Events Pre-1600 1244 – Pope Innocent IV arrives at Lyon for the First Council of Lyon. 1409 – The University of Leipzig opens.
1601–1900 1697 – St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of London, is consecrated. 1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what will become the United States. 1766 – Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a ground law, thus being first in the world with freedom of speech. 1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French. 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force. 1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas. 1845 – Manifest Destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West. 1848 – Franz Joseph I becomes Emperor of Austria. 1851 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic. 1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III. 1859 – Origins of the American Civil War: Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). 1865 – Alabama ratifies the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina, then Georgia; U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks. 1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States. 1899 – Philippine–American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, known as the "Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1901–present 1908 – Puyi becomes Emperor of China at the age of two. 1917 – World War I: Russia and the Central Powers sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk, and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk begin. 1919 – Ukrainian War of Independence: Ukrainian Bolsheviks attempt to assassinate Nestor Makhno as part of the Polonsky conspiracy. 1927 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile. 1930 – Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy. 1939 – New York City's LaGuardia Airport opens. 1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. 1943 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including the American , which is carrying a stockpile of mustard gas. 1947 – Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Arabs riot in Jerusalem in response to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. 1949 – Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others is adopted. 1950 – Korean War: The Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River ends with a decisive Chinese victory and UN forces are completely expelled from North Korea. 1954 – Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute". 1954 – The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Taiwan, is signed in Washington, D.C. 1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution. 1957 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 126 relating to the Kashmir conflict is adopted. 1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba will adopt Communism. 1962 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war's progress. 1968 – Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 crashes into Pedro Bay, Alaska, killing all 39 people on board. 1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations. 1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates. 1972 – Gough Whitlam is elected the 21st Prime Minister of Australia in the 1972 Australian federal election, defeating William McMahon and leading the Australian Labor Party back into office after 23 years in Opposition. 1975 – Laotian Civil War: The Pathet Lao seizes the Laotian capital of Vientiane, forces the abdication of King Sisavang Vatthana, and proclaims the Lao People's Democratic Republic. 1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. 1977 – A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Benghazi, Libya, killing 59. 1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: Four American missionaries are raped and murdered by a death squad. 1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. 1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of a Muslim-majority state. 1988 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-27, a classified mission for the United States Department of Defense. 1989 – The Peace Agreement of Hat Yai is signed and ratified by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the governments of Malaysia and Thailand, ending the over two-decade-long communist insurgency in Malaysia. 1990 – Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-35, carrying the ASTRO-1 spacelab observatory. 1991 – Canada and Poland become the first nations to recognize the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. 1992 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-53 for the United States Department of Defense. 1993 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed by police in Medellín. 1993 – Space Shuttle program: STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. 1999 – The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive following the Good Friday Agreement. 2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2015 – San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people and wound 22 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. 2016 – Thirty-six people die in a fire at a converted Oakland, California, warehouse serving as an artist collective. 2020 – Cannabis is removed from the list of most dangerous drugs of the international drug control treaty by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
