Events
Pre-1600 639 – Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assault Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace. 715 – Pope Gregory II is elected. 934 – The Byzantine Empire reconquers Melitene under the leadership of John Kourkouas. 1051 – Henry I of France marries the Rus' princess, Anne of Kiev. 1445 – John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo. 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12. 1535 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage). 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest. 1542 – The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Myanmar.
1601–1900 1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power. 1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years. 1655 – The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1674 – John III Sobieski becomes king of Poland-Lithuania. 1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin develops the centigrade temperature scale. 1749 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars. 1780 – New England's Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, is observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. 1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte and his expedition force leave France to invade Egypt. 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour. 1828 – U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, sparking outrage in the South and leading to the Nullification crisis. 1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England. 1848 – Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million. 1883 – Buffalo Bill's first Buffalo Bill's Wild West opens in Omaha, Nebraska. 1900 – Great Britain annexes Tonga Island. 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
1901–present 1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior. 1917 – The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded. 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence. 1921 – The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration. 1922 – The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union is established. 1933 – Finnish cavalry general C. G. E. Mannerheim is appointed the field marshal. 1934 – Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria. 1942 – World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor for repairs. 1943 – Winston Churchill's second wartime address to the U.S. Congress 1945 – Syrian demonstrators in Damascus are fired upon by French troops injuring twelve, leading to the Levant Crisis. 1950 – A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city. 1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail. 1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data). 1961 – At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement. 1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday". 1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. 1971 – Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. 1986 – The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum. 1993 – SAM Colombia Flight 501 crashes on approach to José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia, killing 132. 1996 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-77. 1997 – The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts. 2000 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-101 to resupply the International Space Station. 2007 – President of Romania Traian Băsescu survives an impeachment referendum and returns to office from suspension. 2007 – A mass shooting starts in Moscow, Idaho, which would leave 3 non-shooters dead and 3 more injured, before the shooter committed suicide the next day. 2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders. 2012 – Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing one person and injuring five others. 2012 – A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people. 2015 – The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast. 2016 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board. 2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion. 2024 – A helicopter crash in Iran leaves 8 people dead, including the country's president Ebrahim Raisi & foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Births
Pre-1600 1400 – John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton, English soldier and politician (died 1462) 1462 – Baccio D'Agnolo, Italian woodcarver, sculptor and architect (died 1543) 1476 (or 1474) – Helena of Moscow, Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania and Queen consort of Poland (died 1513) 1593 – Claude Vignon, French painter (died 1670)
1601–1900 1616 – Johann Jakob Froberger, German organist and composer (died 1667) 1639 – Charles Weston, 3rd Earl of Portland, English soldier and noble (died 1665) 1700 – José de Escandón, 1st Count of Sierra Gorda, Spanish sergeant and politician (died 1770) 1724 – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, English admiral and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (died 1779) 1744 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German-born Queen to George III of the United Kingdom (died 1818) 1762 – Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher and academic (died 1814) 1773 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist and mineralogist (died 1854) 1795 – Johns Hopkins, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1873) 1827 – Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French academic and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 1896) 1832 – James Watney, Jr., English politician, brewer and cricketer (died 1886) 1857 – John Jacob Abel, American biochemist and pharmacologist (died 1938) 1861 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (died 1931) 1871 – Walter Russell, American painter, sculptor, and author (died 1963) 1874 – Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer and soldier (died 1955) 1878 – Alfred Laliberté, Canadian sculptor and painter (died 1953) 1879 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-English politician (died 1964) 1880 – Albert Richardson, English architect and educator, designed the Manchester Opera House (died 1964) 1881 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (official birthday), Turkish field marshal and statesman, 1st President of Turkey (died 1938) 1884 – David Munson, American runner (died 1953) 1886 – Francis Biddle, American lawyer and judge, 58th United States Attorney General (died 1968) 1887 – Ion Jalea, Romanian soldier and sculptor (died 1983) 1889 – Tản Đà, Vietnamese poet and author (died 1939) 1889 – Henry B. Richardson, American archer (died 1963) 1890 – Eveline Adelheid von Maydell, German-American illustrator (died 1962) 1890 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese politician, 1st President of Vietnam (died 1969) 1891 – Oswald Boelcke, German captain and pilot (died 1916) 1893 – H. Bonciu, Romanian author, poet, and journalist (died 1950) 1897 – Frank Luke, American lieutenant and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1918) 1898 – Julius Evola, Italian philosopher and painter (died 1974) 1899 – Lothar Rădăceanu, Romanian journalist, linguist, and politician (died 1955)
1901–present 1902 – Lubka Kolessa, Ukrainian-Canadian pianist and educator (died 1997) 1903 – Ruth Ella Moore, American scientist (died 1994) 1904 – Sven Thofelt, Swedish modern pentathlete and épée fencer (died 1993) 1906 – Bruce Bennett, American shot putter and actor (died 2007) 1908 – Manik Bandopadhyay, Indian author, poet, and playwright (died 1956) 1908 – Merriam Modell, American author (died 1994) 1908 – Percy Williams, Canadian sprinter (died 1982) 1909 – Nicholas Winton, English banker and humanitarian (died 2015) 1910 – Alan Melville, South African cricketer (died 1983) 1913 – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th President of India (died 1996) 1914 – Max Perutz, Austrian-English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002) 1914 – Alex Shibicky, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2005) 1914 – John Vachon, American photographer and journalist (died 1975) 1915 – Renée Asherson, English actress (died 2014) 1918 – Abraham Pais, Dutch-American physicist, historian, and academic (died 2000) 1919 – Georgie Auld, Canadian-American saxophonist, clarinet player, and bandleader (died 1990) 1919 – Mitja Ribičič, Italian-Slovenian soldier and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (died 2013) 1920 – Tina Strobos, Dutch psychiatrist known for rescuing Jews during World War II (died 2012) 1921 – Leslie Broderick, English lieutenant and pilot (died 2013) 1921 – Harry W. Brown, American colonel and pilot (died 1991) 1921 – Daniel Gélin, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2002) 1921 – Yuri Kochiyama, American activist (died 2014) 1921 – Karel van het Reve, Dutch historian and author (died 1999) 1922 – Arthur Gorrie, Australian hobby shop proprietor (died 1992) 1924 – Sandy Wilson, English composer and songwriter (died 2014) 1925 – Pol Pot, Cambodian general and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (died 1998) 1925 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (died 1965) 1926 – Edward Parkes, English engineer and academic (died 2019) 1926 – Peter Zadek, German director and screenwriter (died 2009) 1927 – Serge Lang, French-American mathematician, author and academic (died 2005) 1928 – Colin Chapman, English engineer and businessman, founded Lotus Cars (died 1982) 1928 – Thomas Kennedy, English air marshal (died 2013) 1928 – Gil McDougald, American baseball player and coach (died 2010) 1928 – Dolph Schayes, American basketball player and coach (died 2015) 1929 – Helmut Braunlich, German-American violinist and composer (died 2013) 1929 – Richard Larter, Australian painter (died 2014) 1929 – John Stroger, American politician (died 2008)