Events Pre-1600 48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army. 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete. 1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop. 1500 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503): The Ottomans capture Methoni, Messenia.
1601–1900 1610 – The First Anglo-Powhatan War begins in colonial Virginia. 1638 – An army under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar defeats imperial troops at the battle of Wittenweiher. 1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire. 1814 – American Indian Wars: The Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia. 1830 – Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following abdication of Charles X. 1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains. 1854 – American Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau publishes his memoir Walden. 1855 – Åland War: The Battle of Suomenlinna begins. 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope. 1877 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Big Hole: A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army. 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph. 1897 – The first International Congress of Mathematicians is held in Zürich, Switzerland.
1901–present 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England. 1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India, by the Indian independence revolutionaries, against the British government. 1936 – Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island: Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force. 1942 – Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th symphony premieres in a besieged Leningrad. 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time. 1944 – World War II: Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dig to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war. 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers. 1945 – World War II: The Red Army invades Japanese-occupied Manchuria. 1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo. 1965 – The State of Singapore separates from the Malaysian federation due to a heated ideological conflict between their ruling parties. 1969 – Tate–LaBianca murders: Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent. 1970 – LANSA Flight 502 crashes after takeoff from Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as two people on the ground. 1971 – The Troubles: In Northern Ireland, the British authorities launch Operation Demetrius. The operation involves the mass arrest and internment without trial of individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Mass riots follow, and thousands of people flee or are forced out of their homes. 1973 – Mars 7 is launched from the USSR. 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first president of the United States to resign from office. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president. 1979 – Female workers of YH Trading in South Korea hold a sit-in protest in response to the company's unilateral shutdown. 1991 – The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government's case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial. 1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership. 1995 – Aviateca Flight 901 crashes into the San Vicente volcano in El Salvador, killing all 65 people on board. 1999 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin fires his prime minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet. 2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists are arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests are made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation. 2007 – Air Moorea Flight 1121 crashes after takeoff from Moorea Airport in French Polynesia, killing all 20 people on board. 2012 – Shannon Eastin becomes the first woman to officiate an NFL game. 2013 – Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30. 2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city. 2021 – The Tampere light rail officially starts operating. 2024 – Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashes near Vinhedo, São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.
Births Pre-1600 1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English historian and merchant (died 1274) 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (died 1604) 1544 – Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania (died 1606) 1590 – John Webster, colonial settler and governor of Connecticut (died 1661) 1593 – Izaak Walton, English biographer and author (The Compleat Angler) (died 1683)
1601–1900 1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German-Dutch theologian and academic (died 1669) 1611 – Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German count, officer in the Dutch Army, diplomat for the Dutch Republic (born 1611) (2004). "Die Fürstengruft zu Siegen und die darin von 1669 bis 1781 erfolgten Beisetzungen". In: u.a. (Redaktion), Siegener Beiträge. Jahrbuch für regionale Geschichte (in German). Vol. 9. Siegen: Geschichtswerkstatt Siegen – Arbeitskreis für Regionalgeschichte e.V. p. 191; 1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (died 1694) 1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (died 1683) 1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (died 1772) 1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (died 1758) 1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (died 1778) 1748 – Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (died 1809) 1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American humanitarian; wife of Alexander Hamilton (died 1854) 1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish architect and engineer, designed the Menai Suspension Bridge (died 1834) 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian physicist and chemist (died 1856) 1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (died 1801) 1788 – Adoniram Judson, American missionary and lexicographer (died 1850) 1797 – Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and surveyor (died 1855) 1805 – Joseph Locke, English engineer and politician (died 1860) 1819 – Jonathan Homer Lane, American astrophysicist who mathematically analyzed the Sun as a gaseous body (died 1880) 1819 – William T. G. Morton, American dentist who first used ether as a surgical anaesthetic (died 1868) 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (died 1937) 1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Queen Consort of King Amadeo I of Spain (died 1876) 1848 – Alfred David Benjamin, Australian-born businessman and philanthropist. (died 1900) 1861 – Dorothea Klumpke, American astronomer and academic (died 1942) 1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (died 1920) 1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria (died 1962) 1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan composer and conductor (died 1947) 1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1959) 1878 – Eileen Gray, Irish architect and furniture designer (died 1976) 1879 – John Willcock, Australian politician, 15th Premier of Western Australia, (died 1956) 1881 – Prince Antônio Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, Brazilian prince (died 1918) 1890 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (died 1958) 1896 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (died 1980) 1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher (died 1980) 1897 – Ralph Wyckoff, American scientist and pioneer of X-ray crystallography (died 1994) 1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian-English author and actress (died 1996) 1900 – Charles Farrell, American actor and singer (died 1990)
1901–present 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (died 1991) 1902 – Panteleimon Ponomarenko, Russian general and politician (died 1984) 1905 – Leo Genn, British actor and barrister (died 1978) 1909 – Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, Indian scholar, author, and academic (died 1992) 1909 – Willa Beatrice Player, American educator, first Black woman college president (died 2003) 1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (died 1944) 1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American astronomer and astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate (died 1996) 1911 – Eddie Futch, American boxer and trainer (died 2001) 1911 – John McQuade, Northern Irish soldier, boxer, and politician (died 1984) 1913 – Wilbur Norman Christiansen, Australian astronomer and engineer (died 2007) 1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian-Austrian conductor and director (died 1963) 1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author and illustrator (died 2001) 1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (died 1990) 1915 – Mareta West, American astronomer and geologist (died 1998) 1918 – Kermit Beahan, American Air Force colonel (died 1989) 1918 – Giles Cooper, Irish soldier and playwright (died 1966) 1918 – Albert Seedman, American police officer (died 2013) 1919 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch journalist, economist, and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 1987) 1919 – Ralph Houk, American baseball player and manager (died 2010) 1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and author (died 2007) 1921 – Ernest Angley, American evangelist and author (died 2021) 1921 – J. James Exon, American soldier and politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (died 2005) 1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (died 1985) 1924 – Mathews Mar Barnabas, Indian metropolitan (died 2012) 1924 – Frank Martínez, American soldier and painter (died 2013) 1925 – David A. Huffman, American computer scientist, developed Huffman coding (died 1999) 1926 – Denis Atkinson, Barbadian cricketer (died 2001) 1927 – Daniel Keyes, American short story writer and novelist (died 2014) 1927 – Marvin Minsky, American cognitive scientist, computer scientist, and pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence (died 2016)
1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor and screenwriter (died 1978) 1928 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player and coach 1928 – Camilla Wicks, American violinist and educator (died 2020) 1928 – Dolores Wilson, American soprano and actress (died 2010) 1929 – Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and activist (died 1979) 1930 – Milt Bolling, American baseball player and scout (died 2013)