude Shannon, American mathematician and engineer (died 2001) 1916 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (died 1999) 1917 – Bea Wain, American singer (died 2017) 1920 – Duncan Hamilton, Irish-English race car driver and pilot (died 1994) 1920 – Gerda Lerner, Austrian-American historian and woman's history author (died 2013) 1920 – Tom Moore, British army officer and fundraiser (died 2021) 1921 – Roger L. Easton, American scientist, co-invented the GPS (died 2014) 1922 – Anton Murray, South African cricketer (died 1995) 1923 – Percy Heath, American bassist (died 2005) 1923 – Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (died 2004) 1924 – Sheldon Harnick, American lyricist (died 2023) 1924 – Uno Laht, Estonian KGB officer and author (died 2008) 1925 – Corinne Calvet, French actress (died 2001)