362
Temple of Apollo at Daphne destroyed by fire
1836
Sam Houston inaugurated as President of the Republic of Texas
1998
Internet Time introduced
1999
Apple Computer's Mac OS 9 released
4004
BC
According to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
42
BC
Brutus, assassin, kills himself after losing Phillipi
304
Death of St. Severus
425
Valentinian III installed as Western Roman Emperor
877
Death of St Ignatius of Constantinople
1260
Murder of Kotuz, Egyptian Caliph
1295
Treaty of Paris between Scotland and France against the English
1520
Coronation of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor
1526
Election of Ferdinand I as King of Bohemia
1641
Rebellion in Ireland. Catholics, under Phelim O'Neil, rose against the Protestants and cruelly massacred men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000).
1707
The British Parliament met for the first time.
1752
French chef Nicholas Appert, inventor of the canning process. born
1764
Paris police were investigating the murder of the composer Jean-Marie Leclair. They thought Leclair's nephew stabbed him to death to steal his wife but they never found evidence for an arrest.
1783
Virginia emancipates slaves who fought for independence during the Revolutionary War.
1817
French lexicographer Pierre Larousse . born
1835
Adlai E. Stevenson, vice president under Grover Cleveland from 1893-1897 born
1844
British poet Robert Bridges
1864
Forces led by Union General Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate General Stirling Price's army in Missouri.
1869
John Heisman, American college football coach from 1892 to 1927 who had a trophy for best college player named after him born
1873
William Coolidge, inventor of the X-ray tube born
1897
Scriabin's career got a boost when he performed his own piano concerto in Odessa.
1906
Olympic swimming medalist in 1924, Gertrude Ederle born
1914
College and Pro Football Hall of Famer 'Bruiser' (Frank) Kinard born
1915
25,000 women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote.
1918
Actor James Daly (Hallmark Hall of Fame, Eagle in a Cage, Medical Center, Planet of the Apes, The Invaders) born
1923
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Ned Rorem born
1923
Baseball player, Ewell Blackwell born
1925
Former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson born
1927
Saxophoneist Sonny (William) Criss (The Bop Masters, Saturday Morning, Criss Craft, Out of Nowhere, Warm and Sonny) born
1931
Baseball pitcher (U.S. Senator from Kentucky)- Jim Bunning born
1931
Actress, Diana Dors (Fluck) (Children of the Full Moon, Oliver Twist, Unicorn, Theatre of Blood, The Devil's Web, Baby Love) born
1935
World Golf Hall of Famer Juan 'Chi-Chi' Rodriguez born
1939
Singer Charlie Foxx (Mockingbird) born
1939
The first major Old West writer, Zane Gray, died.
1940
Soccer great Pele born
1940
Songwriter Eleanor (Ellie) Greenwich (My Baby, Chapel of Love, Da Do Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, River Deep) born
1942
The British Eighth Army launched an offensive at El Alamein in Egypt; a World War II battle that eventually swept the Germans out of North Africa.
1942
Author Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Twister, Rising Sun, The Great Train Robbery, The Terminal Man, Disclosure, The Great Impostor, The Secret of Canta Victoria, Congo) born
1943
Rhythm-and-blues singer Barbara Ann Hawkins (The Dixie Cups) born
1944
The Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1945
Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player hired by a major league team, was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and sent to their Montreal farm team.
1946
The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
1947
Musician Greg Ridley born
1947
The first husband and wife team to win Nobel Prizes, Carl and Gerty Cory of Washington University Medical School, won the prize for medicine on this day in for their work on undersstanding the conversion of sugar into glycogens.
1956
Country singer Dwight Yoakam born
1956
An anti-Stalinist revolt that was subsequently crushed by Soviet troops began in Hungary.
1959
Parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic born
1966
Rhythm-and-blues singer David Thomas (Take 6) born
1966
Rock musician Brian Nevin (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) born
1968
Country singer-musician Junior Bryant (Ricochet) born
1972
Earthquakes killed more than 10,000 people in Nicaragua.
1972
The musical "Pippin" opened on Broadway.
1973
President Nixon agreed to turn White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor over to Judge John J. Sirica.
1978
China and Japan exchanged treaty ratification documents in Tokyo, formally ending four decades of hostility. .
1980
The resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced.
1983
A truck filled with explosives, driven by a Moslem terrorist, crashes into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The bomb kills 237 Marines and injures 80. Almost simultaneously, a similar incident occurs at French military headquarters, where 58 die and 15 are injured.
1987
The US Senate rejected, 58-to-42, the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.
1988
Democrat Lloyd Bentsen and the Reverend Jesse Jackson accused Republican George Bush of injecting race into the presidential campaign by focusing on prison escapee Willie Horton -- a charge a Bush spokesman labeled "absolutely ridiculous."
1989
In a case that inflamed racial tensions in Boston, Charles Stuart claimed he and his pregnant wife, Carol, had been shot in their car by a black robber. Carol Stuart and her prematurely delivered baby died; Charles Stuart later died, an apparent suicide, after he was implicated.
1989
Twenty-three people were killed in an explosion at Phillips Petroleum Company's chemical complex in Pasadena, Texas.
1990
Deficit-reduction negotiations continued between the White House and congressional leaders. President Bush, campaigning in New England, blamed the Democratic-controlled Congress for the budget impasse.
1991
The United States announced that all parties invited to the Middle East peace conference had accepted.
