Events Pre-1600 226 – Cao Rui succeeds his father as emperor of Wei. 626 – The Avars and Sassanids besiege Constantinople, held by Byzantine troops under Patrician Bonus. 1072 – Former Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes is blinded on command of caesar John Doukas. 1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi. 1170 – A major earthquake hits Syria, badly damaging towns such as Hama and Shaizar and structures such as the Krak des Chevaliers and the cathedral of St. Peter in Antioch. 1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway, leading to his excommunication by the Catholic Church and civil war. 1444 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll. 1457 – The Dutch city of Dordrecht is devastated by fire. 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
1601–1900 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, burns to the ground. 1620 – English crown bans tobacco growing in England, giving the Virginia Company a monopoly in exchange for tax of one shilling per pound. 1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge. 1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians led by Prince Trubetskoy. 1764 – One of the strongest tornadoes in history strikes Woldegk, Germany, killing one person while leveling numerous mansions with winds estimated greater than . 1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario. 1807 – Russo-Turkish War: Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos. 1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece. 1864 – At least 99 people, mostly German and Polish immigrants, are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster after a train fails to stop for an open drawbridge and plunges into the Rivière Richelieu near St-Hilaire, Quebec. 1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame?" leveling complaints against King George. Trikoupis is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year. 1880 – France annexes Tahiti, renaming the independent Kingdom of Tahiti as "Etablissements de français de l'Océanie". 1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam. 1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music. 1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.
1901–present 1913 – The Bulgarian army launches attacks against Serbian positions, triggering the Second Balkan War. 1915 – The North Saskatchewan River flood of 1915 is the worst flood in Edmonton history. 1916 – British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising. 1922 – France grants "one square kilometer" at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". 1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii. 1945 – The Soviet Union annexes the Czechoslovak province of Carpathian Ruthenia. 1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea. 1952 – The first Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952. 1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System. 1971 – Prior to re-entry (following a record-setting stay aboard the Soviet Union's Salyut 1 space station), the crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurizes, killing the three cosmonauts on board. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev are the first humans to die in space. 1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. 1972 – A Convair CV-580 and De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter collide above Lake Winnebago near Appleton, Wisconsin, killing 13. 1974 – Vice President Isabel Perón assumes powers and duties as Acting President of Argentina, while her husband President Juan Perón is terminally ill. 1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet. 1975 – Pope Paul VI ordains some 350 priests in St. Peter's Square in the largest ordination in history 1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom. 1976 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin. 1986 – The Argentina national football team wins the FIFA World Cup held in Mexico after defeating the West Germany national football team by a score of 3–2 in the final at the Estadio Azteca. 1987 – Vincent van Gogh's painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, is bought for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England. 1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time. 1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho District of Seoul, South Korea, killing 502 and injuring 937. 2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel. 2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law. 2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone. 2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power. 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declares its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.
Births
Pre-1600 1136 – Petronilla of Aragon (died 1173) 1326 – Murad I, Ottoman Sultan (died 1389) 1398 – John II of Aragon and Navarre (died 1479) 1443 – Anthony Browne, English knight (died 1506) 1482 – Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (died 1517) 1488 – Pedro Pacheco de Villena, Catholic cardinal (died 1560) 1517 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish physician and botanist (died 1585) 1525 – Peter Agricola, German humanist, theologian, diplomat and statesman (died 1585) 1528 – Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (died 1589) 1543 – Christine of Hesse, Duchess consort of Holstein-Gottorp (died 1604) 1596 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (died 1680)
