< 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 >

1936–Singer-songwriter, Buddy Holly, is born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas. By the age of 13, Holly was playing what he called “Western Bop” at local clubs. At 19, an agent discovered him and signed him to a contract with Decca Records. A misspelling of his last name on his recording contract caused Holley to change his last name. The following year, he returned to Lubbock, and with three friends formed The Crickets, who then released That'll Be The Day, which sold over a million copies. Buddy Holly's career was short: he died in February 1959, in a plane crash while on tour in northern Iowa.


70–A Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem.

859–Emperor Xuanzong of Tang dies from taking “immortality” pills from alchemists at age 49.

878–Louis the Stammerer is crowned as King of West Francia by Pope John VIII.

923–Emperor Suzaku of Japan is born Hiroakira-shinno in Heian Kyo, Kyoto.

932–Emperor Meng Zhixiang dies after having a stroke, at age 60.

1159–Roland of Siena becomes Pope Alexander III.

1228–Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II lands in Acre, Israel, and starts the Sixth Crusade, which results in a peaceful restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1303–Guillaume de Nogaret takes Pope Boniface VIII prisoner on behalf of Philip IV of France.

1312–Ferdinand IV of Castile dies suddenly in his tent at Jaén while preparing for a raid into the Emirate of Granada, at age 26.

1362–Joan of the Tower dies of the Black Death at Hertford Castle, Hertfordshire, England, at age 41.

1464–Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, dies in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire, at age 52.

1496–Ferdinand II of Naples dies of a sudden illness in Somma Vesuviana, at age 27.

1533–Queen Elizabeth I is born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She is considered the most admirable person to ever occupy the English throne, ruling from 1558-1603. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

1566–Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, dies in battle in Szigetvár, Kingdom of Hungary, at age 71.

1571–Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is arrested for his role in the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

1573–Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal, dies in El Escorial, Spain, at age 38.

1601–John Shakespeare dies in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, at age 70. He was the father of William Shakespeare.

1652–Around 15,000 Han farmers and militia rebel against Dutch rule on Taiwan.

1695–Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable pirate raids in history with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship, Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to end all English trading in India.

1706–The siege of Turin ends, leading to the withdrawal of French forces from North Italy.

1731–Eudoxia Lopukhina, the Russian wife of Peter the Great, dies in Moscow, Russia, at age 62.

1764–Stanislaw August Poniatowski is elected as the last ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1776–According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.

1778–During the American Revolutionary War, France invades Dominica in the British West Indies, before Britain is even aware of France's involvement in the war.

1812–The Battle of Borodino, the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, is fought near Moscow, Russia, resulting in a French victory.

1818–Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Norway, in Trondheim.

1822–Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga Brook in São Paulo.

1836–Politician, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, is born at Kelvinside House, Glasgow, Scotland. He was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be officially called "Prime Minister," the term only coming into official usage five days after he took office. He also remains the only person to date to hold the positions of both Prime Minister and Father of the House at the same time.

1855–Inventor, William Friese-Greene, is born in Bristol, England. Between 1885 and 1890 he built a series of four prototype motion-picture cameras and was granted a patent for a camera to record movement. He went bankrupt in the process and sold the rights to the patent for £500. During his lifetime, he took out more than 70 patents for other inventions, including X-ray and light printing on paper fabrics, ink-less printing, and electrical transmission of images, but earned little money from them and was on the verge of bankruptcy all his life.

1857–In the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Mormon settlers slaughter most of the members of a peaceful, emigrant wagon train.

1860–Folk artist, Grandma Moses, is born Anna Mary Robertson in Greenwich, New York. Anna Mary was known as "Mother Moses" (her husband was Thomas Salmon Moses) and although she first exhibited as "Mrs. Moses," the press dubbed her "Grandma Moses" and the nickname stuck. Having begun painting in earnest at the age of 78, she is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Her paintings are among the collections of many museums. The White House owns and displays her painting, Fourth of July: it also appears on a U.S. commemorative stamp that was issued in her honor in 1969. Grandmas Moses was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants and Daughters of the American Revolution.

1873–Emilio Castelar y Ripoll becomes President of the First Spanish Republic.

1876–In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are driven off by armed citizens.

