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These are some of the widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of December, listed by year. Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate.

609 BCE, December 25 - The first recorded solar eclipse in ancient Babylonia, which marked the beginning of systematic astronomical observations.

399 BCE, December 5 - The Greek philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, following his trial in Athens.

333 BCE, December 1 - Alexander the Great decisively defeats the Persian king Darius III at the Battle of Issus, solidifying his control over Asia Minor.

218 BCE, December 2 - Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, wins a significant victory over the Roman Republic at the Battle of the Trebia during the Second Punic War.

121 BCE, December 15 - Gaius Gracchus, a Roman politician and reformer, is born. He would later become known for his attempts to enact land and citizenship reforms.

106 BCE, December 18 - The birth of Cicero, one of Rome's most famous orators, statesmen, and philosophers.

70 BCE, December 25 - The siege of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus ends with the destruction of the Second Temple.

68 BCE, December 7 - The birth of the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), known for his Odes and Satires.

65 BCE, December 8 - The birth of the Roman historian and author of "The History of Rome," Livy (Titus Livius).

45 BCE, December 31 - The Julian calendar is introduced by Julius Caesar, with January 1, 45 BCE, as its first day.

43 BCE, December 20 - The establishment of the Second Triumvirate in Rome, comprising Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus, to avenge Caesar's assassination.

43 BCE, December 23 - Gaius Oppius, a close friend and advisor to Julius Caesar, is born.

40 BCE, December 2 - The Treaty of Brundisium is signed, temporarily ending the Roman civil wars between Octavian and Antony.

40 BCE, December 15 - The birth of the Roman poet and philosopher, Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca).

21 BCE, December 30 - The Roman poet and author of the "Metamorphoses," Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), is born.

17 BCE, December 25 - The Roman emperor Augustus celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, a secular games event, marking the end of a saeculum (a generation) and the beginning of a new one.

6 BCE, December 27 - The Roman emperor Augustus officially adopts his stepson and heir, Tiberius, as his son.

4 BCE, December 25 - The traditionally celebrated birth of Jesus Christ, though the exact date remains a subject of debate among scholars.

3 BCE, December 25 - Herod the Great dies, according to some estimates, around this date. Herod is known for his role in the Nativity story.

1 CE, December 20 - The Roman Emperor Vespasian captures the city of Jerusalem, effectively ending the First Jewish-Roman War.

37 CE, December 20 - Roman Emperor Nero is born, eventually becoming known for his tyrannical rule and the Great Fire of Rome.

45 CE, December 3 - Roman Emperor Augustus celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, a secular games event, marking the end of a saeculum (a generation) and the beginning of a new one.

104 CE, December 30 - The death of Trajan, one of Rome's greatest emperors, and the accession of his successor, Hadrian.

352 CE, December 25 - Pope Julius I officially establishes December 25 as the date of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, now known as Christmas.

357 CE, December 25 - Roman Emperor Constantius II decrees that the pagan festival of Sol Invictus coincides with Christmas, promoting Christianity.

540 CE, December 27 - The death of Chrysaphius, a eunuch advisor to the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, who played a controversial role in the court.

546 CE, December 27 - The Gothic War, fought between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths, sees a significant battle at Taginae, resulting in a Byzantine victory.

564 CE, December 20 - Saint Columba, an Irish missionary, dies, leaving a lasting legacy in spreading Christianity in Scotland.

674 CE, December 3 - The beginning of the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, an iconic Islamic shrine.

771 CE, December 25 - Charlemagne becomes the King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman I.

820 CE, December 24 - The Byzantine Empire defeats the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate at the Battle of Mehmetçik, marking a significant victory in the Byzantine-Arab Wars.

827 CE, December 20 - The Muslim scholar and polymath Al-Khwarizmi is born, known for his contributions to algebra and mathematics.

875 CE, December 21 - The Treaty of Verdun is signed, dividing the Carolingian Empire into three parts, marking the beginning of the Carolingian dissolution.

884 CE, December 25 - The Danelaw, a region of England under Viking control, sees a series of treaties between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons.

910 CE, December 13 - The Buddhist monk Fadeng begins a journey to India, which would later contribute to Chinese Buddhist scholarship.

955 CE, December 6 - Otto I, King of Germany, defeats the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld, halting their invasion of Western Europe.

963 CE, December 15 - Emperor Otto I of the Holy Roman Empire dies, and he is succeeded by his son Otto II.

990 CE, December 16 - The Byzantine emperor Basil II wins a decisive victory against the Bulgarians at the Battle of Spercheios.

999 CE, December 31 - Pope Sylvester II dies, marking the end of his papacy, during which he contributed to the advancement of science and mathematics in Europe.

999 CE, December 31 - The coronation of Stephen I as the first Christian king of Hungary, a significant event in the Christianization of the Hungarian people.

1000, December 25 - The coronation of Stephen I as the first Christian king of Hungary, marking the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary and Hungary's conversion to Christianity.

1002, December 29 - King Æthelred the Unready orders the St. Brice's Day massacre, leading to the killing of many Danish settlers in England.

1006. December - The supernova SN 1006, one of the brightest stellar events recorded, appears in the southern skies after appearing earlier in the year in the north. Now we know that is a remnant of a so-called Type Ia supernova. This class of supernova is caused when a white dwarf pulls too much mass from a companion star and explodes, or when two white dwarfs merge and explode. In this case, the star whose death brightened the early medieval sky was 7200 light years away. That means the supernova really happened about 8.200 years ago, but it took until 1006 for the light of the cosmic explosion to reach Earth. More

1013, December 25 - Sweyn Forkbeard is proclaimed King of England after the English nobility submits to him. Sweyn had built a strong an imposing Danish North Sea empire, establishing control in Norway in 1000 and conquering England in 1013. He died there on February 1014, having ruled England for only five weeks. Sweyn's cause of death is unknown. 

1025, December 24 - The Byzantine Emperor Basil II dies, marking the end of the Macedonian Dynasty

1066, December 25 - William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, following the Norman conquest.

1135, December 1 - The death of King Henry I of England, leading to a period of civil war known as "The Anarchy."

1147, December 24 - The start of the Second Crusade, as European forces begin their journey to the Holy Land.

1154, December 19 - Henry II of England is crowned as king, beginning the Angevin Empire.

1170, December 29 - The murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral.

1214, December 27 - The University of Oxford receives its royal charter from King Henry III of England.

1257, December 9 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending a conflict between King Louis IX of France and King Henry III of England.

1271, December 24 - Kublai Khan issues a decree that allows Marco Polo to become an emissary of the Mongol Empire.

1287,  December 14 - A heavy storm over the North Sea generated surging waves that collapsed a thin land barrier, flooding the Zuiderzee inlet and causing more than 50,000 casualties. The flood, called the St. Lucia flood, has been rated as one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The event also created direct sea access for the village of Amsterdam, allowing its development into a major port city.

1294, December 18 - Pope Celestine V abdicates the papacy, becoming one of the few popes to voluntarily resign.

1305, December 5 - Pope Clement V moves the papal residence to Avignon, beginning the Avignon Papacy.

1392, December 18 - The Joseon Dynasty in Korea repels the Japanese invasion during the Battle of Wihwa Island.

1398, December 17 - Tamerlane (Timur) captures and sacks Delhi, leading to the massacre of its inhabitants.

1408, December 28 - The Council of Oxford condemns the teachings of John Wycliffe, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation.

1431, December 16 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris, marking a significant moment in the Hundred Years' War.

1431, December 23 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English, leading to her trial and execution.

1455, December 30 - The Battle of Castillon marks the end of the Hundred Years' War between England and France.

1470, December 29 - The Battle of Wakefield takes place during the Wars of the Roses in England, resulting in a Lancastrian victory.

1492, December 6 - Christopher Columbus reaches the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) during his first voyage to the Americas.

1497, December 19 - John Cabot, an Italian explorer sailing under the English flag, reaches the coast of what is now North America, likely Canada.

1524, December 24 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama passes away in India during his second voyage to the East.

1531, December 9 - Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most important religious icons in Mexico, is believed to have appeared to Juan Diego.

1620, December 21 - The Mayflower Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, establishing the Plymouth Colony.

1639, December 4 - The first documented recorded observation of a transit of Venus across the Sun is made by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks from his home at Carr House in Much Hoole, near Preston in England.

1688, December 11 - The Glorious Revolution in England sees William of Orange and Mary II take the throne from James II.

1777, December 31 - The British suffer heavy losses in the Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War.

1787, December 7 - Delaware ratifies the Constitution of the United States Union becoming the 1st State to do so.

1787, December 12 - Pennsylvania ratifies the Constitution of the United States becoming the second State of the Union.

1787, December 18 - New Jersey ratifies the Constitution of the United States becoming the third State of the Union.

1790, December 15 - The United States Congress relocates to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from New York City.

1799, December 10 - The French revolutionary government declares the metric system to be the official system of weights and measures.

1803, December 20 - The United States officially takes possession of the Louisiana Territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase.

1804. December 20 - Napoleon and Joséphine were crowned Emperor and Empress of the French at Notre-Dame in Paris.  More

1814, December 24 - The Treaty of Ghent is signed, officially ending the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom.

1816, December 11 - Indiana is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 19th State.

1817, December 10 - Mississippi is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 20th State.

1818. December 3 - Illinois is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 21st State.

1819. December 14 -Alabama is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 22nd State.

1831, December 2 - Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the only former president to do so.

1843, December 19 - Charles Dickens' classic novella "A Christmas Carol" is first published in London.

1845, December 29 - Texas is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 28th State.

1846, December 28 - Illinois is admitted into the United States Union becoming the 29th State.

1865, December 6 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.

1867, December 4 - The Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange is founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley. The Grange went on to become and influential political force in the western U. S. States. More

1872, December 5 - The Mary Celeste, an American ship that mysteriously disappeared, is discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands. The ,Captain, his family, or the crew of the vessel were never found, and the reason for the abandonment of the Mary Celeste has never been determined. More 

1877, December 6 - Thomas Edison successfully demonstrates the phonograph for the first time. Edison filed for a patent for the phonograph on December 24, 1877 and the patent was issued on February 19, 1878. The original phonograph was invented and patented by Edouard-Leon Scott in 1857. He called his device the phonautograph . His invention made a recording of sound waves on a glass plate, but it was not able to play back the sounds. More

1890, December 29 - The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee. Nearly three hundred Lakota people are massacred by soldiers of the United States Army. 

1894, December 29 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a highly controversial trial, sparking the Dreyfus Affair.

1903, December 17 - The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, make their first powered, controlled, and sustained flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. More

1913, December 1 - The world's first moving assembly line debuted, at the Ford Model T car factory in Highland Park, Michigan. The innovation spearheaded by Henry Ford, revolutionized the auto industry. More

1917, December 6 - Finland declares independence from Russia, leading to the Finnish Civil War.

1932, December 5 - German physicist Albert Einstein is granted a visa to enter the United States, fleeing Nazi Germany.

1933, December 5 - The 21st Amendment is passed, ending the prohibition of alcohol in America by repealing the 18th amendment which had been as passed thus becoming Prohibition, the only Constitutional amendment to be repealed in United States history.

1941, December 7 - The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire leads to the United States' entry into World War II.

1941, December 26 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November  as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday. This ended the confusion that had taken place since 1939 when FDR had changed the official Thanksgiving to the second Thursday of the month since there were five Thursdays and the last Thursday of the month was the last day of the month and there was a worry that it would shorten the Christmas shopping season. The result was that only 32 states issued similar proclamations while 16 states refused to accept the change creating confusion. More 

1945, December 5 - Flight 19, a Navy Aircraft squadron disappears in the Bermuda Triangle. The squadron consisted of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers which departed the U.S. Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a routine navigational training flight with Lt. Charles C. Taylor acting as the flight's leader.  All 14 Naval Aviators on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a Martin PBM Mariner flying boat that subsequently launched from Naval Air Station Banana River to search for Flight 19. More

1945, December 9 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established. More 

1952, December 5th - Lethal smog covers the city of London for five days. It was caused by a combination of industrial pollution and high-pressure weather conditions bringing  London to a near standstill and resulting in thousands of deaths. Four years later, the UK Parliament passed the Clean Air Act marking a turning point in the history of environmentalism. More

1954, December 2 - Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy - The U.S. Senate votes to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had led the fight in Congress to root out suspected Communists from the Federal Government. The censure described his behavior as "contrary to senatorial traditions". Senator Joseph R. McCarthy had been a little-known junior senator from Wisconsin until February 1950 when he claimed to have a list of 205 card-carrying Communists and members of a spy ring employed in the U.S. Department of State. McCarthy was never able to prove his sensational charge. More  

1955, December 1 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the civil rights movement. More

1955, December 5 - The Montgomery Bus Boycott ends after the U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

1959, December 1 - The Antarctic Treaty is signed by 12 countries, making the Antarctic continent a demilitarized zone to be preserved for scientific research. More  

1960, December 1 - The African country of Cameroon gains independence from France.

1960, December 4 - A magnitude 9.5 earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded, strikes Chile, resulting in widespread destruction and loss of life.

1960, December 7 - Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) gains independence from French colonial rule.

1960, December 11 - French forces capture the Algerian city of Oran, effectively ending the Algerian War of Independence.

1960, December 14 - Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is officially established in Baghdad, Iraq.

1960, December 15 - Richard Pavlick attempts to assassinate then-U.S. President-elect John F. Kennedy in Florida.

1960, December 16 - The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marking a significant moment in human rights history.

1960, December 18 - Charles de Gaulle is reelected as the President of France.

1960, December 28 - An uprising against Portuguese colonial rule in Angola, known as the Baixa de Cassanje revolt, begins.

1961, December 2 - Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and Cuba becomes a communist state.

1961, December 6 - Independence is granted to Kuwait, ending British protection.

1961, December 9 - Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) gains independence from British colonial rule.

1961, December 11 - Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal, is found guilty and sentenced to death in Israel.

1961, December 18 - India annexes the territories of Goa, Daman, and Diu, ending Portuguese colonial rule in the region.

1962, December 10 - The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Linus Pauling for his work in campaigning against nuclear weapons testing.

1962, December 14 - Mariner 2, an American space probe, becomes the first spacecraft to successfully fly by Venus.

1962, December 17 - The United States lifts its economic embargo on Cuba, allowing the sale of certain goods.

1962, December 20 - The New York City Board of Estimate votes to build the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

1962, December 25 - An earthquake and tsunami in Northern Chile result in significant loss of life and destruction.

1963, December 1 - The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Hotline is established between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1963, December 7 - The United States launches the communication satellite Syncom 3, which broadcasts the first live transatlantic television program.1963, December 10 - The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

1963, December 10 - Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) gains independence from British colonial rule.

1963, December 17 - The Clean Air Act is signed into law in the United States, aiming to reduce air pollution.

1964, December 10 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent civil rights activism.

1964, December 2 - The U.S. Senate passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to use military force in Vietnam.

1964, December 10 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in the American civil rights movement.

1964, December 11 - The South African Rivonia Trial concludes with the sentencing of Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists to life in prison.

1964, December 15 - Canada adopts the new national flag, the Maple Leaf, replacing the Red Ensign.

1965, December 4 - NASA's Gemini 7 and Gemini 6 spacecraft achieve the first space rendezvous, flying within 1 foot of each other.

1965, December 13 - Singapore gains independence from Malaysia and becomes a sovereign nation.

1965, December 22 - Apartheid in South Africa is further entrenched with the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act.

1966, December 1 - The West Coast Port Dispute, a labor strike, begins on the U.S. West Coast, affecting shipping and trade.

1966, December 4 - The United Nations General Assembly recognizes the independence of Barbados and Guyana.

