354 Roman Emperor Constantius gives grand circus and theater shows to mark 30th year of his reign as Caesar in Arles
680 Al-Hussein (Al-Ḥusayn ibn) and his followers are killed at Karbala by the army of Yazid, the Umayyad caliph, on their way to Kufa
732 The Battle of Tours: The Umayyad army, led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is defeated by the Frankish-Aquitainian force led by Charles Martel during the Umayyad invasion of Gaul
1375 West Frisian seawall breaks, flooding the northern Netherlands
1471 Battle of Brunkeberg: Swedish regent Sten Sture defeats forces led by Danish King Christian I
1549 Edward Seymour, first Duke of Somerset, is dismissed for mismanagement as Treasurer and Lord Protector of the Realm and imprisoned
1575 Battle of Dormans: Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeat the French Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others
1578 German Count Johan Casimir occupies Ghent with 500 horsemen, subsidized by England
1631 Saxon army occupies Prague
1684 Advert in a tavern in Ludgate Hill, London, to view a rhinoceros is published; it is the first rhinoceros in Europe since 1515
1695 King William III escapes from the Southern Netherlands back to England
1720 French government proclaims a strike on banknotes
1733 France declares war on Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI
1760 Suriname’s colonial regime signs a treaty with the Aukaners (formerly enslaved people)
1780 The Great Hurricane of 1780 hits Barbados and goes on to kill 20,000 to 30,000 people in the Caribbean, making it the deadliest recorded hurricane in the Atlantic
1787 Amsterdam surrenders to the Prussian invasion army
1799 Convention of Alkmaar: British-Russian invasion army departs Holland
1802 First non-Indigenous settlement in Choctaw Territory of Oklahoma
1824 Guadalupe Victoria takes office as the first (interim) President of the United Mexican States
1839 British troops under General Charles Napieroccupy Beirut
1845 Naval School (now called the US Naval Academy) opens in Annapolis
1846 Alexis de Tocqueville writes about the “Algerian problem”
1846 William Lassell discovers Neptune’s moon Triton
1854 US Assay Office opens in New York City
1863 Skirmish at Blue Springs, Tennessee (166 casualties)
1865 John Wesley Hyatt patents the billiard ball made from cellulose nitrate (celluloid) in Albany, New York (patent US50359A)
1868 Cuba revolts for independence against Spain
1868 First written account of a Canadian football game
1871 The Great Chicago Fire is finally extinguished after three days, leaving approximately 300 dead, 100,000 homeless, and causing $222 million in damage
1874 Fiji becomes a British colony
1886 First dinner jacket (tuxedo) is worn to an autumn ball at Tuxedo Park in New York
1888 Teetotalers’ excursion train crashes, killing 64 at Mud Run, Pennsylvania
1889 Barnard College is founded in New York City after Columbia University refuses to admit women
1892 Entire Hong Kong national cricket team dies in shipwreck off Taiwan
1899 African American inventor Isaac R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame
1900 Foreign ministers in Peking begin their first serious negotiations over what conditions their nations will impose on the Chinese after putting down the Boxer Uprising
