Event-a-Day

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1419 – Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1940 – You Nazty Spy!, the very first Hollywood film of any kind to satirize Adolf Hitler and the Nazis premieres, starring The Three Stooges, with Moe Howard as the character "Moe Hailstone" satirizing Hitler.

1941 – World War II: The Greek Triton (Y-5) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto.

1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

1949 – Cuba recognizes Israel.

1953 – Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1956 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 111 relating to UNTSO in Palestine is adopted.

1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty.

1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia. The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament".

1356 – Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension.

1649 – Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".

1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War.

1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

1929 – In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released.

1936 – Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.

1937 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President, the first occasion a Presidential Inauguration to take place on 20 January following the ratification of the 20th Amendment.

1981 – Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

1990 – The Red Army crackdown on civil protests in Baku, Azerbaijan during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

1960 – Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.

1981 – Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.

1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.

2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.

1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.

1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.

1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states. The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.

1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.

1992 – Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

1264 – In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the Second Barons' War.

1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.

1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London.

1846 – Slavery in Tunisia is abolished.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

1920 – The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1973 – United States President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

2003 – A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.

1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.

1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1915 – World War One: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper's battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.

1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.

1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.

1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.

2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

1515 – Coronation of Francis I of France.

1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.

1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding processional.

1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.

1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1918 – Ukraine declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.

1924 – The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.

1942 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.

1944 – Florence Li Tim-Oi is ordained in China, becoming the first woman Anglican priest.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends.

1947 – Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game.

1949 – The first Emmy Awards are presented; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1955 – The Soviet Union ends the state of war with Germany.

1961 – In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.

1808 – The Rum Rebellion is the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia.

1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.

1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States.

1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker. American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1934 – The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City. German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.

1939 – Spanish Civil War – Catalonia Offensive: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.

1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins encircling the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which will end in destruction of the 4th Army two months later. Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.

1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

1950 – The Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President of India. Observed as Republic Day in India.

1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds the appointment of Physician to the President.

1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).

1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".

1880 – Thomas Edison receives the patent on the incandescent lamp.

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1943 – World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army liberates the remaining inmates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp built by the Nazi Germans on the territory of Poland.

1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

2003 – The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.

1393 – King Charles VI of France is nearly killed when several dancers' costumes catch fire during a masquerade ball.

1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI becomes King.

1573 – Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.

1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the UK.

1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway, runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.

1878 – Yale Daily News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States.

1915 – An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.

1945 – World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first American television appearance.

1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

1960 – The National Football League announced expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for 1961 NFL season.

1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.

1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.

1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.

1834 – US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

1845 – "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe

1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.

1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1900 – The American League is organized in Philadelphia with eight founding teams.

1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

1967 – The "ultimate high" of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.

1989 – Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.

2009 – Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.

1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.

1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.

1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.

1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.

1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.

1956 – African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.

1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.

1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

2003 – The Kingdom of Belgium officially recognizes same-sex marriages.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.

1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.

1801 – John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.

1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify as the City of Milwaukee.

1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University.

1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification. Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

1915 – World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.

1943 – World War II: German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army.

1950 – United States President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1958 – The first successful American satellite detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.

1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.

2010 – Avatar becomes the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.

1835 – Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.

1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.

1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.

1942 – World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government. U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls–Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater. Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.

1946 – The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.

1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.

1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.

2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I.

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.

1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated

1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed. California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrives in San Francisco.

1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.

1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last German troops in the city.

1989 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.

1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.

1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.

1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of the color of the their skin

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1959 – Deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.

1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.