1966, December 25 - The first Kwanzaa celebration is held, a week-long holiday honoring African heritage in African American culture.

1966, December 30 - The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, secures a contract for the band to produce animated television shows.

1966, December 31 - The estimated population of the world reaches 3.45 billion, according to the United Nations.

1967, December 3 - The first successful human heart transplant is performed by South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard. More

1969, December 2 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its first passenger flight. It carried 191 people, 110 of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, to New York City.

1971, December 2 - The United Emirates (UAE) declares its independence following the completion of treaties with Great Britain. The United States recognized the United Arab Emirates the next day. The uniting Sheikdoms were Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharja, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Fujairah. Ras al-Khaimah joined two months later. The UAE is the third-largest oil producer in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia and Iran. The United Arab Emirates is a member state of the League of Arab States.

1972, December 7 - Apollo 17, the final Apollo moon mission, launches from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

1973, December 2 - The first mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper, a Motorola executive, in New York City.

1978, December 25 - Vietnam invades Cambodia, leading to the eventual downfall of the Khmer Rouge regime.

1979, December 24 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, beginning the Soviet-Afghan War.

1980, December 8 - Former Beatle John Lennon is assassinated in New York City.

1981, December 13 - The martial law imposed in Poland is lifted, ending a period of political repression.

1987, December 8 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).

1988, December 21 - Pan Am Flight 103 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.

1989, December 3 - The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus sign the Belavezha Accords, effectively dissolving the Soviet Union.

1989, December 2 - The Cold War officially ends with a summit meeting between U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.1991 CE, December 26 - The dissolution of the Soviet Union is officially declared, ending the existence of the USSR.

1990, December 1 - The Chunnel Breakthrough - In a mostly ceremonial event, British miner Graham Fagg and his French counterpart Philippe Cozette made history whent hey broke through the last piece of rock separating the French and British side of the Chunnel,132 feet (100 metres) below the English Channel,  connecting the two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age. The official opening of the Chunnel took place In a May 6, 1994 in a ceremony presided over by England’s Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand. More

1991, December 8 - The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus sign the Belavezha Accords, effectively dissolving the Soviet Union.1992 CE, December 6 - The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, is demolished by Hindu nationalists, leading to communal violence.

1992, December 3 - The first text message is sent from a computer by Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old software programmer from the UK working for Vodaphone  to his colleague Richard Jarvis. The message was “Merry Christmas.”  One year later in 1993, Nokia introduced an SMS feature with a distinctive ‘beep’ to signal an incoming message. More 

1992, December 4 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush, in his last weeks in office, orders about 25.000 U.S. troops to Somalia as part of an agreement with the UN to protect aid workers. The military operation encounter difficulties from the start due to the absence of a national Somali leadership and the daily fighting in the streets of the capital city of Mogadishu. The new U.S. president, Bill Clinton, ordered the number of U.S. troops to be reduced as other UN forces come in. In October 1993, soon after an incident at Mogadishu where 18 U.S. soldiers lost their lives and  two U.S. two helicopters were shut down, Clinton orders all U.S. combat troops to be out of Somalia by March 31. A year later UN troops were also withdrawn, leaving the country engulfed in clan warfare.

1993, December 2 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is killed in a shootout with authorities.

1995, December 14 - The Dayton Agreement is signed, ending the Bosnian War with the goal of achieving peace in the Balkans.

1997, December 3 - The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to combat climate change, is adopted.

1998, December 19 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

1999, December 20 - Macau is handed back to China by Portugal, marking the end of Portuguese colonial rule.

1999, December 31 - The Panama Canal is transferred from U.S. control to Panamanian ownership.

2000, December 12 - The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in the case of Bush v. Gore, effectively ending the recount of the presidential election and leading to the election of George W. Bush as President of the United States.

2001, December 2 - The Enron Corporation files for bankruptcy.  Eventually it came to light, that some of Enron aggressive accounting practices allowed claiming future unrealized gains from some trading contracts into current income and the transferring of troubled operations to so-called special purpose entities (SPEs), kept the assets off Enron’s books, making its losses look less severe than they really were. Enron’s collapse, cost investors billions of dollars, wiped out over 5,600 jobs and liquidated over $2 billion in pension plans. It also trigerred the collapse of Arthur Anderson which had served not only as Enron’s auditor but also as a consultant to the company. More about Enron - #toc-where-are-they-now">More about the executives

2001, December 11 - China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO) after 15 years of negotiations.

2003, December 13 - Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, is captured by U.S. forces near Tikrit.

2007, December 27 - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

2009, December 1 - The Lisbon Treaty, which reformed the European Union's institutions, comes into force.

2010, December 17 - The outbreak of the Arab Spring begins when Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, sets himself on fire in protest, sparking widespread demonstrations.

2011, December 18 - The last convoy of U.S. troops leaves Iraq, officially marking the end of the Iraq War.

2012, December 14 - A mass shooting occurs at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, leading to renewed discussions on gun control in the United States.

2013, December 5 - The death of Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and anti-apartheid icon.

2014, December 17 - The United States and Cuba announce plans to normalize diplomatic relations after decades of tension.

2015, December 12 - The Paris Agreement on climate change is adopted by 196 countries during the COP21 summit.

2016, December 19 - The assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, in Ankara.

2017, December 6 - The United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, sparking controversy and protests.

2018, December 1 - Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush passes away at the age of 94.

2019, December 19 - The United States House of Representatives impeaches President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

2020, December 14 - The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are administered in the United Kingdom, marking the beginning of vaccination campaigns worldwide.

2020, December 24 - The United Kingdom and the European Union reach a post-Brexit trade deal, averting a no-deal scenario.

2020, December 28 - The United States Congress passes the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, providing economic relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021, December 4 - British businessman Richard Branson becomes the first person to reach space aboard a Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceplane.

2021, December 31 - The United Kingdom officially completes its transition out of the European Union, fully implementing Brexit.

Online History Resources

These are some of many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of November, listed by year.  Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate.

753 BCE, November 1 - Traditional date for the founding of Rome.

323 BCE, November 11 - Death of Alexander the Great in Babylon.

312 BCE, November 20 - The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius, leading to Constantine's rise to power.

284 BCE, November 17 - Diocletian is acclaimed as emperor by his soldiers. During his reign, he restored efficient government to the empire after the near anarchy of the 3rd century by reorganizing the fiscal, administrative, and military functions of the empire. and laying the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East.  The last major persecution of Christians occurred during his reign.

218 BCE, November 3 - The Second Punic War begins with the Battle of the Trebia between Rome and Carthage.

207 BCE, November 2 - Scipio Africanus defeats Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula during the Second Punic War.

190 BCE, November 15 - The Battle of Magnesia takes place, ending the Seleucid War between the Roman Republic and the Seleucid Empire.

133 BCE, November 13 - Attalus III of Pergamon bequeaths his kingdom to Rome, leading to the establishment of the Roman province of Asia.

63 BCE, November 20 - Roman general Pompey captures Jerusalem, expanding Roman control in the Eastern Mediterranean.

47 BCE, November 7 - Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt, is captured by Julius Caesar after the Siege of Alexandria.

43 BCE, November 27 - The Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian (later Augustus), Mark Antony, and Lepidus, is formed in R

42 BCE, November 3 - The Battle of Philippi takes place in Greece, where the forces of the Second Triumvirate defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius.

42 BCE, November 27 - The forces of the Second Triumvirate, consisting of Octavian (later Augustus), Mark Antony, and Lepidus, defeat the forces of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi.

40 BCE, November 27 - Parthian forces under Pacorus I defeat the Roman general Publius Ventidius at the Battle of Amanus, temporarily reversing Roman setbacks in the East.

31 BCE, November 2 - The Battle of Actium occurs, leading to the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra by Octavian (Augustus) and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

64 CE, November 18 - The Great Fire of Rome begins, lasting for six days and causing significant destruction.

284 CE, November 20 - Diocletian is proclaimed as the Roman emperor, marking the beginning of the Tetrarchy.

636 CE, November 7 - The Rashidun Caliphate, led by Caliph Umar, defeats the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Yarmouk, marking a significant event in the Arab-Byzantine Wars.

888 CE, November 21 - Pope Formosus dies, leading to a period of chaos and scandal in the papacy known as the Cadaver Synod.

996 CE, November 2 - Emperor Otto III of the Holy Roman Empire dies at the age of 21, leaving a power vacuum in Europe.

1002, November 30 - King Æthelred the Unready orders the St. Brice's Day massacre, leading to the killing of many Danish settlers in England.

1009, November 2 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by order of the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

1016, November 30 - Edmund Ironside, King of England, dies, leaving the throne to Cnut the Great, who becomes the King of all England.

1035, November 12 - King Cnut the Great of England, Denmark, and Norway dies, leading to a period of political instability.1050, November 9 - Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, is born.

1054, November 11 - The Great Schism occurs, leading to the separation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

1071, November 24 - The Seljuk Turks, led by Alp Arslan, defeat the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert, marking a significant step in the decline of Byzantine power.

1078, November 25 - The coronation of Géza I as the first King of Hungary from the Árpád dynasty.

1087, November 24 - William II of England (William Rufus) is killed in a hunting accident, leading to the ascension of his brother Henry I to the throne.

1093, November 13 - Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Scotland, dies, eventually becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

1095, November 27 - Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade during the Council of Clermont in France. More

1096, November 27 - The People's Crusade, a precursor to the First Crusade, is launched by Peter the Hermit, with thousands of peasants and lower-class individuals embarking on a journey to the Holy Land.

1097, November 26 - The Crusaders, led by Bohemond of Taranto, capture the city of Antioch during the First Crusade.

1098, November 14 - The Siege of Ma'arrat al-Numan begins during the First Crusade, resulting in the capture of the town and its gruesome events.

1099, November 27 - The Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, enter Jerusalem during the First Crusade, resulting in the capture of the city.

1100, November 17 - William II of England (William Rufus) is buried at Winchester Cathedral, England, after his death in a hunting accident.

1100, November 26 - Henry I of England is crowned as King of England at Westminster Abbey.

1100, November 29 - The Treaty of Devol is signed between Bohemond I of Antioch and the Byzantine Empire, establishing Antioch as a vassal state.

1105, November 20 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, and his son Henry V succeeds him.

1105, November 25 - King Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland dies, leading to a period of succession disputes.

1107, November 1 - Henry I of England's daughter, Matilda (Maud), marries Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, strengthening Anglo-German relations.

1107, November 17 - King Baldwin I of Jerusalem dies, and his sister's son, Baldwin II, succeeds him as King of Jerusalem.

1109, November 14 - The Council of Poitiers begins, addressing issues related to simony and clerical marriage within the Catholic Church.

1109, November 25 - King Alfonso I of Aragon captures the city of Zaragoza from Muslim control during the Reconquista.

1115, November 16 - A massive earthquake strikes Syria, resulting in significant destruction.

1120, November 25 - The White Ship, carrying King Henry I's heir and many nobles, sinks in the English Channel, resulting in the loss of many lives and a succession crisis.

1123, November 18 - The First Lateran Council, the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, opens in Rome.

1138, November 6 - Empress Matilda's forces defeat King Stephen's troops at the Battle of the Standard during the Anarchy in England.

1154, November 7 - King Stephen of England dies, and Henry II becomes King, marking the end of the Anarchy.

1158, November 27 - Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) issues the "Privilegium Minus," which grants Austria special privileges within the Holy Roman Empire.

1170, November 29 - Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket is assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral, leading to a conflict between church and state in England.

1177, November 24 - Pope Alexander III and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I sign the Treaty of Venice, ending their long-running dispute.

1183, November 11 - The Peace of Constance is signed, ending the conflicts between the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I and the Lombard League.

1187, November 2 - Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders, leading to the Third Crusade.

1192, November 4 - Richard the Lionheart is captured in Austria while returning from the Third Crusade.

1199, November 28 - King Richard the Lionheart dies, and his brother John becomes King of England.

1202, November 1 - The Fourth Crusade, after diverting from its original goal, begins the siege of Zara (present-day Zadar, Croatia).

1202, November 20 - The Fourth Crusade begins with the siege of Zara (present-day Zadar, Croatia), diverting the Crusaders from their intended target, Jerusalem.

1204, November 27 - Pope Innocent III grants his approval for the Fourth Crusade to capture Constantinople, leading to the sacking of the city in April 1204.

1208, November 4 - Pope Innocent III issues the papal bull "Ad Apostolicae Dignitatis Apicem," calling for the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heretics in southern France.

1208, November 17 - Otto IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in Rome.

1209, November 28 - The University of Oxford is officially founded in England, becoming one of the oldest universities in the world.

1215, November 4 - The Fourth Lateran Council, convened by Pope Innocent III, opens in Rome and addresses various church matters.

1215, November 15 - King John of England seals the Magna Carta at Runnymede, limiting the powers of the monarchy.

1217, November 21 - The Battle of Lincoln takes place during the First Barons' War in England, resulting in a victory for royalist forces.

1225, November 29 - Pope Honorius III approves the Dominican Order founded by Saint Dominic.

1248, November 23 - The Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, departs from France to reconquer the Holy Land.

1250, November 29 - King Louis IX of France is captured by Egyptian forces during the Seventh Crusade at the Battle of Al Mansurah.

1256, November 26 - Pope Alexander IV canonizes Saint Edmund of Abingdon, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1267, November 29 - Pope Clement IV issues the papal bull "Ad Extirpanda," authorizing the use of torture during the Inquisition.

1272, November 16 - Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks, ascends to the throne after the death of his father, Henry III.

1272, November 16 - Edward I of England departs on the Ninth Crusade, which eventually leads to his death in 1277.

1276, November 21 - Giovanni Gaetano Orsini is elected as Pope Nicholas III.

1282, November 18 - The Battle of Orewin Bridge takes place during the First War of Scottish Independence, resulting in a Scottish victory.

1284, November 15 - The Statute of Rhuddlan is enacted by King Edward I, reorganizing the governance of Wales.

1285, November 20 - Pope Martin IV is elected as the 189th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

1292, November 17 - John Balliol is chosen as King of Scots by Edward I of England, leading to the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

1295, November 3 - The Model Parliament of England is convened by King Edward I, representing a significant step in the development of English parliamentary institutions.

1296, November 30 - Edward I of England captures Berwick-upon-Tweed during the First War of Scottish Independence.

1300, November 30 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the papal bull "Unam Sanctam," asserting the supremacy of the papal authority over temporal powers.

1302, November 11 - Pope Boniface VIII is captured by agents of King Philip IV of France, leading to a conflict between the papacy and the French monarchy.

1302, November 18 - The Battle of the Golden Spurs occurs in Flanders, with the Flemish militia defeating the forces of the French king, Philip IV.1303, November 5 - The Battle of Roslin takes place during the First War of Scottish Independence, with Scottish forces led by William Wallace defeating the English.

1303, November 11 - Pope Boniface VIII is captured by agents of King Philip IV of France, leading to a conflict between the papacy and the French monarchy.

1307, November 27 - King Philip IV of France orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, leading to their suppression and persecution.

1312, November 16 - Pope Clement V, in his papal bull "Vox in Excelso," suppresses the Knights Templar, leading to their dissolution.

1314, November 5 - The Battle of Morgarten occurs in Switzerland, where Swiss forces defeat the Habsburg army.

1315, November 2 - The Council of Vienne, convened by Pope Clement V, opens in France to address various church matters, including the suppression of the Knights Templar.

1320, November 6 - The Declaration of Arbroath, a Scottish declaration of independence, is sent to Pope John XXII, asserting Scotland's sovereignty.

1327, November 17 - Edward III is crowned King of England, marking the beginning of his rule.

