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1970–Rock guitarist, Jimi Hendrix dies from an overdose of sleeping pills in London, England, at age 27. He is found unconscious in a basement bedroom at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill Gate by Monika Danneman. Hendrix had consumed approximately 18 times the normal dose of a barbiturate. While Hendrix was dead on the scene, he was pronounced DOA at St. Mary's Abbot Hospital. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. His hits include Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, and All Along the Watchtower.


53–Roman Emperor Trajan is born Marcus Ulpius Traianus in Italica, Hispania (present-day Province of Seville, Andalusia), Spain.

96–Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated.

324–Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.

411–Roman ursurper, Constantine III, dies. He was a Roman general who declared himself Western Roman Emperor in Britannia in 407, and established himself in Gaul. Recognised by the Emperor Honorius in 409, Constantine suffered a collapse of support and military setbacks that led to his abdication in 411. He was captured and executed shortly afterwards.

1066–King Harald Hardrada of Norway lands on the beaches of Scarborough to began his invasion of England.

1137–King Eric II of Denmark dies in Urnehoved, Denmark, at age 47. King Eric was struck down by local nobleman, Sorte Plov.

1180–Louis VII of France dies in Saint-Pont, Allier, France, at age 60. Philip Augustus becomes King of France.

1434–Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress, is born in Torres Vedras, Lisbon, Portugal.

1454–In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.

1502–Christopher Columbus lands at Honduras on his fourth, and final, voyage.

1618–The 12th Baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar begins.

1635–Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria declares war on France.

1679–New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1675–Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, dies in Allenbach, Germany, at age 71.

1709–Novelist, Samuel Johnson, is born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. He was an essayist, critic, poet, lexicographer, and stellar conversationalist.

1714–George I, the first Hanoverian king, arrives in Great Britain.

1739–The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.

1759–In the Seven Years' War, the British capture Quebec City, Canada.

1765–Pope Gregory XVI is born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari in Belluno, Italy.

1786–Christian VIII of Denmark is born Christian Frederick at Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark. Christian inherited the talents of his highly gifted mother, Duchess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his amiability and handsome features are said to have made him very popular in Copenhagen.

1793–President George Washington lays the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building.

1809–The Royal Opera House opens in London, England.

1810–The first Government Junta is noted in Chile. Although it is supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.

1812–The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, that was spared from the fire.

1837–Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium."

1838–The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden.

1846–Poets, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, exchange their last letters before eloping.

1850–The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1851–The first edition of The New York Times, founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond, is published.

1870–Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.

1872–Charles XV of Sweden dies in battle at Malmo, Skane County, Sweden, at age 46. King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.

1873–The U.S. bank, Jay Cooke & Company, declares bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.

1879–The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.

1882–The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.

1895–Booker T. Washington delivers the "Atlanta compromise" address.

1898–Lord Kitchener's ships reach Fashoda, Sudan.

1905–Actress, Greta Garbo, is born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden. She retired from films in 1941, and lived in New York in virtual seclusion until her death in 1990. She once claimed that she never actually said “I want to be alone,” but rather that she wanted to be let alone. She appeared in the films Anna Christie, Grand Hotel, Anna Karenina, Camille, Ninotchka, and Two-Faced Woman.

1906–A typhoon with a tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

1910–In Amsterdam, 25,000 people demonstrate for general suffrage.

1911–Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House.

1914–The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.

1914–In World War I, South African troops land in German South-West Africa.

1917–Aldous Huxley, at age 23, is hired as a schoolmaster at Eton, where he counts among his unruly pupils Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell).

1917–Voice actress, June Foray, is born June Lucille Forer in Springfield, Massachusetts. She was best known as the voices of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Lucifer the Cat from Disney's Cinderella, a mermaid in Peter Pan, and Witch Hazel in the Donald Duck short Trick or Treat. She also did a variety of voices for Walter Lantz's "Woody Woodpecker" cartoons. In 1960, she provided the speech for Mattel's original "Chatty Cathy" doll, and she also voiced the malevolent "Talky Tina" doll in the Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll," which first aired on November 1, 1963.

