- 378 Battle of Adrianople: Gothic rebel army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens, who is killed
- 681 Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube after the defeat of the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV near the Danube Delta
- 1173 Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete
Clare’s Order of Poor Ladies
1253 Clare of Assisi’s rules confirmed by Pope Innocent IV for Clare’s Order of Poor Ladies
- 1666 Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroys 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillages the town of West-Terschelling, an act later known as “Holmes’s Bonfire”
- 1673 The Dutch under Admiral Cornelis Evertsen de Jonge recapture New York from the English; it is regained by the English in 1674
- 1726 Netherlands accedes to the Covenant of Hanover, creating an alliance of Great Britain, the Electorate of Hanover, France, and the Kingdom of Prussia united against the Austro-Spanish powers
- 1757 Fort William Henry in New York surrenders to French and Indigenous forces
Cook Reaches the Bering Straits
1778 Captain James Cook reaches Cape Prince of Wales, Bering Strait
Fulton’s Steamboat Sinks
1803 Robert Fulton tests his steamboat on the River Seine in France, but it sinks
Martin Van Buren for President
1848 US Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with Free Soil Party, nominating Martin Van Buren for president
- 1849 Hungarian Republic is crushed by Austria and Russia
Beatrice et Benedict
1862 Hector Berlioz‘s opera “Beatrice et Benedict” premieres in Baden-Baden, Germany
Stanley Reaches Boma
1877 Henry Morton Stanley‘s party reaches Boma, Congo, after 999 days, losing half of its 228 members
Diesel Engine Patented
1898 Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine
Edward VII
1902 Edward VII of Great Britain is crowned King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, succeeding his mother, Queen Victoria
- 1904 Libanus McLouth Todd of Rochester, New York, patents his check-writing machine, the Protectograph, designed to protect against check forgery
Beatty Made Vice-Admiral
1915 British naval officer David Beatty is confirmed in the rank of vice-admiral
Sports History
1918 Cincinnati Reds manager Christy Mathewson suspects Hal Chase of taking bribes to fix games and suspends him for “indifferent play”
- 1930 113°F (45°C) recorded in Perryville, Tennessee (state record)
- 1930 Animated character Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleischer’s cartoon “Dizzy Dishes”
- 1930 Percy Williams runs a world record of 10.3 seconds in the 100 m
- 1934 Fourth Women’s World Games (track and field competition for women) take place over three days at White City Stadium in London
- 1936 Helen Stephens claims the women’s sprint double at the Berlin Olympics, winning the 100 m and participating as part of the victorious American 4 x 100 m relay team
- 1936 Hungarian swimmer Ferenc Csik wins the 100 m freestyle gold medal in 57.6 seconds at the Berlin Olympics, beating Japanese pair Masanori Yusa and Shigeo Arai
Owen Helps US Win Gold
1936 Jesse Owens is part of the American 4 x 100 m relay team that wins gold in a world record time of 39.8 seconds at the Berlin Olympics; his fourth gold medal of the Games
- 1936 Korean nationals representing Japan earn medals in the marathon at the Berlin Olympics: Sohn Kee-chung wins gold and Nam Sung-yong wins bronze
- 1937 Ranger (US) easily beats Endeavour II (England) in Race 4 to wrap up the 17th America’s Cup yachting series 4-0; it is the final competition for 21 years
- 1942 CBS radio broadcasts the debut of wartime series “Our Secret Weapon”
Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony
1942 Dmitri Shostakovich‘s 7th Symphony, dedicated to the city of Leningrad, is performed in Leningrad by starving musicians and broadcast to German forces over loudspeakers during the siege by Nazi forces
Gandhi Arrested
1942 Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others are arrested in Bombay after the passing of a “Quit India” motion and campaign by the All India Congress Committee
- 1942 Vice-Admiral Gunichi Mikawa lands on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
- 1944 Smokey Bear debuts as the US Forest Service spokesperson for fire prevention; named after NYC firefighter Smokey Joe Martin
- 1944 Twelve workers of the Dutch illegal paper “Trouw” are executed at Camp Vught, Netherlands
- 1944 WWII: Port Chicago Mutiny – mass work stoppage by munition loaders at Port Chicago Naval facility concerned with conditions after a recent explosion in Port Chicago, California; 258 men are convicted of various insubordination charges, including 50 who are tried for mutiny, found guilty, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor; exonerated in 2024 [1]
- 1944 WWII: US Army 79th and 90th divisions enter Le Mans, France
1945 US drops second atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city
- 1946 First time all Major League Baseball games (8) are played at night
- 1948 Italian rider Mario Ghella beats Reg Harris of Great Britain for the gold medal in the cycling sprint final at the London Olympics