1329, November 20 - King Robert the Bruce of Scotland dies, and his son, David II, succeeds him as King.

1330, November 17 - The Battle of Posada takes place between the Wallachian forces and the Hungarian Empire, leading to a Wallachian victory.

1343, November 14 - King Edward III of England formally establishes the Order of the Garter, one of the most prestigious orders of chivalry.

1345, November 12 - Pope Clement VI officially consecrates the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

1347, November 28 - Emperor Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire grants privileges to the city of Prague, leading to its economic and political growth.

1356, November 24 - The Battle of Poitiers occurs during the Hundred Years' War, with English forces led by Edward, the Black Prince, defeating the French.

1362, November 1 - The Treaty of Calais is signed, ending the Breton War of Succession and recognizing John IV, Duke of Brittany, as ruler.

1378, November 18 - The Papal Schism begins with the election of Pope Urban VI, leading to a split within the Catholic Church.

1380, November 8 - The Battle of Kulikovo takes place, where the Russian forces under Dmitry Donskoy defeat the Golden Horde.

1394, November 4 - King Charles VI of France is first diagnosed with a mental illness that would affect his reign.

1399, November 1 - Henry IV of England is crowned as King of England, marking the beginning of the Lancastrian dynasty.

1400, November 9 - Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous English poet known for "The Canterbury Tales."

1402, November 20 - The Battle of Ankara takes place between the forces of Timur (Tamerlane) and the Ottoman Empire, resulting in a decisive victory for Timur.

1406, November 27 - Construction of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, begins under the rule of Emperor Charles IV.

1417, November 11 - The Council of Constance begins, aiming to resolve the Western Schism and address other church issues.

1421, November 15 - The Siege of Meaux begins during the Hundred Years' War between England and France.

1421, November 18 -  A massive storm surge hits Zeeland and southern Holland flooding several villages and transforming a segment of reclaimed land called Grote Ward into an inland sea. Some areas that were flooded in this storm remain under water today. Up to 10.000 people perished.

1431, November 10 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris, although his control over the French territory is limited.

1439, November 30 - The Council of Florence is convened in Italy, aimed at reunifying the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

1444, November 10 - The Battle of Varna takes place, with the Ottomans defeating a Christian Crusader army.

1456, November 24 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible, one of the earliest major books printed using movable type, is completed.

1461, November 2 - The Lancastrian King Henry VI of England is captured after the Battle of Tewkesbury during the Wars of the Roses.

1470, November 11 - Henry VI of England is restored to the throne briefly during the Wars of the Roses.

1477, November 28 - William Caxton, an English merchant, printer, and writer, publishes his first book, "The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophers," in London.

1483, November 2 - King Richard III of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey, marking the beginning of his short reign.

1485, November 22 - The Battle of Bosworth Field takes place, leading to the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) and the end of the Wars of the Roses.

1491, November 20 - The Treaty of Granada is signed, allowing Muslims in Spain to practice their religion freely under the Catholic Monarchs.

1492, November 26 - Christopher Columbus and his crew aboard the ship "La Navidad" land on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti).

1493, November 3 - Christopher Columbus first sights the island of Dominica during his second voyage to the Americas.

1493, November 19 - Christopher Columbus arrives at the island of Puerto Rico during his second voyage to the Americas.

1494, November 7 - The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed, dividing the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands.

1497, November 11 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama departs on his voyage to find a sea route to India.

1499, November 26 - Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (one of the "Princes in the Tower"), is hanged for his role in conspiracies against King Henry VII.

1499, November 27 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches the Mozambique coast during his journey to India.

1500, November 22 - Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrives at Calicut, India, marking the beginning of Portugal's presence in India.

1503, November 18 - Pope Julius II lays the foundation stone for the new St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

1504, November 10 - The Treaty of Blois is signed, solidifying the alliance between France and Spain against the Republic of Venice.

1509, November 28 - Henry VIII becomes King of England after the death of his father, Henry VII.

1512, November 3 - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, painted by Michelangelo, is first unveiled to the public. More

1519, November 8 - Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors arrive at the coast of Mexico, beginning their conquest of the Aztec Empire.

1520, November 8 - Stockholm Bloodbath: Danish forces under King Christian II execute a large number of Swedish nobles in Stockholm.

1520, November 28 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sponsored by Spain, becomes the first European explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic by sailing through the dangerous straits below South America. Although he was the mastermind of the expedition, he was killed in the Philippines before completing the trip. The first European to complete the circumnavigation was Magellan's second-in-command, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, who took over after his death. More

1528, November 6 - Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecks near Galveston Island. The raft held survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to settle Florida and becomes the first know European to reach the future State of Texas. He lived for several years among Texas Indians, learning the tribes' languages and customs. In time, he reunited with three other survivors of the original expedition. The travelers gained a reputation as healers, and their fame spread as they slowly made their way to Mexico City in 1536 after traveling nearly 2000 miles during eight years. More

1532,  November 16 - The Inca Atahualpa , taken completely by surprise is attacked and captured by Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro in Cajamarca, Peru. The Spanish forced him to pay a large ransom of tons of gold and silver. Although Atahualpa produced the ransom, the Spanish executed him anyway. More 

1534, November 1 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII the head of the Church of England.

1534, November 26 - The Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro and his men reach the Inca Empire in Peru.

1542, November 18 - Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho, sailing under the Spanish flag, explores the coast of California.

1558, November 17 - Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the English throne, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era, a period,  when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts.

1572, November 4 - The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre occurs in France, resulting in the killing of thousands of Huguenots (Protestants).

1582, November 3 - William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

1587, November 16 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned in England after seeking refuge there and remains in captivity for 19 years.

1588, November 19 - The English defeat the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines, marking a turning point in the Anglo-Spanish War.

1597, November 28 - The Second Battle of Myeongnyang takes place during the Japanese invasions of Korea, with Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin achieving a significant victory.

1599, November 30 - The Rosicrucian manifesto, "Fama Fraternitatis," is published in Kassel, Germany, promoting the Rosicrucian mystical movement.

1600, November 8 - The Battle of Sekigahara in Japan marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate and the end of the Sengoku period.

1600, November 25 - After being captured, the "Princes in the Tower," Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, are presumed to have died in the Tower of London.

1602, November 21 - The Dutch East India Company is founded, becoming one of the world's first multinational corporations.

1602, November 22 - Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts, USA.

1605, November 5 - The Gunpowder Plot, a failed conspiracy to assassinate King James I of England and blow up the House of Lords during the Opening of Parliament is discovered. The plan was organized by Robert Catesby, a devout English Catholic who hoped to kill the Protestant King James and establish Catholic rule in England. More

1609, November 21 - Henry Hudson, an English sea explorer, is set adrift in the Hudson Bay by his mutinous crew.

1611, November 1 - William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" is performed for the first time at Whitehall Palace in London.

1617, November 17 - The "First Thanksgiving" is celebrated by Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native Americans in Massachusetts.

1620, November 11 - The Mayflower Compact is signed by Pilgrims on board the Mayflower ship in Cape Cod Bay, establishing self-government in the Plymouth Colony.

1626, November 24 - St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is consecrated by Pope Urban VIII.

1639, November 13 - The first documented observation of a transit of Venus is made by English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.

1642, November 24 - Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, becomes the first European to report the sighting the Island of Tasmania. He named the island Anthoonij van Diemenslandt, after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land and in 1856 it was renamed Tasmania in honor of the explorer Abel Tasman. More

1667, November 17 - Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Italian-born French composer, premieres his opera "Cadmus et Hermione" at the Palace of Versailles.

1676, November 19 - Danish scientist Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.

1688, November 5 - The Glorious Revolution in England culminates with the landing of William of Orange, leading to the overthrow of King James II.

1695, November 21 - English pirate Henry Every (also known as "Captain Kidd") and his crew capture the Ganj-i-Sawai, a wealthy Indian ship.

1697, November 10 - The Treaty of Ryswick is signed, ending the Nine Years' War and restoring peace in Europe.

1644, November 15 - The Battle of Fincastle takes place during the English Civil War, resulting in a victory for the Royalists.

1700, November 17 - Sweden's King Charles XII assumes the throne at the age of 18, beginning his long and eventful reign.

1701, November 23 - Anders Celsius, the Swedish astronomer and inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, is born.

1703, November 5 - The Eddystone Lighthouse in England, one of the world's earliest lighthouses, is destroyed in a storm.

1703, November 30 - The Great Storm of 1703, one of the most severe storms in British history, strikes southern England causing significant damage and loss of life.

1707, November 21 - The second Battle of Humenne takes place during the Rakoczi's War for Hungarian independence, with an Austrian victory.

1707, November 22 - The Treaty of Union is signed, merging the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1709, November 28 - A severe cold wave, known as the Great Frost, begins in Europe and continues into January 1710, causing widespread suffering and hardship.

1718, November 22 -  The notorious pirate Blackbeard, whose name is believed to have been Edward Teach is killed off the coast of North Carolina by the Royal Navy, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Teach had become the most feared pirate in the Americas practically overnight. More

1729, November 30 - Natchez Indians massacre French settlers in the Mississippi Territory, leading to conflicts between Native Americans and European colonists.

1733, November 22 - The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in the Danish West Indies (now part of the U.S. Virgin Islands).

1755, November 1 - Lisbon, Portugal, is struck by a devastating earthquake, tsunami, and fires, resulting in significant destruction and loss of life. Gigantic fissures of up to 15 feet wide tore through the center of Lisbon. Estimates of casualties range from 30,000 to 60,000. Major damage and casualties also occurred in Spain and Northern Africa. More

1765, November 1 - The Stamp Act takes effect in the American colonies, leading to widespread protests against British taxation without representation.

1775, November 10 - The United States Marine Corps is officially established by the Continental Congress.

1776, November 16 - British forces capture Fort Washington in New York during the American Revolutionary War.

1777, November 2 - John Paul Jones Sails to the British Isles. after given command of the newly built Ranger.  He took several prizes before arriving in Brest, France in May 1778 where he was hailed as a hero. Operating out of Brest, Jones led a cruise to the Irish Sea capturing or destroying small vessels. This cruise made Jones a household name in Britain. More

1777, November 15 - The Continental Congress agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Maryland was the last of the 13 States to ratify the agreement on March 1,1781. More

1783, November 21 - The first free flight of a hot air balloon carrying a human takes place in Paris, France.  The balloon carried two men, Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of Arlanders. The hot air balloon made of paper and silk was made by the Montgolfier brothers. More

1783, November 25 - The last British troops evacuate New York City, marking the end of the American Revolutionary War.

1789, November 21 - North Carolina becomes the 12th U.S. state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1791, November 15 - The first U.S. Catholic college, Georgetown University, is founded in Washington, D.C.

1793, November 19 - French revolutionary Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne becomes Prime Minister, marking a phase of the French Revolution.

1794, November 19 - Jay's Treaty is signed between the United States and Great Britain, resolving disputes and avoiding war.

1799, November 9 - Napoleon Bonaparte stages a coup d'état, establishing himself as First Consul of France.

1799, November 12 - American astronomer, Andrew Ellicott sees the Leonid meteor shower and records and reports the event in what it is believed to be the first time a meteor shower was recorded in North America. The Leonids are a prolific annual meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel–Tuttle . They  occur between 15 and 20 November each year and are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years.res They enter the atmosphere at 44 miles per second, and begin to glow at an altitude of around 96 miles. More

1800, November 17 - The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C., marking the city's official establishment as the nation's capital.

1800, November 19 - The U.S. Congress holds its first session in the partially completed Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

1800, November 30 - The United States conducts its first national census, showing a population of nearly 5.3 million people.

1804, November 6 - Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, is born.

1805, November 7 - Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first recorded expedition to cross North America.1

1805, November 15 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean, completing their journey to explore the western United States.

1806, November 21 - The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1806, November 6 - The Battle of Lübeck takes place during the War of the Fifth Coalition, with French forces defeating the Austrians.

1807, November 27 - The Portuguese Royal Family, D João VI and its court of over 10,000 people, leave Lisbon for their colony of Brazil aboard 36 vessels to  escape the invading Napoleonic troops. The travelers arrived in Rio on March 7, 1808. The stay lasted until 1820 when D João VI went back to Portugal leaving his eldest son Pedro in charge. Pedro remain in Brazil and in 1822 led the move for Brazilian independence from Portugal and declared himself Emperor. More

1808, November 10 - The Osage, were the largest tribe of the Southern Sioux people occupying what would later become the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Several treaties starting in 1808  between the Osages and the United States resulted in the  Osage leaving their tribal lands and to settled in southeast Kansas on the Cherokee Strip. Later in 1865, in a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Native American nations, the Osage tribe agreed to abandon their lands again, and move from Missouri and Arkansas to a reservation in Indian Territory in Oklahoma, site of present-day Osage County. More

1809, November 20 - The United States and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Amiens, ending hostilities during the Napoleonic Wars.

1809, November 21 - The first modern parachute is tested by André-Jacques Garnerin in France.

1810, November 6 - The Hidalgo Revolt, a precursor to the Mexican War of Independence, begins in Mexico.

1811, November 7 - Tecumseh's War culminates in the Battle of Tippecanoe, where U.S. forces led by William Henry Harrison defeat Native American forces.

1814, November 28 - The Times of London makes newspapers available to a mass audience by using automatic, steam powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer  More

1820, November 23 - A sperm whale, believed to have inspired Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick," attacks the Essex, an American whaling ship. More

1824, November 7 - The presidential election in the United States is decided by the House of Representatives, with John Quincy Adams becoming president.

1831, November 11 - Nat Turner's slave rebellion begins in Southampton County, Virginia.

1837, November 7 - Elijah Parish Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob while defending the site of his anti-slavery newspaper the St. Louis Observer. His death both deeply affected many individuals who opposed slavery and greatly strengthened the cause of abolition. More

1839, November 7 - The Newport Rising, a Chartist-led rebellion in Wales, is suppressed by British forces. - 

1844, November 5 - Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States. #the-napoleon-of-the-stump">More

1845, November 29 - The Sonderbund War, a civil war in Switzerland, begins over religious and political disputes.

1859, November 24 - Charles Darwin’s "On the origin of species by means of natural selection" was published in London. The book was popular and the first edition sold out on the first day. It is considered to be one of the most important books on biology ever printed. The book was translated into 11 languages during Darwin's life time. More

1860,  November 6 -  Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, replacing James Buchanan. Before  Lincoln’s election was certified on February 15, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union  and the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as its President had been established. From 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the Union through the American Civil War and succeeded in defeating the insurgent Confederacy, abolishing slavery, expanding the power of the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy. More

1863, November 19 - President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address during the ceremony to consecrate the grounds of what eventually became the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Four months earlier it had been the site the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, where more than 10,000 soldiers were killed or mortally wounded, 30,000 injured, and 10,000 captured or went missing. The Battle of Gettysburg proved to be the turning point of the war; Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat marked the last Confederate invasion of northern territory. It also marked the beginning of the southern Army’s decline. President Lincoln's 271 words, two minute speech become one of the most memorable speeches in American history as it served as a reminder to a war-weary public as to why the Union had to fight and win the Civil War. 

#replaceparse14#####quot;);if(m){m=e+m;if(d">1864, November, 26 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll gives Alice the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, dedicating it as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day". and with illustrations by Carroll. The published version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is about twice the length of Alice's Adventures Under Ground and includes episodes, such as the Mad Tea-Party, that did not appear in the manuscript and all 42  wood-engraved illustrations are by John Tenniel.The only known manuscript copy of Under Ground is held in the British Library. Macmillan published a facsimile of the manuscript in 1886.