1887–Poet, Dame Edith Sitwell, is born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. She was raised by eccentric parents, later becoming a famous one herself, dressing in elaborate baroque costumes and publicizing herself and her poetry. She came into her own as a poet during World War II, with her collections Street Songs, Green Song, and Song of the Cold. She was friends with Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, and an early supporter of Dylan Thomas. She became a popular television personality in England, and on her 75th birthday was given a public celebration at Albert Hall. Her autobiography, Taken Care Of, was published in 1965.

1892–Poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, dies in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, at age 84. He was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the Fireside Poets, Whittier was influenced by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns.

1893–The Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club is established by British expats.

1895–The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played in England, starting the 1895-1896 Northern Rugby Football Union season.

1896–The first successful heart surgery is conducted by Ludwig Rehn.

1898–Super-centenarian, Mamie Rearden, is born Mamie Julia Lewis in Edgefield County, South Carolina. She would life to the age of 114 (and 117 days). She holds the record as the oldest person ever from the state of South Carolina.

1901–The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.

1906–Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his 14-bis aircraft successfully at Bagatelle, France.

1907–Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City.

1909–Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first aviator in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.

1909–Film director, Elia Kazan, is born Elias Kazantzoglou in Istanbul, Turkey. He became an actor in the Group Theater in New York, and joined the Communist Party, which he quit shortly thereafter. Kazan became an acclaimed Broadway director in the 1940s for such productions as Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. His films include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Gentleman's Agreement, Pinky, Panic in the Streets, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Baby Doll, A Face in the Crowd, Wild River, and Splendor in the Grass.

1911–French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.

1916–U.S. federal employees win the right to Workers' Compensation by the Federal Employers Liability Act.

1918–At a country club dance, Scott Fitzgerald falls in love with Zelda Sayre, the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Judge. They will be married within a year and a half.

1920–Two newly purchased Savoia flying boats crash in the Swiss Alps en route to Finland where they would serve with the Finnish Air Force. Both crews are killed.

1921–The first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1921–The Legion of Mary, the largest apostolic organization of lay people in the Catholic Church, is founded in Dublin, Ireland.

1922–The Bank of Latvia is established.

1923–The International Criminal Police Organization is formed.

1923–Actor, Peter Lawford, is born Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford in London, England. He appeared in the films Mrs. Miniver, Girl Crazy, Mrs. Parkington, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Zeigfeld Follies, Good News, Easter Parade, Little Women, Royal Wedding, Never So Few, Ocean’s 11, Exodus, Sergeants 3, Advise & Consent, Dead Ringer, Harlow, Billie, A Man Called Adam, Salt and Pepper, and They Only Kill Their Masters. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy through his marriage to Patricia Helen Kennedy.

1923–Golfer, (Mae) Louise Suggs, is born in Atlanta, Georgia. After her successful amateur career, she turned professional in 1948, and went on to win 58 professional tournaments, including 11 majors. She was one of the co-founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950.

1925–Fashion designer, Laura Ashley, is born in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Taking on some work for the Women's Institute, Ashley got the idea to print fabric. She started with scarves and home decor, originally investing about £10 in materials. As her designs became successful, she branched out to apparel. Ashley's designs are characterized by English garden prints, the use of natural fibers, and a romantic style.

1926–Ronnie Gilbert, of The Weavers, is born Ruth Alice Gilbert in New York, New York. She was one of the original members of the music quartet, as a contralto with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman. The Weavers were an influential folk-singing group that was blacklisted in the early 1950s, during a period of widespread anti-communist feeling, because of the group's left-wing sympathies.

1927–The first fully electronic television system is announced by Philo Farnsworth.

1929–The steamer, Kuru, capsizes and sinks on Lake Näsijärvi, near Tampere, in Finland, killing 136 people.

1929–Musician, Sonny Rollins, is born Theodore Rollins in New York. He was a tenor saxophonist who recorded with the greats of jazz: Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and John Coltrane. Rollins first began recording bebop music in 1949. In 1954, he took a year off from music to deal with his addiction to heroin, and in 1959, dissatisfied with his own playing, he took another sabbatical. In 1962, he returned to performing and recorded an album entitled The Bridge, which marked the beginning of his avant garde period.

