Events Pre-1600 337 – Election of Pope Julius I. 590 – Hormizd IV, king of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown and blinded by his brothers-in-law Vistahm and Vinduyih. 1579 – The Diocese of Manila is erected by papal bull, with Domingo de Salazar appointed its first bishop.
1601–1900 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II. 1694 – Dandara dos Palmares, leader of the runaway slaves in Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is captured and commits suicide rather than be returned to a life of slavery. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic. 1778 – New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. References to a 1778 Virginia ratification are based on an error in the Journals of Congress: "The published Journals of Congress print this enabling act of the Virginia assembly under date of Dec. 15, 1778. This error has come from the MS. vol. 9 (History of Confederation), p. 123, Papers of the Continental Congress, Library of Congress." 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean. 1819 – The Treaty of Singapore was signed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Hussein Shah of Johor, and Temenggong Abdul Rahman, and it is now recognised as the founding of modern Singapore. 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia. 1833 – Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece. 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony. 1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City). 1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria. 1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry. 1865 – The municipal administration of Finland is established. 1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate. 1900 – The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
1901–present 1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament. 1919 – The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, walk off the job. 1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. 1934 – Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France. 1944 – World War II: The Great Raids Against Helsinki begins. 1951 – The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War. 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history. 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster. 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit. 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished. 1973 – The 7.6 Luhuo earthquake strikes Sichuan Province, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 2,199 people. 1976 – In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour. 1981 – The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War. 1987 – Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia. 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe. 1996 – Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest. 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757. 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport. 2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile. 2006 – Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada. 2012 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead. 2016 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people. 2018 – SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight. 2021 – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspends agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to send asylum seekers back to their home countries. 2023 – Two earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 struck near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme). The earthquakes resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of 57,658 people.
Births Pre-1600 885 – Emperor Daigo of Japan (died 930) 1402 – Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse (died 1458) 1452 – Joanna, Princess of Portugal (died 1490) 1453 – Girolamo Benivieni, Florentine poet (died 1542) 1465 – Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician and theorist (died 1526) 1536 – Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai (died 1588) 1577 – Beatrice Cenci, Italian murderer (died 1599) 1582 – Mario Bettinus, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (died 1657)
1601–1900 1605 – Bernard of Corleone, Italian saint (died 1667) 1608 – António Vieira, Portuguese priest and philosopher (died 1697) 1611 – Chongzhen Emperor of China (died 1644) 1612 – Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (died 1694) 1643 – Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, Prussian politician, 1st Minister President of Prussia (died 1712) 1649 – Augusta Marie of Holstein-Gottorp, German noblewoman (died 1728) 1664 – Mustafa II, Ottoman sultan (died 1703) 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (died 1714) 1695 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss-Russian mathematician and theorist (died 1726) 1719 – Alberto Pullicino, Maltese painter (died 1759) 1726 – Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon and zoologist (died 1805) 1732 – Charles Lee, English-American general (died 1782) 1736 – Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor (died 1783) 1744 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (died 1795) 1748 – Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher and academic, founded the Illuminati (died 1830) 1753 – Évariste de Parny, French poet and author (died 1814) 1756 – Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (died 1836) 1758 – Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Belarusian-Polish poet, playwright, and politician (died 1841) 1769 – Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general (died 1862) 1772 – George Murray, Scottish general and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (died 1830) 1778 – Ugo Foscolo, Italian author and poet (died 1827) 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish general and politician, Governor of Saint Lucia (died 1844) 1796 – John Stevens Henslow, English botanist and geologist (died 1861) 1797 – Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (died 1853) 1799 – Imre Frivaldszky, Hungarian botanist and entomologist (died 1870) 1800 – Achille Devéria, French painter and lithographer (died 1857) 1802 – Charles Wheatstone, English-French physicist and cryptographer (died 1875) 1811 – Henry Liddell, English priest, author, and academic (died 1898) 1814 – Auguste Chapdelaine, French missionary and saint (died 1856) 1818 – William M. Evarts, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State (died 1901) 1820 – Thomas C. Durant, American railroad tycoon (died 1885) 1829 – Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, French architect, designed the La Santé Prison and Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge (died 1914) 1832 – John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia (died 1904) 1833 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author and academic (died 1906) 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart, American general (died 1864) 1834 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist and academic (died 1913) 1834 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian-German soprano (died 1889) 1834 – Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author (died 1911) 1838 – Henry Irving, English actor and manager (died 1905) 1838 – Israel Meir Kagan, Lithuanian-Polish rabbi and author (died 1933) 1839 – Eduard Hitzig, German neurologist and psychiatrist (died 1907) 1842 – Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1923) 1843 – Inoue Kowashi, Japanese scholar and politician (died 1895) 1843 – Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet and philologist, co-founded the Society for Psychical Research (died 1901) 1845 – Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (died 1912) 1847 – Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel (died 1918) 1852 – C. Lloyd Morgan, English zoologist and psychologist (died 1936) 1852 – Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1918) 1861 – Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist and academic (died 1953) 1864 – John Henry Mackay, Scottish-German philosopher and author (died 1933) 1866 – Karl Sapper, German linguist and explorer (died 1945) 1872 – Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer, designed the Salginatobel Bridge and Schwandbach Bridge (died 1940) 1874 – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Indian religious leader, founded the Gaudiya Math (died 1937) 1875 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (died 1915) 1876 – Henry Blogg, English fisherman and sailor (died 1954) 1879 – Othon Friesz, French painter (died 1949) 1879 – Magnús Guðmundsson, Icelandic lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland (died 1937) 1879 – Edwin Samuel Montagu, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (died 1924) 1879 – Carl Ramsauer, German physicist and author (died 1955) 1880 – Nishinoumi Kajirō II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 25th Yokozuna (died 1931) 1884 – Marcel Cohen, French linguist and scholar (died 1974) 1887 – Josef Frings, German cardinal (died 1978) 1888 – Nell W. Walker, American politician and banker (died 1962) 1890 – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani activist and politician (died 1988) 1890 – James McGirr, Australian politician, 28th Premier of New South Wales (died 1957) 1892 – Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general (died 1984)