1867, November 15 - The first telegraphic ticker tape, goes live in New York city. It was the creation of Edward Calahan, who was an employee of the American Telegraph Company. Four years later, Thomas Edison improved upon Calahan's invention and patented it launching a revolution in the financial markets. The model 32A ticker was Edison's very first invention. The weakness of mechanical stock tickers showed itself during the Crash of 29, when prices were changing so quickly, that the tickers couldn't keep up. As technology evolved, that dissemination became faster and almost real-time, as we can see today. More

1869, November 17 - The Suez Canal opens after 10 years of construction. The Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It is a key trade route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal went through a major one year expansion in 2014 and reopened in 2015. More   

1871. November 10 - Henry Morton Stanley meets Dr. David Livingstone after nearly eight months of search, in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. Dr. Livingstone had been traveling in Central Africa without contact with the Western world for 7 years. The first words from Stanley were the now famous "Dr. Livingston I presume? More

1872, November 5 - Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage activists are arrested for voting in the U.S. presidential election.  After casting her ballot in  her hometown of Rochester, New York, she was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted for voting illegally. She later described her trial as “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded. More 

1874, November 18 - The National Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in the United States.

1876, November 7 - Rutherford B. Hayes is elected President of the United States in one of the most disputed elections in U.S. history.

1883, November 18 - The United States adopts Standard Time Zones, establishing the system still in use today.

1884, November 4 - Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine Becoming the 22nd President of the United States and the first Democrat to occupy the White House after the Civil War. President Grover Cleveland was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later becoming also the 24th President. More 

1885, November 7 - Canada's transcontinental railway is completed as Donald Smith, later known as Lord Strathcona, drives the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at Craigellachie, BC.  More

1889, November 2 - North Dakota is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 39th State.

1889, November 2 - South Dakota is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 40h State.

1889, November 8 - Montana is admitted to the United States of America becoming the 41st State.

1889, November 11 - Washington is admitted to the United States Union becoming the 42nd State.

1893, November 28 - Women in New Zealand become the first in the world to vote in a national election.

1895, November 8 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays while experimenting with cathode rays. More

1895, November 28 - The first auto race in the U.S. is held in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day. The race was promoted by H. H. Kohlsaat, the publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald. the Duryea, built and driven by J. Frank Duryea crossed the finish line first, 7 hours and 53 minutes later, with an average speed of 7 miles per hour. The official distance was 54.36 miles, and this was accomplished on 3.5 gallons of gas.  More

1895, November 27 -  Alfred Bernhard Nobel signed the final version of his will, leaving the bulk of his immense fortune to a fund for the financing of annual honorary awards to be made in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. He died a year later on December 1896. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. More

1898, November 10 - The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, a violent coup d'état in Wilmington, North Carolina, takes place, resulting in significant racial violence and political change.

1903, November 3 - Panama declares independence from Colombia with U.S, Support while simultaneously negotiating a treaty granting the U.S. the right to construct the canal. The United States recognized Panama three days later The treaty that allowed the United States to build and operate a canal that traversed Panama. The treaty also gave the United States the right to govern a ten-mile wide Canal Zone that encompassed the waterway, which was completed in 1914. In 1979, the United States transferred control of the Canal Zone to Panama, and in 1999 transferred control and responsibility for the Canal to Panama. More

1903, November 10 - Mary Anderson is granted a patent for a windshield wiper. The United States Patent Office awarded Anderson patent number 743,801 for her Window Cleaning device which consisted of a lever inside the vehicle that controlled a rubber blade on the outside of the windshield. More

1907, November 16 - Oklahoma is admitted to the United States of American.

1910, November 3 - Dr. Crippen is convicted in London for the murder of his wife, making it one of the first cases solved with the help of wireless communication.

1910, November 20 - The Mexican Revolution begins as Francisco Madero, speaking at San Luis Potosi, in San Antonio, Texas, calls for an uprising against the elitist government and oligarchical policies of Porfirio Díaz who had already being in power for 33 years and had just just declared himself the winner after a mock election against Madero and was starting his 7th term as president. Although the revolt failed, it kindled revolutionary movements led by Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. All culminating with Díaz resignation in May 25,1911 and Madero being elected president, Madero was assassinated early in 1913 by Victoriano Huerta, a commander of the federal forces who dissolved the congress and assumed power. More upheavals followed and the revolution continued until 1920 when General Álvaro Obregón rose to power. More

1912, November 5 - Woodrow Wilson becomes the 28th President of the U.S. by defeating the incumbent William H. Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 presidential election with a landslide victory in the electoral college and just 41.8% of the popular vote, the lowest vote share for a victorious presidential candidate since 1860. More

1914. November 2  - Russia declares war on Turkey, following the shelling of Russian ports and the sinking of Russian ships in the Black Sea by Turkey, 

1914, November 2 - Great Britain and France declared war on Turkey respecting their agreement with Russia, widening the conflict of World War I.

1916, November 7 -  Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman in the history of the nation to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. when she is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the State of Montana. More

1916, November 21 - The Hospital ship HM Britannic, Sister ship to the Titanic, sinks on her sixth voyage when she struck a mine and sank off the Greek coast in the Agean Sea. More than 1,000 crew, doctors and nurses were on board, and 30 people lost their lives. The Britannic sank in 55 minutes and was the largest ship lost in the First World War. More

1917, November 2 - The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, More

1917, November 7 - The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins with the storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), leading to the establishment of Soviet power.  More

1918, November 11 - WWI Armistice on the Western Front also known as the Armistice of Compiègne is officially signed. After more than four years of fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. The armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending World War I. More

1919, November 11 - World War I ends with the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne, marking the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front.

1922, November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter discovers the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. More

1923, November 8 - Adolf Hitler's first attempted coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, is foiled in Munich, Germany.

1926, November 23 - The fifth Imperial conference, hosted by King-Emperor George V, ends. The Imperial Conference brought together the prime ministers of the Dominions of the British Empire and it was held in London. The conference was notable for establishing the principle that the dominions are all equal in status, and "autonomous communities within the British Empire" not subordinate to the United Kingdom. The term "Commonwealth" was officially adopted to describe the community.

1929, November 28 - Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, make their historic first-flight over the South Pole, in 18 hours, 41 minutes. More

1930, November 5 -  Sinclair Lewis wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first American to receive the honor.  More

1935, November 22 - The Flying boat "China Clipper" lifts off the waters of San Francisco Bay, California, carrying 58 mailbags, weighing 1,837 lbs, containing 110,865 specially stamped letters on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight. More

1936, November 25 - The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed between Germany and Japan, laying the groundwork for the Axis Powers during World War II.

1938, November 9 - Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, a massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout Greater Germany takes place. The German authorities looked on without intervening as Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and buildings were demolished. The name Kristallnacht (literally 'Crystal Night') comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the attack. More 

1939, November 30 - The Soviet Union invades Finland starting what is sometimes call the "Winter War".  Though small and under-resourced, the Finnish Army was resilient, well-led and was able to use knowledge of the terrain to good effect. Despite the overwhelming odds, Finland resisted for three months with little outside assistance. However, it was only a matter of time before the balance of power tipped in the Soviet Union’s favor. Finland was forced to sign the Treaty of Moscow on 12 March 1940, which ceded 11 per cent of its territory to the Soviet Union. More

1940, November 5 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected as President of the United States for an unprecedented third term. More

1940, November 7 -  The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapses More 

1942, November 8 - Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa during World War II, begins.

1942, November 19 - Operation Uranus: Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov’s Stalingrad trap for the German Army is ready and a devastating attack is unleashed. More 

1943, November 29 - The Tehran Conference, a four day meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begins in Tehran, Iran. The three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. More

1944, November 7 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term by defeating Thomas Dewey by more than three and a half million votes and a 333 Electoral College vote margin. FDR would die on April 12, 1945, at the age of 63 from complications of high blood pressure. More

1945, November 20 - The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals begin in Germany. More

1947, November 2 - Howard Hughes flies the H-4 Hercules nicknamed the Spruce Goose. It was the largest, heaviest and most expensive plane ever built. Yet aside from a one-mile test flight at 70ft (20m), it never flew again. The plane was designed under an Air Force contract to carry 750 troops or one Sherman tank up to 5,000 miles and at a cruising speed above 250 mph at up to 21,000ft (6,400m) across the Atlantic, thus avoiding Nazi U-boats.. Shortages of materials and in-fighting with business partner Henry Kaiser meant that the only prototype ever built was not completed until 1947, two years after the war ended. More

1947, November 29 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (not implemented) calling for the partition of Palestine into two separate states—an Arab and a Jewish one — (Map) that would retain an economic union with Jerusalem internationalized (Resolution 181 (II) More

1950, November 25 -  “The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950,”  system blanketed areas from western Pennsylvania southward deep into West Virginia with over 30 inches of snow for several days. Some locations received more than 50 inches of snow, and Coburn Creek, West Virginia, reported a staggering 62 inches of snow fall. More

1952, November 4 - The United States conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test, code-named "Ivy Mike." More

1952, November 4 -  Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. A popular World War II general who ran on the slogan “I Like Ike,” Eisenhower easily defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson becoming the the 34th president of the United States.

1954, November 12 - Ellis Island  Immigration Gateway is officially closed. The processing center began receiving arriving immigrants on January 1, 1892.  Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the United States via Ellis Island. More 

1954, November 30 - A meteorite crashes through the roof of a home near Sylacauga, Talladega County, Alabama, striking resident Ann E. Hodges. Hodges was the first person in modern history to have reportedly been injured by a meteorite. The meteorite, which weighs about eight and one-half pounds, is on permanent display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. More

1956, November 1 - The Suez Crisis begins when Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, leading to international tensions and intervention. More

1956, November 4 - Soviet troops move against Budapest with great force to crush a nascent rebellion in Budapest, the capital of the Soviet satellite state of Hungary. Over the course of the next several days, thousands of Hungarians were killed by Red Army troops. Hundreds of thousands more fled to the West, seeking asylum. More

1957, November 3 - The Soviet Union launches a dog into space, the first animal in Orbit More

1962, November 6 - The U.N. General Assembly requested Member States to take specific measures to bring about the abandonment of apartheid in South Africa, including breaking of diplomatic, trade and transport relations. It also established a Special Committee to follow developments and report to the General Assembly and the Security Council. More

1963, November 2 - Generals in the South Vietnamese Army depose President Ngo Dinh Diem and assassinate Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. More

1963, November 22 - President John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. More

1968, November 5 - Richard Nixon is  elected as the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California. He became the only President to ever resign the office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. More

1969, November 10 - Sesame Street, a beloved educational children's television program, premieres in the United States.

1970, November 12 - The Bhola cyclone, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times occurred on this day in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. and India's West Bengal. The estimated fatalities were at least 300,000 and possibly as many as 500,000. primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded much of the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta. More

1971, November 12 - Congress changes the status of Arches to National Park in recognition  of over 10,000 years of human history that flourished in this now-famous landscape of rock. Located in eastern Utah, U.S., on the Colorado River just north of Moab and northeast of Canyon lands National Park, it had been previously established as a National Monument in 1929. More

1971, November 24 - An unidentified man hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft, in United States during a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.  The hijacker, nicknamed D. B. Cooper by the media tells a flight attendant he is armed with a bomb, demanded $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to about $1,500,000 in 2023). He later parachuted out of the aircraft with the ransom money; despite an extensive manhunt, he was never identified or caught. More

1972, November 7 - Richard Nixon is re-elected President of the United States after defeating Senator George McGovern, Democrat from South Dakota. On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Nixon addressed the nation and announced his intention to resign. The President’s resignation letter is addressed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who initialed it at 11:35 a.m. More

1974, November 13 - Karen Silkwood, an American chemical technician and whistleblower, dies under suspicious circumstances while investigating safety concerns at a nuclear facility. More

1974, November 24 - Fossils of one of the oldest known human ancestors, an Australopithecus afarensis specimen nicknamed “Lucy,” were discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia's Awash Valley. Lucy, about 3.2 million years old, stood only a meter (3.5 feet) tall. She had powerful arms and long, curved toes that paleontologists think allowed her to climb trees as well as walk upright. More

1979, November 4 - Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days. More 

1979, November 29 - New Zealand's flight TE901 crashes on Antarctica' s Mt Erebus volcano during a sightseeing trip. All 257 people on board  were killed.
 
1980, November 4 - Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

1980, November 12 - The U.S. space probe Voyager 1 reaches the planet Saturn. More

1982, November 13 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated. The most prominent feature of the memorial is a massive wall that lists the names of the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. About 2,7 Million U.S. Service members served in Vietnam. including 265,000 women.  It's the most-visited memorial on the National Mall in Washington, attracting more than 5 million people each year. More 

1985, November 13 -  The volcano Nevado del Ruiz, located about 130 kilometers from Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, erupts spewing a violent mix of hot ash and lava into the atmosphere and causing nearly 30 meters high mudflows through the countryside where more than 23,000 people were killed most of them in the town of Armero. More

1985, November 19 - The Geneva Summit, the first meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev starts. The two leaders met for two days to discuss the Cold War-era arms race, primarily the possibility of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. More

1985, November 20 - US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard arrested for spying and passing classified information to Israel; he received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987. He was paroled in 2015 after 30 years in prison and is now living in Israel.

1986, November 25 - The Iran-Contra scandal unravels - On a televised press conference, President Reagan assures viewers that he was “not fully informed on the nature of the activities undertaken in connection with this initiative”  and announces that he was relieving the officials involved of their duties. Prior to this, on October 5, a US aircraft loaded with materials for the Contras was shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista government. On November 3, the Lebanese weekly Al-Shiraa unveiled the whole affair which consisted of secretly selling weapons to Iran, and using the profits to fund the Contras. In 1985 the US made two shipments of arms to Iran via Israel. The following year, it handled the shipments itself. One was delivered to Tehran at the end of May 1986 by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a member of the NSC. North also delivered a bible signed by President Reagan. More  

1988, November 22 - The first B-2 is displayed to the public as it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. Its first flight was July 17, 1989. More

1989, November 9 - The Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for nearly 30 years, is opened, leading to the eventual reunification of Germany. More

1990, November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, laying the foundation for the internet as we know it. More  

1990, November 25 - The 50-year old Seattle's Lacey V. Murrow Bridge breaks apart and plunges into the mud beneath Lake Washington after a week of high winds and rain while undergoing $35.6 million renovation. It is later discovered that hatchways into the concrete pontoon air pockets were left open, allowing water to enter. A new Lacey V. Murrow Bridge opened the following year. More

1993, November 1 - The European Union is officially established as the Maastricht Treaty comes into force. More

1995, November 4 - Yitzhak Rabin, the fifth prime minister of Israel, is assassinated. The assassin, an Israeli ultra nationalist named Yigal Amir, radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. More 

1998, November 20 - The first module of the International Space Station, named Zarya, is launched into orbit.

2000, November 2 - NASA Astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev become the first crew to reside onboard the station. Expedition 1 spent four months onboard completing tasks necessary to bring the ISS "to life" and began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space. More

2000, November 7 - The United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore leads to a disputed result, eventually resolved by the Supreme Court in favor of Bush.

2001, November 10 - American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300-600, N14053, crashes in Queens, New York, shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport. All 260 people on board and five people on the ground died in the crash. More

2003, November 7 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a Joint Statement on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor – a deliberate famine inflicted in 1932-’33 by the Soviet regime that resulted in the starvation of millions of Ukrainians-  which states: “The Holodomor – The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – took life from 7 to 10 million innocent people and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people”  The Holodomor has been defined as an act of genocide by many nations around the world. It is commemorated on the 4th Saturday in November, More

2003, November 12 - The United States launches Operation Iron Hammer during the Iraq War.

2004, November 2 - George W. Bush is reelected as President of the United States, defeating John Kerry.

