Events Pre-1600 351 – The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out after his arrival at Antioch.Socrates Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica ii.28.2 558 – In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses, twenty years after its construction. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt. 1104 – The Seljuk emirs of Mosul and Mardin defeat the Crusader States of Antioch and Edessa. 1190 – The Crusader army of emperor Frederick Barbarossa defeats an army of the Rum Seljuks in the battle of Philomelion. 1274 – In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens; it ratified a decree to regulate the election of the Pope. 1342 – In Avignon, France, Cardinal Pierre Roger is elected Pope and takes the name Clement VI. 1487 – The Siege of Málaga commences during the Spanish Reconquista. 1544 – The Burning of Edinburgh by an English army is the first action of the Rough Wooing.Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 369.
1601–1900 1625 – State funeral of James VI and I (1566–1625) is held at Westminster Abbey.Jennifer Woodward, The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance England (Boydell, 1997), p. 175. 1664 – Inaugural celebrations begin at Louis XIV's new Palace of Versailles. 1685 – Battle of Vrtijeljka between rebels and Ottoman forces. 1697 – Stockholm's medieval castle Tre Kronor is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace. 1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. 1763 – Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British. 1765 – HMS Victory is launched at Chatham Dockyard, Kent. She is not commissioned until 1778. 1775 – The Ottoman Empire cedes Bukovina to the Habsburg monarchy. 1794 – French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic. 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Îles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses. 1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision. 1832 – Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London. 1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history. 1864 – American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. 1864 – The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia. 1895 – In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector—a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.
1901–present 1915 – World War I: German submarine sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,199 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many former pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire. 1915 – The Republic of China accedes to 13 of the 21 Demands, extending the Empire of Japan control over Manchuria and the Chinese economy. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Kyiv offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kyiv only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later. 1920 – Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later. 1930 – The 7.1 Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed. 1931 – The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces. 1940 – World War II: The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later. 1942 – World War II: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships. 1945 – World War II: Last German U-boat attack of the war, two freighters are sunk off the Firth of Forth, Scotland. 1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded. 1948 – The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress. 1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer. 1954 – Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Viet Minh victory (the battle began on March 13). 1960 – Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers. 1964 – Pacific Airlines Flight 773 is hijacked by Francisco Gonzales and crashes in Contra Costa County, California, killing 44. 1986 – Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits. 1991 – A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26. 1992 – Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise. 1992 – Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49. 1992 – Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada. 1994 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February. 1998 – Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history. 1999 – Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054. 1999 – Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. 1999 – In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup. 2000 – Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia. 2002 – An EgyptAir Boeing 737-500 crashes on approach to Tunis–Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people. 2002 – A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people. 2004 – American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamist militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet. 2023 – Tanur boat disaster: At least 22 people are killed when a boat carrying tourists capsizes in Tanur, Malappuram, Kerala, India. 2025 – The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force conduct surgical strikes code-named Operation SINDOOR on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam Attack that killed 26 people.
Births Pre-1600 Before 160 – Julia Maesa, Roman noblewoman (died 224) 1488 – John III of the Palatinate, archbishop of Regensburg (died 1538) 1530 – Louis, Prince of Condé (died 1569) 1553 – Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia (died 1618)
1601–1900 1605 – Patriarch Nikon of Moscow (died 1681) 1643 – Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politician, 10th Mayor of New York City (died 1700) 1700 – Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian physician (died 1772) 1701 – Carl Heinrich Graun, German tenor and composer (died 1759) 1711 – David Hume, Scottish economist, historian, and philosopher (died 1776) 1724 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, French-Austrian field marshal (died 1797) 1740 – Nikolai Arkharov, Russian police officer and general (died 1814) 1748 – Olympe de Gouges, French playwright and philosopher (died 1793) 1751 – Stephen Badlam, American artisan and military officer (died 1815) 1763 – Józef Poniatowski, Polish general (died 1813) 1767 – Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (died 1820) 1774 – William Bainbridge, American commodore (died 1833) 1787 – Jacques Viger, Canadian archaeologist and politician, 1st mayor of Montreal (died 1858) 1812 – Robert Browning, English poet and playwright (died 1889) 1833 – Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (died 1897) 1836 – Joseph Gurney Cannon, American lawyer and politician, 40th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1926) 1837 – Karl Mauch, German geographer and explorer (died 1875) 1840 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer and educator (died 1893) 1845 – Mary Eliza Mahoney, American nurse and activist (died 1926) 1847 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1929) 1857 – William A. MacCorkle, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of West Virginia (died 1930) 1860 – Tom Norman, English businessman (died 1930) 1861 – Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1941) 1867 – Władysław Reymont, Polish novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1925) 1875 – Bill Hoyt, American pole vaulter (died 1951) 1880 – Pandurang Vaman Kane, Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, Bharat Ratna awardee (died 1972) 1881 – George E. Wiley, American cyclist (died 1954) 1882 – Willem Elsschot, Belgian author and poet (died 1960) 1885 – George "Gabby" Hayes, American actor (died 1969) 1889 – Viktor Puskar, Estonian colonel (died 1943) 1891 – Harry McShane, Scottish engineer and activist (died 1988) 1892 – Archibald MacLeish, American poet, playwright, and lawyer (died 1982) 1892 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav field marshal and politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia (died 1980) 1893 – Frank J. Selke, Canadian ice hockey coach and manager (died 1985) 1896 – Kathleen McKane Godfree, English tennis and badminton player (died 1992) 1899 – Alfred Gerrard, English sculptor and academic (died 1998)
1901–present 1901 – Gary Cooper, American actor (died 1961) 1903 – Nikolay Zabolotsky, Russian-Soviet poet and translator (died 1958) 1905 – Philip Baxter, Welsh-Australian chemical engineer (died 1989) 1909 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and inventor, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (died 1991) 1909 – Dorothy Sunrise Lorentino, Native American teacher (died 2005) 1911 – Ishirō Honda, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1993) 1913 – Simon Ramo, American physicist and engineer (died 2016) 1917 – Domenico Bartolucci, Italian cardinal and composer (died 2013) 1917 – Lenox Hewitt, Australian public servant (died 2020) 1917 – David Tomlinson, English actor (died 2000) 1919 – Eva Perón, Argentinian actress, 25th First Lady of Argentina (died 1952) 1920 – Rendra Karno, Indonesian actor (died 1985) 1922 – Darren McGavin, American actor and director (died 2006) 1923 – Anne Baxter, American actress (died 1985) 1927 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-American author and screenwriter (died 2013) 1929 – Dick Williams, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2011) 1930 – Babe Parilli, American football player and coach (died 2017) 1931 – Teresa Brewer, American singer (died 2007) 1931 – Gene Wolfe, American author (died 2019) 1932 – Pete Domenici, American lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Albuquerque (died 2017)