1601–1900 1621 – Willem van der Zaan, Dutch Admiral (died 1669) 1686 – Pietro Paolo Troisi, Maltese artist (died 1743) 1746 – Joachim Heinrich Campe, German linguist, author, and educator (died 1818) 1768 – Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor (died 1831) 1787 – Lavinia Stoddard, American poet, school founder (died 1820) 1793 – Josef Ressel, Czech-Austrian inventor, invented the propeller (died 1857) 1798 – Willibald Alexis, German author and poet (died 1871) 1798 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet and philosopher (died 1837) 1801 – Frédéric Bastiat, French economist and theorist (died 1850) 1803 – John Newton Brown, American minister and author (died 1868) 1818 – Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer and academic (died 1878) 1819 – Thomas Dunn English, American poet, playwright, and politician (died 1902) 1833 – Peter Waage, Norwegian chemist and academic (died 1900) 1835 – Celia Thaxter, American poet and story writer (died 1894) 1844 – Peter I of Serbia (died 1921) 1849 – Pedro Montt, Chilean lawyer and politician, 15th President of Chile (died 1910) 1849 – Sergei Witte, Russian politician, 1st Chairmen of Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (died 1915) 1849 – John Hunn, American businessman and politician, 51st Governor of Delaware (died 1926) 1858 – George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designed the Panama Canal (died 1928) 1858 – Julia Lathrop, American activist and politician (died 1932) 1861 – William James Mayo, American physician and surgeon, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (died 1939) 1863 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1934) 1866 – Bartholomeus Roodenburch, Dutch swimmer (died 1939) 1868 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and journalist (died 1938) 1870 – Joseph Carl Breil, American tenor, composer, and director (died 1926) 1873 – Leo Frobenius, German ethnologist and archaeologist (died 1938) 1879 – Benedetto Aloisi Masella, Italian cardinal (died 1970) 1880 – Ludwig Beck, German general (died 1944) 1881 – Harry Frazee, American director, producer, and agent (died 1929) 1881 – Curt Sachs, German-American composer and musicologist (died 1959) 1882 – Henry Hawtrey, English runner (died 1961) 1882 – Franz Seldte, German captain and politician, Reich Minister for Labour (died 1947) 1885 – Izidor Kürschner, Hungarian football player and coach (died 1941) 1886 – Robert Schuman, Luxembourgian-French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1963) 1888 – Squizzy Taylor, Australian gangster (died 1927) 1889 – Willie Macfarlane, Scottish-American golfer (died 1961) 1890 – Robert Laurent, American sculptor and academic (died 1970) 1890 – Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, Dutch supercentenarian (died 2005) 1893 – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Indian economist and statistician (died 1972) 1893 – Aarre Merikanto, Finnish composer and educator (died 1958) 1897 – Fulgence Charpentier, Canadian journalist and publisher (died 2001) 1898 – Yvonne Lefébure, French pianist and educator (died 1986) 1900 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French poet and pilot (died 1944)
1901–present 1901 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (died 1967) 1903 – Alan Blumlein, English engineer, developed the H2S radar (died 1942) 1904 – Witold Hurewicz, Polish mathematician (died 1956) 1906 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Ukrainian general (died 1945) 1906 – Heinz Harmel, German general (died 2000) 1908 – Leroy Anderson, American composer and conductor (died 1975) 1908 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish javelin thrower (died 1963) 1909 – Harold Edward Dahl, American pilot and mercenary (died 1956) 1910 – Frank Loesser, American composer and conductor (died 1969) 1910 – Burgess Whitehead, American baseball player (died 1993) 1911 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (died 2004) 1911 – Katherine DeMille, Canadian-American actress (died 1995) 1911 – Bernard Herrmann, American composer and conductor (died 1975) 1912 – José Pablo Moncayo, Mexican pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1958) 1912 – Émile Peynaud, French oenologist and academic (died 2004) 1912 – John Toland, American historian and author (died 2004) 1913 – Earle Meadows, American pole vaulter (died 1992) 1914 – Rafael Kubelík, Czech-American conductor and composer (died 1996) 1914 – Christos Papakyriakopoulos, Greek-American mathematician and academic (died 1976) 1916 – Ruth Warrick, American actress and activist (died 2005) 1917 – Ling Yun, Chinese politician (died 2018) 1918 – Heini Lohrer, Swiss ice hockey player (died 2011) 1918 – Gene La Rocque, U.S admiral (died 2016) 1918 – Francis W. Nye, United States Air Force major general (died 2019) 1919 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (died 2008) 1919 – Walter Babington Thomas, Commander of British Far East Land Forces (died 2017) 1919 – Juan Blanco, Cuban composer (died 2008) 1919 – Slim Pickens, American actor and rodeo performer (died 1983) 1919 – Lloyd Richards, Canadian-American theatre director, actor, and dean (died 2006)