- 1948 The US crew blitzes the field to win the rowing eights gold medal at the London Olympics, beating silver medalists Great Britain by 10.2 seconds
- 1950 Lusty Song, ridden by Delvin Miller, wins the Hambletonian in Goshen, New York
- 1951 Dutch Korea volunteers win US Presidential Unit Citation
- 1952 General strike against overtime conscription in Belgium
- 1953 First elected Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, dismissed by the Indian government and later arrested
- 1956 First statewide, state-supported educational TV network in Alabama
- 1956 South African women demonstrate against pass laws
- 1957 24th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: NY Giants 22, All-Stars 12 (75,000 attendees)
- 1960 Race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
- 1961 James Benton Parsons is the first African American to be nominated to a US Federal District Court
- 1963 Britain’s rock TV show “Ready Steady Go” premieres
- 1963 NY Met pitcher Roger Craig’s NL record-tying 18-game losing streak ends with a complete game 7–3 win over the Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds, NYC
Sports History
1964 MLB Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning continues perfectly against the New York Mets until two outs in the 5th inning in the first match-up since throwing a perfect game in June when Joe Christopher beats out a bunt; Bunning masters the Mets for 15 innings over the two games
- 1965 Fire in Titan II silo in Searcy, Arkansas, kills 53 people
- 1969 Manson Family commits Tate-LaBianca murders
- 1970 Peruvian Airlines LANSA Flight 502 explodes, killing 101 people, including 45 US exchange students
- 1971 Operation Demetrius (or Internment) is introduced in Northern Ireland, allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial; security forces arrest 342 people suspected of supporting paramilitaries
- 1972 There is widespread and severe rioting in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland on the anniversary of the introduction of Internment
Wings Member Quits
1973 Northern Irish guitarist Henry McCullough quits rock band Wings, founded by Paul McCartney
- 1973 USSR launches Mars 7
1974 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States, and Vice President Gerald Ford takes the oath of office to become the 38th US President
- 1975 Dodger Davey Lopes steals his record 32nd consecutive base without being caught
- 1975 First NFL game in Louisiana Superdome; Houston defeats Saints 13-7
- 1976 Clive Lloyd scores a double century in 120 minutes, WI vs. Glamorgan
- 1976 Pittsburgh Pirate John Candelaria no-hits the LA Dodgers, 2-0
- 1976 USSR launches Luna 24, the last lunar flight to date from Earth
- 1977 Chris Old completes a century in 37 minutes, Yorkshire vs. Warwickshire
- 1977 Military-controlled government of Uruguay announces the return to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 to democratically elect a president and Congress
- 1977 NHL refuses the merger of six World Hockey Association clubs
- 1978 USSR performs an underground nuclear test
- 1979 English seaside resort Brighton gets first British nudist beach
- 1980 Belgian constitution is revised
- 1981 Six English lifeguards set a relay swim record in the English Channel (7:17)
- 1984 Daley Thompson of Great Britain scores 8,797 points to win the Olympic decathlon in Los Angeles, later recognized as a world record
- 1984 STS 41-D vehicle moves out to the launch pad
- 1984 Valerie Brisco-Hooks beats fellow American Florence Griffith to win the 200 m gold at the LA Olympics and completes the 200-400 m double
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
1985 Adventure comedy film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” starring Paul Reubens, is released
- 1988 Just one day after 8/8/88, the number 888 pops up as the winning lottery combination in New York
- 1990 Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-10 launches
- 1990 Twelve Arab leaders agree to send pan-Arab forces to protect Saudi Arabia
- 1991 British radio show “On the Hour” debuts on BBC Radio 4 with the first appearance of the Alan Partridge character
- 1992 Cuban boxer Félix Savón wins the first of three consecutive Olympic heavyweight gold medals when he dominates Nigerian David Izonritei on points at the Barcelona Games
- 1992 Future six-weight boxing world champion Oscar De La Hoya of the US defeats German Marco Rudolph on points to win the lightweight gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics
- 1992 Record temperature recorded in Berlin-Dahlem: 99.3°F (37.4°C)
- 1992 XXV Summer Olympic Games close at Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain
- 1993 King Albert II of Belgium is crowned
- 1995 South Africa celebrates the first National Women’s Day
Just to See You Smile
1997 “Just to See You Smile” single released by Tim McGraw (Billboard Song of the Year 1998)
- 1997 Security guard Abner Louima is attacked by NYC police
- 1997 Yankees break Minnesota Twins’ Brad Radke’s streak of 12 consecutive wins
- 1999 Charles Kennedy wins the race to succeed Paddy Ashdown as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK
Yeltsin Fires PM
1999 Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time dismisses his entire cabinet