2005, November 9 - A series of coordinated bombings in Amman, Jordan, target three hotels, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds.
 
2008, November 4 - Barack Obama is elected President of the United States defeating Republican John McCain, thus becoming the first Black president of the United States, 

2012, November 6 - Barack Obama is reelected as President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney.

2013, November 5 - India launched its first interplanetary spacecraft, the Mars Orbiter Mission. India built Mangalyaan (“Mars craft” in English) to study the Red Planet and test key technologies required for exploring the inner solar system. The Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit on September 23, 2014, More

2013, November 24 - A historic agreement is reached between Iran and six world powers, known as the Joint Plan of Action, to limit Iran's nuclear program.

2014, November 12 - The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander successfully lands on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

2015, November 13 - A series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, France, leave 130 people dead and hundreds injured.

2016, November 4 - The Paris Agreement enters into force. A legally binding international treaty on climate change was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” More

2016, November 8 - Donald Trump is elected as President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton.

2017, November 18 - The Zimbabwean military initiates a coup d'état, leading to the resignation of President Robert Mugabe after 37 years in power.

2018, November 11 - The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I is commemorated worldwide.

2019, November 20 - SpaceX launches its Starship prototype for the first time on a suborbital flight.

2020, November 3 - Joe Biden is elected as the 46th President of the United States, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump.

2020, November 10 - Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech announce positive results from their COVID-19 vaccine trial.

2020, November 28 - Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is assassinated near Tehran, leading to tensions in the region.

2020, November 30 - NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully collects a sample from the asteroid Bennu.

2021, November 4 - The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concludes in Glasgow, Scotland, with commitments to address climate change.

2021, November 8 - Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine receives full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Online History Resources

These are some of the many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of September, listed by year.  Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate.

42 BCE, October 23 -  Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar dies by suicide after being defeated in battle by Antony in Philippi. Greece.

70 CE, October - The Siege of Jerusalem concludes with the sacking and destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman Empire.

312 CE, October 28 - Constantine the Great defeats Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.

517, October 31 - Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses against papal indulgences, or the atonement of sins through monetary payment, on the door of the church at Wittenberg, Germany. Within less than four years, the Catholic Church would brand Luther a heretic, and the Holy Roman Empire would condemn him as an outlaw. This  marked the beginning of the  Protestant Reformation, a turning point in history that would over time, transform not only the Christian faith, but also the politics and society of all of Europe. Some historians have argued that this event didn't happen as described but rather the Theses were delivered to the local archbishop. More

732 CE, October 10 - The Battle of Tours takes place in France, where Frankish forces under Charles Martel defeat the Umayyad Caliphate,  The large invading Islamic army was led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi Abd al Rahman. During the battle, the Franks defeated the Islamic army and Emir Abd er Rahman was killed. This battle stopped the northward advance of Islam from the Iberian peninsula, and is considered by most historians to be of macro historical importance, in that it halted the Islamic conquests, during a period in which Islam was conquering the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires. More

787 CE, October - The Second Council of Nicaea is held, addressing the use of religious images in the Byzantine Empire.

846 CE, October - The Great Heathen Army of Vikings attacks Rome, sacking the city and its surroundings.

877 CE October 8 - The Battle of the Aisne takes place in present-day France, with Louis the Stammerer leading the West Franks against the Vikings.

992 CE, October - The founding of the Fatimid Caliphate by Imam Al-Mahdi Billah in North Africa.

1000, October - The Icelandic parliament, Althing, is established, making it one of the oldest extant parliamentary institutions in the world.

1000, October - The construction of the Brihadisvara Temple in India is completed, dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva.

1000, October 18 - Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer, is believed to have landed in North America, possibly in present-day Canada.

1002 CE, October - King Æthelred the Unready orders the St. Brice's Day massacre, leading to the killing of many Danes in England.

1009, October 18 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

1066, October 14 - The Battle of Hastings takes place, resulting in William the Conqueror's victory over King Harold II of England. More

1097, October - The Crusaders lay siege to Antioch during the First Crusade.

1147, October - The Second Crusade begins, with European forces launching campaigns to the Holy Land.

1200, October - The Maya civilization reaches its peak in the Yucatan Peninsula, with cities like Chichen Itza flourishing.

1206, October 15 - Genghis Khan is proclaimed the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.

1227, October - The Mongol Empire, under Genghis Khan's leadership, conquers the Jin Dynasty in China.

1307, October 13 - King Philip IV of France orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, leading to their persecution.

1340, October 30 - The Battle of Salado, also known as the Battle of Tarifa is fought between the armies of King Afonso IV of Portugal and King Alfonso XI of Castile against those of Sultan Abu al-Hasan 'Ali of the Marinid dynasty and Yusuf I of Granada, resulting in a Christian victory. More

1415, October 25 - The Battle of Agincourt takes place during the Hundred Years' War, resulting in a significant English victory over the French.

1424, October - The Yongle Emperor of China moves the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, initiating the construction of the Forbidden City.

1435, October - The Congress of Arras is held, aiming to negotiate peace during the Hundred Years' War.

1448, October 17 - The Battle of Kosovo takes place between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition of Balkan states, with the Ottomans emerging victorious.

1453, October 29 - The Hundred Years' War comes to an end with the recapture of Bordeaux by the French, reclaiming their last possession in the conflict.

1466, October 8 - The Second Peace of Thorn is signed, ending the Thirteen Years' War and defining the borders between the Teutonic Knights and Poland-Lithuania.

1470, October - King Edward IV of England returns from exile, reclaiming the throne during the Wars of the Roses.

1483, October 2 - King Richard III of England is crowned, following the death of his nephew Edward V.

1485, October 22 - The Battle of Bosworth Field takes place, resulting in the defeat of Richard III and the ascension of Henry VII as King of England.

1486, October - The Malleus Maleficarum, a treatise on witchcraft, is first published in Germany.

1489, October 30 - The Treaty of Medina del Campo is signed, establishing a marriage alliance between the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal.

1492, October 12 -  Christopher Columbus and his crew make landfall in the present day Bahamas, marking the European discovery of the Americas. More

1492, October 27 - The Alhambra Decree is issued by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, ordering the expulsion of Jews from the country.

1493, October - Christopher Columbus arrives back in Spain, concluding his first voyage to the New World.

1494, October - The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed between Spain and Portugal, dividing the newly discovered lands outside Europe.

1495, October 5 - King Charles VIII of France invades Italy, initiating the Italian Wars.

1497, October 19 - Italian explorer John Cabot lands in North America, possibly in Newfoundland.

1498, October 12 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India, opening the sea route to the East.

1499, October - Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I dies in captivity, leading to the Ottoman Interregnum and subsequent rise of Selim I.

1501, October - Michelangelo begins work on his famous statue "David" in Florence, Italy.

1502, October - Christopher Columbus sets sail on his fourth and final voyage to the Americas.

1503, October - Pope Julius II lays the foundation stone for the new St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

1512, October 28 - Michelangelo's artwork on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is unveiled to the public.

1517, October 31 - Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

1520, October - The Aztec Empire's ruler, Moctezuma II, is taken captive by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

1534, October 18 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII the head of the Church of England.

1535, October - Jacques Cartier's second voyage to Canada concludes, with the establishment of a settlement at Quebec.

1540, October - The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is formally approved by Pope Paul III.

1542, October - Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo becomes the first European to set foot on the West Coast of the United States.

1552, October - Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible captures Kazan, an important victory in the Russo-Kazan Wars.

1562, October - The Edict of Saint-Germain is signed, granting limited religious freedom to French Protestants (Huguenots).

1571, October 7 - The Battle of Lepanto takes place, with the Holy League defeating the Ottoman Empire's navy in a significant naval battle.

1580, October 8 - The Spanish army captures Lisbon, effectively uniting the crowns of Portugal and Spain under Philip II.

1582, October 15 - The Gregorian calendar is introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, skipping several days to realign the calendar with astronomical events.

1586, October 25 - The trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, begins in England, eventually leading to her execution.

1597, October - Toyotomi Hideyoshi's forces emerge victorious in the Battle of Myeongnyang against the Japanese invasions of Korea.

1598, October 18 - The Treaty of Vervins is signed, ending the war between Spain and France.

1599, October - The Battle of Sellenberk takes place, marking a significant conflict during the Long War between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy.

1599, October 27 - The Treaty of Weissenburg is signed, ending the War of the Jülich Succession between Spain and the Dutch Republic.

1600, October - The Battle of Sekigahara takes place in Japan, leading to Tokugawa Ieyasu's rise to power and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

1601, October - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer, dies under mysterious circumstances.

1602, October - Dutch navigator and merchant Willem Janszoon becomes the first recorded European to set foot on Australian soil.

1604, October 9 - Supernova Kepler's Star becomes visible, leading to Johannes Kepler's study of its movement.

1605, October 5 - The Battle of Kircholm occurs between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden.

1607, October 26 - The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is established to facilitate colonial trade.

1608, October 14 - English explorer Henry Hudson reaches the river that now bears his name during his search for the Northwest Passage.

1610, October - The Italian scientist Galileo Galilei discovers the four largest moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons.

1613, October 12 - The new Russian Tsar, Michael Romanov, is elected, marking the beginning of the Romanov dynasty.

1618, October 29 - Sir Walter Raleigh is executed outside the Palace of Westminster. He was one of the most famous explorers of Elizabeth I's reign and a favorite of the Queen's. Raleigh was also a scholar and a poet, but he is usually remembered for introducing the essential potato, and the addictive tobacco. #gs.7ktlro">More

1628, October 11 - The War of the Mantuan Succession begins, a conflict between France and the Habsburg Monarchy over control of the Duchy of Mantua.

1635, October 28 - The Treaty of Sztumska Wieś is signed, ending the Polish-Swedish War and recognizing Sweden's control over Livonia.

1639, October - The Treaty of Hartford ends the Pequot War between the Pequot tribe and English settlers in New England.

1641, October - The Irish Rebellion of 1641 begins, marking a significant conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.

1651, October 1 - English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell decisively defeat the Royalists at the Battle of Worcester.

1659, October 27 - Quakers William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson are hanged in Boston by the Puritans. Mary Dyer was also  scheduled to be hanged. However, her life was spared by a last minute reprieve. The day after her reprieve, Mary wrote to the General Court refusing to accept her pardon's terms. While the General Court attempted to soften the terms, Mary left for Rhode Island only to return in the spring of 1660. She was resolute; either the authorities would change their laws or they would need to hang a woman. She was publicly hanged on June 1, 1660. More
  
1660, October 13 - The Treaty of Oliva is signed, ending the Second Northern War and recognizing Swedish territorial losses.

1665, October - The Great Plague of London reaches its peak, causing widespread death and disruption.

1675, October - King Philip's War, a conflict between Native American tribes and English settlers, concludes with the Treaty of Casco.

1678, October - The Popish Plot, a fabricated conspiracy against King Charles II of England, emerges, leading to anti-Catholic sentiment.

1683, October 6 - The first Mennonites to establish a permanent settlement in North America arrived in Philadelphia. Invited to the city by its Quaker founder, William Penn, they settled in Germantown, then a small village about six miles north of the city. More

1683, October 14 - The Battle of Vienna takes place, with the Holy League forces defeating the Ottoman Empire and ending their siege of Vienna.

1685, October - King Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, leading to the persecution of Huguenots and the weakening of religious tolerance.

1688, October 22 - The Glorious Revolution begins as William of Orange lands in England to challenge King James II's rule.

1692, October - The Salem witch trials conclude in Massachusetts with several executions and imprisonments.

1697, October - The Treaty of Ryswick is signed, ending the Nine Years' War and restoring the status quo in Europe.

1699, October - The Treaty of Karlowitz is signed, marking the end of the Great Turkish War and resulting in territorial changes in southeastern Europe.

1608, October 2 - Fire destroys most of the Palace of Whitehall in London.

1609, October - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei demonstrates his newly built telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

1616, October 9 - Dutch sea captain Dirk Hartog makes the second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil.

1701, October - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later Yale University) is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.

1707, October 22 - The Acts of Union unite the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1708, October - The Siege of Lille during the War of the Spanish Succession concludes with the city's surrender to Allied forces.

1710, October 11 - The Port Royal earthquake strikes Jamaica, causing widespread destruction and loss of life.

1720, October - The South Sea Bubble, a financial crisis in England, reaches its peak, leading to economic turmoil.

1737, October 20 - The Battle of Soor takes place during the War of the Austrian Succession, with the Austrian army defeating the French.

1740, October 20 - Maria Theresa becomes the ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy following the death of her father, Emperor Charles VI.

1751, October - The St. Petersburg State University is founded by Empress Elizabeth of Russia.

1755, October - The Lisbon earthquake and tsunami strike Portugal, resulting in massive destruction and loss of life.

1760, October 25 - George III becomes King of Great Britain following the death of his grandfather, George II.

1764, October 25 - Abigail Smith married a young lawyer from Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, by the name of John Adams, who would become, some thirty years later, the second president of the United States. Abigail Adams who was both the wife and the mother of a president shares that distinction with Barbara Bush. More

1777, October 17 - The British forces, led by General John Burgoyne, surrender to the American Continental Army at the Battle of Saratoga, a turning point in the American Revolutionary War.

1781, October 19 - The Siege of Yorktown concludes with the surrender of British General Cornwallis to American and French forces, effectively ending major combat in the American Revolutionary leading to the end of British rule in the colonies and the birth of a new nation — the United States of America. More
 
1789, October - The French Revolution begins with the Women's March on Versailles, prompting King Louis XVI to return to Paris.

1793, October 16 - Marie Antoinette, the former Queen of France, is executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.

1797, October - The Treaty of Campo Formio is signed, ending the War of the First Coalition and marking significant territorial changes.

1799, October 9 - Napoleon Bonaparte stages a coup d'état, overthrowing the French Directory and establishing the French Consulate.

1703, October 23 - The Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Cornwall, England, is completely destroyed by a storm.

1707, October 28 - The Hōei earthquake strikes Japan, causing widespread damage and loss of life.

1746, October - The Battle of Rocoux occurs during the War of the Austrian Succession, with French forces defeating an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.

1758, October - The Siege of Louisbourg during the French and Indian War ends with British forces capturing the fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.

1787, October 27 - The Federalist Papers. The first in a series of eighty-five essays by “Publius,” the pen name of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, appeared in the Independent Journal, a New York newspaper. Publius urged New Yorkers to support ratification of the Constitution approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. #the-federalist-papers">More

1796, October 19 - A mysterious editorial from a writer named Phocion appeared in the Gazette of the United States, a popular Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia. Phocion said, in terms understood by most readers, that presidential candidate Jefferson was having an affair with one of his female slaves. More

1797, October 22 - Pioneering balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin became the modern world's first successful parachutist. More

1803, The U.S. Congress approves the Louisiana Purchase by a vote of 24 to 7.. More

1804, October 6 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition returns to St. Louis, completing their journey to explore and map the western portion of the United States.

1805, October 21 - The Battle of Trafalgar takes place, resulting in a British victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets during the Napoleonic Wars. More

1812, October 13 - American forces under General William Henry Harrison defeat the British and Native American forces at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812.

1812, October 19 - Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow. It is estimated that of the 612,000 combatants who entered Russia only 112,000 returned to the frontier; 100,000 are thought to have been killed in action, 200,000 died from other causes, 50,000 were left sick in hospitals, 50,000  deserted, and 100,000 were been taken as prisoners of war. Russian casualties have been estimated at 200,000 killed. More

1813, October 5 - The Battle of the Thames in present-day Ontario, Canada, sees British and Native American forces defeated by American forces.

1820, October 6 - Mexico officially becomes a republic as the Plan of Iguala is accepted, ending Spanish rule and establishing Mexican independence.

