Events Pre-1600 69 – The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor. 250 – Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1601–1900 1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage. 1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont. 1749 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeat British forces at the Battle of Princeton, helping boost patriot morale. 1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia. 1833 – Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. 1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia. 1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States. 1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power. 1870 – Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, United States. 1871 – In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe's forces bring about a Prussian retreat. 1885 – Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.
1901–present 1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan. 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead. It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill. 1913 – An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading (955.0 mb (28.20 inHg)) for a non-tropical system in the continental United States. 1913 – First Balkan War: Greece completes its capture of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, as the last Ottoman forces on the island surrender. 1920 – Over 640 are killed after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes the Mexican states Puebla and Veracruz. 1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States. 1944 – World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero. 1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf suffers a concussion during a freak racing accident; he dies from the injury the following day. The annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him. 1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time. 1949 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established. 1953 – Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress. 1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower. 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. 1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed. 1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. 1961 – Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba. 1961 – The SL-1 nuclear reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities. 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars. 1961 – Aero Flight 311 crashes into the forest in Kvevlax, Finland, killing 25 people. 1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro. 1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, comes into force. 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated. 1987 – Varig Flight 797 crashes near Akouré in the Ivory Coast, resulting in 50 deaths. 1990 – United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces. 1992 – CommutAir Flight 4821 crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing two people. 1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). 1994 – Baikal Airlines Flight 130 crashes near Mamoney, Irkutsk, Russia, resulting in 125 deaths. 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA. 2002 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons. 2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history. 2009 – The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto. 2015 – Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people. 2016 – In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. 2018 – For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm. 2019 – Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover. 2020 – Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict. 2023 – Singapore's Jurong Bird Park permanently closes. 2024 – At least 91 people are killed in bombings in Kerman, Iran, during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani four years earlier. 2026 – The United States conducts airstrikes across northern Venezuela, including the capital Caracas and captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.
Births
Pre-1600 106 BC – Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (died 43 BC) 1509 – Gian Girolamo Albani, Italian cardinal (died 1591)
1601–1900 1611 – James Harrington, English political theorist (died 1677) 1698 – Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet and songwriter (died 1782) 1710 – Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer (died 1796) 1722 – Fredrik Hasselqvist, Swedish biologist and explorer (died 1752) 1731 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (died 1792) 1760 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian ruler (died 1799) 1775 – Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont (died 1863) 1778 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish archbishop (died 1861) 1793 – Lucretia Mott, American activist (died 1880) 1802 – Charles Pelham Villiers, English lawyer and politician (died 1898) 1803 – Douglas William Jerrold, English journalist and playwright (died 1857) 1806 – Henriette Sontag, German soprano and actress (died 1854) 1810 – Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer (died 1897) 1816 – Samuel C. Pomeroy, American businessman and politician (died 1891) 1819 – Charles Piazzi Smyth, Italian-Scottish astronomer and academic (died 1900) 1831 – Savitribai Phule, Indian poet, educator, and activist (died 1897) 1836 – Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai and rebel leader (died 1867) 1840 – Father Damien, Flemish priest and missionary (died 1889) 1847 – Ettore Marchiafava, Italian physician (died 1935) 1853 – Sophie Elkan, Swedish writer (died 1921) 1855 – Hubert Bland, English businessman (died 1914) 1861 – Ernest Renshaw, English tennis player (died 1899) 1861 – William Renshaw, English tennis player (died 1904) 1862 – Matthew Nathan, English soldier and politician, 13th Governor of Queensland (died 1939) 1865 – Henry Lytton, English actor (died 1936) 1870 – Henry Handel Richardson, Australian-English author (died 1946) 1873 – Ichizō Kobayashi, Japanese businessman and art collector, founded the Hankyu Hanshin Holdings (died 1957) 1876 – Wilhelm Pieck, German carpenter and politician, 1st President of the German Democratic Republic (died 1960) 1877 – Josephine Hull, American actress (died 1957) 1880 – Francis Browne, Irish Jesuit priest and photographer (died 1960) 1883 – Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1967) 1883 – Duncan Gillis, Canadian discus thrower and hammer thrower (died 1963) 1884 – Raoul Koczalski, Polish pianist and composer (died 1948) 1885 – Harry Elkins Widener, American businessman (died 1912) 1886 – John Gould Fletcher, American poet and author (died 1950) 1886 – Arthur Mailey, Australian cricketer (died 1967) 1887 – August Macke, German-French painter (died 1914) 1892 – J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, and philologist (died 1973) 1894 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (died 1963) 1897 – Eithne Coyle, Irish republican revolutionary, (died 1985)McCoole, Sinéad, No ordinary women: Irish female activists in the revolutionary years, 1900–1923, O'Brien, 2003, p. 155 1897 – Marion Davies, American actress and comedian (died 1961) 1898 – Carolyn Haywood, American author and illustrator (died 1990) 1900 – Donald J. Russell, American businessman (died 1985)
1901–present 1901 – Ngô Đình Diệm, Vietnamese lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam (died 1963) 1905 – Dante Giacosa, Italian engineer (died 1996) 1905 – Anna May Wong, American actress (died 1961) 1906 – Ulyana Barkova, Russian farm worker (died 1991) 1907 – Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor and director (died 1986) 1909 – Victor Borge, Danish-American pianist and conductor (died 2000) 1910 – Frenchy Bordagaray, American baseball player and manager (died 2000) 1910 – John Sturges, American director and producer (died 1992) 1912 – Federico Borrell García, Spanish soldier (died 1936) 1912 – Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and politician (died 2002) 1912 – Armand Lohikoski, American-Finnish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2005) 1915 – Jack Levine, American painter and soldier (died 2010) 1916 – Betty Furness, American actress and television journalist (died 1994) 1916 – Fred Haas, American golfer (died 2004) 1917 – Albert Mol, Dutch author and actor (died 2004) 1917 – Roger Williams Straus, Jr., American journalist and publisher, co-founded Farrar, Straus and Giroux (died 2004) 1919 – Herbie Nichols, American pianist and composer (died 1963) 1920 – Siegfried Buback, German lawyer and politician, Attorney General of Germany (died 1977) 1921 – Isabella Bashmakova, Russian historian of mathematics (died 2005) 1922 – Bill Travers, English actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1994) 1923 – Hank Stram, American football coach and sportscaster (died 2005) 1924 – Otto Beisheim, German businessman and philanthropist, founded Metro AG (died 2013) 1924 – Enzo Cozzolini, Italian football player (died 1962) 1924 – André Franquin, Belgian author and illustrator (died 1997) 1924 – Nell Rankin, American soprano and educator (died 2005) 1925 – Jill Balcon, English actress (died 2009) 1926 – W. Michael Blumenthal, American economist and politician, 64th United States Secretary of the Treasury 1926 – George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (died 2016) 1928 – Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Sarawak (died 2015) 1929 – Sergio Leone, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1989) 1929 – Ernst Mahle, German-Brazilian composer and conductor (died 2025) 1929 – Gordon Moore, American businessman, co-founder of Intel Corporation (died 2023)