Events Pre-1600 215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene. 599 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul attacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico, defeating queen Yohl Ik'nal and sacking the city. 711 – Dagobert III succeeds his father King Childebert III as King of the Franks. 1014 – Battle of Clontarf: High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle. 1016 – Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as King of England. 1343 – St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia. 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George's Day. 1500 – Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral reaches new coastline (Brazil). 1516 – The Munich Reinheitsgebot (regarding the ingredients of beer) takes effect in all of Bavaria. 1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
1601–1900 1635 – The first public school in the United States, the Boston Latin School, is founded. 1655 – The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later. 1660 – Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland. 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey. 1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104, illustrating the topic of the Good Shepherd in pastoral music. 1815 – The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire. 1879 – Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, which prompts the construction of the third, and current, Main Building with its golden dome. 1891 – Chilean Civil War: The ironclad Blanco Encalada is sunk at Caldera Bay by torpedo boats.Stem, Robert. Destroyer Battles: Epics of Naval Close Combat, p.22. Seaforth Publishing, 2008. . (online)
1901–present 1909 – In Portugal, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Lisbon, killing at least 60 people and injuring 75. 1918 – World War I: The British Royal Navy makes a raid in an attempt to neutralise the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. 1919 – The Estonian Constituent Assembly is held in Estonia, which marks the birth of the Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu. 1920 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) is founded in Ankara. The assembly denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces the preparation of a temporary constitution. 1927 – Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England. 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted. 1940 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people. 1941 – World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht. 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz: German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck. 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of Nazi Germany. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Göring that the telegram is treasonous. 1946 – Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. 1949 – Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy. 1951 – Cold War: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. 1961 – During the Algiers putsch by French generals, President Charles de Gaulle announces he has assumed emergency powers, and calls on troops and civilians to support him. 1966 – Aeroflot Flight 2723 crashes into the Caspian Sea off the Absheron Peninsula, killing 33 people. 1967 – Soviet space program: Soyuz 1 (Russian: Союз 1, Union 1), a crewed spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, is launched into orbit. 1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). 1979 – SAETA Flight 011 crashes in Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board. The wreckage was not discovered until 1984. 1979 – Blair Peach, a British activist, is fatally injured after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall, London. 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months. 1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum. 1993 – Sri Lankan politician Lalith Athulathmudali is assassinated while addressing a gathering, approximately four weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the Western Province. 1999 – NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia, as part of their aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 2005 – The first YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", is published by co-founder Jawed Karim. 2013 – At least 111 people are killed and 233 injured as violence breaks out in Hawija, Iraq. 2018 – A vehicle-ramming attack kills 11 people and injures 15 in Toronto. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested. 2019 – The April 2019 Hpakant jade mine collapse in Myanmar kills four miners and two rescuers, with at least 50 others missing and presumed dead. 2024 – The 2024 Lumut mid-air collision in Malaysia kills 10 people while rehearsing for the 90th anniversary of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Births Pre-1600 1141 (probable) – Malcolm IV of Scotland (died 1165) 1185 – Afonso II of Portugal (died 1223) 1408 – John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (died 1462) 1420 – George of Poděbrady, King of Bohemia (died 1471) 1464 – Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (died 1505) 1464 – Robert Fayrfax, English Renaissance composer (died 1521) 1484 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian physician and scholar (died 1558) 1500 – Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian and academic (died 1565) 1500 – Johann Stumpf, Swiss writer (died 1576) 1512 – Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, Chancellor of the University of Oxford (died 1580) 1516 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian, and archaeologist (died 1571) 1564 – William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet (died 1616) 1598 – Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral (died 1653)
