Events Pre-1600 960 – Basil II is crowned co-Emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1073 – Election of Pope Gregory VII following the death of Pope Alexander II. 1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery of Brazil). 1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico. 1529 – Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues () east of the Moluccas.
1601–1900 1809 – The second day of the Battle of Eckmühl: The Austrian army is defeated by the First French Empire army led by Napoleon and driven over the Danube in Regensburg. 1836 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when some of his fellow soldiers mistakenly give away his identity. 1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency. 1876 – The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. 1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000. 1898 – Spanish–American War: President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.
1901–present 1906 – The 1906 Intercalated Games open in Athens. 1915 – World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres. 1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding. 1944 – World War II: The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater. 1944 – World War II: In Greenland, the Allied Sledge Patrol attack the German Bassgeiger weather station. 1944 – World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea. 1945 – World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape. 1945 – World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The port city of Haifa is captured by Jewish forces. 1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army begin assaulting positions defended by the Royal Australian Regiment and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at the Battle of Kapyong. 1954 – Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins. 1966 – American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D crashes on approach to Ardmore Municipal Airport in Ardmore, Oklahoma, killing 83. 1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world. 1969 – The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) is announced at a mass rally in Calcutta. 1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated. 1970 – Chicano residents in San Diego, California occupy a site under the Coronado Bridge, leading to the creation of Chicano Park. 1974 – Pan Am Flight 812 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, killing all 107 people on board. 1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic. 1992 – A series of gas explosions rip through the streets in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing 206. 1993 – Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham. 2005 – Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan's war record. 2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming. 2020 – Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history. 2025 – At least 26 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a group of tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack.
Births
Pre-1600 1412 – Reinhard III, Count of Hanau (1451–1452) (died 1452) 1444 – Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk (died 1503) 1451 – Isabella I of Castile (died 1504) 1518 – Antoine of Navarre (died 1562) 1592 – Wilhelm Schickard, German astronomer and mathematician (died 1635)
1601–1900 1610 – Pope Alexander VIII (died 1691) 1658 – Giuseppe Torelli, Italian violinist and composer (died 1709) 1690 – John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, English politician, Lord President of the Council (died 1763) 1707 – Henry Fielding, English novelist and playwright (died 1754) 1711 – Paul II Anton, Prince Esterházy, Austrian soldier (died 1762) 1724 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (died 1804) 1732 – John Johnson, English architect and surveyor (died 1814) 1744 – James Sullivan, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1808) 1766 – Germaine de Staël, French author and political philosopher (died 1817) 1812 – Solomon Caesar Malan, Swiss-English orientalist (died 1894) 1816 – Charles-Denis Bourbaki, French general (died 1897) 1830 – Emily Davies, British suffragist and educator, co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge University (died 1921) 1832 – Julius Sterling Morton, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Agriculture (died 1902) 1844 – Lewis Powell, American soldier, attempted assassin of William H. Seward (died 1865) 1852 – William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (died 1912) 1854 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1943) 1858 – Ethel Smyth, English composer (died 1944) 1858 – Fritz Mayer van den Bergh, Belgian art collector and art historian (died 1901) Jozef De Coo, Fritz Mayer van den Bergh: De verzamelaar, de verzameling. Schoten, C. Govaerts, 1979. 