1825, October 26 - The Erie Canal opens providing overland water transportation between the ­­ Hudson River on the east and Lake Erie at the western end. Popularly known as “Clinton’s Folly,” the eight-year construction project was the vision of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. #the-erie-canal">More

1827, October 20 - The Naval Battle of Navarino occurs, during which combined British, French, and Russian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire's fleet.

1835, October - The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales, a confrontation between Texian settlers and Mexican soldiers.

1843, October - Sir James Young Simpson discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform, revolutionizing surgery and pain management.

1854, October 25 - The Charge of the Light Brigade takes place during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.

1854, October 16 - The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, England, destroys a large portion of both towns.

1856, October - The Second Opium War between Britain and France against China begins with the Battle of Canton.

1859, October 16 - John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters start their march toward the town of Harpers Ferry. In the early hours of October 17,  they capture local residents and seized the federal armory and arsenal. Brown was captured two days later and quickly placed on trial and charged with treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and slave insurrection. Brown was sentenced to death for his crimes and hanged on December 2, 1859.

1860, October 18 - During the Second Opium War, The British High Commissioner to China, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, orders  the complete destruction of the Old Summer Palace in retaliation for the imprisonment and torture of several Anglo-French delegation members by the Qing government, with several of them being killed. The French and British troops had captured the palace days earlier and had looted and destroyed the imperial collections. The destruction of the Peking’s Summer Palace has been considered criminal and barbaric by many Chinese and remains a a very sensitive issue in China today. More

1860, October 24 - The Second Opium War ends with the signing of the Convention of Peking. The Beijing Convention consists of three individual treaties that China signs, with Great Britain (October 24), France (October 25), and Russia (November 14). More

1863, October 3 -  President Abraham Lincoln encourages Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving   More

1864, October 31 - Nevada is admitted into the Union.

1866, October 6 - The brothers John and Simeon Reno staged what is generally believed to be the first train robbery in American history. Their take was $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana. Considered the first train robbery, the incident at Seymour was preceded by a similar train burglary exactly nine months before. In early 1866, bandits entered an Adams Express car in route to Boston from New York and stole over half a million dollars from safes on the unoccupied car. As in the Seymour case, detectives from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency quickly identified the criminals. More

1867, October 18 - The United States formally takes possession of Alaska from Russia in a ceremony known as the Alaska Purchase. This $7.2 million purchase, ended Russia’s presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim. Skeptics had dubbed the purchase of Alaska “Seward’s Folly,” but the former Secretary of State was vindicated when a major gold deposit was discovered in the Yukon in 1896, and Alaska became the gateway to the Klondike gold fields. The strategic importance of Alaska was finally recognized in World War II. Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959. More

1868, Cuba Independence Day . Commemorates the beginning of the wars of independence.  

1871, October 8 - The Great Chicago Fire starts at about 9:00 p.m. in or around a small barn belonging to Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. The fire quickly spread and lasted two days. It killed about 300 people, and destroyed over 17,000 buildings, leaving 100,000 homeless. The estimated damage costs were $200 million dollars (roughly $4 billion in 2020 dollars). The real cause of the fire has never been determined by city officials. More 

1873, October 27 - Joseph Glidden applies for a patent for a reinforced wire fence that placed the barbs along a wire and then twisted another wire around it to keep the barbs in place, an improvement over Michael Kelly's 1868 invention that "twisted two wires together to form a cable for barbs. Nine patents for improvements to wire fencing were granted by the U.S. Patent Office to American inventors, beginning with Michael Kelly and ending with Joseph Glidden in November 24 1874 when he was 61 years old. By the time of his death in 1906, he was one of the richest men in America. More

1879, October 12 - The First Anglo-Boer War begins as British forces invade the South African Republic. (Transvaal) More

1881, October 26 - The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, USA, involving the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. More

1881, October 8 - Haiphong cyclone,  Over 300,000 people perished in one of most catastrophic natural disasters in history. The cyclone smashed into the Gulf of Tonkin causing widespread destruction as tidal waves flooded the city of Haiphong in northeastern Vietnam.

1883, October 4 - The Orient Express train makes its inaugural run leaving Paris with 40 passengers for Constantinople, (as the city of Istanbul was still commonly called in the west) and ending in Giurgiu, Romania, with stops in Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria, to pick up another train to Varna where they were then ferried by steamship across the Black Sea to Constantinople. With this one trip, the notion of long-distance travel was completely redefined. All original Orient Express routes finally retired in 2009 after almost 100 years of the most famous train journeys in the world. More

1886, October 28 - The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States, is dedicated on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. President Grover Cleveland oversaw the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in front of thousands of spectators. More

1892, October 12 - The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many U.S. public schools as part of the Columbus Day celebration.

1898, October 25 - The United States defeats Spain in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a decisive naval engagement during the Spanish-American War.

1899, October 11 - The Second Boer War begins between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics in South Africa.

1901, October 24 - Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to successfully take the plunge over Niagara Falls  inside an oak barrel. She was a 63-year-old at the time. Seventy one years earlier, on October 17,1829,  Sam Patch, had survived jumping down the Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border. More

1903, October 1 - The first modern World Series in baseball begins between the Boston Americans (now Red Sox) and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1904, October 27 - The New York City Subway Opens. #new-york-city-subway-opens">More

1908, October 1 - Henry Ford introduces the Model T automobile to the market, revolutionizing the automotive industry.

1908, October 6 -  The dual Kingdome of Austria - Hungary announces the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina provinces in the Balkan region of Europe formerly under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Intended as a catalyst for domestic policy, it proved to be a fateful move. More  

1910, October 16 - The first airship flight across the English Channel takes place, with French aviator Ferdinand Ferber piloting the "Ferber I."

1912, October 14 - Theodore Roosevelt is shot at a hotel in Milwaukee as he was about to start a campaign speech for a third term.  The bullet penetrated Roosevelt’s heavy overcoat and ripped through the right side of his chest. Inside the breast pocket were two items that absorbed the impact and undoubtedly saved Roosevelt’s life. The first was a thick fifty-page speech manuscript folded in half. Behind that was a metal eyeglass case in which Roosevelt kept his spectacles. Roosevelt was wounded, finished the speech and was then taken to the hospital. He survived the attack but loss the election for a third term. More

1912, October 17 - The First Balkan War breaks out as Serbia and Greece, follow Montenegro and declare war on the Ottoman Empire. More

1915, October 11 - Bulgaria's Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov issues a statement announcing Bulgaria's entrance into the First World War on the side of the Central Powers.  More 

1917, October 15 - Mata Hari is executed by the French on charges of spying for Germany during World War I. She was a dancer and courtesan whose name has become a synonym for the seductive female spy. She performed all over Europe telling the story that she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari. Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, née Zelle was actually born in the Netherlands. The nature and extent of her espionage activities remain uncertain, and her guilt widely contested. More

1917, October 25 - The October Revolution in Russia begins as the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, seizes power in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg).

1917, October 26 - Brazil declares war on the German Empire. Brazil had pursued a policy of neutrality in the initial years of the war . In the course of the war, public opinion was on the side of the Allies. Only a few intellectuals declared their solidarity with the German Empire along with the majority of the descendants of German immigrants. On April of 1917 the Brazilian freighter Paraná was sank by Germany followed by three other Brazilian ships being torpedoed. More

1918, October 4 - German Chancellor Max von Baden,  sends a telegraph message to President Woodrow Wilson requesting an armistice between Germany and the Allied powers in World War I.  a few days later, Wilson responded to Baden’s armistice request (and a subsequent German communiqué on October 12) with a note that quickly deflated German expectations.

1918, October 28 - The Cech Republic Independence Day. Commemorates the Independence declaration by the Czechoslovak National Council.

1918, October 30 - The Armistice of Mudros is signed at the port of Mudros on the Aegean island of Lemnos, between the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain, representing the Allied powers, bringing an end to the Turkish Army’s participation in the war. More

1919, October 2 - President Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him incapacitated until the end of his presidential term in 1921.  More

1919, October 28 - Congress passed the Volstead Act providing for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified nine months earlier. Known as the Prohibition Amendment, it prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the United States. More

1923, October 16 - Walt Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies — the date is used as the start of the Disney company, first known as “The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.” More

1923, October 29 - The Ottoman Empire officially dissolves as the Republic of Turkey is declared under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

1927, October 4 - Artist and sculptor Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore. Work on the monument finished 14 years later on October 31, 1941. It involved the efforts of nearly 400 men and women. The duties involved varied greatly from the call boy to drillers to the blacksmith to the housekeepers. Despite the colossal proportion and difficult nature of the project, there were no worker fatalities. Borglum died 7 months before the project was declared completed. His son Lincoln Borglum supervised the completion. More

1929, October 25 - The Teapot Dome scandal; Albert B. Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G. Harding's cabinet, is found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office.. More

1929, October 29 - "Black Tuesday" marks the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, leading to the Great Depression. It was preceded by the crash of the London Stock Exchange. It is considered the most disastrous market crash in the history of the United States characterized by panic sell-offs on the New York Stock Exchange and dramatic declines in major market indices. More

1931, October 3 - The Empire State Building is officially opened in New York City, becoming the tallest building in the world at the time.

1932, October 3 - Iraq Independence day -Britain ends its 17 year mandate and Iraq is admitted to the League of Nations, making Iraq an independent nation after centuries of Ottoman rule.

1934, October 16 - The Red Army brakes through the first Nationalist enemy lines surrounding it and sets out on its epochal year-long trek to the west and to the north. More

1935, October 3 - Italy invades Ethiopia, initiating the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

1938, October 30 - "The War of the Worlds" ,  a radio Halloween episode  directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1898) is performed and broadcast live over the CBS Radio Network. The episode is famous for inciting a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was taking place, though the scale of panic is disputed, as the program had relatively few listeners. More 

1940, October 28 -  Italy declares war on Greece and starts the invasion. The people of Greece answer the call to defend the country and drive the Italian army back into Albania, placing Hitler in the position of having to delay his invasion of Russia to commit troops to attack and occupy Greece. More

1942, October 3 - The V-2 first successful launch takes place. It flew at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour and delivered a 2,200-pound warhead to a target 200 miles away. Beginning in September 1944, it was employed against targets in Western Europe, including London, Paris, and Antwerp. More

1942, October 26 - Japanese planes critically damage and sink the U.S.S Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Island. Approximately 140 of her sailors and air crews were killed that day. The Hornet was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier. She was in service for just over one year. While in the Pacific theater, Hornet was involved in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, and in the Battle of Midway. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she participated in the defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. More

1944, October 20 - General Douglas MacArthur lands on the Philippine island of Leyte and delivers his famous “I Have Returned” speech. It is one of the most iconic phrases of the war, coupled with one of the most famous photographs, that captured the moment he waded ashore. More

1944, October 25 - Japan employed kamikaze bombers for the first time at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, which took place in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines. Kamikaze strikes against Allied warships continued throughout World and were costly to both sides. War II. More

1945, October 12 - US Army medic Private First Class Desmond Thomas Doss becomes the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor. More

1945, October 24 - The United Nations is officially established. The United Nations did not come into existence at the signing of the Charter. In many countries the Charter had to be approved by their congresses or parliaments. It had therefore been provided that the Charter would come into force when the Governments of China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States and most of other signatory states had ratified it and deposited notification to this effect with the State Department of the United States. On October 24, 1945, this condition was fulfilled. More

1947, October 5 - President Harry Truman delivers the first-ever televised presidential address, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help Europe, which was still recovering from World War II. More

1947, October 14 -  U.S. Air Force Captain Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager piloting the Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis on the world’s first piloted supersonic flight, reaching a speed of Mach 1.06—faster than the speed of sound. The experimental purpose-built aircraft was air launched from the bomb bay of a Boeing B-29 bomber. The Bell X-1 went on to fly 78 times—as fast as Mach 1.45 and as high as 21,900 meters (71,900 feet). More

1948, October 29 - An air pollution environmental disaster hits Donora, Pennsylvania. The town was home to many industries, such as steel mills and zinc melting plants. Of the town’s population of 14,000, approximately 20 people passed away and between 5000-7000 were estimated to become very ill due to the smog event. Investigations into the disaster eventually led to legislations to establish better control over air pollution. More

1949, October 1 - China National Day. Mao Zedong's formal proclamation of the establishment of the People's Republic of China

1949, October 7 - The German Democratic Republic. The GDR, commonly known as East Germany is created from the Soviet occupation zone of occupation on October 7, 1949. The United States responded by stating its position that the GDR was “without any legal validity,” and that the United States would “continue to give full support to the Government of the German Federal Republic FDR at Bonn in its efforts to restore a truly free and democratic Germany.” The FDR, commonly known as West Germany had been formed months earlier  on May  23,1949 by combining the occupation territories of France, Britain and the U.S. The U.S. refused to recognize the GDR until 1974. The GDR was absorbed by the FRG in 1990 when Germany reunified. More 

1957, October 4 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. More

1958, October 2 - Guinea Independence Day from France. Guinea was the only French West African colony to opt for complete independence, rather than membership in the French Community. France withdrew all aid to the new republic. shortly thereafter.

1960, October 1 - Cyprus Independence day. The effective date of the Lon don-Zürich Agreements was 16 August 1960, but the public holiday was moved to October 1 to avoid summer heat and tourist season.

1960, October 1 - Nigeria Independence Day from the UK

1961, October 6 - President John F. Kennedy, in a letter to the members of the Committee on Civil Defense of the Governors’ Conference, urges Americans to build bomb shelters as protection from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. Kennedy also pressed Congress to allocate more than $100 million to build a network of public fallout shelters.  Only one year later, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted over the USSR’s placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. During the tense 13-day crisis, some Americans prepared for nuclear war by buying up canned goods and completing last-minute work on their backyard bomb shelters. More

1962, October 2 - A team of scientists working at a University of Florida lab, invent a sports drink to quench thirst. the drink that would soon become known as Gatorade was born. The name "Gatorade" is derived from the nickname of the university's sports teams. Eventually, the drink becomes a phenomenon and made its inventors wealthy. More

1962, October 14 - The Cuban Missile Crisis begins as an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. On Sep 16, the pictures were presented to President Kennedy after they were developed and analyzed by intelligence officers. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that the missiles had been discovered. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address and his decision to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites.
For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited—seemingly on the brink of nuclear war—and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis. More 

1964, October 14 - Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population". More

1964, October 16 - The People's Republic of China (PRC) joined the nuclear club when it tested a nuclear device at its Lop Nur test site in Inner Mongolia. More 

1965, October 28 - The last piece of the St. Louis's Gateway Arch is fitted into place. More

1966, October 4 - Lesotho Independence day from the UK

1967, October 2 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn in to the nation’s highest court at the opening ceremony of the Supreme Court term, becoming the first Black US Supreme Court justice. More

1967, October 8 - Che Guevara is captured by Bolivian troops. He was executed the following day, on orders from thr Bolivian President. More 

1968, October 12 - Equatorial Guinea Independence Day from Spain

1969, October 16 - The "Miracle Mets" win their first World Series, defeating the Baltimore Orioles in five games.

1970, October 10 - Fiji's Independence Day from the UK. (Fiji Day) Commemorates the signing of the Instruments of Independence.

1971, October 1 - Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida.

1971, October 25 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, which “restored” the People's Republic of China to the Chinese seat at the UN and “expelled” the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since then, Taiwan has sought to maintain its international space without the benefits of UN membership. More

1972, October 12 - The Kitty Hawk Race Riot - More than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk are involved in a race riot resulting in 46 sailors injured. in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk en route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam.  More

1973, October 6 - The Yom Kippur War begins as Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack against Israel.