1919–The Netherlands gives women the right to vote.

1919–Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

1921–Politician, Kamal Hassan Ali, is born in Cairo, Sultanate of Egypt. He was Prime Minister of Egypt (1984-1985).

1922–Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations.

1923–Queen Anne of Romania is born Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte Zita Marquerite of Bourbon-Parma in Paris, France. She was the wife of King Michael I of Romania. 

1927–The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) makes its debut with a basic network of 16 radio stations.

1928–Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.

1931–The Mukden Incident gives Japan a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.

1934–The USSR is admitted to the League of Nations.

1939–The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.

1939–Businessman, Charles M. Schwab, dies in New York, New York,, at age 77. He co-founded Bethlehem Steel. Under his leadership, the company became the second largest steel maker in the United States, and one of the most important heavy manufacturers in the world.

1940–You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe is published by Harper’s.

1940–The British liner, SS City of Benares, is sunk by German submarine U-48. Among those killed are 77 child refugees.

1940–Teen idol and singer, Frankie Avalon, is born Francis Thomas Avallone in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His hits include DeDe Dinah, Venus, Bobby Sox to Stockings, Why, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Beach Party, and Beauty School Dropout. He appeared in the films Jamboree, The Alamo, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Panic in Year Zero!, Operation Bikini, Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, I’ll Take Sweden, Ski Party, How to Stuff a Wilk Bikini, Skidoo, Grease, Back to the Beach, Troop Beverly Hills, and Casino.

1943–Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.

1943–During World War II, the Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.

1943–A union-led, two-year ban on instrumental recordings comes to an end for most record companies, after they agree to pay royalties into a union fund for all records released. The Victor and Columbia labels held out against the agreement for another year. The American Federation of Musicians recording ban protested the lack of a royalty system to compensate musicians for use of their recordings on radio programs and jukeboxes.

1944–The British submarine, HMS Tradewind, torpedoes Jun’yo Maru, killing 5,600 people.

1945–General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo, Japan.

1945–Singer-songwriter, P.F. Sloan, is born Philip Gary Schlein in New York, New York. His songs include Eve of Destruction, A Must to Avoid, You Baby, Secret Agent Man, and Where Were You When I Needed You.

1947–The U.S. Air Force becomes an independent branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

1947–The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are established in the United States under the National Security Act.

1948–Operation Polo is terminated after the Indian Army accepts the surrender of the army of Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, Nizam of Hyderabad.

1948–Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent, Adrian Scolten.

1951-Neurosurgeon and politician, Ben Carson, is born Benjamin Solomon Carson in Detroit, Michigan. He was comfirmed the 17th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), under the Trump Administration. Prior to his cabinet position, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016. Carson was brought to national attention as the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 7, 2013. The event is normally apolitical in nature and Carson’s speech was critical of the philosophy and policies of President Barack Obama, who was sitting 10 feet away.

1951–Dee Dee Ramone, of The Ramones, is born Douglas Glenn Colvin in Fort Lee, Virginia.

1951–Pamela Colman Smith, occultist and illustrator, dies penniless in Bude, Cornwall, England. She is best known for illustrating the Waite-Smith deck of divinatory tarot cards (also called the Rider-Waite or the Rider-Waite-Smith deck) for Arthur Edward Waite. It has endured as the world's most popular 78-card tarot deck. After her death, all of her personal effects, including her paintings and drawings, were sold at auction to satisfy her debts.

1957–A chart topper: That’ll Be the Day by The Crickets.

1958–Theosophist and public figure, Bhagwan Das, dies in India, at age 89. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest. As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government. Das was a scholar of Sanskrit, from which he added to the body of Hindi language. He wrote approximately 30 books, many in Sanskrit and Hindi.

1959–Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.

1960–Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.

1961–United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1961–The North American Football Confederation and the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (Football Confederation of Central America and the Caribbean) merge into the Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).

1961–Actor, James Gandolfini, is born James Joseph Gandolfini, Jr. in Westwood, New Jersey. He is best known for the role of Tony Soprano on HBO's series The Sopranos. He appeared in the films The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Mr. Wonderful, Angie, Terminal Velocity, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Juror, She’s So Lovely, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Civil Action, and 8mm.

