79 ~ Mount Vesuvius erupted. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were buried in volcanic ash.

1456 ~ The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1814 ~ British troops invaded Washington, D.C. and burnt down the White House and other buildings.

1880 ~ Birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train.

1929 ~ Birthday of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader.

1932 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop.

1951 ~ Birthday of Orson Scott Card, novelist.

1960 ~ Birthday of Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player.

1981 ~ Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 to life for the murder of John Lennon.

1992 ~ Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida.

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1609 ~ Galileo demonstrated his first telescope to the Venetian Senate.

1835 ~ The New York Sun printed The Great Moon Hoax.

1867 ~ Death of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel.

1894 ~ Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in The Lancet.

1900 ~ Birthday of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, Scientist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1900 ~ Death of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1918 ~ Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Conductor & Composer.

1944 ~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

1982 ~ Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune.

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55 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

1071 ~ The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert.

1498 ~ Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta.

1743 ~ Birthday of Antoine Lavoisier, Chemist.

1839 ~ The ship Amistad was captured off Long Island.

1847 ~ Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

1961 ~ The International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.

1968 ~ The Beatles' Hey Jude was released as a single in the U.S.

1975 ~ Death of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.

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1776 ~ British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington in the Battle of Long Island.

1813 ~ Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 ~ The Russians defeat the Turks at Akhaltzikke.

1896 ~ Anglo-Zanzibar War. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history.

1900 ~ British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal.

1928 ~ Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed by sixty nations.

1939 ~ First jet aircraft flight; a Heinkel He 178, piloted by Erich Warsitz.

1945 ~ American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

1962 ~ The Mariner 2 space probe launched to Venus.

1979 ~ An IRA bomb killed Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday.

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430 ~ Death of Augustine of Hippo, Philosopher, Theologian.

1749 ~ Birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Philosopher, Scientist.

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Author. His “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence” influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

1845 ~ First issue of Scientific American magazine published.

1850 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Lohengrin” premiered, from which comes the Bridal Chorus, traditionally played at Western weddings, and commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride".

1897 ~ Birthday of Charles Boyer, Actor.

1963 ~ During a civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream ” speech.


1972 ~ During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz won his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.

1990 ~ Iraq declared Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.

1996 ~ Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales were divorced.

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1261 ~ Urban IV became Pope, the last man to do so without first being a Cardinal.

1632 ~ Birthday of John Locke, Philosopher.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first motorcycle.

1896 ~ Chop suey was invented in New York City.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 ~ Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.

1957 ~ Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.

1966 ~ The Beatles performed their last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1991 ~ The Downfall of the Soviet Union: The Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding.

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1797 ~ Birthday of Mary Shelley, Author (Frankenstein).

1871 ~ Birthday of Ernest Rutherford, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908.

1918 ~ Birthday of Baseball hall-of-famer Ted William.

1935 ~ Birthday of John Phillips, American singer (The Mamas and the Papas).

1940 ~ Death of J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1906. Prof. Thomson identified the electron as a subatomic particle, the first one to be discovered. In one of the greatest ironies of modern physics his son, G.P. Thomson later received the prize for proving that the electron was also, in fact, a wave.

1941 ~ Siege of Leningrad began.

1963 ~ Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders went into operation.

1987 ~ Thurgood Marshall confirmed as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1999 ~ East Timorese voted for independence in a referendum.

2003 ~ Death of Charles Bronson, Actor.

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1834 ~ Birthday of Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (La Gioconda - It contains "The Dance of the Hours").

1879 ~ Birthday of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. This woman knew how to live!

1888 ~ Mary Ann Nichols murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

1918 ~ Birthday of Alan Jay Lerner, American composer ( Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady).

1935 ~ Birthday of Frank Robinson, Baseball Player, Manager.

1945 ~ Birthday of Itzhak Perlman, Violinist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Van Morrison, Irish musician (“Brown-Eyed Girl", "Moondance" and "Domino").

1962 ~ Trinidad and Tobago became independent.

1980 ~ Solidarity labor union formed in Poland.

1997 ~ Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris.

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1653 ~ Birthday of Johann Pachelbel, Composer. Remember the theme music of “Ordinary People”? That’s “Pachelbel's Canon” (which is not really a Canon).

1715 ~ King Louis XIV of France ("L'État, c'est moi") died after a reign of 72 years — the longest of any major European monarch.

1875 ~ Birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Writer, creator of Tarzan.

1905 ~ Alberta and Saskatchewan join the Canadian confederation.

