Today in History: What Happened on This Date
1326
Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi
1609
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan opens its reading room, second public library in Europe
1659
Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.
1660
The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) makes her debut as Desdemona.
1710
Battle of Brihuega in the War of the Spanish Succession: British General James Stanhope captured by French & Spanish forces
1776
George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ
1861
CSS Sumter captures the whaler Eben Dodge in the Atlantic. The American Civil War is now affecting the Northern whaling industry.
1863
Union General William Averell's cavalry destroys railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia.
1864
The Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is finally opened in Bristol, England, 5 years after his death
1864
James Clerk Maxwell's paper "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" is 1st read by the Royal Society in London (published by the Royal Society 1865)
1886
American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president
1895
Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri out
1914
The German cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nurnberg, and Liepzig are sunk by a British force in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
1920
President Woodrow Wilson declines to send a representative to the League of Nations in Geneva.
1932
Japan tells the League of Nations that it has no control over her designs in China.
1941
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita begins his attack against the British army at Singapore.
1943
U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.
1944
The United States conducts the longest, most effective air raid on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
1948
The United Nations approves the recognition of South Korea.
1967
In the biggest battle yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Viet Cong are killed.
1968
South Vietnam's Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky arrives in Paris for peace talks.
1980
John Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building.
1982
The Washington, D.C., police shoot and kill a man threatening to blow up the Washington Monument.
1987
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed.
1987
An Israeli army tank transporter kills 4 Palestinian refugees and injures 7 others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, leading to the First Intifada.
1991
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine sign an agreement that dissolves the Soviet Union and establishes the Commonwealth of Independent States.
2004
The Cuzco Declaration signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2010
The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus.
2010
SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
Today's Famous Birthdays
- 65 BC Horace, Roman Republican poet (Odes), born in Venosa, Italy (d. 8 BC)
1542 Mary, Queen of Scots [Mary Stuart], Queen of Scotland (1560-87), born in Linlithgow Palace, Scotland (d. 1587)
- 1574 Maria Anna of Bavaria, Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire, born in Munich, Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1616)
- 1626 Christina, Queen of Sweden who abdicated after becoming Catholic (1644-54), born in Tre Kronor Castle, Stockholm (d. 1689)
- 1678 Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat, born in Houghton, Cambridge, England (d. 1757)
- 1699 Maria Josepha of Austria, Queen consort of Poland (1734-57), born in Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria (d. 1757)
- 1704 Anton de Haen, Austrian medical expert (Ratio Medendi), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1776)
- 1708 Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (1745-1765), born in Ducal Palace of Nancy, Lorraine, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1765)
- 1715 John Althuysen, Frisian vicar and poet (Frisianche rymlery)
- 1728 Johann Georg von Zimmermann, Swiss philosophical author and physician, born in Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland (d. 1795)
- 1730 Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-English physiologist (discovering photosynthesis) and personal physician of Maria Theresa, born in Breda, Staats-Brabant, Dutch Republic (d. 1799)
- 1731 František Xaver Dušek, Czech composer, born in Chotěborky, Jaroměř, Czech Republic (d. 1799)
- 1737 Robert Kimmerling, Austrian composer, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1799)
- 1741 Maximilien Gardel, French ballet dancer and choreographer (Menuet Reine), born in Mannheim, Germany (d. 1787)
- 1744 Pierre-Joseph Candeille, French composer, born in Estaires, France (d. 1827)
1765 Eli Whitney, American inventor (Cotton Gin), born in Westborough, Massachusetts (d. 1825)
- 1789 John Fawcett, English composer (d. 1867)
- 1795 Jacques-François Gallay, French horn player and composer, born in Perpignan, France (d. 1864)
- 1795 Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish-German astronomer (Hansen hypothesis), born in Tønder, Schleswig, Denmark (d. 1874)
- 1811 Louis Schindelmeisser, German clarinetist and composer, born in Königsberg, Prussia (d. 1864)
- 1815 Adolph Menzel, German painter and graphic artist, born in Breslau, Prussian Silesia (d. 1905)
- 1816 August Belmont, Prussian-American financier and diplomat (U.S. Minister to the Netherlands 1853-57), born in Alzey, Hesse, Germany (d. 1890)
- 1817 Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish nobleman and politician (Council President of Denmark 1865-70), born in Frijsenborg, Denmark (d. 1896)
- 1821 Josip Runjanin, Croatian Serb composer (Croatian National Anthem) and soldier, born in Vinkovci (d. 1878)
- 1822 Luther Prentice Bradley, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1910)
- 1826 Friedrich Siemens, German industrialist, born in Menzendorf, Germany (d. 1904)
- 1828 Clinton Bowen Fisk, American abolitionist, Brevet Major General (Union Army), helped establish 1st free public schools in the South, born in York, New York (d. 1890)
- 1828 Robert Bullock, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Greenville, North Carolina (d. 1905)
- 1832 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author "Pa Guds Veje" and Nobel laureate 1903, born in Kvikne, Norway (d. 1910)
- 1861 Aristide Maillol, French painter and sculptor (Seated Woman), born in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roussillon, France (d. 1944)
- 1861 William C. Durant, American industry pioneer, founded General Motors, Frigidaire, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1947)
- 1861 George Méliès, French early filmmaker (A trip to the Moon), born in Paris (d. 1938)
- 1862 Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), born in Paris (d. 1921)
- 1865 Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (proved the prime number theorem), born in Versailles, France (d. 1963)
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