1992
President Bush announced that Vietnam had agreed to turn over all materials in its possession related to US personnel in the Vietnam War.
1992
Japanese Emperor Akihito began a visit to China, the first by a Japanese monarch.
1992
A French court convicted three former health officials of charges they knowingly allowed blood tainted with the AIDS virus to be used in transfusions.
1993
An IRA bomb exploded in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing ten people, including an IRA operative.
1993
The Toronto Blue Jays repeated as baseball champions as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-to-6, in game six of the World Series.
1994
A suicide bomber in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killed 50 people including Gamini Dissanayake, the opposition candidate for president.
1995
President Clinton met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Hyde Park, New York. The leaders agreed that Russian troops would help enforce peace in Bosnia, but remained deadlocked on the issue of NATO command.
1995
A jury in Houston convicted Yolanda Saldivar of murdering Tejano singing star Selena.
1996
Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole tried to persuade Ross Perot to quit the race and endorse the GOP ticket, but Perot refused.
1996
The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opened in Santa Monica, California (Simpson was later found liable in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.)
1996
The New York Yankees tied the World Series at two games apiece, defeating the Atlanta Braves, 8-to-6.
1997
British au pair Louise Woodward, charged with murdering a baby in her care, testified at her trial in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that she'd never hurt eight-month-old Matthew Eappen, saying, "I love kids."
1997
The International Whaling Commission opened the way for an American Indian tribe, the Makah, to resume traditional whale hunts for the first time in seven decades.
1997
The Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-to-7, in game five of the World Series.
1998
Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, was shot and killed at his home in suburban Buffalo, New York.
1998
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a breakthrough land-for-peace agreement at the White House.
1998
Typhoon Babs pummeled the northern Philippines, killing at least 189 people.
1999
Sixteen members of the Ku Klux Klan held a silent rally in New York City as thousands of counter-demonstrators jeered them.
1999
The New York Yankees won the first game of the World Series, beating the Atlanta Braves, 4-1. (The Yankees went on to sweep the series.) .
2005
Russian fighter crash in Lithuania: investigation concludes
2005
FEMA official in New Orleans blasts agency's response
2005
Kaczynski elected as the new president of Poland, according to polls
2005
Leaked poll finds 45% of Iraqis support suicide bombers who attack allied forces
2005
Iraqi vote remains in doubt
2005
Emigration perspective in the eyes of young Poles
2005
Florida Governor Jeb Bush gives speech on Hurricane Wilma
2006
New Zealand broadcasters to pay back National party's GST
2006
Interview with Chuck Jeffrey, Regional Council candidate for Wards 2 & 6 in Brampton, Canada
2006
UK Government propaganda directed at Muslim youth
2006
Hungarian police disperse rally against Prime Minister Gyurcsany
2006
Senior diplomat criticizes U.S. policy in Iraq
2006
Human remains found at World Trade Center
2007
WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase & Conference starts for M-Taiwan and WiMAX applications
2007
WiMAX Forum will endorse M-Taiwan WiMAX Application Lab in Hsinchu and shows the highlights from WiMAX Forum PlugFest in Taipei
2007
Space Shuttle Discovery launches for mission STS-120
2007
Thousands more evacuated in California, USA
2007
Pet parrot saves owners' lives
2007
Laura Bush in Saudi Arabia to promote breast cancer awareness
2007
UEFA Champions League 2007–08: Arsenal vs. Slavia Prague
2007
UEFA Champions League 2007–08: CSKA Moscow vs. Inter Milan
2007
Study says carbon dioxide levels rising faster than anticipated
2008
Australian police commander caught speeding at 175 kph
2009
6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Afghanistan, Pakistan
2009
Jet flies 150 miles past destination in US; pilots say they were distracted
2009
Suicide bomb blast hits air force base in Pakistan
2009
Canada acquits man wrongly jailed for over a decade over teen girl's murder
2009
More than 300 arrested in over two days after US drug operation
2009
Kenya government reform record to be reviewed by AU experts
2009
Ethiopia appeals for food aid for over 6 million
2009
Official: Military aircraft crashes in Afghanistan
2010
Typhoon Megi kills seven in Taiwan, heads towards southern China
2010
Tropical storm Richard forms, drifts towards Honduras
2010
Nearly 200 dead in Haitian cholera outbreak
2010
Four feared dead in Ireland helicopter crash
2010
Apple unveils new MacBook Air laptops, iLife '11 software suite
2010
WikiLeaks releases Iraq War logs
2010
Teenager killed in shark attack on California beach, water was like 'river of blood'
2011
US, North Korea form agreement to search for war dead
2011
Crown Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia dies
2011
UN wants Gaddafi's death probed
In the early days of Unix, a date-tagged list of historical events was used by system administrators to add some interest to the system's Message of the Day. Whenever users logged in they would be presented with the latest system notices, perhaps some mildly amusing quotes and one or two lines of historical events, based on the current date.
Today in History (UNIX calendar) uses some of the entries from the original library but is updated with current events as well. Instead of plain text, each entry is now formatted in HTML and each day may include one or more icons of historical figures or celebrities.
Other things unique to the UNIX calendar are references to dates found in fictional literature such as Lord of the Rings, perhaps undue emphasis on people and events that were part of popular culture in the 70's and technical minutiae about computers and operating systems that might not be found in other places.
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