1914 ~ The last Passenger Pigeon died in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1939 ~ Germany attacked Poland, beginning World War II.

1972 ~ In Reykjavik, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky and became the world chess champion.

1983 ~ Korean Air Flight KAL-007 shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft entered Soviet airspace.

1985 ~ A joint American-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

1991 ~ Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union.

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31 B.C. ~ Battle of Actium: Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. This date is often used for the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1666 ~ Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane at the house of Thomas Farrinor near London Bridge. Samuel Pepys, a neighbor, was woken by the fire at around 1 AM. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1752 ~ The UK adopted the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1898 ~ Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

1901 ~ Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick", in a speech.

1924 ~ Birthday of Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya.

1945 ~ The official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bringing World War II to an end.

1964 ~ Death of Alvin York, Hero. He was the most decorated American soldier of World War I.

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh, Vietmamese Revolutionary, President & Prime Minister.

1973 ~ Death of J.R.R. Tolkien, British writer.

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301 ~ San Marino, the world's oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.

1658 ~ Death of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England.

1875 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand Porsche, German automotive engineer.

1893 ~ Death of James Harrison, Australian pioneer of mechanical refrigeration.

1935 ~ Malcolm Campbell reached 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first man to drive an automobile over 300 MPH.

1939 ~ World War II: France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany.

1954 ~ The last new episode of The Lone Ranger was aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.

1962 ~ Death of e. e. cummings, poet.

1976 ~ The Viking 2 spacecraft landed on Mars and took the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.

2004 ~ More than 200 people die at the end of a three-day siege at a school in Beslan, Russia came to a bloody end.

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476 ~ Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed.

1781 ~ Los Angeles founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula (the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula).

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Composer.

1888 ~ George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak, and received a patent for his camera which uses roll film.

1891 ~ Birthday of Fritz Todt, developer of the German autobahn, the archtype for the limited access highway.

1907 ~ Death of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Composer.

1957 ~ The Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution in Great Britain came to the conclusion that outlawing homosexuality impinged upon civil liberties.

1965 ~ Death of Albert Schweitzer, Physician, J.S. Bach interpreter, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1952.

1972 ~ Mark Spitz won his seventh swimming gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

1995 ~ Death of William Kunstler, Attorney.

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1735 ~ Birthday of Johann Christian Bach, Composer, son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

1774 ~ First Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1793 ~ The French National Convention voted to implement terror measures to enforce the principles of the French Revolution. This Reign of Terror lasted until the spring of 1794 and killed 35,000-40,000 people.

1847 ~ Birthday of Jesse James, outlaw.

1857 ~ Birthday of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Visionary & Pioneer of Astronautics.

1948 ~ Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France. He is considered to be one of the founders of the European Union.

1950 ~ Birthday of Cathy Guisewite, Cartoonist.

1957 ~ “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac was published.

1972 ~ Munich Massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called “Black September” attacked Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.

1997 ~ Death of Mother Teresa, Inspiration.

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1620 ~ The Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, to settle in North America.

1766 ~ Birthday of John Dalton, British chemist and physicist. He was one of the earlier proponents of the atomic theory.

1847 ~ Henry Thoreau left Walden Pond and moved in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

1915 ~ The first prototype tank is tested by the British Army.

1928 ~ Birthday of Robert Pirsig, Author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

1941 ~ The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, was extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.

1986 ~ In Istanbul, two Arab terrorists from Abu Nidal's terror organization killed 22 and wounded six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Sabbath services.

1991 ~ The Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states.

1995 ~ Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record of playing 2,131 consecutive baseball games

1996 ~ Eddie Murray became the 15th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Oriole Park in Baltimore, Maryland.

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1776 ~ World's first submarine attack. American submersible craft Turtle attempted to attach a bomb to the hull of the British flagship Eagle in New York Harbor.

1901 ~ The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ended with the signing of the Peking Protocol.

1908 ~ Birthday of Dr. Michael DeBakey, Heart Surgeon and inventor of the MASH.

1912 ~ Birthday of David Packard, Electrical Engineer.

1940 ~ The Blitz – Under orders from Adolf Hitler, the Luftwaffe began to bomb London. This was the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.

1977 ~ The U.S. agreed to transfer control of the Panama Canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

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

1994 ~ Death of James Clavell, Author (Shogun; To Sir, with Love; The Great Escape).

1997 ~ Death of Mobutu Sese Seko, dictator of Zaire.

1998 ~ Google Inc. was founded.

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