- 1999 The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru as the official national flag and “Kimi Ga Yo” as the national anthem
Women’s Monument Unveiled
2000 South African President Thabo Mbeki unveils the Women’s Monument commemorating the role of women in the anti-apartheid struggle
Bush Supports Stem Cell Research
2001 US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells
Baseball Record
2002 SF Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hits his 600th career home run
- 2008 US wins all three medals in women’s fencing sabre event at the Beijing Olympics, the first US podium sweep of a fencing event since 1904; Mariel Zagunis wins gold ahead of Sada Jacobson and Rebecca Ward
Usain Bolt’s Golden Double
2012 Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt wins the 200m at the London Olympics in 19.32 seconds, becoming the first to win the 100m and 200m double in consecutive Olympics
- 2012 Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 10 premieres with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes conducted by Dennis Russell Davies at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France
- 2012 The death toll from the Philippines’ floods rises to 70
Katie Ledecky Wins Gold
2016 American swimmer Katie Ledecky wins her second gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the women’s 200 m freestyle with a time of 1:53.73, ahead of Sarah Sjöström of Sweden and Australian Emma McKeon
Olympic Gold
2016 American swimmer Michael Phelps swims 1:53.36 to win the men’s 200 m butterfly gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, beating Japan’s Masato Sakai by 0.04 seconds for his 20th Olympic gold medal
- 2016 Chinese weightlifter Deng Wei sets a world record of 147 kg in the clean and jerk and another for a total score of 262 kg to win the women’s 63 kg gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
- 2016 Hungary’s Katinka Hosszú swims an Olympic record of 2:06.58 in the women’s 200 m individual medley, winning her third gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
- 2016 Longest-ever hunger strike ends as Indian human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila tastes honey after 16 years
2017 A giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump is placed outside the US White House as a political protest; Trump is out of town at the time [Note: photo shows return visit to National Mall in October of 2018] [1]
- 2017 Nepal’s parliament bans menstruation huts, coming into effect in August 2018
- 2017 North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on US territory Guam in a continuing escalation of tension between it and the US
- 2018 Argentina’s Senate rejects a bill to legalize abortion in the first 14 weeks
- 2018 EPL club Tottenham Hotspur fails to bring in a player during the transfer window for the first time since FIFA made the system compulsory in 2002-03
- 2018 Saudi-led air coalition strikes a school bus in Saada Province, Yemen, killing 43 people, many of whom are children
- 2019 Landslide due to torrential rain kills 59 in Mon State, Myanmar, with 80,000 in emergency evacuation sites
- 2020 Brazil surpasses 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the world’s second highest, with over 3 million recorded cases
Dictator Wins Belarus Election
2020 Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees longtime dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, sparking widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation
- 2020 New Zealand reaches 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19
- 2021 A herd of 14 elephants returns home from a 500 km (300 mile) trek across China, leading authorities to evacuate 150,000 people out of their path [1]
- 2021 Cholera outbreak in Nigeria has killed more than 800 people with 31,425 suspected cases since January 2021, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control [1]
- 2021 Landmark UN IPCC climate report is a “Code Red for humanity”, rise of 1.5°C now certain; catastrophic change can still be avoided if the world acts quickly [1] [2]
Serena Williams to Retire
2022 Tennis superstar Serena Williams announces her intention to retire in an interview with “Vogue” [1]
- 2023 Ecuadorian opposition presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio is assassinated at a campaign rally in Quito [1]
- 2023 MLB Phillies pitcher Michael Lorenzen throws a no-hitter in his first career complete game, a 7-0 win over the Washington Nationals, and outfielder Weston Wilson makes his MLB debut, hitting a home run in his first at-bat at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
- 2023 Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Michael Lorenzen no-hits Washington Nationals, 7-0 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
- 2023 Wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui kill at least 97 people and destroy the historic town of Lahaina
- 2024 A trainee female doctor is raped and murdered in a Kolkata hospital, sparking huge outrage and protests over sexual violence against women in India [1]
- 2024 Passenger plane crashes in the Brazilian city of Vinhedo, killing all 61 people on board on a flight to São Paulo [1]
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