1601–1900 1621 – William Penn, English admiral and politician (died 1670) 1628 – Johannes Hudde, Dutch mathematician and politician (died 1704) 1661 – Issachar Berend Lehmann, German-Jewish banker, merchant and diplomat (died 1730) 1715 – Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer and conductor (died 1797) 1720 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi and author (died 1797) 1744 – Princess Charlotte Amalie Wilhelmine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (died 1770) 1748 – Félix Vicq-d'Azyr, French physician and anatomist (died 1794) 1791 – James Buchanan, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of the United States (died 1868) 1792 – Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (died 1882) 1794 – Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar and author (died 1856) 1805 – Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher and academic (died 1879) 1812 – Frederick Whitaker, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1891) 1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, American educator and politician, 7th Illinois Secretary of State (died 1861) 1813 – Frédéric Ozanam, Italian-French historian and scholar (died 1853) 1818 – James Anthony Froude, English historian, novelist, biographer and editor (died 1894) 1819 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1901) 1853 – Winthrop M. Crane, American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1920) 1856 – Granville Woods, American inventor and engineer (died 1910) 1857 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (died 1919) 1858 – Max Planck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1947) 1860 – Justinian Oxenham, Australian public servant (died 1932) 1861 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, English field marshal and diplomat, British High Commissioner in Egypt (died 1936) 1861 – John Peltz, American baseball player and manager (died 1906) 1865 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general (died 1943) 1867 – Johannes Fibiger, Danish physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928) 1876 – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, German historian and author (died 1925) 1880 – Michel Fokine, Russian dancer and choreographer (died 1942) 1882 – Albert Coates, English composer and conductor (died 1953) 1888 – Georges Vanier, Canadian general and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (died 1967) 1889 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (died 1942) 1894 – Frank Borzage, American actor and director (died 1962) 1895 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author and director (died 1982) 1897 – Folke Jansson, Swedish athlete (died 1965) 1897 – Lester B. Pearson, Canadian historian and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (died 1972) 1898 – Lucius D. Clay, American general (died 1978) 1899 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1979) 1899 – Minoru Shirota, Japanese physician and microbiologist, invented Yakult (died 1982) 1900 – Jim Bottomley, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1959) 1900 – Joseph Green, Polish-American actor and director (died 1996)
1901–present 1901 – E. B. Ford, English biologist and geneticist (died 1988) 1902 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) 1903 – Guy Simonds, English-Canadian general (died 1974) 1904 – Clifford Bricker, Canadian long-distance runner (died 1980) 1904 – Louis Muhlstock, Polish-Canadian painter (died 2001) 1904 – Duncan Renaldo, American actor (died 1985) 1907 – Lee Miller, American model and photographer (died 1977) 1907 – Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor, designed the Wotruba Church (died 1975) 1908 – Myron Waldman, American animator and director (died 2006) 1910 – Sheila Scott Macintyre, Scottish mathematician (died 1960) 1910 – Simone Simon, French actress (died 2005) 1911 – Ronald Neame, English-American director, cinematographer, producer, and screenwriter (died 2010) 1913 – Diosa Costello, Puerto Rican-American entertainer, producer, and club owner (died 2013) 1915 – Arnold Alexander Hall, English engineer, academic, and businessman (died 2000) 1916 – Ivo Lola Ribar, Yugoslav communist politician, military leader, and People's Hero of Yugoslavia (died 1943) 1916 – Yiannis Moralis, Greek painter and educator (died 2009) 1916 – Sinah Estelle Kelley, American chemist (died 1982) 1917 – Dorian Leigh, American model (died 2008) 1917 – Tony Lupien, American baseball player and coach (died 2004) 1918 – Maurice Druon, French author and screenwriter (died 2009) 1919 – Oleg Penkovsky, Russian colonel (died 1963) 1920 – Eric Grant Yarrow, 3rd Baronet, English businessman (died 2018) 1921 – Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States (died 2012) 1921 – Cleto Bellucci, Italian archbishop (died 2013) 1921 – Janet Blair, American actress and singer (died 2007) 1921 – Warren Spahn, American baseball player and coach (died 2003) 1923 – Dolph Briscoe, American lieutenant and politician, 41st Governor of Texas (died 2010) 1923 – Avram Davidson, American soldier and author (died 1993)