•
Index
•
Next
1655: Christiaan Huygens discovers the largest moon of Saturn, Titan
1934: The UK introduces a driving test.
1985: Billy Dee Williams receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1738: The Parliament asks King George II to seek redress from Spain, kicking off the War of Jenkins' Ear.
1867: Queen Victoria gives royal assent to the British North American Act, which created Canada.
1886: John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
1961: The 23rd Amendment is ratified, giving residents of Washington, DC, a vote in Presidential elections.
1992: The Silence of the Lambs wins the Oscar for Best Picture.
1918: Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
1948: A paper describing how the elements came into being after the Big Bang is published by Alpher, Gamow, and Bethe.
1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey premiers
1043: Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England
1984: Ronald Reagan calls for a ban on chemical weapons
1621: The Mayflower departs from Plymouth, Massachusetts, on a return voyage to England.
1947: The first Tony Awards
1999: The World Trade Organization ends the long-running dispute between the United States and the European Union about bananas, ruling in favor of the US.
1959: Grace Hopper and her team meet for the first time to begin creating what will eventually become COBOL.
1991: Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
1970: Paul McCartney announces he is leaving the Beatles.
1951: General Douglas MacArthur is relieved of command in Korea by President Harry Truman
1954: Billy Haley and the Comets record 'Rock Around the Clock'
1742: First performance of Handel's Messiah
1862: US Civil War battle of Fort Pillow, Tennessee
1947: Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first African-American allowed to play in US major league baseball.
1881: In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson has his final gunfight.
1924: The Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer film studios merge to create MGM.
1930: BBC Radio news announces 'there is no news' and broadcasts music instead.
1943: Albert Hoffman deliberately doses himself with LSD for the first time.
1918: Manfred von Richtofen shoots down two enemies, getting his 79th and 80th victories.
1918: Baron von Richtofen, better known as the Red Baron, is shot down for the last time
1993: NCSA Mosaic web browser version 1.0 released, bringing the modern web to life
1914: First game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weegham Park
1558: Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France at Notre Dame de Paris
1953: The structure of DNA as a double-helix is reported in the journal Nature in three simultaneous papers by Watson and Crick (describing a physical model of DNA), and Wilkins and Franklin (describing the data that underpinned the physical model).
1905: Cubs outfielder Jack McCarthy becomes the first major league player to throw out three runners at home plate in a single game
1981: Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse
1881: Billy the Kid escapes from jail
1429: Joan of Arc arrives to lift the siege of Orleans in the Hundred Years War
2013: Willem-Alexander is inaugurated King of the Netherlands after the abdication of Beatrix
1707: The Acts of Union joining the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.
1780: Xi Ursae Majoris, the first binary star discovered, is spotted by William Herschel.
1952: The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time.
1814: The Bourbon Restoration begins in France with the exile of Napoleon and the new reign of Louis XVIII.
1925: John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law.
1935: The Works Progress Administration is created by President Roosevelt's executive order 7034.
1274: The Second Council of Lyon begins in France to set rules for the election of the Pope
1886: John Pemberton sells Coca-Cola as a patent medicne for the first time
1874: The first horsebus is debuted in Mumbai, India
1872: Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman to run for President of the United States nominated by the Equal Rights Party.
1858: Minnesota becomes the thirty-second state of the United States
1846: The Donner Party departs Independence, Missouri, on a journey to California.
1983: Reggie Jackson becomes the first person in Major League Baseball to strike out 2,000 times.
1097: The First Crusade begins in earnest with the Siege of Nicaea
1928: Mickey Mouse debuts in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy
1866: The nickel coin is established by an act of the US Congress
1792: The New York Stock Exchange is founded
1954: The US Supreme Court unaminously decides that segregation of schools on the basis of race is unconstitutional
1860: At the Republican National Convention, Abraham Lincoln is nominted for President on the third ballot
1780: Around mid-day, the sky over New England and parts of Canada went so dark as to require candles, due to an unusual combination of clouds, thick fog, and forest fire smoke.
1882: The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.
1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act (source: Library of Congress Today in History)
2005: The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka, opens in New Jersey
1969: The Apollo 10 lunar module, codenamed 'Snoopy,' passes within 8.4 nautical miles of the moon's surface
1618: The Second Defenestration of Prague begins the Thirty Years' War
2019: British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party under pressure over her handling of Brexit
1968: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated
1998: The first National Sorry Day is held in Austrlia to remember and commemorate the mistreatment of the country's indigenous peoples as part of ongoing reconciliation
1994: The final broadcast of the Arsenio Hall Show. Also the final broadcast of Larry King's radio show and the theatrical release of the Flintstons live-action movie.