1870 – Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and founder of Soviet Russia (died 1924) 1872 – Princess Margaret of Prussia (died 1954) 1873 – Ellen Glasgow, American author (died 1945) 1874 – Wu Peifu, Chinese warlord, politician, and marshal of the Beiyang Army (died 1939) 1876 – Róbert Bárány, Austrian-Swedish otologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) 1876 – Georg Lurich, Estonian wrestler and strongman (died 1920) 1879 – Bernhard Gregory, Estonian-German chess player (died 1939) 1884 – Otto Rank, Austrian-American psychologist and academic (died 1939) 1886 – Izidor Cankar, Slovenian historian, author, and diplomat (died 1958) 1887 – Harald Bohr, Danish mathematician and footballer (died 1951)Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg (2000). The Historical Development of Quantum Theory 1889 – Richard Glücks, German SS officer and major contributor to the concentration camp system and the Holocaust (died 1945) 1891 – Laura Gilpin, American photographer (died 1979) 1891 – Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (died 1965) 1891 – Harold Jeffreys, English mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (died 1989) 1891 – Nicola Sacco, Italian-American anarchist (died 1927) 1892 – Vernon Johns, African-American minister and activist (died 1965) 1899 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist and critic (died 1977) 1900 – Nellie Beer, British politician, Lord Mayor of Manchester (died 1988)
1901–present 1904 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (died 1967) 1905 – Robert Choquette, American-Canadian author, poet, and diplomat (died 1991) 1906 – Eric Fenby, English composer and educator (died 1997) 1906 – Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (died 1947) 1909 – Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) 1909 – Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist and historian (died 2001) 1909 – Spyros Markezinis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 2000) 1910 – Norman Steenrod, American mathematician and academic (died 1971) 1912 – Kathleen Ferrier, English operatic singer (died 1953) 1912 – Kaneto Shindo, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012) 1914 – Baldev Raj Chopra, Indian director and producer (died 2008) 1914 – Jan de Hartog, Dutch-American author and playwright (died 2002) 1914 – José Quiñones Gonzales, Peruvian soldier and pilot (died 1941) 1914 – Michael Wittmann, German SS officer (died 1944) 1916 – Hanfried Lenz, German mathematician and academic (died 2013) 1916 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-Swiss violinist and conductor (died 1999) 1917 – Yvette Chauviré, French ballerina (died 2016) 1917 – Sidney Nolan, Australian painter (died 1992) 1918 – William Jay Smith, American poet and academic (died 2015) 1918 – Mickey Vernon, American baseball player and coach (died 2008) 1919 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2001) 1919 – Carl Lindner, Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (died 2011) 1922 – Richard Diebenkorn, American soldier and painter (died 1993) 1922 – Charles Mingus, American bassist, composer, and bandleader (died 1979) 1922 – Wolf V. Vishniac, American microbiologist and academic (died 1973) 1923 – Peter Kane Dufault, American soldier, pilot, and poet (died 2013) 1923 – Bettie Page, American model and actress (died 2008) 1923 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2006) 1924 – Nam Duck-woo, South Korean politician, 12th Prime Minister of South Korea (died 2013) 1926 – Charlotte Rae, American actress and singer (died 2018) 1926 – James Stirling, Scottish architect, designed the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Seeley Historical Library (died 1992) 1927 – Laurel Aitken, Cuban-Jamaican singer (died 2005) 1928 – Estelle Harris, American actress and comedian (died 2022) 1929 – Michael Atiyah, English-Lebanese mathematician and academic (died 2019) 1929 – Robert Wade-Gery, English diplomat, British High Commissioner to India (died 2015) 1930 – Enno Penno, Estonian politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (died 2016) 1931 – John Buchanan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Premier of Nova Scotia (died 2019) 1931 – Ronald Hynd, English dancer and choreographer 1933 – Anthony Llewellyn, Welsh-American chemist and astronaut (died 2013) 1935 – Christopher Ball, English linguist and academic 1935 – Paul Chambers, African-American bassist and composer (died 1969) 1935 – Bhama Srinivasan, Indian-American mathematician and academic (died 2025) 1936 – Glen Campbell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2017) 1936 – Pierre Hétu, Canadian pianist and conductor (died 1998) 1937 – Jack Nicholson, American actor and producer 1937 – Jack Nitzsche, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (died 2000) 1938 – Alan Bond, English-Australian businessman (died 2015) 1938 – Gani Fawehinmi, Nigerian lawyer and activist (died 2009) 1938 – Issey Miyake, Japanese fashion designer (died 2022) 1938 – Adam Raphael, English journalist and author 1939 – Mel Carter, American singer and actor 1939 – John Foley, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey 1939 – Ray Guy, Canadian journalist and author (died 2013) 1939 – Jason Miller, American actor and playwright (died 2001) 1939 – Theodor Waigel, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of Finance 1941 – Greville Howard, Baron Howard of Rising, English politician 1942 – Giorgio Agamben, Italian philosopher and academic 1942 – Mary Prior, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Bristol