Events Pre-1600 951 – Emperor Li Jing sends a Southern Tang expeditionary force of 10,000 men under Bian Hao to conquer Chu. Li Jing removes the ruling family to his own capital in Nanjing, ending the Chu Kingdom. 1272 – While travelling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon Henry III of England's death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne. 1491 – An auto-da-fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects. 1532 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca.
1601–1900 1632 – King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed at the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years' War. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units capture Fort Washington from the Patriots. 1793 – French Revolution: Ninety dissident Roman Catholic priests are executed by drowning at Nantes. 1797 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Frederick William III. 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Schöngrabern: Russian forces under Pyotr Bagration delay the pursuit by French troops under Joachim Murat. 1822 – American Old West: Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail. 1828 – Greek War of Independence: The London Protocol entails the creation of an autonomous Greek state under Ottoman suzerainty, encompassing the Morea and the Cyclades. 1849 – A Russian court sentences writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labor. 1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now Zambia-Zimbabwe. 1857 – Second relief of Lucknow: Twenty-four Victoria Crosses are awarded, the most in a single day. 1860 – Fisgard Lighthouse, built in the Colony of Vancouver Island, shines its first light, becoming the first permanent lighthouse in present-day British Columbia 1863 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Campbell's Station, Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces which allows General Ambrose Burnside to secure Knoxville, Tennessee. 1871 – The National Rifle Association of America receives its charter from New York State. 1885 – Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba" Louis Riel is executed for treason.
1901–present 1904 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube). 1907 – Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory join to form Oklahoma, which is admitted as the 46th U.S. state. 1914 – The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens. 1920 – Qantas, Australia's national airline, is founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. 1933 – The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations. 1938 – LSD is first synthesized by Albert Hofmann from ergotamine at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel.Albert Hofmann; translated from the original German (LSD Ganz Persönlich) by J. Ott. MAPS-Volume 6, Number 69, Summer 1969. 1940 – World War II: In response to the leveling of Coventry by the German Luftwaffe two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg. 1940 – The Holocaust: In occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world. 1940 – New York City's "Mad Bomber" George Metesky places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison. 1944 – World War II: In support of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the town of Düren is destroyed by Allied aircraft. 1944 – The Jussi Awards, the Finnish film award ceremony, is held for the first time at Restaurant Adlon in Helsinki. 1945 – UNESCO is founded. 1959 – National Airlines Flight 967 explodes in mid-air over the Gulf of Mexico, killing all 42 aboard. 1959 – Aeroflot Flight 315 crashes on approach to Lviv Airport, killing all 40 people on board. 1965 – Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, which will be the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. 1966 – The Temptations release their Greatest Hits[ Greatest Hits Vol. 1] at Allmusic album, which goes on to be the Billboard Year-End R&B album of 1967. 1967 – Aeroflot Flight 2230 crashes near Koltsovo Airport, killing 107. 1973 – Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission. 1973 – U.S. president Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. 1974 – The Arecibo message is broadcast from Puerto Rico. 1979 – The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) is opened from Timpuri Noi to Semănătoarea in Bucharest, Romania. 1981 – Aeroflot Flight 3603 crashes during landing at Norilsk Airport, killing 99. 1988 – The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence. 1988 – In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. 1989 – El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University. 1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It's True album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals. 1992 – The Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes in Hoxne, Suffolk. 1997 – After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China releases Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, from jail for medical reasons. 2002 – The first cases of the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak are traced to Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. 2004 – Half-Life 2 is released, a game winning 39 Game of the Year awards and being cited as one of the best games ever made. 2005 – Following a 31-year wait, Australia defeats Uruguay in a penalty shootout to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. 2009 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-129 to the International Space Station. 2022 – Artemis Program: NASA launches Artemis 1 on the first flight of the Space Launch System, the start of the program's future missions to the moon.
