Events Pre-1600 1139 – Pope Innocent II issues the bull Omne datum optimum in which he endorses the Knights Templar and approves the Templar Rule. 1430 – The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice. 1461 – Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England, bringing a temporary stop to the Wars of the Roses. 1549 – The city of Salvador, Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1601–1900 1632 – Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629. 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera 13 days earlier. 1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway. 1809 – King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. 1809 – At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden. 1847 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege. 1849 – The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab. 1857 – Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company's rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. 1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1. 1871 – Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria. 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus. 1882 – The Knights of Columbus is established.
1901–present 1927 – Sunbeam 1000hp breaks the land speed record at Daytona Beach, Florida. 1936 – The 1936 German parliamentary election and referendum seeks approval for the recent remilitarization of the Rhineland. 1941 – The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time. 1941 – World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesian coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan. 1942 – The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city. 1947 – The Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule begins in Madagascar. 1951 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. 1951 – Hypnosis murders in Copenhagen. 1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety. 1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections. 1962 – Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina's armed forces, ending an day constitutional crisis. 1968 – The funeral of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, begins in Moscow, with thousands of people in attendance. 1971 – My Lai massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. 1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam. 1973 – Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends. 1974 – NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury. 1974 – The Terracotta Army is discovered in Shaanxi province, China. 1979 – Quebecair Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City, killing 17. 1982 – The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982. 1984 – The Baltimore Colts load their possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer their operations to Indianapolis. 1990 – The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War. 1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble. 1999 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in India strikes the Chamoli district in Uttar Pradesh, killing 103. 2001 – A Gulfstream III crashes on approach to Aspen/Pitkin County Airport in Aspen, Colorado. All 18 people on board are killed. 2002 – In reaction to the Passover massacre two days prior, Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian militants, its largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. 2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members. 2004 – The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat certifies Taipei 101 as the world's tallest building, based on the building having been topped out on 1 July 2003, even though the building was not completed until 31 December 2004.. Retrieved 25 March 2015. 2010 – Two suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40. 2013 – At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed. 2015 – Air Canada Flight 624 skids off the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, after arriving from Toronto shortly past midnight. All 133 passengers and five crews on board survive, with 23 treated for minor injuries. 2017 – Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. 2021 – The ship Ever Given is dislodged from the Suez Canal.
Births Pre-1600 1187 – Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, grandson of King Henry II of England (died 1203) 1561 – Santorio Santorio, Italian biologist (died 1636) 1584 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (died 1648)
1601–1900 1602 – John Lightfoot, English priest, scholar, and academic (died 1675) 1713 – John Ponsonby, Irish politician (died 1789) 1735 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German author (died 1787) 1747 – Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer (died 1822) 1769 – Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France (died 1851) 1780 – Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer (died 1841) 1790 – John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (died 1862) 1799 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1869) 1802 – Johann Moritz Rugendas, German landscape painter (died 1858) 1824 – Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist, physician, and philosopher (died 1899) 1826 – Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (died 1900) 1853 – Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer and inventor (died 1937) 1860 – William Benham, New Zealand zoologist (died 1950) 1862 – Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter (died 1947) 1863 – Walter James, Australian politician, 5th Premier of Western Australia (died 1943) 1867 – Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (died 1955) 1869 – Edwin Lutyens, British architect (died 1944) 1871 – Tom Hayward, English cricketer (died 1939) 1872 – Hal Colebatch, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Western Australia (died 1953) 1873 – Tullio Levi-Civita, Italian mathematician and academic (died 1941) 1874 – Lou Henry Hoover, American philanthropist and geologist, 33rd First Lady of the United States (died 1944) 1883 – Donald Van Slyke, Dutch-American biochemist (died 1971) 1885 – Dezső Kosztolányi, Hungarian author and poet (died 1936) 1889 – Warner Baxter, American actor (died 1951) 1889 – Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor (died 1968) 1890 – Harold Spencer Jones, English astronomer (died 1960) 1891 – Yvan Goll, French-German poet and playwright (died 1950) 1892 – József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (died 1975) 1895 – Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author (died 1998) 1896 – Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (died 1962) 1899 – Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (died 1953) 1900 – John McEwen, Australian farmer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1980) 1900 – Charles Sutherland Elton, English zoologist and animal ecologist (died 1991)
1901–present 1902 – Marcel Aymé, French author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1967) 1902 – William Walton, English composer (died 1983) 1903 – Douglas Harkness, Canadian colonel and politician, Canadian Minister of National Defence (died 1999) 1907 – Braguinha, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (died 2006) 1908 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (died 1981) 1908 – Dennis O'Keefe, American actor and screenwriter (died 1968) 1909 – Moon Mullican, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1967) 1912 – Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (died 1979) 1913 – Phil Foster, American actor (died 1985) 1913 – Jack Jones, British trade union leader, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (died 2009) 1914 – Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author (died 2014) 1916 – Peter Geach, English philosopher and academic (died 2013) 1916 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (died 2005) 1917 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (died 2008) 1917 – Ieuan Maddock, Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher (died 1988) 1918 – Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (died 1990) 1918 – Lê Văn Thiêm, Vietnamese mathematician and academic (died 1991) 1918 – Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam's Club (died 1992) 1919 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (died 2001) 1920 – John M. Belk, American businessman and politician (died 2007) 1920 – Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic (died 2014) 1920 – Pierre Moinot, French author (died 2007) 1920 – Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge (died 2000) 1921 – Sam Loxton, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician (died 2011) 1923 – Geoff Duke, English-Manx motorcycle racer (died 2015) 1923 – Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (died 2012) 1926 – Vladimir Bolotin, Russian physicist (died 2008) 1927 – Martin Fleischmann, British chemist (died 2012) 1927 – John McLaughlin, American journalist and producer (died 2016) 1927 – John Vane, English pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) 1928 – Romesh Bhandari, Pakistani-Indian politician, 13th Foreign Secretary of India (died 2013) 1928 – Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic (died 2018) 1928 – Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster (died 2005) 1929 – Sheila Kitzinger, English activist, author, and academic (died 2015) 1929 – Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic (died 2021) 1929 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (died 2006) 1929 – Utpal Dutt, Indian actor, director and playwright (died 1993) 1930 – Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Mauritius (died 2021) 1931 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot and cosmonaut (died 2015) 1931 – Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (died 2025) 1935 – Ruby Murray, Northern Irish singer (died 1996) 1936 – Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator (died 2012) 1936 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (died 2012) 1936 – Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (died 2014) 1937 – Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (died 2013)