1936: Alan Turin submits for publication his paper that proves some mathematical problems cannot be solved purely by computation
1886: John Pemberton places the first advertisement for Coca-Cola, appearing in the Atlanta Journal.
1431: Joan of Arc is burned at the stake
2020: The President of the United States courageously turns off the lights at the White House and hides in the bunker rather than face outrage over continued police murders of Black people.
1495: John Cor, a monk, brews the first-known batch of Scotch whiskey.
1953: Queen Elizabeth II is corronated and begins her eternal reign.
1539: Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain, despite the people already living there.
1989: The Chinese People's Liberation Army murders hundreds of pro-Democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square.
1964: Davie Jones and the King Bees debuts 'I Cant Help Thinking About Me.' The band breaks up, but Davie Jones goes on to success as David Bowie.
1844: The YMCA is founded in London
2020: Protestors in the UK topple a statue of Atlantic slave-trader Edward Colston and throw it into the River Avon, amid continuing demonstrations against racism and police brutality.
1959: The USPS and US Navy perform the first and only 'missile mail' delivery.
1954: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the US Army, famously rebukes Senator Joseph McCarthy.
2003: The Spirit Rover launches on its journey to Mars, where it will conduct scientific missions for over six years.
2004: The Cassini-Huygens probe makes its closest flyby of Saturn's moon Phoebe.
1967: The US Supreme Court unamimously rules that laws restricting marriage on the basis of race, such as laws prohibiting Black and White people from marrying each other, are a violation of the Constitutional right of equal protection. The case is appropriately called Loving v. Virginia.
1913: The US Postmaster General rules that children may no longer be mailed by parcel post.
1949: Albert II becomes the first monkey in space.
1877: Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first Black person to graduate from West Point military academy.
1921: Bessie Coleman becomes the first Black woman to earn a pilot's license.
1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, abord Vostok 6.
1898: M.C. Escher is born.
1178: Canturbury monks witness the formation of the moons Giordano Bruno crater after an asteroid or comet impact, reporting that the entire surface of the moon darkened from the debris cloud.
1816: The Battle of Seven Oaks, a violent confrontation between fur trading companies in Manitoba, Canada.
1893: Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.
1791: King Louis XVI and the immediate family attempt to flee Paris to join royalist military forces. The event is known as the Flight to Varennes.
1990: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
1972: President Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff are recorded discussing using the CIA to obstruct an ongoing FBI investigation.
1813: A combined force of British and Native American defeat the United States at the Battle of Beaver Dams during the War of 1812.
1910: Igor Stravinski's ballet The Firebird debuts in Paris.
1409: Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V at the Council of Pisa, joining Popes Gregory XII and Benedict XII, the three simultaneous Popes of the Western Schism.
1923: First-ever aerial refueling.
1969: New York City police raid the Stonewall Inn, a prominent gay bar, arresting and assaulting patrons. The patrons eventually defend themselves, and protest for several days after in what is called the Stonewall Riots, which mark the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
1613: The Globe theater in London burns to the ground
1906: President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act into law.
1873: Slavery comes to an end in Suriname, a milestone celebrated annually as Keti Koni, translated as 'the chain is broken.'
1504: Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode (ruler) of Moldavia
1890: Idaho is admitted to the United States as the 43rd state.
1054: A supernova bright enough to be seen in daylight is witnessed by Chinese, Arab, and Amerindian observers.
1996: Dolly the sheep is born, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
1885: Louis Pasteur successfully tests his rabies vaccine on a young boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.
1928: Sliced bread is sold for the first time by Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri.
1932: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 14.22.
1982: Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace and enters Queen Elizabeth II's bedroom before being detained and removed from the palace.
1985: Coca-Cola announces the return of its original formula, marketed as Coca-Cola Classic.
1804: Alexander Hamilton is fatally wounded in a dual with Vice President Aaron Burr
2018: Shridhar Chillal cuts his fingernails for the first time in 66 years. Combined, they are nearly 30 feet long.
100BC: Gaius Julius Caesar is born
1946: Dr. Spock's book, 'Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,' is published.
1834: After 356 years, the Spanish Inquisition is formally disbanded.
1969: The Apollo 11 mission launches on its way to landing the first humans on the moon.
1945: The Potsdamn Conference is held between Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin to determine how to manage post-war Germany.
1536: An act of Paliament eliminates the Pope's authority in England, the final act of splitting from the Catholic Church.
64: The Great Fire of Rom begins under Emperor Nero, eventually destroying two thirds of the city.