1962–Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda, and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.

1964–Constantine II of Greece marries Danish Princess Anne-Marie.

1964–The North Vietnamese Army begins infiltration of South Vietnam.

1964–The Beatles, on tour in America, perform at Dallas Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas.

1964–Chad and Jeremy’s A Summer Song is released.

1967–The Beach Boys LP Smiley Smile is released in the U.S.

1970–Rock guitarist, Jimi Hendrix dies from an overdose of sleeping pills in London, England, at age 27. He is found unconscious in a basement bedroom at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill Gate by Monika Danneman. Hendrix had consumed approximately 18 times the normal dose of a barbiturate. While Hendrix was dead on the scene, he was pronounced DOA at St. Mary's Abbot Hospital. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. His hits include Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, and All Along the Watchtower.

1973–The Bahamas, East Germany, and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.

1974–John Lennon is the guest DJ on New York's WNEW-FM radio.

1974–Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.

1977–U.S. Voyager I takes the first space photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

1980–Soyuz 38 carries two cosmonauts (including one Cuban) to the Salyut 6 space station.

1980–Amsterdam's Paradise Club is the setting for a two-day festival celebrating the life of Jimi Hendrix, which ended 10 years ago today. The 1,100 attendees watch Hendrix films and an appearance by the Noel Redding Band, with Mitch Mitchell guesting on drums.

1980–Writer, Katherine Ann Porter, dies following a series of strokes in Silver Springs, Maryland, at age 90. She is buried in the Indian Creek Cemetery near her parents in Brown County, Central Texas. She is best known for her short fiction, rather than her novel Ship of Fools.

1981–Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.

1982–Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.

1984–Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.

1984–A chart topper: What’s Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner.

1988–Pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar end after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Thousands, mostly monks and civilians (primarily students), are killed by the Tatmadaw.

1990–Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.

1991–Yugoslavia begins a naval blockade of seven Adriatic port cities.

1992–An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing nine replacement workers.

1997–Media magnate, Ted Turner, donates $1 billion to the United Nations.

1997–Al-Qaeda carries out a terrorist attack in Mostar, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.

1997–Blues singer, Jimmy Witherspoon, dies of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 77. Witherspoon's style of blues, that of the "blues shouter," became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

1998–The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is formed. It is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and methodologies of several databases, with unique identifiers, related to the namespaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation. Much of its work concerns the Internet's global Domain Name System, including policy development for internationalization of the DNS system, introduction of new generic top-level domains, and the operation of root name servers.

2004–Film producer and director, Russ Meyer, dies from complications of pneumonia in Hollywood, California, at age 82. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that featured campy humor and sly satire. His films include Fanny Hill, Motorpsycho, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Mondo Topless, Vixen!, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Supervixens, Up!, and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens.

2007–Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president.

2007–Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.

2009–The 72-year run of the soap opera, The Guiding Light, ends as its final episode is broadcast.

2011–An earthquake is felt across northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and southern Tibet.

2013–Cygnus Orb-D1 is launched into space.

2014–Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.

2015–Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed following a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar.

2016–The 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards announces its winners. Best Dramatic Series: Game of Thrones; Best Comedy Series: Veep; Best Musical or Variety Series: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Best Limited Series: The People v. O. J. Simpson–American Crime Story; Best Made for Television Movie: Sherlock "The Abominable Bride"; Best Reality Series: The Voice; Best Actor: Rami Malek; Best Actress: Tatiana Maslany; Best Comedy Actor: Jeffrey Tambor; Best Comedy Actress: Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The ceremonies are held at the Microsoft Theatre, Los Angeles, California. The host is Jimmy Kimmel.

2017–Toys "R" Us files for bankruptcy protection in the United States and Canada as it attempts to restructure its debts.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Philip Augustus; Samuel Johnson; Tiffany & Co. logo; the Blackpool Illuminations; Fritz Pollard; Frankie Avalon; P.F. Sloan; Bhagwan Das; James Gandolfini; Jmi Hendrix; Katherine Ann Porter; Russ Meyer; and the stars of The Voice.
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