< Back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next >

1996–Rapper, Tupac Shakur, from multiple gunshot wounds in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 25. He has sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling music artists of all time.


BC 585–Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Kking of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia.

BC 509–The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.

81–Roman Emperor, Titus, dies of a fever in Rome, Italy, at age 41. As Emperor, he is best known for completing the Colosseum and for his generosity in relieving the suffering caused by two disasters, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, and a fire in Rome in 80.

379–Yax Nuun Ahiin I is crowned as 15th Ajaw of Tikal.

533–Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.

678–Mayan ruler, K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb III, is born. He was also known as Chaacal III and Akul Anab III.

1087–Byzantine Emperor, John II Komnenos, is born in Constantinople. He has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors.

1229–Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii, Mongolia.

1437–In the Battle of Tangier, a Portuguese expeditionary force initiates a failed attempt to seize the Moroccan citadel of Tangier.

1501–Michelangelo begins work on his statue, David.

1504–Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built.

1541–After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism.

1584–San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid, Spain, is finished.

1598–Philip II of Spain dies of cancer in El Escorial, Spain, at age 71. Known in Spain as "Philip the Prudent," his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, including his namesake the Philippine Islands. During his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power and this is sometimes called it “Golden Age.”

1609–Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him, the Hudson River.

1632–Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, dies in Schwaz, Tirol, Austria, at age 45. He was Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg, until he resigned to get married.

1729–Architect and writer, Colen Campbell, dies in London, England, at age 53. He would become credited with founding the Georgian style of Architecture. His major published work, Vitruvius Britannicus (The British Architect), appeared in three volumes between 1715 and 1725.

1743–Great Britain, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.

1759–The British defeat the French near Quebec City, Canada, in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.

1782–In the American Revolutionary War, Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.

1787–The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.

1788–The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.

1789–The United States Government takes out its first loan. The money is borrowed from the Bank of North America at 6% interest.

1791–King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution.

1808–In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces, under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln, beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.

1812–During the War of 1812, a supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.

1814–In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry," which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem.

1843–The Greek Army rebels against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution.

1847–During the Mexican-American War, six teenage military cadets, known as Niños Héroes, die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City.

1848–Vermont railroad worker, Phineas Gage, survives an iron rod 1.25 inches in diameter being driven through his brain: the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.

1850–The first ascent of Piz Bernina, the highest summit of the eastern Alps, takes place.

1857–Milton S. Hershey, is born in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. The American chocolate tycoon founded the Hershey Chocolate Company.

1862–In the American Civil War, Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.

1874–Austrian composer, Arnold Schönberg, is born Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg (or Schönberg) in Leopoldstadt, Vienna. He is the father of 12-tone or serial music.

1876–Sherwood Anderson, seminal figure in modern American literature, is born in Camden, Ohio. He was influential in the careers of both Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

1890–Businessman, Antony Noghès, is born in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He founded the Monaco Grand Prix. He suggested the international adoption of the checkered flag to end races.

1898–H.L. Goodwin of Newark, New Jersey, receives a patent for celluloid photographic film.

1899–Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident.

1899–Mackinder, Ollier, and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian, the highest peak of Mount Kenya at 17,058 feet.

1900–Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine-American War.

1901–Super-centenarian, James (Foster) McCoubrey, is born in St. John's, Newfoundland. He would live to the age of 111 years (and 295 days).

1903–Actress, Claudette Colbert, is born Emilie Lily Claudette in Saint-Mandé, France. She appeared in the films It Happened One Night, Cleopatra, Imitation of Life, The Gilded Lily, Drums Along the Mohawk, Boomtown, Skylark, The Palm Beach Story, Since You Went Away, Tomorrow is Forever, The Egg and I, Three Came Home, and Parrish.

1906–The first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft takes place in Europe.

1911–Musician, Bill Monroe, is born William Smith Monroe in Rosine, Kentucky. He was a mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the style of music known as bluegrass. He is commonly referred to as the "Father of Bluegrass." He had numerous hits with his band, The Blue Grass Boys.

1914–During World War I, South African troops open hostilities in German south-west Africa (Namibia) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.

1914–In World War I, the Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France.

1916–Author and screenwriter, Roald Dahl, is born in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. He rose to prominence in the 1940s, with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's best-selling authors. He has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century." His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine, and The Twits. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected and My Uncle Oswald. He was married to actress, Patricia Neal.

