Event-a-Day

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1701, James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the "Old Pretender", becomes the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

1880, The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation's oldest, continuously-independent college daily.

1945, World War II: The surrender of the Japanese troops in Hong Kong is accepted by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

1955, A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.

1956, TCN-9 Sydney is the first Australian television station to commence regular broadcasts.

1959, The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

1961, The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyeball of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.

1987, The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1630, The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1809, Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn

1814, Francis Scott Key finishes his poem "Defense of Fort McHenry", later to be the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner".

1849, American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.

1908, The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.

1920, The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio.

1940, World War II: Following the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.

1957, Malaysia joins the United Nations.

1961, The world's first retractable-dome stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Minnesota Vikings play and win their first regular season National Football League game.

1976, The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.

1988, The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad are opened in Seoul, South Korea.

1991, Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia join the United Nations.

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

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

1714, George I, the first Hanoverian king, arrives in Great Britain after becoming king on August 1st.

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, spared from the fire.

1919, The Netherlands gives women the right to vote. Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

1922, Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations.

1927, The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

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

1947, The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States Armed Forces. The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency are established in the United States under the National Security Act.

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

1959, Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.

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

1977, Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

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

2013, Cygnus Orb-D1 is launched into space.

2014, Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.

1356, Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures the French king, John II.

1778, The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.

1796, George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.

1881, U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield's death.

1893, Women's suffrage: In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1976, Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.

1978, The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.

1982, Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons and on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.

2010, The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.

2011, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all time saves leader with 602.

1519, Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1792, French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of the First Coalition at Valmy.

1860, The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.

1881, U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in, the morning after becoming President upon James A. Garfield's death.

1893, Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.

1967, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland.

1973, Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the so-called 'Battle of the Sexes' tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

2011, The United States military ends its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

1776, Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.

1780, American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

1792, French Revolution: The National Convention declares France a republic and abolishes the absolute monarchy.

1937, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.

1964, The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

1965, The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.

1971, Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.

1976, Seychelles joins the United Nations.

1981, Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.

1984, Brunei joins the United Nations.

1761, George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen, respectively, of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1789, The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1888, The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.

1892, Lindal Railway Incident, providing inspiration for "The Lost Special" by A.C. Doyle and the TV serial Lost.

1896, Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

1979, A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.

1338, The Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christopher had three cannon and one hand gun.

1459, Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, takes place.

1806, Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1845, The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846, Astronomers Urban Jean Joseph Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune.

1905, Norway and Sweden sign the "Carlsbad treaty", peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1909, The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantom de l'Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1911, Pilot Earle Ovington makes the first official airmail delivery in America under the authority of the United States Post Office Department.

1986, Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets a major league record by striking out the first eight batters he faces in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1999, NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

2002, The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.

1780, Benedict Arnold flees to British Army lines when the arrest of British Major John André exposes Arnold's plot to surrender West Point.

1789, The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General and the federal judiciary system, and orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1869, "Black Friday": Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market.

1906, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.

1968, 60 Minutes debuts on CBS. Swaziland joins the United Nations.

2014, The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), successfully inserted into orbit of Mars.

1789, The United States Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: The Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights.

1890, The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.

1906, In the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Leonardo Torres y Queued successfully demonstrates the invention of the Telekino in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of the remote control.

1926, The international Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is first signed.

1929, Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1992, NASA launches the Mars Observer, a $511 million probe to Mars, in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.

1087, William II is crowned King of England, and reigns until 1100.

1580, Sir Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth.

1687, The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

1789, Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.

1933, As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrenders to the FBI, he shouts out, "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which becomes a nickname for FBI agents.

1950, United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces. Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations.

1960, In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1981, Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

1984, The United Kingdom and China agree to a transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, to take place in 1997.

2008, Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.

1066, William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the River Somme, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day.

1825, The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened.

1928, The Republic of China is recognized by the United States.

1940, World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.

1956, USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.

1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

1979, The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.

1997, Communications are suddenly lost with the Mars Pathfinder space probe.

1998, The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.

2003, SMART-1 satellite is launched.

2007, NASA launches the Dawn probe.

2008, CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

1066, William the Conqueror invades England beginning the Norman conquest of England.

1106, Battle of Tinchebray: Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.

1781. American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.

1787, The newly completed United States Constitution is voted on by the U.S. Congress to be sent to the state legislatures for approval.

1867, Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario's predecessors since 1796.

1868, Battle of Alcove causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.

1871, The Brazilian Parliament passes the Law of the Free Womb, granting freedom to all new children born to slaves, the first major step in the eradication of slavery in Brazil.


1912, Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash. He and pilot Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell are killed in the crash of an Army Wright Model B at College Park, Maryland.

1918, World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.

1919, Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska, US.

1924, First round-the-world flight completed.

1928, Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II. Warsaw surrenders to Nazi Germany.

1972, Paul Henderson scores the series-winning goal for Canada in the final minute of the final game of the ice hockey Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union.

2008, SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.

1789, The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men. The 1st United States Congress adjourns.

1829, The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met, is founded.

1885, The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.

1911, Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

1960, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.

1975, WGPR in Detroit, Michigan, becomes the world's first black-owned-and-operated television station.

1988, Space Shuttle: NASA launches STS-26, the return to flight mission, after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

2004. The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.

2008, Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.

1399, Henry IV is proclaimed King of England.

1860, Britain's first tram service begins in Birkenhead, Merseyside.

1882, Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States.

1927, Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1935, The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated.

1938, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations".

1939, NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game between the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets and the Fordham Rams. Fordham won the game 34–7.

1947, The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.

1949, The Berlin Airlift ends.

1954, The U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world's first nuclear reactor powered vessel.

1955, Film star James Dean dies in a road accident aged 24.

1977, Because of US budget cuts and dwindling power reserves, the Apollo program's ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon are shut down.

331 BC, Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.

1553, Coronation of Queen Mary I of England.

1811, The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans.

1814, Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoleon the previous spring.

1890, Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress.

1903, Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.

1918, World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia", capture Damascus.

1931, Spain adopted women's suffrage.

1936, Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain. (He's still dead, by the way.)

1946, Nazi leaders are sentenced at Nuremberg trials.

1949, The People's Republic of China is established and declared by Mao Zedong.

1958, NASA is created to replace NACA.

1962, First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

1971, Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, United States.