Births Pre-1600 42 BC – Tiberius, Roman emperor (died 37 AD) 1436 – Leonardo Loredan, Italian ruler (died 1521) 1457 – Beatrice of Naples, Hungarian queen (died 1508) 1466 – Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, Florentine philosopher (died 1522) 1483 – Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Landgravine of Hesse, German noble (died 1522) 1528 – Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (died 1572) 1531 – Anna d'Este, Duchess consort of Nemours (died 1607) 1538 – Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Spanish Grand Inquisitioner, Archbishop of Lima (died 1606) 1540 – Princess Cecilia of Sweden (died 1627) 1566 – Anna Juliana Gonzaga, Archduchess of Austria and nun (died 1621) 1569 – Paul Sartorius, German organist and composer (died 1609)
1601–1900 1603 – Augustyn Kordecki, Polish monk (died 1673) 1643 – Jean Chardin, French-English jeweler and explorer (died 1703) 1648 – Charles Duncombe, English banker and politician (died 1711) 1715 – Girolamo Abos, Maltese-Italian composer and educator (died 1760) 1717 – Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (died 1793) 1720 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-Italian composer (died 1788) 1750 – Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough, English lawyer, judge, and politician (died 1818) 1753 – James McHenry, Irish-American surgeon and politician (died 1816) 1758 – Peter Andreas Heiberg, Danish philologist and author (died 1841) 1774 – Georg von Cancrin, German-Russian Minister of Finance (died 1845) 1793 – Francis Danby, Irish painter of the Romantic era (died 1861) 1806 – Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, American author and educator (died 1887) 1807 – Jónas Hallgrímsson, Icelandic poet, author and naturalist (died 1845) 1811 – John Bright, English academic and politician (died 1889) 1836 – Kalākaua of Hawaii (died 1891) 1839 – Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Canadian poet, author, and politician (died 1908) 1841 – Jules Violle, French physicist and academic (died 1923) 1847 – Edmund James Flynn, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 1927) 1851 – Minnie Hauk, American-Swiss soprano and actress (died 1929) 1856 – Jürgen Kröger, German architect (died 1928) 1861 – Luigi Facta, Italian politician and journalist (died 1930) 1861 – Georgina Febres-Cordero, Venezuelan nun (died 1925) 1862 – Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (died 1944) 1873 – W. C. Handy, American trumpet player and composer (died 1958) 1874 – Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (died 1920) 1883 – Emil Breitkreutz, American runner and coach (died 1972) 1888 – Luis Cluzeau Mortet, Uruguayan pianist and composer (died 1957) 1889 – George S. Kaufman, American director, producer, and playwright (died 1961) 1889 – Dietrich Kraiß, German general (died 1944) 1890 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (died 1956) 1892 – Guo Moruo, Chinese historian, author, and poet (died 1978) 1892 – Tazio Nuvolari, Italian race car driver and motorcycle racer (died 1953) 1894 – Bobby Cruickshank, American golfer (died 1975) 1894 – Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian philosopher and politician (died 1972) 1895 – Paul Hindemith, German composer, violist and conductor (died 1963) 1896 – Joan Lindsay, Australian author and critic (died 1984) 1896 – Oswald Mosley, English fascist leader and politician (died 1980) 1896 – Lawrence Tibbett, American actor and singer (died 1960) 1897 – Choudhry Rahmat Ali, Indian-Pakistani academic (died 1951) 1899 – Mary Margaret McBride, American radio host (died 1976) 1900 – Eliška Junková, Czech race car driver (died 1994)
1901–present 1904 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigerian statesman, 1st President of Nigeria (died 1996) 1907 – Burgess Meredith, American actor, singer, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1997) 1909 – Mirza Nasir Ahmad, Indian-Pakistani religious leader (died 1982) 1912 – George O. Petrie, American actor and director (died 1997) 1912 – W. E. D. Ross, Canadian actor, playwright, and author (died 1995) 1913 – Ellen Albertini Dow, American actress (died 2015) 1914 – Eddie Chapman, English spy (died 1997) 1915 – Jean Fritz, Chinese-American author (died 2017) 1916 – Harold Baigent, New Zealand actor and director (died 1996) 1916 – Daws Butler, American voice actor and singer (died 1988) 1916 – Al Lucas, Canadian-American bassist (died 1983) 1922 – Gene Amdahl, American computer scientist, physicist, and engineer (died 2015) 1922 – José Saramago, Portuguese novelist and Nobel laureate in Literature (died 2010) 1924 – Sam Farber, American businessman (died 2013) 1924 – Mel Patton, American sprinter and coach (died 2014) 1927 – Dolo Coker, American pianist and composer (died 1983) 1929 – Peter Boizot, English businessman (died 2018) 1930 – Paul Foytack, American baseball player (died 2021) 1930 – Salvatore Riina, Italian mob boss (died 2017) 1931 – Luciano Bottaro, Italian author and illustrator (died 2006) 1931 – Hubert Sumlin, American singer and guitarist (died 2011) 1932 – Beatriz González, Colombian painter, sculptor and art historian (died 2026) 1933 – Garnet Mimms, American R&B singer 1933 – Seydou Madani Sy, Senegalese jurist and politician (died 2026) 1935 – Elizabeth Drew, American journalist and author 1935 – Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Iraqi-Lebanese cleric, educator, and author (died 2010) 1935 – Magdi Yacoub, Egyptian-English surgeon and academic 1936 – John Moore, Australian businessman and politician 1937 – Alan Budd, English economist and academic (died 2023) 1938 – Ahmed Bouanani, Moroccan filmmaker (died 2011) 1938 – Kang Ning-hsiang, Taiwanese politician