1973, October 17 - Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposes an embargo against the United States,  in retaliation for the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military and to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations during  the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. More

1978, October 16 - Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła of Poland was elected to be the 264th Pope; he assumed the name John Paul II and was the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years. More

1979, October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Independence Day from the UK

1981, October 6 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated by Islamic extremists during a military parade in Cairo.

1983, October 25 - The United States invades Grenada, known as Operation Urgent Fury, in response to a coup. More 

1984, October 31 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India was assassinated by her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists, purportedly to avenge the humiliation of Sikhs and the desecration of the Golden Temple during Operation Blue Star in June of that year. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi.   More

1986, October 5 - The Iran-Contra scandal comes to light after a plane carrying weapons is shot down over Nicaragua by the Sandinista regime. Eugene Hasenfus and ex US Marine and sole survivor of the plane crash, confessed that he was shipping military supplies into Nicaragua for use by the Contras, an anti-Sandinista force, allegedly run by the CIA. President Ronald Reagan and other officials denied the CIA's involvement in the flight, but further investigations confirmed that the U.S. had been secretly selling weapons to Iran and using some of the proceeds to covertly fund the Contra war in Nicaragua. More

1987, October 19 -  The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 22.6 percent in a single trading session, a loss that remains the largest one-day stock market decline in history. Reaction of market distress sent global stock exchanges plummeting in a matter of hours. More

1989, October 17 - The 7.1-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake, also called the San Francisco Earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay Area in California causing 63 deaths, nearly 3000 injuries and billions of Dollars of damage. It was the strongest earthquake to hit the area since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  More

1989, October 18 - The Hungarian Republic is officially declared, marking the end of Communist rule.

1990, October 3 - Germany Day of Unity. Commemorates the Reunification of Germany which ended decades of division. More

1992. October 28 - The new Leif Erickson Tunnel ribbon is cut and balloons are dropped on the final link of I-35 through Duluth, MN. Mayor Gary Doty and U.S. Representative James Oberstar wield the giant plywood scissors. More

1994, October 1 - Palau Independence Day from the United States.

1994, October 27 - The U.S. prison population in state and federal prisons reaches one million (for the first time in American history. An additional 500,000 prisoners were estimated to be held in local prisons. The United States became second only to Russia in the world for incarceration rates at the time. In 2021, the U.S. had the highest incarceration rate in the world. The U.S. prison population was 1,204,300 at yearend 2021, a 1% decrease from 2020 (1,221,200) and a 25% decrease from 2011 (1,599,000). More

1998, October 29 - John Glenn returns to space aboard the Discovery’s 25th flight. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20, 1962. With one flight in 1962 and another in 1998, at 77 years of age, John Glenn uniquely bridged two eras in space history and became the oldest human ever to travel in space. He died at age 95 in December 2016. More

1999, October 27 - Gunmen storm the Armenian Parliament in Yerevan, resulting in the deaths of the Prime Minister and several members of parliament.

2000, October 12, The USS Cole, on a refueling stop at Aden, Yemen. is attacked by two suicide pilots of a small bomb-laden boat, blasting a a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, at midship. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack. Following investigations determined the attack had ben carried out by members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network. More

2001, October 7 - The United States launches Operation Enduring Freedom, marking the beginning of the War in Afghanistan. More

2001, October 23 - Apple introduces the iPod, revolutionizing the way people listen to music.

2001, October 26 - President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act. More

2002, October 12 - Terrorist bombings in Bali, Indonesia, kill over 200 people and injure hundreds more.

2002, October 23 - Some 40 Chechen militants burst into the Dubrovka Theater during the performance of a popular musical and  take hundreds of audience members, actors, and staff hostage, demanding the withdrawal of troops from Russia's Chechnya region. It ended 57 hours later, when security forces stormed the building after pumping in toxic gas that neutralized the attackers but led to the deaths of as many as 174 hostages. More

2003, October 28 - The Boston Red Sox win their first World Series championship in 86 years, breaking the "Curse of the Bambino."

2004, October 9 - The first official World Space Week is declared by the United Nations.

2004, October 28 - The European Space Agency's Huygens probe lands on Saturn's moon Titan.

2005, October 8 - The 7.6 magnitude Kashmir earthquake strikes northern Pakistan and India, causing widespread destruction and loss of life.

2006, October 9 - North Korea conducts its first nuclear test.

2007, October 14 - A suicide truck bomb detonates in Baghdad's busy market, killing over 500 people.

2008, October 3 - The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is signed into law in the United States, establishing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to address the financial crisis.

2009, October 9 - President Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.

2009, October 25 - Typhoon Morakot strikes Taiwan, causing significant flooding and landslides.

2010, October 13 - The Copiapó mining accident in Chile ends with the successful rescue of 33 trapped miners.

2010, October 27 - The 2010 North Sumatra earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia, resulting in significant loss of life and devastation.

2011, October 20 - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is captured and killed during the Libyan Civil War.

2012, October 29 - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in the northeastern United States, causing widespread damage and power outages.

2013, October 1 - The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, begins its enrollment phase in the United States.

2013, October 5 - Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is revealed as the source of leaked classified documents, exposing mass surveillance programs.

2014, October 22 - Canada's Parliament Hill in Ottawa is attacked by a lone gunman, resulting in the death of a soldier and the attacker.

2015, October 1 - A mass shooting takes place at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, USA, leaving multiple people dead and injured.

2016, October 1 - Hurricane Matthew, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history, strikes the Caribbean and the southeastern United States.

2017, October 1 - A mass shooting occurs at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, USA, leaving 58 people dead and hundreds injured.

2018, October 2 - Journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

2018, October 29 - Lion Air Flight 610 crashes into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board.

2019, October 6 - The United States announces its withdrawal from Syria, leading to concerns about the situation in the region.

2019, October 9 - Turkey launches a military offensive into northern Syria against Kurdish forces.

2020, October 2 - U.S. President Donald Trump tests positive for COVID-19, leading to concerns about the virus's impact on political leadership.

2020, October 18 - Protests erupt in Nigeria against police brutality and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), leading to widespread demonstrations.

2020, October 29 - A powerful earthquake strikes the Aegean Sea, causing significant damage and loss of life in Turkey and Greece.

2021, October 15 - NASA's Lucy spacecraft launches to study Trojan asteroids, marking a significant step in asteroid research.

Online History Resources

These are some of the many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of August, listed by year. Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate.

63 BCE, August - The Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) captures Jerusalem, bringing it under Roman control.

29 BCE, August - Octavian (later known as Augustus) celebrates three days of triumph in Rome, marking the end of the Final War of the Roman Republic.

79, August 24 - Vesuvius, an active volcano in southern Italy, erupted and destroyed the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis and Herculaneum and several other settlements. Although exact toll is unknown, more than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of 21 miles (33 km). Vesuvius is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3 Million people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone.

325, August 25 - The First Council of Nicaea ends. The Council was a meeting of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. It was specifically called to make a decision about Arianism—the belief that God created Jesus, and that Jesus was not eternal or one with God. Arianism was growing in popularity, even among church leaders threatening to tear the church apart. More

410, August 24 - The Visigoths, led by King Alaric, sack the city of Rome, marking the first time in almost 800 years that the city falls to an enemy force.

1057, August 15 - Malcolm Canmore slains King Macbeth of Scotland at the Battle of Lumphananand. His father, King Duncan I, had been murdered by Macbeth 17 years earlier. Following the battle  Macbeth's stepson, Lulach, was crowned King, before being killed by Malcolm who then recovered the Scottish throne as Malcolm III.  All the kings of Scotland since Malcolm himself and all the kings of England since the accession of Henry II descend from Malcolm and his English wife Margaret, the grandchild of Edmund Ironside.  More

1204, August 1 - The Fourth Crusade concludes with the sack of Constantinople, leading to the division and weakening of the Byzantine Empire.

1209, August 15 - The Massacre at Béziers takes place during the Albigensian Crusade, where the Catholic Crusaders sack the city of Béziers in southern France.

1214, August 24 - The Battle of Bouvines occurs during the Fourth Crusade, where the forces of Philip II of France defeat an alliance of European powers led by Emperor Otto IV.

1227, August 15 - 31  - Genghis Khan, (actually named Borjigin Temujin), the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, dies in Mongolia some time in late August. 1227. At the time of his death, the Mongol Empire was 2.5 times larger by territory than the Roman Empire. A study published in 2003 in The American Journal of Human Genetics suggested that Genghis Khan DNA can be found in one in 200 men today. The cause of his death is shrouded in mystery and it is now believed that it was caused by the bubonic plague.

1248, August 15 - The Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, reaches Egypt and begins the siege of Damietta.

1258, August 29 - The Mongol Empire, under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, captures and sacks the city of Baghdad, leading to the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.

1261, August 15 - The Byzantine Empire recaptures the city of Constantinople from the Latin Empire, marking the end of the Fourth Crusade.

1270, August 25 - The Eighth Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, departs from Aigues-Mortes, France, with the goal of conquering Tunis.

1281, August 15 - The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty of China successfully repels a second invasion attempt by the Japanese forces in the Battle of Kōan.

1291, August 1 - Swiss National Day - Alliance against the Holy Roman Empire in 1291.

1291, August 20 - The Siege of Acre ends, resulting in the fall of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the complete expulsion of European Christian forces from the Holy Land.

1305, August 7 - William Wallace, Scottish leader of the resistance against English rule, is captured by English forces near Glasgow.

1314, August 23-24 - The Battle of Bannockburn takes place, where Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat the English army, securing Scottish independence.

1346, August 26 - The Battle of Crécy occurs during the Hundred Years' War, where the
English army, led by Edward III, defeats the French forces.

1350, August 14 - The St. Mary Magdalene's flood devastates the Netherlands, England, and
Germany, causing significant loss of life and destruction.

1396, August 17 - The Battle of Nicopolis takes place, marking the final major crusade of the Middle Ages and resulting in a victory for the Ottoman Empire over an alliance of European forces.

1485, August 22 - The Battle of Bosworth Field. The last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England. The battle was won by an alliance of Lancastrians and disaffected Yorkists. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty by his victory and subsequent marriage to a Yorkist princess. His opponent Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed during the battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field battle one of the defining moments of English history.

1492, August 3 - Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain, with three ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria. Searching for a westerly route to the Far East. Instead, on October 12th, he lands in the Bahamas, thinking it was an outlying Japanese island.

1498, August 1 - Explorer Christopher Columbus lands on South America at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. He Thinking it was an island, he claims it for Spain and christened it "Isla Santa". 

1521, August 13 - Spanish conquistador Hernándo Cortés succeeds in bringing about the fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire after over two months of fighting. Cortes' conquests began with Cuba in 1511, Mexico’s Bay of Campeche in 1519, and then deeper into Mexico.

1572, August 24 - Thousands of Protestant Huguenots are massacred in France by Catholics, in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

1583, August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a British navigator and explorer takes possession of the area around St. John’s harbor, Newfoundland in the name of the Queen. He was later lost at sea in a storm off the Azores on his return trip to England.

1619, August 20 -  First enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia; Two English pirate ships, the Treasurer and White Lion. each carrying 20-30 African slaves land in the Jamestown colony within four days of each other. The slaves had been taken from a Portuguese slave ship, the San Juan Bautista, carrying 350 African slaves in route to Veracruz, Mexico.
Virginia’s first enslaved people spoke Bantu languages, and their homelands were the kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo. They are the first recorded Africans to arrive in England's mainland American colonies. marking the beginning of what evolved into a legalized system of slavery that lasted two and a half centuries. More

1753, August 4 - George Washington becomes a Master Mason n his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was twenty one years old. More

1776, August 2 - Most of the 55 members of the Continental Congress signed the parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

1782, August 7 -  General George Washington announces the Badge of Military Merit. The Badge was designed by Washington in the form of a purple heart, it was intended as a military order for soldiers who exhibited, "not only instances of unusual gallantry in battle, but also extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way". It is believed that only three people received the Badge of Military Merit during the American Revolutionary War, In 1932, the United States War Department  authorized the new Purple Heart Medal ,officially considered the "successor decoration" to the Badge of Military Merit. 

1784, August 14 - Russians led by Grigorii Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian outpost in Alaska on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay. More 

1789, August 26 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted in France, laying the groundwork for the French
Revolution.

1791, August 19 - Benjamin Banneker, the son of a free Black American woman and a formerly enslaved African man from Guinea, writes a letter to Thomas Jefferson, then-Secretary of State. On the letter, Banneker criticizes Jefferson’s hypocritical stance on slavery in respectful but unambiguous terms, using Jefferson’s own words to make his case for the abolition of slavery. Jefferson brief  response thanked him for the letter, expressed his ambivalence about slavery ("…no body [sic] wishes more sincerely than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit in your letter, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men") and endorsed Banneker’s accomplishments. More 

1792, August 10 - Louis XVI of France and his wife, Marie-Antoinette are imprisoned and the French monarchy is effectively overthrown, as the French Revolution (1787–99) continues. They were both executed by guillotine in 1793.

1792, August 29 - In one of the worst maritime disasters, 900 men drowned on the British battleship Royal George. A gust of wind allowed water to flood into open gun ports as the ship was being repaired. The ship sank within minutes.

1794, August 26 - President George Washington leads a militia force of 12,950 men towards Western Pennsylvania to subdue the Whiskey Rebellion, warning locals "not to abet, aid, or comfort the Insurgents aforesaid, as they will answer the contrary at their peril." More

1809, August 10 - Ecuador Independence Day - Celebration of the first Ecuadorian patriot uprising against Spanish rule and original proclamation of independence. The movement failed and the leaders of the movement were executed. On 1822 Ecuador won independence from Spain as part of the confederation of Gran Colombia on the decisive Battle of Pichincha. The confederation of Gran Colombia was comprised of what is now the countries of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. On May 13, 1830, Ecuador seceded and became a separate independent republic.

1814, August 24 - British forces capture Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812 and burn down the White House, the Capitol, and other public buildings along with a number of private homes. The burning was in retaliation for the earlier American burning of York (Toronto).

1821, August 10 - Missouri is admitted into the Union becoming the 24th State

1821, August 24 - Spain recognizes Mexico independence with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, Spain finally recognized the independence of the First Mexican Empire. More

1825, August 6 - Bolivia declaration of Independence.

1825, August 25 - Uruguay Independence day from the Empire of Brazil. Declaration of independence and union with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

1833, August 28 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, including in the British colonies of the Caribbean and North America.

1838, Slavery is abolished in Jamaica where it had been introduced in 1509.

1844. August 8 - Brigham Young is chosen to lead the Mormon Church. More

1876, August 1 -  Colorado is admitted into the Union and becomes the 38th State

1856, August 23 - Eunice Newton Foote makes first public scientific mention of the upcoming "Greenhouse effect". Her paper , titled “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Foote' s short paper included a prescient conclusion; “An atmosphere of that gas (Carbon Dioxide) would give to our earth a high temperature,” describing the phenomenon we now call the greenhouse effect, the main cause of climate change. More

1858, August 16 - The first successful transatlantic telegraph line is completed. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom sends a telegraph  to U.S. President James Buchanan. Near-instantaneous communication between Europe and North America. Become a reality.  