1930–King Baudouin of Belgium is born Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave at Château du Stuyvenberg in Laeken, Brussels, Belgium.

1932–John Paul Getty, Jr. is born Eugene Paul Getty in America. He was a wealthy American-born British philanthropist and book collector. Although he was given the name Eugene Paul Getty, in later life he adopted other names, including Paul Getty, John Paul Getty, Jean Paul Getty, Jr., and John Paul Getty II. A long-time Anglophile, he became a British citizen in 1997. He was the elder son of Jean Paul Getty, Sr. (1892-1976), one of the richest men in the world.

1936–The last thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial named Benjamin, dies alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

1936–Singer-songwriter, Buddy Holly, is born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas. By the age of 13, Holly was playing what he called “Western Bop” at local clubs. At 19, an agent discovered him and signed him to a contract with Decca Records. A misspelling of his last name on his recording contract caused Holley to change his last name. The following year, he returned to Lubbock, and with three friends formed The Crickets, who then released That'll Be The Day, which sold over a million copies. Buddy Holly's career was short: he died in February 1959, in a plane crash while on tour in northern Iowa.

1940–The German Air Force, under Hermann Goering, begins its “blitz” bombing campaign for over 50 consecutive nights on London, England, killing over 300 people.

1942–First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator takes place.

1942–In World War II, Australian and U.S. forces inflict a significant defeat upon the Japanese at the Battle of Milne Bay.

1943–A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas, kills 55 people.

1945–Japanese forces on Wake Island (which they had held since December of 1941) surrender to U.S. Marines.

1949–Mexican painter, Jose Clemente Orozco, dies. Considered one of the greatest mural painters of the 20th century, he decorated many buildings in Mexico and the U.S.

1953–Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1961–LeRoi (Holloway) Moore, of Dave Matthews Band, is born in Durham, North Carolina.

1963–The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio, with 17 charter members.

1964–The Beatles, swerving into Canada during their American tour, perform two shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in Ontario, Canada. Attendance for both shows is 35,522.

1965–During an Indo-Pakistani War, China announces that it will reinforce its troops on the Indian border.

1965–During the Vietnam War, in a follow-up to Operation Starlight, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.

1965–Bob Dylan releases his single Positively 4th Street.

1968–The Doors' third album, Waiting for the Sun, tops the albums chart on the heels of their #1 single Hello, I Love You.

1968–Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida LP is released.

1969–The U.S. cartoon series, The Beatles, is canceled after four years on the air.

1969–Actress and writer, Dianne Farr, is born in Manhattan, New York. She is the author of The Girl Code and Kissing Outside the Lines. Farr is also a contributor to numerous magazines, and writes a column for the International Herald Tribune which is syndicated worldwide. She has appeared on numerous TV shows, but she is best known for the role of Agent Megan Reeves on Numb3rs.

1970–Fighting begins between Arab guerrillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.

1970–Bill Shoemaker sets a record for most lifetime wins as a jockey (surpassing Johnny Longden).

1975–The Guess Who play their final concert in Montreal, Canada.

1976–A court rules that George Harrison plagiarized the chorus from He’s So Fine when writing his big hit My Sweet Lord, and was ordered to pay damages of $587,000 to Bright Tunes, the publishers of He's So Fine.

1976–Having purchased the rights to Buddy Holly’s song catalog, Paul McCartney stages the first “Buddy Holly Week” celebration in Lubbock, Texas.

1977–The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The U.S. agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

1977–The 300-metre-tall CKVR-DT transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, is hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft are killed.

1978–While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, England, Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent, Francesco Giullino, by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.

1978–1978–Keith Moon, drummer for the rock band The Who, dies of a sedative overdose in Westminster, London, England. The prescription drug, Clomethiazole, was supposed to have helped him with his alcohol addiction.

1979–The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

1981–Christy Brown dies after choking during a lamb chop dinner in Parbrook, Somerset, England, at age 49. He was a writer and painter with cerebral palsy who was only able to write or type with the toes of one foot. He wrote about his life in the autobiography, My Left Foot, which was made into a film of the same name.

1986–Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.

1986–General Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile, escapes an attempted assassination.

1988–Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after nine days on the Mir space station.

