| 312:
|
In a battle that marked the beginning of the Christian era in Europe, Constantine's army, wearing the cross, defeated the forces of Maxentius at Mulvian Bridge in Rome. Roman emperor Constantine, 32, after trusting in a vision he had seen of the cross, inscribed with the words, "In this sign conquer," Constantine was converted and became the first Roman emperor to embrace the Christian faith
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| 969:
|
After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch
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| 1017:
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Henry II "the Black," Holy Roman Emperor born
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| 1216:
|
Henry III of England crowned
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| 1348:
|
Third Wave of the Black Death hits Europe
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| 1412:
|
Death of Margaret, Queen of Scandanavia
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| 1466:
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Erasmus, scholar, author of "In Praise of Folly" born
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| 1585:
|
Cornelius Otto Jansen, French Roman Catholic reform leader born
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| 1628:
|
After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces
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| 1636:
|
Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts
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| 1646:
|
John Eliot, apostle to the New England Indians, preached his first sermon, in the Indians' language
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| 1793:
|
Rifle maker Eliphalet Remington. born
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| 1793:
|
Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin (the patent was granted the following March)
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| 1820:
|
Author and composer of the Christmas hymn, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" John H. Hopkins. born
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| 1831:
|
Michael Faraday demonstrated the first electric dynamo in England
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| 1846:
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'King of chefs and chefs of Kings' Georges Escoffier born
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| 1886:
|
The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Cleveland
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| 1896:
|
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Howard Hanson born
|
| 1901:
|
Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34
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| 1902:
|
Actress Elsa Lanchester (Come to the Stable, Witness for the Prosecution, The Bride of Frankenstein, Nanny and the Professor, The John Forsythe Show; wife of actor: Charles Laughton). born
|
| 1903:
|
English novelist Evelyn Waugh. born
|
| 1904:
|
St. Louis Police try a new investigation method - fingerprints
|
| 1907:
|
Edith Head fashion designer, Oscar winner. born
|
| 1914:
|
Dr. Jonas Salk, a developer of the polio vaccine. born
|
| 1915:
|
Actress Dody Goodman (some sources list 1929.) born
|
| 1919:
|
Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which provided for enforcement of Prohibition, over President Wilson's veto
|
| 1922:
|
Fascism came to Italy as Benito Mussolini took control of the government
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| 1922:
|
WEAF in New York broadcast the first collegiate football game heard coast to coast. Princeton played the University of Chicago at Stagg Field in the Windy City. The broadcast was carried on phone lines to New York City, where the transmission began
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| 1924:
|
Fewer than 20 people paid to see an exhibition baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants in Dublin, Ireland. Newspapers reported that attendance was off because church services were going on at the time. The Sox won 8-4
|
| 1926:
|
Former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn born
|
| 1927:
|
Pan Am Airways launches the first scheduled international flight
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| 1929:
|
Actress Dody Goodman (Forever Fernwood, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, The Jack Paar Show, Punky Brewster, Diff'rent Strokes) born
|
| 1929:
|
Actress Joan Plowright (Avalon, Dennis the Menace, Enchanted April, The Merchant of Venice, Equus, The Entertainer; wife of actor, Lord Lawrence Olivier) born
