Events Pre-1600 217 – Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated and is succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus. 876 – The Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul saves Baghdad from the Saffarids. 1139 – Roger II of Sicily is excommunicated by Innocent II for supporting Anacletus II as pope for seven years, even though Roger had already publicly recognized Innocent's claim to the papacy. 1143 – Manuel I Komnenos succeeds his father John II Komnenos as Byzantine Emperor. 1232 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols begin their siege on Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty. 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Ayyubids of Egypt capture King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fariskur. 1271 – Fall of Krak des Chevaliers: In Syria, sultan Baibars conquers the Krak des Chevaliers.
1601–1900 1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.Some History – City of Oulu 1730 – Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, is dedicated. 1812 – Czar Alexander I, the Russian Emperor and the Grand Duke of Finland, officially announces the transfer of the status of the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki. 1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos. 1832 – Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans. 1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Italy and Prussia sign a secret alliance against the Austrian Empire. 1886 – William Ewart Gladstone introduces the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1895 – In Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.
1901–present 1904 – The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland sign the Entente cordiale. 1933 – The Australian state of Western Australia votes to secede from the federation in a non-binding referendum, although efforts to implement the result prove unsuccessful. 1940 – The Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party elects Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal as General Secretary, marking the beginning of his 44-year-long tenure as de facto leader of Mongolia. 1954 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people. 1954 – South African Airways Flight 201: A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 crashes into the sea during night killing 21 people. 1959 – A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL. 1959 – The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank. 1960 – The Netherlands and West Germany sign an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung. 1968 – BOAC Flight 712 catches fire shortly after takeoff. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison is awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime. The citation for Harrison's GC is on p.1, Davis-Gordon's BEM is on p.3 1970 – Bahr El-Baqar primary school bombing: Israeli bombers strike an Egyptian school. Forty-six children are killed. 1974 – Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in career home runs by hitting his 715th home run off of Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. 1975 – Voyageurs National Park is established by the U.S. Congress. 1990 – The conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis is elected in the Greek parliamentary election.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 1993 – The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-56. 2002 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-110, carrying the S0 truss to the International Space Station. Astronaut Jerry L. Ross also becomes the first person to fly on seven spaceflights. 2005 – A solar eclipse occurs, visible over areas of the Pacific Ocean and Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. 2010 – U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START Treaty. 2014 – Windows XP reaches its standard End Of Life and is no longer supported. 2020 – Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's nominee. 2024 – Solar eclipse: A total solar eclipse takes place at the Moon's ascending node, visible across North America. 2026 – Operation Eternal Darkness: Hours after a ceasefire to the Iran war, Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill at least 357 and injures more than 1200 people in the largest airstrikes of the Lebanon war.
Births
Pre-1600 1320 – Peter I of Portugal (died 1367) 1408 – Jadwiga of Lithuania, Polish princess (died 1431) 1435 – John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford, English noble (died 1461) 1533 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (died 1604) 1536 – Barbara of Hesse (died 1597) 1541 – Michele Mercati, Italian physician and archaeologist (died 1593) 1580 – William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, English noble, courtier and patron of the arts (died 1630) 1596 – Juan van der Hamen, Spanish artist (died 1631)
1601–1900 1605 – Philip IV of Spain (died 1665) 1605 – Mary Stuart, English-Scottish princess (died 1607) 1641 – Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (died 1704) 1692 – Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1770) 1726 – Lewis Morris, American judge and politician (died 1798) 1732 – David Rittenhouse, American astronomer and mathematician (died 1796) 1761 – William Joseph Chaminade, French priest, founded the Society of Mary (died 1850) 1770 – John Thomas Campbell, Irish-Australian banker and politician (died 1830) 1798 – Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet and author (died 1857) 1818 – Christian IX, King of Denmark (died 1906) 1818 – August Wilhelm von Hofmann, German chemist and academic (died 1892) 1826 – Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican soldier (died 1890) 1827 – Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican ophthalmologist, journalist, and politician (died 1898) 1842 – Elizabeth Bacon Custer, American author and educator (died 1933) 1859 – Edmund Husserl, German Jewish-Austrian mathematician and philosopher (died 1938) 1864 – Carlos Deltour, French rower and rugby player (died 1920) 1867 – Allen Butler Talcott, American painter and educator (died 1908) 1869 – Harvey Cushing, American surgeon and academic (died 1939) 1871 – Clarence Hudson White, American photographer and educator (died 1925) 1874 – Manuel Díaz, Cuban fencer (died 1929) 1874 – Stanisław Taczak, Polish general (died 1960) 1875 – Albert I of Belgium (died 1934) 1882 (O.S. 27 March) – Dmytro Doroshenko, Lithuanian-Ukrainian historian and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Prime Minister of Ukraine (died 1951) 1883 – R. P. Keigwin, English cricketer and academic (died 1972) 1883 – Julius Seljamaa, Estonian journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (died 1936) 1885 – Dimitrios Levidis, Greek-French soldier, composer, and educator (died 1951) 1886 – Margaret Ayer Barnes, American author and playwright (died 1967) 1888 – Dennis Chávez, American journalist and politician (died 1962) 1889 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (died 1983) 1892 – Richard Neutra, Austrian-American architect, designer of the Los Angeles County Hall of Records (died 1970) 1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of United Artists (died 1979) 1896 – Yip Harburg, American composer (died 1981) 1900 – Marie Byles, Australian solicitor (died 1979)
1901–present 1902 – Andrew Irvine, English mountaineer and explorer (died 1924) 1902 – Maria Maksakova Sr., Russian soprano (died 1974) 1904 – John Hicks, English economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) 1904 – Hirsch Jacobs, American horse trainer (died 1970) 1905 – Joachim Büchner, German sprinter and graphic designer (died 1978) 1905 – Helen Joseph, English-South African activist (died 1992) 1905 – Erwin Keller, German field hockey player (died 1971) 1906 – Raoul Jobin, Canadian tenor and educator (died 1974) 1908 – Hugo Fregonese, Argentinian director and screenwriter (died 1987) 1909 – John Fante, American author and screenwriter (died 1983) 1910 – George Musso, American football player and police officer (died 2000) 1911 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997) 1911 – Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and academic (died 1995) 1912 – Alois Brunner, Austrian-German SS officer (died 2001 or 2010) 1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian-American figure skater and actress (died 1969) 1914 – María Félix, Yaqui/Basque-Mexican actress (died 2002) 1915 – Ivan Supek, Croatian physicist, philosopher and writer (died 2007) 1917 – Winifred Asprey, American mathematician and computer scientist (died 2007) 1917 – Lloyd Bott, Australian public servant (died 2004) 1917 – Hubertus Ernst, Dutch bishop (died 2017) 1917 – Grigori Kuzmin, Russian-Estonian astronomer (died 1988) 1918 – Betty Ford, American wife of Gerald Ford, 40th First Lady of the United States (died 2011) 1918 – Glendon Swarthout, American author and academic (died 1992) 1919 – Ian Smith, Zimbabwean lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (died 2007) 1921 – Franco Corelli, Italian tenor and actor (died 2003) 1920 – Carmen McRae, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (died 1994) 1921 – Jan Novák, Czech composer (died 1984) 1921 – Herman van Raalte, Dutch footballer (died 2013) 1923 – George Fisher, American cartoonist (died 2003) 1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish-American actor (died 1997) 1924 – Frédéric Back, German-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (died 2013) 1924 – Anthony Farrar-Hockley, English general and historian (died 2006) 1924 – Kumar Gandharva, Hindustani classical singer (died 1992) 1924 – Sara Northrup Hollister, American occultist (died 1997) 1926 – Henry N. Cobb, American architect and academic, co-founded Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (died 2020) 1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian (died 2023) 1926 – Jürgen Moltmann, German theologian and academic (died 2024) 1927 – Tilly Armstrong, English author (died 2010) 1927 – Ollie Mitchell, American trumpet player and bandleader (died 2013) 1928 – Fred Ebb, American lyricist (died 2004) 1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer-songwriter and actor (died 1978) 1929 – Renzo De Felice, Italian historian and author (died 1996) 1930 – Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma (died 2010) 1931 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Mexico (died 2018) 1931 – Jack Le Goff, French equestrian (died 2009) 1932 – Iskandar of Johor (died 2010) 1933 – James Lockhart, American scholar of colonial Latin America, especially Nahua peoples (died 2014) 1934 – Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect, designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower and Singapore Flyer (died 2007) 1935 – Oscar Zeta Acosta, American lawyer and politician (died 1974) 1935 – Albert Bustamante, American soldier, educator, and politician (died 2021) 1936 – Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian author and politician (died 1972) 1937 – Tony Barton, English footballer and manager (died 1993) 1937 – Seymour Hersh, American journalist and author 1937 – Momo Kapor, Serbian author and painter (died 2010) 1938 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian economist and diplomat, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (died 2018) 1938 – John Hamm, Canadian physician and politician, 25th Premier of Nova Scotia (died 2026)Dr. John Frederick Hamm 1938 – Mary W. Gray, American mathematician, statistician, and lawyer 1939 – Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer, composer and songwriter (died 1989) 1939 – John Arbuthnott, Scottish microbiologist and academic (died 2023)