1900 In Manchuria, Russia captures the major city of Mukden as part of its plan to take over the entire province.
1902 American outlaw Tom Horn‘s murder trial begins, and he is eventually found guilty and sentenced to death.
1902 South Africa’s President of Transvaal Paul Kruger visits Utrecht
1903 The Women’s Social and Political Union is formed by Emmeline Pankhurst to fight for women’s rights in Britain
1904 Boston pitchers achieve 148 complete games, an AL record, also a record for total complete games: AL 1,098, NL 1,089
1904 Liberty Theatre opens at 234 W 42nd St NYC
1911 Chinese revolutionaries begin an armed rebellion against the ruling Qing dynasty in Wuchang, causing the Viceroy of Huguang to flee the city (Taiwan National Day)
1911 Robert Borden becomes the 8th Prime Minister of Canada
1911 The KCR East Rail commences service between Kowloon and Canton
1913 British passenger ship Volturno catches fire in the Atlantic, killing 136
1913 Gamboa Dam in Panama is blown up; Atlantic and Pacific waters mix
1913 Yuan Shikai is installed as the first President of China
1914 WWI: German forces rout Belgians in Antwerp, Belgium
1917 Plymouth Theatre, designed by Herbert J. Krapp for the Shubert brothers, opens at 236 W 45th Street, New York City
1918 Baden’s Geisz forms a government
1919 Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s opera “Die Frau ohne Schatten” (The Woman Without a Shadow) premieres in Vienna, Austria
1920 Italy annexes South Tyrol (Alto Adige)
1920 Phoenix Cardinals (then in Chicago) play their first NFL game, ending in a 0-0 tie
1921 NFL Decatur Staleys become Chicago Staleys
1923 Saxony receives a Social Democratic and Communist coalition government
1928 Chiang Kai-shek becomes Director of the State Council of China
1930 NY Yankees announce the signing of former Chicago Cubs manager Joe McCarthy as team manager for four years
1931 A.J. Bennett hits H. Garbarino for the first scoring pass in Canada’s Big Four
1931 William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast” premieres in Leeds
1932 “Betty & Bob” premieres on radio
1932 Dnieper Dam in the USSR, the world’s largest dam, is put into operation
1933 First synthetic detergent, “Dreft” by Procter & Gamble, goes on sale
1935 Coup under Gen Georgios Kondylis in favor of Greek monarchy
1935 League of Nations denounces Italian invasion of Abyssinia
1938 Germany completes its annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland
1938 Premiere performance of Dmitri Shostakovich‘s First String Quartet
1941 RAF bombs Piraeus to prevent German heavy armor from advancing
1941 WW2: Battle of Moscow – German Wehrmacht forces encounter stronger than expected resistance at the Mozhaisk line, west of Moscow
1942 1,300 Austrian Jews are transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp
1943 US bombers accidentally strike Enschede, Netherlands, causing 151 deaths
1944 Admiral Halsey’s Task Force 30 bombs Okinawa; 700 die
1946 Max Frisch’s play “Die Chinesische Mauer” (The Chinese Wall) premieres in Zürich
1954 1st National Film Awards (India): “Shyamchi Aai” wins the Golden Lotus
1954 Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after the withdrawal of French troops
1956 Epic drama film “Giant,” directed by George Stevens and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean in his last role, premieres in New York City
1957 A fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in Cumbria, England, becomes the world’s first major nuclear accident
1957 US President Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, after he is refused service in a restaurant in Dover, Delaware
1957 USSR performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR
1958 US performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1958 USSR performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR
1959 Lee Harvey Oswald signs the guestbook in a hotel in Helsinki
1959 Pan Am begins regular flights around the world
1960 16 California Poly football team members die in a plane crash in Toledo
1960 Cyclone hits coast of Bay of Bengal, killing about 4,000
1960 Ron Stewart of Ottawa rushes for a CFL record of 287 yards
1960 WGTE TV channel 30 in Toledo, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
1961 Expansion draft stocks Houston Astros and New York Mets
1961 Otis M. Smith is appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court
1961 US performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1961 Variety TV show “The Bob Newhart Show” premieres on NBC in the US
1962 Indians assault Chinese positions in North India attack
1963 “From Russia With Love,” the second James Bond film based on a novel by Ian Fleming, starring Sean Connery and Daniela Bianchi, premieres in London
1963 American chemist and anti-nuclear weapons campaigner Linus Pauling wins the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day the first nuclear test ban treaty comes into effect
1963 France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia
1963 Netherlands population reaches 12,000,000
1964 XVIII Summer Olympic Games open at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan
1965 The Supremes appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
1965 The Vinland Map, the first known map of America drawn around 1440, is introduced by Yale University
1966 The Beach Boys release their influential single “Good Vibrations”
1967 Brendan Behan‘s “Borstal Boy” premieres in Dublin as a play adapted by Frank McMahon and starring Frank Grimes
1968 George Harrison forms the music publishing company Singsong Ltd, though it only ever publishes one song, “Old Brown Shoe”
