Events Pre-1600 398 – End of the Gildonic rebellion after Gildo's forces are defeated by forces loyal to Western Roman Emperor Honorius under Gildo's brother Mascezel and Gildo's subsequent death. 432 – Election of pope Sixtus III following the death of pope Celestine I four days prior. 768 – Antipope Constantine II is arrested by primicerius Christopher and Lombard troops sent to aid him by king Desiderius. 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: Sixth day of the seventh month of the first year of the Ten'o (天応) era). 1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. 1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos. 1423 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: A Franco-Scottish army is defeated by the Anglo-Burgundians at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne. 1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France. 1492 – All remaining Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect. 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1601–1900 1618 – Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions. 1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years. 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India. 1667 – The treaty of Breda ends the second Anglo-Dutch War and grants England in possession of New Amsterdam. 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers. 1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks. 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia. 1763 – Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's War. 1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States." 1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process. 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city. 1865 – The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia. 1874 – Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
1901–present 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation. 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium. 1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections. 1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia). 1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis. 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question." 1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners. 1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria. 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated. 1948 – is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships. 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes. 1966 – The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappears off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard. 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy. 1971 – Apollo program: The Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover. 1972 – The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy. 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723, crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing 89. 1975 – The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland. 1987 – A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people. 1988 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia. 1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles. 1992 – The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations. 1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board. 1992 – China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108. 1992 – Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System. 1997 – FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five. 1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface. 2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl. 2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end. 2008 – East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board. 2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics. 2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270. 2020 – A De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser collide over Soldotna, Alaska, killing all seven people on board both aircraft, including state representative Gary Knopp.
Births Pre-1600 1143 – Emperor Nijō of Japan (died 1165) 1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (died 1467) 1526 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (died 1586) 1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1576) 1595 – Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (died 1641) 1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (died 1654)
1601–1900 1686 – Charles of France, Duke of Berry (died 1714) 1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (died 1768) 1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 1752) 1718 – John Canton, English physicist and academic (died 1772) 1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (died 1801) 1759 – Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (died 1796) 1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine priest and politician (died 1849) 1796 – Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (died 1846) 1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (died 1882) 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, designed the USS Monitor, the first ironclad warship of the US Navy (died 1889). 1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (died 1870) 1826 – Juhani Aataminpoika, Finnish serial killer (died 1854) 1826 – William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (died 1886) 1835 – Henri Brisson, French lawyer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (died 1912) 1835 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and explorer (died 1903) 1836 – Vasily Sleptsov, Russian author and activist (died 1878) 1837 – William Quantrill, American captain (died 1865) 1839 – Ignacio Andrade, Venezuelan general and politician, 25th President of Venezuela (died 1925) 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (died 1918) 1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (died 1905) 1854 – José Canalejas, Spanish academic and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (died 1912) 1854 – Arthur Barclay, 15th president of Liberia (died 1938) 1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English seismologist and geologist (died 1936) 1858 – Marion Talbot, American educator (died 1948) 1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American painter and illustrator (died 1940) 1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (died 1966) 1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (died 1963) 1877 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (died 1970) 1880 – Premchand, Indian author and playwright (died 1936) 1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Polish-German economist and politician (died 1945) 1886 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian-American mob boss (died 1931) 1886 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (died 1965) 1886 – Larry Doyle, American baseball player (died 1974) 1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher (died 1969) 1892 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and publisher, founded Worldwide Church of God (died 1986) 1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (died 1959) 1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (died 1972)
1901–present 1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (died 1985) 1902 – Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer and soldier (died 1989) 1904 – Brett Halliday, American engineer, surveyor, and author (died 1977) 1907 – Neil Robinson, American baseball player (died 1983) 1909 – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian theorist and author (died 1999) 1911 – George Liberace, American violinist (died 1983) 1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (died 2008) 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2006) 1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American football player and journalist (died 2003) 1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1984) 1914 – Paul J. Christiansen, American conductor and composer (died 1997) 1914 – Mario Bava, Italian director and screenwriter (died 1980) 1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter (died 1983) 1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (died 1986) 1916 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2006) 1916 – Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (died 1979) 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018) 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (died 2010) 1918 – Frank Renouf, New Zealand businessman and financier (died 1998) 1919 – Hemu Adhikari, Indian cricketer (died 2003) 1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (died 2006) 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (died 1987) 1920 – James E. Faust, American religious leader, lawyer, and politician (died 2007) 1921 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer and activist, founded Amnesty International (died 2005) 1921 – Donald Malarkey, American sergeant and author (died 2017)