|
| 1930:
|
Emmy Award-winning news correspondent Bruce Morton born
|
| 1933:
|
Actress Suzy Parker (The Interns, The Best of Everything, Ten North Frederick, Funny Face) born
|
| 1934:
|
National Track & Field Hall of Famer Jim Beatty born
|
| 1936:
|
Country music singer/song writer Charlie Daniels (Devil Went Down to Georgia) born
|
| 1936:
|
President Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
|
| 1937:
|
Basketball Hall of Famer Len Wilkens born
|
| 1939:
|
Actress Jane Alexander (Quigley) (Playing for Time, Kramer vs. Kramer; The Great White Hope, All the President's Men, Eleanor & Franklin) born
|
| 1940:
|
Italy invaded Greece during World War Two
|
| 1941:
|
Singer Curtis Lee (Pretty Little Angel Eyes, Under the Moon of Love) born
|
| 1943:
|
Actor Dennis Franz (N.Y.P.D. Blue, Nasty Boys, Hill Street Blues, Chicago Story, Beverly Hills Buntz, The Bay City Blues, Die born
|
| 1945:
|
Pop singer Wayne Fontana born
|
| 1946:
|
Football player Jim Yarbrough born
|
| 1946:
|
The flying cowboy was heard on ABC Radio for the first time. "Sky King", starring Jack Lester, then Earl Nightingale and, finally, Roy Engel as Sky. Beryl Vaughn played Sky's niece, Penny; Jack Bivens was Chipper and Cliff Soubier was the foreman. "Sky King" was sponsored by Mars candy
|
| 1948:
|
Actress Telma Hopkins (A New Kind of Family, Getting By, Family Matters, Bosom Buddies, Gimme a Break) born
|
| 1949:
|
Olympic Gold Medal winner Bruce Jenner. (decathalete 1976) born
|
| 1950:
|
Jack Benny took his well-known radio show [on radio for 20 years] to television without missing a beat. The show premiered in black and white and lasted for 27 years into the age of color TV
|
| 1952:
|
Actress Annie Potts (Mary Jo-Designing Women) born
|
| 1953:
|
Actress Lauren Tewes (Julie McCoy-Love Boat) born
|
| 1954:
|
Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature
|
| 1955:
|
Billionaire CEO Microsoft Bill Gates born
|
| 1955:
|
Buddy Holly, a local kid from Lubbock, Texas, opened a concert for Marty Robbins and Elvis Presley
|
| 1957:
|
Rock musician Stephen Morris (New Order) born
|
| 1958:
|
Country singer-musician Ron Hemby (The Buffalo Club) born
|
| 1958:
|
Rock singer-musician William Reid (The Jesus & Mary Chain) born
|
| 1958:
|
The Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected pope, taking the name John the 23rd
|
| 1960:
|
Actor Mark Derwin (The Guiding Light, The Young and the Restless) born
|
| 1961:
|
Brian Epstein, a record store owner in London, was asked by a customer for a copy of the record, "My Bonnie", by a group known as The Silver Beatles. He didn't have it in stock, so he went to the Cavern Club to check out the group. He signed to manage them in a matter of days and renamed them The Beatles
|
| 1961:
|
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the Municipal Stadium at the site of the New York World's Fair in Flushing, NY. The name was later changed to Shea Stadium, after New York Commissioner, William A. Shea
|
| 1962:
|
Actress Daphne Zuniga born
|
| 1962:
|
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
|
| 1963:
|
Actress Lauren Holly born
|
| 1964:
|
Olympic silver medal figure skater Paul Wylie born
|
| 1965:
|
Actress Jami Gertz (Square Pegs, Sibs, The Lost Boys, Quicksilver, Sixteen Candles, Alphabet City) born
|
| 1965:
|
the Gateway Arch (630 feet high) completed in St. Louis, Missouri
|
| 1967:
|
Actress Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Mystic Pizza, Steel Magnolias, Dying Young, Hook, The Pelican Brief, I Love Trouble, Mary Reilly, Blood Red, Flatliners) born
|
| 1968:
|
Country singer-musician Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown) born
|
| 1969:
|
Actor Jeremy Davies ("Saving Private Ryan") born
|
| 1972:
|
Country singer Brad Paisley born
|
| 1973:
|
Secretariat raced into history, by winning the Canadian International Stakes in Toronto. It was the last race run by this magnificent thoroughbred
|
| 1974:
|
Actor Joaquin (Leaf) Phoenix born
|
| 1974:
|
Rhoda Morgenstern made TV history when she married Joe Girard on "Rhoda." The CBS show was a spin-off from the hugely successful "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
|
| 1976:
|
Former Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman entered a federal prison camp in Safford, Arizona, to begin serving his sentence for Watergate-related convictions
|
| 1987:
|
During a debate in Houston that included the six Republican presidential contenders, Vice President George Bush argued that as President Reagan's "co-pilot," he knew how to "land the plane in a storm."
