Events Pre-1600 97 – Roman emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor. 306 – Maxentius is proclaimed Roman emperor. 312 – Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West. 969 – The Byzantine Empire recovers Antioch from Arab rule. 1344 – The lower town of Smyrna is captured by Latin Christians in response to Aydınid piracy during the Smyrniote crusades. 1420 – Beijing is officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty when the Forbidden City is completed. 1449 – Christian I is crowned king of Denmark. 1453 – Ladislaus the Posthumous is crowned king of Bohemia in Prague. 1492 – Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan. 1516 – Second Ottoman–Mamluk War: Mamluks fail to stop the Ottoman advance towards Egypt at the Battle of Yaunis Khan. 1520 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean. 1531 – Abyssinian–Adal war: The Adal Sultanate seizes southern Ethiopia. 1538 – The Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino is founded in what is now the Dominican Republic.
1601–1900 1628 – French Wars of Religion: The Siege of La Rochelle ends with the surrender of the Huguenots after fourteen months. 1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony votes to establish a theological college, which would later become Harvard University. 1640 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, ending the hostilities of the Second Bishops' War.* 1664 – The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established. 1707 – The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Japan. 1726 – The novel Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift is published. 1746 – The 1746 Lima–Callao earthquake causes up to 6,000 deaths in Peru, the deadliest in its history up to that point. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British troops under General William Howe attack General George Washington's Continental Army and capture Chatterton Hill in the Battle of White Plains during the New York and New Jersey campaign. 1834 – The Pinjarra massacre occurs in the Swan River Colony. An estimated 30 Noongar people are killed by British colonists. 1835 – The United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence. 1864 – American Civil War: A Union attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond is repulsed. 1886 – US president Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty. 1891 – The Mino–Owari earthquake, the largest inland earthquake in Japan's history, occurs. 1893 – Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique receives its première performance only nine days before the composer's death.
1901–present 1918 – World War I: A new Polish government in western Galicia is established, triggering the Polish–Ukrainian War. 1918 – World War I: Czech politicians peacefully take over the city of Prague, thus establishing the First Czechoslovak Republic.Preclík, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (TGM and legions), váz. kniha, 219 str., vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karviná) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk Democratic Movement in Prague), 2019, , pp. 19–25, 84–99, 128–129, 132–146, 164–171 1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January. 1922 – Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government. 1928 – Indonesia Raya, now the national anthem of Indonesia, is first played during the Second Indonesian Youth Congress. 1940 – World War II: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania a few hours later. 1942 – The Alaska Highway first connects Alaska to the North American railway network at Dawson Creek in Canada. 1948 – Paul Hermann Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT. 1948 – Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania. 1949 – An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board. 1954 – Aeroflot Flight 136 crashes near Krasnoyarsk, killing 19. 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: A de facto ceasefire comes into effect between armed revolutionaries and Soviet troops, who begin to withdraw from Budapest. Communist officials and facilities come under attack by revolutionaries. 1958 – John XXIII is elected Pope. 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. 1965 – Pope Paul VI promulgates Nostra aetate, by which the Roman Catholic Church officially recognizes the legitimacy of non-Christian faiths. 1971 – Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket. 1982 – The Spanish general election begins fourteen years of rule by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. 1989 – Aloha Island Air Flight 1712, a Twin Otter 300, crashed into terrain at night in Hawaii killing all 20 occupants onboard. 1990 – Georgia holds its only free election under Soviet rule. 1995 – The Baku Metro fire sees 289 people killed and 270 injured. 2006 – A funeral service takes place at the Bykivnia graves for Ukrainians who were killed by the Soviet secret police. 2007 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina. 2009 – The 28 October 2009 Peshawar bombing kills 117 and wounds 213. 2009 – NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program. 2009 – US President Barack Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. 2013 – Five people are killed and 38 are injured after a car crashes into barriers at Tiananmen Square in China. 2014 – A rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia. 2018 – Jair Bolsonaro is elected president of Brazil with 57 million votes, with Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad as the runner-up. It is the first time in 16 years that a Workers' Party candidate is not elected president. 2023 – The 2023 Rugby World Cup final is held at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France. It saw South Africa defeat New Zealand 12 to 11, claiming their fourth Webb Ellis Cup, becoming the first nation to do so. 2025 – Hurricane Melissa makes landfall near Black River, Jamaica, killing over 30 people, as well as tying the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the most intense landfall in the North Atlantic.