Births Pre-1600 503 – Emperor Jianwen of Liang, emperor of the Chinese Liang dynasty (died 551) 1501 – Queen Munjeong, Korean queen (died 1565) 1578 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and theorist (died 1641) 1599 – Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin, Scottish nobleman (died 1663)
1601–1900 1629 – Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, Catholic cardinal (died 1704) 1694 – William Shirley, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of the province of Massachusetts Bay (died 1771) 1703 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian missionary and explorer (died 1759) 1738 – Richard Montgomery, Irish-American general (died 1775) 1754 – William Cooper, American judge and politician, founded Cooperstown, New York (died 1809) 1759 – James Edward Smith, English botanist and mycologist, founded the Linnean Society (died 1828) 1760 – John Breckinridge, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th United States Attorney General (died 1806) 1760 – Joseph Graetz, German organist, composer, and educator (died 1826) 1798 – António Luís de Seabra, 1st Viscount of Seabra, Portuguese magistrate and politician (died 1895) 1810 – Henry Yesler, American businessman and politician, 7th Mayor of Seattle (died 1892) 1811 – Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian farmer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Agriculture (died 1885) 1817 – Heinrich von Sybel, German historian, academic, and politician (died 1895) 1825 – Pedro II of Brazil (died 1891) 1827 – William Burges, English architect and designer (died 1881) 1846 – Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French lawyer and politician, 68th Prime Minister of France (died 1904) 1847 – Deacon White, American baseball player and manager (died 1939) 1859 – Kateryna Melnyk-Antonovych, Ukrainian historian and archaeologist (died 1942) 1859 – Georges Seurat, French painter (died 1891) 1860 – Charles Studd, England cricketer and missionary (died 1931) 1863 – Charles Edward Ringling, American businessman, co-founded the Ringling Brothers Circus (died 1926) 1866 – Harry Burleigh, American singer-songwriter (died 1949) 1876 – Yusuf Akçura, Tatar-Turkish activist and ideologue of Turanism (died 1935) 1877 – Cahir Healy, Northern Irish Anti Partitionist, writer and politician (died 1970) 1884 – Erima Harvey Northcroft, New Zealand soldier, lawyer, and judge (died 1953) 1884 – Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Turkish poet and author (died 1958) 1885 – George Minot, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1950) 1891 – Otto Dix, German painter and illustrator (died 1969) 1891 – Charles H. Wesley, American historian and author (died 1987) 1894 – Warren William, American actor (died 1948) 1895 – Harriet Cohen, English pianist (died 1967) 1897 – Ivan Bagramyan, Russian general (died 1982) 1897 – Rewi Alley, New Zealand writer and political activist (died 1987) 1898 – Indra Lal Roy, Indian lieutenant and first Indian fighter aircraft pilot (died 1918) 1899 – John Barbirolli, English cellist and conductor (died 1970) 1899 – John Cobb, English race car driver and pilot (died 1952) 1899 – Ray Morehart, American baseball player (died 1989) 1900 – Elisa Godínez Gómez de Batista, former First Lady of Cuba (died 1993) 1900 – Herta Hammerbacher, German landscape architect and professor (died 1985)
1901–present 1901 – Raimundo Orsi, Argentinian-Italian footballer (died 1986) 1905 – Khan Bahadur Abdul Hakim, Bangladeshi mathematician (died 1985) 1906 – Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-American engineer (died 1977) 1909 – Arvo Askola, Finnish runner (died 1975) 1909 – Walenty Kłyszejko, Estonian–Polish basketball player and coach (died 1987) 1909 – Joseph P. Lash, American activist and author (died 1987) 1910 – Russell Lynes, American photographer, historian, and author (died 1991) 1910 – Taisto Mäki, Finnish runner (died 1979) 1911 – Meng Qingshu, Chinese politician (died 1983) 1912 – George Emmett, English cricketer and coach (died 1976) 1913 – Marc Platt, American actor, singer, and dancer (died 2014) 1914 – Bill Erwin, American actor (died 2010) 1914 – Adolph Green, American playwright and composer (died 2002) 1915 – Takahito, Prince Mikasa of Japan (died 2016) 1916 – Howard Finster, American minister and painter (died 2001) 1917 – Sylvia Syms, American singer (died 1992) 1921 – Carlo Furno, Italian cardinal (died 2015) 1922 – Iakovos Kambanelis, Greek author, poet, and screenwriter (died 2011) 1923 – Maria Callas, American-Greek soprano and actress (died 1977) 1924 – Jonathan Frid, Canadian actor (died 2012) 1924 – Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (died 2010) 1924 – Else Marie Pade, Danish composer (died 2016) 1924 – Vilgot Sjöman, Swedish actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2006) 1925 – Julie Harris, American actress (died 2013) 1927 – Ralph Beard, American basketball player (died 2007) 1928 – Guy Bourdin, French photographer (died 1991) 1929 – Dan Jenkins, American journalist and author (died 2019) 1929 – Leon Litwack, American historian and author (died 2021)