1918–Singer-songwriter, vocal arranger, and conductor, Ray Charles, is born Charles Raymond Offenberg in Chicago, Illinois. He was best known as organizer and leader of The Ray Charles Singers, who were featured on Perry Como's records and television shows for 35 years, and were also known for a series of 30 choral record albums produced in the 1950s and 1960s for the Essex, MGM, Decca, and Command labels. As a vocalist, Charles (along with Julia Rinker Miller) sang the theme song to the TV sitcom Three's Company (Come and Knock on Our Door).

1922–The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences.

1923–Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship.

1924–Actor, Scott Brady, is born Gerard Kenneth Tierney in Brooklyn, New York. He appeared in the films He Walked by Night, Undertow, Yankee Buccaneer, Bloodhounds of Broadway, A Perilous Journey, Johnny Guitar, Terror at Midnight, Mohawk, The Restless Breed, John Goldfarb Please Come Home, Journey to the Center of Time, Marooned, $, The China Syndrome, and Gremlins.

1925–Singer, Mel Tormé, is born Melvin Howard Tormé in Chicago, Illinois. Nicknamed "The Velvet Fog," he was best known as a singer of jazz standards. He composed the music for The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. His biggest crossover hit was Comin' Home Baby. He appeared in the films Good News, Words and Music, Girls Town, and A Man Called Adam.

1933–Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.

1935–A rockslide near Whirlpool Rapids Bridge ends the International Railway (New York-Ontario).

1942–In the second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeat attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.

1947–T-Bone Walker records Call It Stormy Monday for B&W records.

1948–Deputy Prime Minister of India, Vallabhbhai Patel, orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union.

1948–Margaret Chase Smith is elected a U.S. Senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

1948–Actress, Nell Carter, is born Nell Ruth Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama. She is best known for her starring role in the sitcom Gimme a Break! She appeared in the films Hair, Back Roads, Modern Problems, and Tex.

1953–Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1956–The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland (a low-lying tract of land) is closed.

1956–The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, as the first commercial computer to use disk storage.

1956–Chef and restaurateur, Alain Ducasse, is born in Orthez, France. He is known for his Provençal cooking style. After working as chef at several restaurants in Monte Carlo and France, Ducasse opened his eponymous restaurant in New York City's The Essex House. He has since opened restaurants in Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and New York.

1956–Joni Sledge, of the singing group Sister Sledge, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The group’s biggest hit was We Are Family.

1960–The U.S. Federal Communications Commission bans payola. A scandal, investigated by a Congressional committee, involved some of the biggest names in radio, including popular New York disc jockey, Alan Freed. He lost his job at WABC for allegedly accepting gifts and money for playing certain records. There was substantial evidence to prove that the practice was quite widespread.

1963–The sci-fi TV series, The Outer Limits, makes its debut on ABC-TV.

1964–The Beatles, on tour in America, perform two shows at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Total attendance is 28,000.

1965–The Beatles win their first two Grammy Awards for “Best Group” and “Best Album” for A Hard Day's Night.

1965–Drummer, Zak (Richard) Starkey, first child of Ringo Starr and his wife, Maureen, is born at Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital in Hammersmith, London, England.

1968–Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.

1969–The Doors perform at the Toronto Rock & Roll Revival at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Plastic Ono Band makes its first live appearance at the event. Assembled at the last minute, the group rehearses on the plane flying them to Canada. The band includes, John Lennon (rhythm guitar) and Yoko Ono (voice), Eric Clapton (lead guitar), Klaus Voormann (bass), and Alan White (drums). Their performance is recorded and released on the LP Plastic Ono Band: Live Peace in Toronto 1969.

1971–Thirty-one prisoners and 11 guards are killed when state police and National Guardsmen storm Attica prison in New York state to end a five-day revolt.

1971–Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor, Marshal Lin Biao, flees the People's Republic of China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.

1971–Fashion designer, Stella (Nina) McCartney, is born at King’s College Hospital, Lambeth, London, England. She is the daughter of former Beatle, Paul McCartney, and photographer, Linda Eastman McCartney. Following a stint as Creative Director of the fashion house Chloé, in Paris, France, McCartney launched her own fashion house in 2001. As a lifelong vegetarian, she uses no fur, leather, wool, or silk in her designs. The McCartney fashion house has since added fragrance, skincare, lingerie, and children's fashion lines.