1994–Actor, Godfrey Quigley, dies of Alzheimer's disease in Dublin, Ireland, at age 71. His family returned to Ireland in the 1930s, and following military service in the World War II, Quigley trained as an actor at the Abbey School of Acting. He appeared in the films The Rising of the Moon, Rooney, Nothing But the Best, The Reckoning, Get Carter, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and Educating Rita.

1995–In England, Sotheby’s holds an auction called “The Cynthia Lennon Collection: Part 2.” It is comprised of 18 items, among them John Lennon’s “leather-clad, metal-lined, bulbous barrel“ which according to Cynthia, John used to “stash his marijuana and cigarette papers in at home in Weybridge.”

1996–Actress, Bibi Besch, dies of breast cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 54. She worked primarily on television and appeared in the TV shows The Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Police Story, Trapper John, M.D., Dynasty, and Falcon Crest.

1997–Publicist, Derek Taylor, dies of cancer of the esophagus at his home in Suffolk, England, at age 65. Taylor was press officer for The Beatles for much of their career.

1998–Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University in northern California.

1999–A 5.9 earthquake rocks Athens, Greece, killing 143 people, injuring over 500 others, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.

2003–Singer-songwriter, Warren Zevon, dies of pleural mesothelioma at his home in Los Angeles, California, at age 56. In 1978, Zevon released the album, Excitable Boy, to critical acclaim and popular success. Tracks from the album received heavy FM airplay and the single release, Werewolves of London, was a relatively lighthearted version of Zevon's signature macabre outlook and a “Top 30” success. His other songs include Johnny Strikes Up the Band, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Accidentally Like a Martyr, Carmalita, and Sentimental Hygiene.

2004–Hurricane Ivan hits Grenada, killing 39 people and damaging 90% of the country’s buildings.

2005–Egypt holds its first-ever multi-party presidential election.

2008–The U.S. government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the country, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

2010–A Chinese fishing trawler collides with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands.

2011–A plane crash in Russia kills 43 people, including nearly the entire roster of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League team.

2012–A series of earthquakes in Yunnan, China, kills 89 people and injures 800 others.

2012–Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran, by closing its embassy in Tehran and ordering the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, Canada, over nuclear plans and alleged rights abuses.

2012–Supercentenarian, Francisco Fernández Fernández, dies in Pinilla de la Valderia, Castille and León, Spain, at age 111 (and 45 days). Fernández was the oldest living Spanish person, the oldest living man in Europe, the world's third oldest living man, and one of the 65 oldest men ever at the time of his death.

2016–Construction of a UK-funded wall near Calais' so-called Jungle migrant camp is set to begin. The 13-foot wall will run for .6 miles along both sides of the main road to Calais port in France. Reports suggest that the wall with cost £1.9.

2016–Yosemite National Park is expanded by 400 acres.

2016–Apple reveals its new phone, iPhone 7. This version removes the headphone jack, but includes a new “home” button, a new camera system, and a sharper screen, among other new features.

2016–Air China receives criticism in the United Kingdom after it releases an advertisement warning passengers not to visit areas of London populated by blacks, Indians, and Pakistanis.

2016–The iconic nightclub, Fabric, in London, England, is shut down after its licence was revoked amid concerns over drug use.

2016–A chlorine attack in Aleppo, Syria, kills seven people.

2017–It is announced that more than 143 million Americans have had their social security and driver's license numbers compromised due to a data breach on the credit rating firm Equifax.

2017–Amazon.com announces bidding for a second headquarters campus in North America, to house 50,000 workers and cost $5 billion.

2017–Qatar announces it will donate $30 million to help people in Texas recover from Hurricane Harvey.

2017–A 8.1 earthquake hits 60 miles south of Pijijiapan, Chiapas, Mexico, killing at least 26 people. It is Mexico's strongest quake since the 8.0 earthquake that hit the greater Mexico City area in 1985.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Ferdinand IV of Castile; Carl III of Sweden-Norway; Grandma Moses; John Greenleaf Whittier; Elia Kazan; Peter Lawford; the Laura Ashley logo; Buddy Holly; Jose Clemente Orozco; Waiting for the Sun by The Doors; Bill Shoemaker; Keith Moon; Cynthia Lennon; Warren Zevon; and Francisco Fernandez.
< 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 >