1968 US performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1969 “Jesus Christ Superstar” soundtrack album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice is recorded
1969 British progressive rock band King Crimson releases their debut album “In The Court Of The Crimson King”
1970 Fiji gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1972 Three members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) die in a premature explosion in a house on Balkan Street, Lower Falls, Belfast
1973 US Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after pleading no contest to allegations of tax fraud
1974 Canadian cyclist John Hathaway begins a two-year ride of 50,600 miles
1974 Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson, wins UK general election
1974 MLB Oakland A’s Mike Andrews files a $25 million lawsuit against team owner Charlie Finley
1974 The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), are founded at the Spa Hotel in the village of Lucan near Dublin
1975 Israel formally signs the protocol for the Sinai II Agreement with Egypt in Jerusalem
1975 Ken Russell’s surreal biographical musical comedy film “Lisztomania”, starring Roger Daltreyas 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, with a soundtrack arranged by progressive rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman, premieres
1976 Beijing reports the arrest of Mao Zedong‘s widow Jiang Qing, which happened four days earlier
1976 Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, opens with the NY Giants losing 24–14 to the Dallas Cowboys in front of 76,042 fans
1976 Greece’s 98-year-old Dimitrion Yordanidis is the oldest man to compete in a marathon; he finishes in 7:33
1977 Amnesty International wins the Nobel Peace Prize, recognizing its significant role in human rights activism
1978 Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry suffer burns when a fan throws a cherry bomb onstage during a concert in Philadelphia, prompting the band to perform behind protective netting at some later shows
1978 British pop music magazine “Smash Hits” is first published
1978 Daniel Arap Moi succeeds Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya and rules for 24 years
1978 Steve Perry joins Journey
1978 US Congress approves dollar coin honoring women’s suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony
1979 An unprecedented 2.9 inches of snow is measured in Central Park in New York City
1979 Nordiques’ Real Cloutier sets an NHL record with a hat trick in his first game
1979 Panama assumes sovereignty over the Canal Area (Canal Zone)
1979 Rock band Fleetwood Mac gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
1980 4,500 die when a pair of earthquakes strike NW Algeria
1980 Comedy film “Private Benjamin,” starring Goldie Hawn, is released
1980 Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network is dedicated
1980 Yankees lose 4-2 and are swept by Royals in AL Championship Series
1981 Anwar Sadat‘s funeral service held in Cairo
1982 Hernán Siles Zuazo is installed as president of Bolivia
1982 Pope John Paul II canonizes Rev. Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteers to die in place of another inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp, as a saint
1982 US imposes sanctions on Poland for banning the Solidarity trade union
1983 NBC premieres the true-life drama “Adam,” based on the murder of John Walsh’s son
1983 Tom Monaghan becomes CEO of Detroit Tigers
1985 Sudan adopts an interim constitution
1985 US fighter jets force an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, and the gunmen are placed in custody
1986 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes San Salvador, El Salvador
1987 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen‘s 8th studio album “Tunnel of Love”
1987 Garfield Park Nature Center opens, the latest in Cleveland Metroparks
1987 Giants’ Jeffrey Leonard hits a playoff record home run in his fourth consecutive game
1987 Hartford center Doug Jarvis ends his career having played an NHL record 964 consecutive games as the Whalers lose 6-2 to the New York Rangers
1988 NBC premieres the tele-biopic “Winnie,” based on the life of Winifred Sprockett and starring Meredith Baxter
1990 American Petroleum Institute (API) reports crude inventories dropped by more than 4 MMB in the last week
1990 Mexican singer and actress Thalía releases her debut album “Thalía”
1990 US 67th manned space mission STS 41 (Discovery 11) returns from space
1991 Ex-postal worker Joseph Harris kills four postal workers
1991 Greyhound Bus exits bankruptcy
1991 The US cuts all foreign aid to Haiti
1992 Floriade (Flower Show) closes in The Hague, Netherlands
1993 Ferry boat leaves for west coast of South Korea, 120 are killed
1994 Lt. General Raoul Cédras resigns as the dictator of Haiti
1994 MPAA chief Jack Valenti holds a meeting to determine new movie ratings
1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology is awarded to Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell for G-protein discoveries
1994 NY Giants retire Lawrence Taylor‘s #56
1994 Value of Russian ruble decreases to 3,081 rubles per dollar
1995 “Garden District” opens at Circle in the Square Theatre NYC
1995 Israel begins West Bank pullback and frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners
1995 Most Dutch telephone numbers increase to 10 digits
1995 Robert E. Lucas is awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics
1996 Cornerstone dedication for Holocaust Museum in New York City
1997 Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74