1977–Symphonic conductor, Leopold Stokowski, dies in Hampshire, England, at age 95. He directed the New York Philharmonic (1946-1950) and in 1962, formed the American Symphony Orchestra.

1979–South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda.

1985–Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which begins the Super Mario series of platforming games.

1985–Astrologer, Dane Rudhyar, dies in San Francisco, California, at age 90. He was an author and the pioneer of modern transpersonal astrology. Rudhyar's astrological works were influential in the New Age movement of the 1960s and 1970s, especially among the hippies of San Francisco, California, where he lived and gave frequent lectures. Rudhyar regarded the “true early hippies” as potential harbingers of a New Age. His best known book is The Astrology of Personality: A Reformulation of Astrological Concepts and Ideals, in Terms of Contemporary Psychology and Philosophy.

1987–A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning.

1987–Film producer and director, Mervyn LeRoy, dies of natural causes in Beverly Hills, California, at age 86. His films include Little Caesar, Three on a Match, Tugboat Annie, Anthony Adverse, The Wizard of Oz, Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Madame Curie, Little Women, East Side West Side, Million Dollar Mermaid, Latin Lovers, Mister Roberts, The Bad Seed, Toward the Unknown, No Time for Sergeants, Home Before Dark, The FBI Story, The Devil at 4 O'Clock, Gypsy, Mary Mary, and Moment to Moment.

1988–Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).

1989–The largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa is led by Desmond Tutu.

1993–Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman, Yasser Arafat, at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy.

1996–Rapper, Tupac Shakur, dies from multiple gunshot wounds in a drive by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 25. He has sold over 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling music artists of all time.

1998–Politician, George Wallace, dies of septic shock from a bacterial infection in Montgomery, Alabama, at age 79. He was the 45th Governor of Alabama. Wallace has the third longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history, at 16 years and four days. He was a U.S. Presidential candidate for four consecutive elections, in which he sought the Democratic Party nomination in 1964, 1972, and 1976, and was the American Independent Party candidate in the 1968 presidential election. Wallace survived an assassination attempt in Laurel, Maryland, in 1972, perpetrated by Arthur Bremer, but remained wheelchair-bound until his death.

2001–Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

2001–Actress, Dorothy (Hackett) McGuire, dies of cardiac arrest in Santa Monica, California, of at age 85. She appeared in the films The Enchanted Cottage, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Spiral Staircase, Gentleman’s Agreement, Three Coins in the Fountain, Friendly Persuasion, Old Yeller, A Summer Place, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Swiss Family Robinson, Susan Slade, Summer Magic, and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

2006–Politician, Ann Richards, dies of esophageal cancer in Austin, Texas, at age 73. She was the 45th Governor of Texas.

2007–The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

2008–Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, which kill 30 people and injure 130 others.

2008–Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding areas.

2009–Actor, Paul Burke, dies of leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Palm Springs, California, at age 83. He is best known for the lead roles in two 1960s TV shows, Naked City and Twelve O'Clock High. He appeared in the films Francis in the Navy, Screaming Eagles, Della, Valley of the Dolls, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Daddy's Gone A-Hunting.

2013–Super-centenarian, Salustiano Sanchez, dies in Grand Island, New York, at age 112 (and 97 days).

2013–Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and 20 civilians injured.

2016–Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, calls for Hungary to be expelled from the European Union for its treatment of migrants from the Middle East.

2016–Imprisoned former American Army intelligence analyst and transgender person, Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, will have the military provide the costs of gender reassignment surgery. She was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.

2016–The World Anti-Doping Agency reveals that Russian hackers broke into one of its databases and published confidential medical information on several prominent American female athletes who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Among them are gymnast, Simone Biles; tennis players, Venus and Serena Williams; and basketball player, Elena Delle Donne.

2017–Actor, Frank Vincent, dies from complications of heart surgery in New Jersey, at age 78. He is best known for his role on the HBO series The Sopranos. He appeared in the films Raging Bull, Baby It’s You, Easy Money, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Wise Guys, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, Mortal Thoughts, Jungle Fever, and Casino.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Roman Emperor, Titus; San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid, Spain; The Philadelphia Convention in 1787; Milton S. Hershey; Roald Dahl; Margaret Chase Smith; the title for the TV series The Outer Limits; Stella McCartney; Ann Richards; and Chelsea Manning.
< Back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next >