Events Pre-1600 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths, promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of "Roman law". 880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King Louis III of France is defeated by the Norse Great Heathen Army at Lüneburg Heath in Saxony. 962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years. 1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes king of Burgundy. 1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda. 1207 – Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established. 1347 – Byzantine Empress Anna convenes a synod to depose patriarch Joseph XIV in Constantinople. The same night, conspirators let in her rival John VI Kantakouzenos which ends the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347. 1428 – An intense earthquake struck the Principality of Catalonia, with the epicenter near Camprodon. Widespread destruction and heavy casualties were reported. 1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda. 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross results in the death of Owen Tudor. 1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1601–1900 1645 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: In Scotland, the Battle of Inverlochy results in a Royalist/Irish victory. 1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated. 1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe's adventure book Robinson Crusoe. 1725 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis. 1797 – The siege of Mantua ends after eight months when Count Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser surrenders the fortress of Mantua to Napoleon Bonaparte. The fall of Mantua secures French control over Northern Italy and marks the beginning of the conclusion of the Italian campaign of 1796-1797, and sets the stage for the end of the War of the First Coalition. 1814 – The last of the River Thames frost fairs comes to an end. 1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed. 1850 – Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah. 1868 – Pro-Imperial forces capture Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burn it to the ground. 1870 – The Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä), a novel by Finnish author Aleksis Kivi, is published first time in several thin booklets. 1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed. 1881 – The sentences of the trial of the warlocks of Chiloé are imparted. 1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed. 1899 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
1901–present 1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria. 1909 – The Paris Film Congress opens, an attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPPC cartel in the United States. 1913 – Grand Central Terminal opens in New York City. 1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia. 1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published. 1922 – The uprising called the "pork mutiny" starts in the region between Kuolajärvi and Savukoski in Finland. 1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race. 1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated. 1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts. 1942 – The Osvald Group is responsible for the first, active event of anti-Nazi resistance in Norway, to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last organized German troops in the city. 1954 – The Detroit Red Wings played in the first outdoor hockey game by any NHL team in an exhibition against the Marquette Branch Prison Pirates in Marquette, Michigan. 1959 – Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances. 1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. 1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda. 1971 – The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran. 1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation. 1982 – Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama. 1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution. 1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul. 1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela. 1998 – Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into Mount Sumagaya in the Philippines, killing all 104 people on board. 2000 – First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments. 2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks. 2005 – The Government of Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act. This legislation would become law on July 20, 2005, legalizing same-sex marriage. 2007 – Police officer Filippo Raciti is killed when a clash breaks out in the Sicily derby between Catania and Palermo, in the Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. This event led to major changes in stadium regulations in Italy. 2012 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146–165 dead. 2021 – The Burmese military establishes the State Administration Council, the military junta, after deposing the democratically elected government in the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. 2025 – Slovenian NBA player Luka Doncic is traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis in one of the largest trades in American sports history.
Births Pre-1600 1208 – James I of Aragon (died 1276) 1425 (or 1426) – Eleanor of Navarre, Queen regnant of Navarre (died 1479) 1443 – Elisabeth of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (died 1486) 1455 – John, King of Denmark (died 1513) 1457 – Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, Italian-Spanish historian and author (died 1526) 1467 – Columba of Rieti, Italian Dominican sister (died 1501) 1494 – Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (died 1557) 1502 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher and historian (died 1574) 1509 – John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader (died 1536) 1517 – Gotthard Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order and the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia (died 1587) 1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician and academic (died 1565) 1536 – Piotr Skarga, Polish writer (died 1612) 1551 – Nicolaus Reimers, German astronomer (died 1600) 1576 – Alix Le Clerc, French Canoness Regular and foundress (died 1622) 1585 – Judith Quiney, William Shakespeare's youngest daughter (died 1662) 1585 – Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's only son (baptised; died 1596) 1588 – Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, German nobleman (died 1644) 1600 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (died 1653)
1601–1900 1611 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (died 1633) 1613 – Noël Chabanel, French missionary and saint (died 1649) 1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Swedish author and hymn-writer (died 1679) 1650 – Pope Benedict XIII (died 1730) 1650 – Nell Gwyn, English actress, mistress of King Charles II of England (died 1687) 1651 – William Phips, Royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (died 1695) 1669 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (died 1732) 1677 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French composer (died 1745) 1695 – William Borlase, English geologist and archaeologist (died 1772) 1695 – François de Chevert, French general (died 1769) 1700 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German author and critic (died 1766) 1711 – Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (died 1794) 1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German organist and composer (died 1785) 1717 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (died 1790) 1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1838) 1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and politician, French Minister of War (died 1835) 1786 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (died 1856) 1802 – Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist and academic (died 1887) 1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (died 1862) 1829 – Alfred Brehm, German zoologist and illustrator (died 1884) 1829 – William Stanley, English engineer and philanthropist (died 1909) 1841 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss limnologist and hydrologist (died 1912) 1842 – Julian Sochocki, Polish-Russian mathematician and academic (died 1927) 1849 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet and playwright (died 1921) 1851 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican illustrator and engraver (died 1913) 1856 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (died 1938) 1856 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (died 1905) 1857 – Jan Drozdowski, Polish pianist and music teacher (died 1918) 1860 – Curtis Guild, Jr., American journalist and politician, 43rd Governor of Massachusetts (died 1915) 1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (died 1949) 1862 – Émile Coste, French fencer (died 1927) 1862 – Cornelius McKane, American physician, educator, and hospital founder (died 1912) 1866 – Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter and academic (died 1927) 1869 – Alexander Atabekian, Armenian physician and anarchist publisher (died 1933) 1872 – Abul Kasem, Bengali politician (died 1936) 1873 – Leo Fall, Austrian composer (died 1925) 1873 – Konstantin von Neurath, German politician and diplomat, 13th German Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 1956) 1875 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (died 1962) 1877 – Frank L. Packard, Canadian author (died 1942) 1878 – Joe Lydon, American boxer (died 1937) 1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (died 1969) 1881 – Orval Overall, American baseball player and manager (died 1947) 1882 – Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (died 1944) 1882 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1941) 1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author and screenwriter, created Zorro (died 1958) 1883 – Julia Nava de Ruisánchez, Mexican activist and writer (died 1964) 1885 – Mikhail Frunze, Soviet revolutionary, politician, army officer and military theorist (died 1925) 1886 – William Rose Benét, American poet and author (died 1950) 1887 – Ernst Hanfstaengl, German businessman (died 1975) 1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general (died 1952) 1890 – Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (died 1972) 1892 – Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (died 1959) 1893 – Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (died 1974) 1893 – Raoul Riganti, Argentinian race car driver (died 1970) 1893 – Damdin Sükhbaatar, Mongolian soldier and politician (died 1924) 1895 – George Halas, American football player and coach (died 1983) 1895 – Robert Philipp, American painter (died 1981) 1895 – George Sutcliffe, Australian public servant (died 1964) 1896 – Kazimierz Kuratowski, Polish mathematician and logician (died 1980) 1897 – Howard Deering Johnson, American businessman, founded Howard Johnson's (died 1972)