2002 American Vernon L. Smith and Daniel Kahneman are awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work in experimental economics
2002 Former cricketer Imran Khan elected to the Pakistani Parliament after winning the seat of Mianwali-I
2002 Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertész is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
2003 Shirin Ebadi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, becoming the first Iranian Muslim woman to receive the prize
2004 Having already clinched his record 7th F1 World Drivers’ Championship, German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher wins a record 13th race of the season with a victory at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka
2005 Negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD in Germany conclude with the two parties agreeing to form a grand coalition with Angela Merkel as chancellor after both parties lose seats in the 2005 German federal election
2007 Expedition 16 launches to the International Space Station with Peggy Whitson serving as the first female commander of an ISS expedition; Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor becomes the first Malaysian in space
2008 Singapore becomes the first Asian country to slip into a recession since the credit crisis begins as growth falters due to decreased demand for exports, a reduction in tourism, and the end of the real estate boom
2009 After closing borders for nearly 200 years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich to reopen their borders
2010 The Caribbean country of Netherlands Antilles is disestablished, succeeded by the island nations of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten
2012 Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka win the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on G protein-coupled receptors
2013 Alice Munro is awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature
2014 Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
2015 Bombing at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey kills at least 95 and injures 200
2016 Actress Shailene Woodley is arrested for trespassing while protesting against the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline
2016 Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded to UK-born Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström of Finland for their work on contract theory
2017 “Thor: Ragnarok,” directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Cate Blanchett, premieres in Los Angeles, California
2017 Joel Embiid signs a five-year, $148 million designated rookie scale maximum contract extension with the 76ers
2018 Flash floods kill at least 10 in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, Majorca, Spain
2018 Hurricane Michael makes landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 155 mph (250 km/h), going on to kill 27 people, having killed 15 in Central America
2019 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk after a year’s delay due to a Swedish Academy scandal
2019 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Austrian Peter Handke
2019 3,500 women are allowed to attend a football match in Iran for a World Cup qualifier in Tehran for the first time since the Islamic Revolution
2020 Italian teenage computer genius Carlo Acutis, who dies of leukemia at 15, is beatified by the Catholic Church in Assisi, Italy
2021 Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen says the country won’t bow to Chinese pressure in a defiant speech on Taiwanese National Day, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping vows to “fulfil reunification”
2022 Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond, and Philip Dybvig for discoveries that improve how society deals with financial crises
2023 Revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” based on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s play and starring Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe, opens at Hudson Theatre in New York City and wins 4 Tony Awards
2023 US President Joe Biden pledges support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’ attack on the country and its retaliatory bombardment of Gaza
2024 About 120 people are massacred by an armed gang in the Haitian town of Pont-Sondé amid a worsening gang crisis in the country
2024 Harry Brook’s 317 and Joe Root’s 262 share the highest-ever partnership (454) by England on day four of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan; it is the fourth-highest partnership of all time in Test cricket
2024 Miranda Hart releases her memoir “I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You,” revealing her struggle with Lyme disease
2024 Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to South Korean author Han Kang
2025 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes near coast of Mindanano in the Philippines
2025 Congress of Peru impeaches and removes President Dina Boluarte from office by a vote of 122-0 over her failure to curb rampant crime; the Marxist leader had survived seven previous impeachments since 2022, President of Congress José Jerí is appointed to replace her
2025 Explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, a commercial and military munitions manufacturing plant in Bucksnort, Tennessee kills 18 workers; there are no survivors
2025 Venezuelan politician and democracy advocate María Corina Machado (58) is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
2025 WNBA Finals, Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix: Las Vegas Aces win third C’ship in four years with a 97-86 win to sweep the Phoenix Mercury