1799: Tekle Giyorgis I begins the first of his six reigns as emperor of Ethiopia.
1904: After 13 years of work, the 4,607-mile long Trans-Siberian railway is complete.
1342: St. Mary Magdelines flood, the largest flood on record for central Europe.
1904: Ice cream cones come to mainstream attention when Arnold Fornachou serves them at the St. Louis Worlds Fair.
1847: After seventeen years, Brigham Young and his 148 Mormon settlers stop in Utah.
1722: At the border between Maine and Massachusetts, Dummer's War begins.
1947: President Harry Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
1940: Bugs Bunny debuts in the short, A Wild Hare.
1996: The Kennewick Man, a set of prehistoric human remains, is discovered near Kennewick, Washington.
1567: Thirteen month-old James VI is crowned King of Scotland after Queen Mary was forced to abdicate.
1971: Apollo 15 lands on the moon, bringing along the first Lunar Rover.
768: Philip is named Pope. Later that day, he is removed as Pope.
1996: George R. R. Martin's novel, A Game of Thrones, is published, the first in the series, A Song of Fire and Ice.
1999: The movie The Sixth Sense is released.
1859: The American Dental Association is founded in Niagara Falls, NY.
1753: In Fredericksburg, Virginia, George Washington is raised to the rank of Master Mason in the fraternity of Freemasons.
1824: The Battle of Kos is fought between Greek and Turkish forces.
1914: The first electric traffic signal is installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
1806: The Holy Roman Empire is dissolved following the abdication of Emperor Francis II.
1962: Frances Oldham Kelsey is awarded the US President's Award for Distinguished Civil Service for refusing to approve the drug thalidomide, later linked to severe birth defects.
1988: The student-led pro-democracy 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon, Burma.
1944: Smokey Bear debuts in his first poster advocating wildfire prevention for the US Forest Service.
1948: 'Candid Camera' debuts.
1960: Chad declares independence.
1990: The largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, named Sue, is found in South Dakota by Sue Henderickson.
1889: The coin-operated telephone is patented by William Gray.
1598: The Battle of the Yellow Ford between Irish and English forces in the Nine Years' War.
1939: The movie, The Wizard of Oz, premiers in Hollywood at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
1974: The Ramones give their debut concert at CBGBs.
1945: George Orwell's novella Animal Farm is published.
1938: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York to Ontario over the Saint Lawrence River.
2008: Lady Gaga's debut album, 'The Fame,' is released.
1913: Adolphe Célestin Pégoud is the first pilot to leap from their own plane while wearing a parachute.
1918: In World War I, the Second Battle of the Somme begins.
1902: Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first US President to appear in public in an automobile.
1813: French troops are repulsed by Prussians at the Battle of Großbeeren
1561: Willem of Orange marries Anna, Duchess of Saxony.
1894: Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the Yersinia pestis bacteria, the infectious agent behind the bubonic plague.
1959: British Motor Corporation introduces the Mini-Motor, commonly called just a Mini.
2003: Mars and Earth pass within 35 million miles, the nearest in 60,000 years.
1993: The NASA Galileo probe flies by asteroid 243 Ida, sending photos to Earth taht show the first-known moon to orbit an asteroid, named Dactyl.
1831: Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1967: Thurgood Marshall, who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education, is confirmed as the first African American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1888: Jack the Ripper commits their first confirmed murder.
1914: The passenger pigeon goes extinct when the lsat known bird, named Martha, dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1752: Great Britain and its possessions adopts the Gregorian calendar, jumping from Wednesday, September 2, to Thursday, September 14.
1928: Ty Cobb records his 4,189th and final career hit.
1972: The Price is Right, longest-running televsion game show in the United States, premiers on CBS.
1698: Tsar Peter I of Russia, in an effort to westernize the nobility, imposes a tax on beards except for clergy and peasants.
1916: Piggly Wiggly opens in Memphis, Tennessee, the first supermarket grocery store, pioneering concepts such as self-service shopping, grocery carts, and checkout stands.
2014: Asteroid 2014 RC passes less than 25,000 miles from Earth. Due to its small size and orbital trajectory, it had been removed from the list of planetary impact risks two days earlier.
1966: Star Trek premiers.
2015: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in United Kingdom history.
2008: The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is powered up for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland.
1972: The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system begins passenger service.
1962: US President John F. Kennedy gives his famous “We choose to go to the Moon“ speech at Rice University.
1743: Great Britain, Austria, and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
1607: Flight of the Earls from Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland.
1835: The HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, arrives at the Galapagos Islands.
1846: The Donner Party becomes trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains due to an eight-day snowstorm.