|
| 1988:
|
A French pharmaceutical company that manufactured the abortion pill RU-486 announced it would resume distribution of the drug after the government of France demanded it do so
|
| 1989:
|
The Oakland A's won the earthquake-interrupted World Series, completing a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants
|
| 1989:
|
Twenty people were killed in the crash of a commuter plane on the island of Hawaii
|
| 1989:
|
Mitsubishi Estate Company, a major Japanese real estate concern, announced it was buying 51 percent of Rockefeller Group Incorporated of New York
|
| 1990:
|
In a surprise move, Iraq said it was halting gasoline rationing imposed earlier in response to global economic sanctions
|
| 1992:
|
Less than a week before Election Day, President Bush continued to emphasize that voters could not trust Bill Clinton in the White House; for his part, Clinton accused Bush of abusing the powers of the presidency
|
| 1993:
|
Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, speaking at the United Nations, called for a blockade of all air and sea trade to Haiti to force out its military leaders
|
| 1994:
|
President Clinton visited Kuwait, where he praised US ground forces sent in response to an Iraqi threat, and all but promised the troops they'd be home by Christmas
|
| 1994:
|
Pope John Paul the Second named 30 new cardinals, including the archbishops of Baltimore and Detroit and the first-ever from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and two former East-bloc states, Albania and Belarus
|
| 1995:
|
The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians, 1-0, to win the World Series in Game 6
|
| 1995:
|
The Senate approved a GOP package of spending slashes and tax reductions, 52-47
|
| 1996:
|
Richard Jewell, cleared of committing the Olympic park bombing, held a news conference in Atlanta in which he thanked his mother for standing by him and lashed out at reporters and investigators who had depicted him as the bomber
|
| 1996:
|
Comedian Morey Amsterdam died in Los Angeles at age 81
|
| 1997:
|
A day after plunging 554 points, the stock market roared back, posting a 337-point recovery, with more than one billion shares traded
|
| 1998:
|
In London, the High Court ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution in British courts (however, the House of Lords later overturned the decision, saying Pinochet's arrest could stand)
|
| 1999:
|
Five Republican presidential hopefuls debated such issues as abortion, health care and taxes in their second meeting in less than a week; once again, front-runner George W. Bush was absent from the gathering in New Hampshire
|
| 1999:
|
The House passed, 218-211, the last spending bill of the year, which President Clinton said he would veto
|
| 2005:
|
Japan-Korea premiers' meeting in doubt over shrine visit
|
| 2005:
|
Japanese riot police deployed around consulates
|
| 2005:
|
Body of Rosa Parks to lie in honor at U.S. Capitol
|
| 2005:
|
Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted on five charges Lewis
|
| 2006:
|
Reward for Californian arsonist now at $500,000
|
| 2006:
|
Two children killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in Corfu
|
| 2006:
|
UK War Crimes court hears evidence from dead victim
|
| 2006:
|
London Police Commissioner seeks new powers
|
| 2006:
|
Physicists test 'forgotten' Brownian motion theory
|
| 2006:
|
Bush signs to rewrite insurrection act
|
| 2006:
|
Two Pakistani militants arrested in south Indian city of Mysore
|
| 2007:
|
Suspect "Rembrandt" sold for £2.2 million in English auction house Suspect
|
| 2007:
|
BDSM as business: Interviews with Dominatrixes
|
| 2007:
|
Wikimedia Conference Netherlands held on wikis and education
|
| 2007:
|
Cristina Kirchner set to win Argentinian presidential elections
|
| 2007:
|
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party chooses new leader
|
| 2007:
|
Major League Soccer Playoffs: New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution
|
| 2008:
|
More teenagers attracted to computer crime, say experts
|
| 2008:
|
Homes of six Minnesota politicians vandalized
|
| 2008:
|
Arctic ice thickness decreasing, suggests satellite data study
|
| 2008:
|
Acting teacher and director Milton Katselas dies at age 75
|
| 2009:
|
Tunisian president re-elected for fifth term
|
| 2009:
|
Nine killed after bombings in southern Afghanistan
|
| 2009:
|
Dozens killed after car bomb explodes in market in Peshawar, Pakistan
|
| 2009:
|
Court in France convicts Scientology of organized fraud
|
| 2010:
|
Fifteen dead in Mexican car wash shooting
|
| 2010:
|
'Explosive' Haitian cholera outbreak kills 292, neighboring countries prepare
|
| 2010:
|
Russian cargo ship launches to International Space Station
|
| 2011:
|
Swedish journalists hit by hacking scandal
|
History
Icons
Biologist, physician and developer of the first polio vaccine, Dr Jonas Salk born in New York City
Actress Annie Potts born Anne Hampton Potts in Nashville, Tennessee
Software mogul William Henry (Bill) Gates III born in Seattle, Washington
Fashion model and Academy Award winning actress, Julia Fiona Roberts born in Atlanta, Georgia