Births Pre-1600 1017 – Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1056) 1466 – Erasmus, Dutch philosopher (died 1536) 1479 – John Gage, English courtier (died 1556) 1510 – Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía, Spanish priest and saint, 3rd Superior General of the Society of Jesus (died 1572) 1550 – Stanislaus Kostka, Polish saint (died 1568) 1585 – Cornelius Jansen, Dutch bishop and theologian (died 1638) 1599 – Marie of the Incarnation, foundress of the Ursuline Monastery in Quebec (died 1672)
1601–1900 1610 – Jacob Kettler, 3rd duke of Courland and Semigallia (died 1682) 1667 – Maria Anna of Neuburg, Queen consort of Spain 1690 – Peter Tordenskjold, Norwegian admiral (died 1720) 1693 – Šimon Brixi, Czech composer (died 1735) 1696 – Maurice de Saxe, French general (died 1750) 1703 – Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician and engineer (died 1768) 1718 – Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian priest, mathematician, astronomer, and explorer (died 1793) 1733 – Franz Ignaz von Beecke, German composer (died 1803) 1754 – John Laurens, American soldier (died 1782) 1767 – Marie of Hesse-Kassel (died 1852) 1793 – Eliphalet Remington, American businessman, founded Remington Arms (died 1861) 1794 – Robert Liston, Scottish surgeon (died 1847) 1804 – Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician and theorist (died 1849) 1815 – Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak philologist and politician (died 1856) 1816 – Malwida von Meysenbug, German writer (died 1903) 1837 – Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Japanese shōgun (died 1913) 1839 – Edward P. Allen, American captain, lawyer, and politician (died 1909) 1845 – Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski, Polish physicist and chemist (died 1888) 1846 – Auguste Escoffier, French chef and author (died 1935) 1854 – Jean-Marie Guyau, French philosopher and poet (died 1888) 1860 – Kanō Jigorō, Japanese martial artist (died 1938) 1864 – Adolfo Camarillo, Mexican-American rancher and philanthropist (died 1958) 1867 – Sister Nivedita, Irish-Indian nurse, author, and educator (died 1911) 1875 – Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, Turkish-Canadian journalist (died 1966) 1877 – Joe Adams, American baseball player and manager (died 1952) 1879 – Channing H. Cox, American lawyer and politician, 49th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1968) 1880 – Wilhelm Anderson, Belarusian-Estonian astrophysicist and astronomer (died 1940) 1880 – Billy Wedlock, English footballer (died 1965) 1881 – Vin Coutie, Australian footballer (died 1951) 1884 – William Douglas Cook, New Zealand horticulturalist, founded Eastwoodhill Arboretum (died 1967) 1886 – O. G. S. Crawford, British archaeologist (died 1957) 1886 – Noel Macklin, English soldier and engineer (died 1946) 1888 – Christopher Vane, 10th Baron Barnard, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Durham (died 1964) 1889 – Juliette Béliveau, Canadian actress and singer (died 1975) 1892 – Dink Johnson, American pianist, drummer, and clarinet player (died 1954) 1893 – Christopher Kelk Ingold, British chemist (died 1970) 1896 – Howard Hanson, American composer, conductor, and educator (died 1981) 1897 – Edith Head, American costume designer (died 1981) 1897 – Hans Speidel, German general (died 1984)
1901–present 1901 – Ambrogio Gianotti, Italian partigiano and priest (died 1969) 1901 – Eileen Shanahan, Irish poet (died 1979) 1902 – Elsa Lanchester, English-American actress and singer (died 1986) 1903 – John Chamberlain, American historian, journalist, and critic (died 1995) 1903 – Evelyn Waugh, English journalist, author, and critic (died 1966) 1904 – George Dangerfield, English-American historian, journalist, and author (died 1986) 1905 – Tatyana Ehrenfest, Dutch mathematician (died 1984) 1907 – John Hewitt, Irish poet, playwright, and critic (died 1987) 1908 – Arturo Frondizi, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Argentina (died 1995) 1909 – Francis Bacon, Irish painter and illustrator (died 1992) 1912 – Richard Doll, English physiologist and epidemiologist (died 2005) 1914 – Glenn Robert Davis, American lieutenant and politician (died 1988) 1914 – Jonas Salk, American biologist and physician (died 1995) 1914 – Richard Laurence Millington Synge, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) 1916 – Pearl Hackney, English actress (died 2009) 1917 – Jack Soo, American actor and singer (died 1979) 1919 – Walt Hansgen, American race car driver (died 1966) 1919 – Hans Klenk, German race car driver (died 2009) 1921 – Azumafuji Kin'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (died 1973) 1922 – Gershon Kingsley, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2019) 1922 – Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician, 1st Vice President of Zimbabwe (died 2003) 1922 – Butch van Breda Kolff, American basketball player and coach (died 2007) 1923 – John Connell, American actor (died 2015) 1924 – Antonio Creus, Spanish race car driver and motorcycle racer (died 1996) 1924 – Peddibhotla Suryakantam, Telugu actress (died 1994) 1925 – Ian Hamilton Finlay, Bahamian-Scottish poet, sculptor, and gardener (died 2006) 1926 – Bowie Kuhn, American lawyer and businessman, 5th Commissioner of Baseball (died 2007) 1927 – Cleo Laine, English singer and actress (died 2025) 1928 – Ion Mihai Pacepa, Romanian general (died 2021)