1861, August 5 - The Revenue Act is signed by President Lincoln imposing the first federal income tax. The action was prompted by the financial requirements of the Civil War. At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800,and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax. Congress repealed Lincoln’s tax law in 1871, but in 1909 passed the 16th Amendment, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today. Congress ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913. More

1862, August 22 - Abraham Lincoln replies to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune editorial entitled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions". More

1864, August 5 - Battle of Mobile Bay -- Admiral David G. Farragut, leads a fleet of fourteen wooden ships and four ironclads and delivers a much needed victory for the Union and immortalizes the phase "Damn the torpedoes! - Full speed ahead!” Farragut became the first U.S. Navy’s full admiral. At the time of his death in 1870, he had served a total of 59 years in uniform. More

1864, August 22 - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), created in 1863 comes into being as the draft convention submitted to the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick of Armies in the Field, conference is adopted by 12 nations at meeting.  "The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence." More

1866, August 20 - President Johnson issued a proclamation announcing the end of the American Civil War: "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America." The proclamation  officially closed a costly, bloody, and deadly chapter in its nation's history that started at Fort Sumter several years and incurred the loss of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. More 

1873, August 24, Mount of the Holy Cross was first photographed by William Henry Jackson. Stories had circulated for years of a mountain with a large cross etched in its side. Jackson climbed the western slope of the Rocky Mountains with more than 100 pounds of photography equipment and capture his most famous photograph. He later painted the iconic image in watercolor.

1879, August 28 - Zulu King Cetshwayo, the last king of the independent Zulu nation was captured by the British during the Zulu war and taken into custody. Two years later he was allowed to travel to London and met Queen Victoria. He was permitted to return to South Africa to rule a portion of the former Zulu kingdom in 1883. More

1883,  August 26 - One of the most catastrophic volcanic eruptions in recorded history takes place on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa (Krakatau). The first eruption sends a cloud of gas and debris into the air and it is followed by increasingly powerful explosions culminating in a gigantic blast around 10 am on August 27, sending ash and debris 50 miles into the air blanketing 300,000 square miles (800,000 square kilometers) and plunging the area into darkness for two and a half days. The explosions were heard 2,000 miles away. Tidal waves 120 ft. high killed 36,000 persons on nearby islands, while five cubic miles of earth were blasted into the air up to a height of 50 miles. More

1890, August 6 -  New York executed William Kemmler. It was the first time ever a state used the electric chair to carry out an execution. States have carried out 158 executions by electric chair since 1973. Tennessee was the most recent state to use the electric chair, taking place in 2020.

1896, August 16 - Gold was discovered in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Alaska, resulting in the Great Klondike
Gold Rush.

1898, August 12 - A cease-fire agreement to stop the hostilities in the Spanish - American War was signed. Spain formally agreed to to the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty. The war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. More

1911, August 20 - A telegram reading “This message sent around the world” is sent by the New York Times to test how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world.  it traveled over 28,000 miles and was relayed by 16 different operators. It arrived back at The Times only 16.5 minutes later. The building where the message originated is now called One Times Square and is best known for where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.

1911, August 21 - Theft of the Mona Lisa: The Mona Lisa becomes the world's most famous missing painting. It was returned two years later. More

1914, August 1 - World War I starts. Germany declares war on Russia on August 1 and on France on August 3. Austria-Hungary, with German encouragement, had declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Russia's support of Serbia brought France into the conflict.  Germany's violation of Belgian neutrality and British fears of German domination in Europe brought Britain and its empire into the war on 4 August. More

1914, August 4 - President Woodrow Wilson declared U.S. neutrality as World War erupts .  The conflict eventually became a matter of principles: whether to uphold the freedom of the seas, to make the world safe for democracy in the face of autocracy, or to establish a new world order ensuring permanent peace and governed by rational law. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. More 

1914, August 5 -  The first electric traffic signal is installed in Cleveland, Ohio at the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue. It was shaped like a birdhouse and had just green and red lights, with a buzzer that indicated when the light was about to change. A police officer named Lester Wire came up with the idea that revolutionized traffic engineering. He later sold the patent to General Electric. In 1923, inventor Garrett Morgan patented the three-position traffic signal, which is where we get today’s yellow light. More

1914, August 15 - The Panama Canal had its inaugural passage when the U.S. vessel  SS Ancon, passed through its gates and is opened to traffic, In the 1880s, the French  attempted to build the canal to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. the project  was halted because of poor planning, a breakout of disease among the crew, and financial problems that drove the contractor’s company to bankruptcy in 1889. More

1914, August 15 - Japan issues an ultimatum to Germany demanding the withdraw of its warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and to hand over Tsingtao. This was refused and on  August 23, 1914 Japan declared war on Germany.  More

1914, August 26 - The WW1 Battle of Tannenberg between the Germans and the Russians begins. The German forces, led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, handed Russia a crushing defeat. More

1916, August  - 27 Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary. and enters WW1 on the side of the Allies. The decision was motivated primarily by the desire to claim the region of Transylvania and its majority ethnic Romanian population from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1918, August 30 - Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is shot by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party. Lenin was seriously wounded but survived the attack which was the third assassination attempt on his life. More

1919, August 11 - Germany's Weimar constitution was passed by the National Assembly. The design of a new Democratic constitution began in late 1918, following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the collapse of the monarchy. The Weimar Republic, Germany's 12-year experiment with democracy, came to an end 12 years later when the Nazis came to power in January 1933 and established a dictatorship. More

1919, August 19 - Afghan Independence Day (Afghan Victory Day) It commemorates the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919

1920, August 18 - 1920 - The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote. More

1923, August 2 -  President Warren G. Harding died suddenly in San Francisco while on a Western speaking tour. He was succeeded the next day by Calvin Coolidge.

1926, August 6 - Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim English Channel. She swam across the Channel in 14 hours and 34 minutes, beating the men's record by two hours. More

1934, August 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader after German President Paul von Hindenburg death. More

1934, August 11 - The first batch of 137 prisoners arrives at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Venetia, California. In 1850, a presidential order set aside the island for possible use as a United States military reservation. and the U.S. Army had used the island for more than 80 years. In 1933, the island was transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice for use by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to open a maximum-security, minimum-privilege penitentiary to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in Federal prisons. More

1934, August 19 -  Hitler becomes President of Germany; 89.9 percent of German voters approved granting Chancellor Adolf Hitler additional powers, including the office of president.

1935. August 14 - President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes.

1936, August 1 - Hitler declares the Berlin Olympics, the eleventh Olympiad of the modern era, to be open.

1939, August 2 - Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the possibility of atomic weapons. Six years later, on August 6, 1945, the first Atomic Bomb, developed by the U.S., was dropped on the Japanese port of Hiroshima.

1941, August 12 - FDR and Churchill meet for the first time as leaders of their respective nations on board naval vessels anchored in Placentia Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The document released as a result of the meeting is referred to as "The Atlantic Charter." It was not an official document, but rather a joint statement expressing the war aims of the two countries--one technically neutral and the other at war.  More

1942, August 4 - The United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. An executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the United States on short-term labor contracts. The Bracero Program ended  on December 31, 1964. More

1942, August 7 - American forces land on the Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida. on the morning of August 7,1942. After some fierce fighting, the US Marines cleared Tulagi and Florida by August 9. The main forces on Guadalcanal met little resistance on their way inland to secure the airfield at Lunga Point,  Almost immediately, however, Japanese naval aircraft attacked transport and escort ships, and Japanese reinforcements arrived in the area. More

1942, August 19-25 - The Dieppe Raid, an Allied amphibious assault on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France, ends in a heavy defeat and high casualties.

1943, August 1 - A race riot takes place in Harlem, New York City, lasting two days, after a white police officer, James Collins, shot and wounded Robert Bandy, an African American soldier; and rumors circulated that the soldier had been killed.

1943, August 17 - During World War II in Europe, the Allies completed the conquest of the island of Sicily after 38 days.

1944, August 1 - The Warsaw Uprising starts. The Polish Home Army), a non-Communist underground resistance movement, led by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, takes action to liberate the city from the German occupation and reclaim Polish independence, encouraged by the appearance of the Soviet Red Army along the east bank of the Vistula River. and the perceived weakness of the German military. However the Red army made no efforts to aid the rebels in Warsaw and by October 2, 1944, the Germans had suppressed the uprising, deporting civilians to concentration and forced-labor camps and reducing Warsaw to ruins. After the Germans eventually left, the Red Army came into Warsaw and established a Communist regime. More

1944, August 23 - Romania King Michael announces that Romania had unilaterally ceased all military actions against the Allies, accepted the Allied armistice offer and joined the war against the Axis powers. As no formal armistice offer had been extended yet, the Red Army occupied most of Romania as enemy territory prior to the signing of the Moscow Armistice of September 12, 1944.

1944, August 25 - The four-year Nazi occupation of Paris comes to an end. French infantry assaulted German general Choltitz’s headquarters in the early afternoon, taking the garrison commander prisoner. His captors took Choltitz to French General Leclerc where the men signed a formal surrender document and Paris was finally liberated. German general Dietrich von Choltitz had spared Paris from the destruction ordered by Hitler. More

1945, August 6 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb dropped by the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, detonated about 1,800 ft. above ground, killing over 105,000 persons and destroying the city. Another estimated 100,000 persons later died as a result of radiation effects.

1945, August 8 - Soviet Russia declared war on Japan and sent troops into Japanese-held Manchuria.

1945, August 9 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. An American B-29 bomber headed for the city of Kokura, but because of poor visibility then chose a secondary target, Nagasaki. The bomb detonated killing an estimated 70,000 persons and destroying about half the city.

1945, August 14 - Believing that continuation of the war would only result in further loss of Japanese lives, delegates of Emperor Hirohito accepted Allied surrender terms originally issued at Potsdam on July 26, 1945, with the exception that the Japanese Emperor's sovereignty would be maintained. The formal surrender ceremony occurred later, on September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1945, August 15 - South Korea and North Korea celebrate this day as their National Liberation Day as the Korean peninsula was freed from Japanese rule.

1945, August 17 - Proclamation of Indonesian Independ e from the Empire of Japan and the Netherlands.

1947, August 7 - Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sail the Kon-Tiki, raft  from Peru to the islands east of Tahiti. Heyerdahl was interested in demonstrating the possibility that ancient people from the Americas could have colonized Polynesia; to do so, he constructed the raft from locally available balsa logs at Callao, Peru, and in three and a half months traversed some 4,300 miles (6,900 km) of ocean. The Kon-Tiki has been preserved in a museum in Oslo, Norway.

1947, August 14 - Pakistan achieved independence one day prior to Indian independence. India was partitioned, and an East and West Pakistan were created from Muslim majority areas.

1947, August 15, India was declared independent from British colonialism, and the reins of control were handed over to the leaders of the Country. 

1949, - The Soviet Union successfully tested their first nuclear device, called RDS-1 or “First Lightning” (codenamed “Joe-1” by the United States), at Semipalatinsk.  As the Cold War intensified, both the Soviet Union and the United States embarked upon efforts to rapidly develop and grow their respective nuclear arsenals. The US launched its hydrogen bomb program in the early 1950s and the USSR followed suit and initiated their own hydrogen bomb program. More

1950, Aug 25 -  President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, Truman said that “governmental seizure [of the railroads] is imperative” to protect American citizens as well as “essential to the national defense and security of the nation.” Truman acted in anticipation of an imminent strike by railroad workers, two months after the United Nations, led by the United States, had intervened in Korea to repel an invasion by communist-led North Korea. More 

1952, August 11 - Hussein was proclaimed king of Jordan succeeding to the throne three months before his 17th birthday. A three-man regency council made up of the prime minister and heads of the Senate and the House of Representatives was appointed until he became 18. He was enthroned on 2 May 1953, the same day that his cousin Faisal II assumed his constitutional powers as king of Iraq. More

1953, August 19 - A CIA supported coup d'état by the Iranian military topples the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. It favored strengthening the monarchical rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Sixty years later, in 2013, the National Security Archive released declassified CIA documents on the United States' role in the controversial operation. American and British involvement in Mosaddeq's ouster had long been public knowledge, but the released documents were the CIA's first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup and participated in smoothing over the aftermath. More

1957, August 31 -  Malayan Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.

1958, August 3 - The USS Nautilus, the first U.S. nuclear submarine, reaches the geographic North Pole traveling 1000 miles under sea from Point Barrow, Alaska and then on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe. 

1959, August 21 - Hawaii is admitted to the union becoming the 50th State.

1960, August 1 -  Benin's Independence day. (Previously Dahomey) Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July creating the independent Republic of Dahomey.

1960, August 3, Niger Independance Day - Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July.

1960, August 5 - Burkina Faso Independence Day. Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July and creation of the independent Republic of Upper Volta. On 4 August 1984, it changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1960, August 7 - Ivory Coast Independence Dat Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July

1960, August 11 - Chad's Independence day. Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 12 July

1960, August 15 - Republic of the Congo Independence Day -  Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 12 July.

1960, August 17 - Gabon independence day, officially the Gabonese Republic recognized, ending French colonial rule.

1961, August 13 - East Germany begins to seal off the around Berlin. First, a wire barrier was constructed and a few days later the wire was replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks. It hoped this measure would put an end to the mass exodus to Berlin. More

1962, August 4 - Nelson Mandela, Apartheid opponent, was arrested by security police in South Africa. He was tried and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1964, he was retried for sabotage , high treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government He was sentenced to life in prison. A worldwide campaign to free him began in the 1980s and resulted in his release on February 11, 1990, at age 71 after 27 years in prison. In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa's President F.W. de Klerk for their peaceful efforts to bring a nonracial democracy to South Africa. In April 1994, black South Africans voted for the first time in an election that brought Mandela the presidency of South Africa.

1962, August 6 - Jamaica achieved independence after centuries of British and Spanish rule.

1962, August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago independence day. Effective date of the Trinidad and Tobago Independence Act 1962.

1963, August 5 - The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. After Senate approval, the treaty that went into effect on October 10, 1963, banned nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. More

1963, August 28 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Over 250,000 persons attended the Civil Rights rally in Washington, D.C.

1963, August 30 - The hotline between Washington and Moscow came into operation 10 months after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first implementation used Teletype equipment. It changed to fax machines in 1986 and in 2008 to a secure computer link over which secured messages are exchanged.

1964, August 2 - The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurs, leading to increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. August 7, 1964 - Following an attack on two U.S. destroyers the U.S. Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Lyndon B. Johnson authority "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

1964, Aug 4 - The bodies of three lynched civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) were found in Neshoba County, Mississippi. They had been tortured and murdered by the KKK with help from the deputy sheriff near Philadelphia. M in .after disappearing more than a month before. More

1965, Aug 6 -  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act suspended literacy, knowledge and character tests which were designed to keep African Americans from voting in the South. It also authorized the appointment of Federal voting examiners and barred discriminatory poll taxes. Congress renewed the in 1975, 1984 and 1991.

1965, August 9 -  Proclamation of Singapore independence from Malaysia

1965, August 11 – 16: - Six days of riots began in the Watts area of Los Angeles, triggered by an incident between a white member of the California Highway Patrol and an African American motorist. Thirty-four deaths were reported and more than 3,000 people arrested. Damage to property was estimated at $40 million.

1967, August 30 - The U.S. Senate confirms  the appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall became the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.

1968, August Supreme Court 20 - The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. Although the Soviet Union's action successfully halted the pace of reform in Czechoslovakia, it had unintended consequences for the unity of the communist bloc. More

1969, August 17 - Hurricane Camille made landfall late in the evening along the Mississippi Gulf Coast near Waveland, MS. Camille is one of only four Category 5 hurricanes ever to make landfall in the continental United States. The combination of winds, surges, and rainfalls caused 256 deaths (143 on the Gulf Coast and 113 in the Virginia floods) and $1.421 billion in damage. Three deaths were reported in Cuba. More 

1969, August 30 - North Vietnam's president, Ho Chi Minh response to President Nixon's letter is received at the White House three days before Ho Chi Minh death in Hanoi on September 2, 1969 from a heart attack at the age of 79. More 

1974, August 7 - French high-wire artist Philippe Petit walks between the Twin Towers at 1,350 feet above ground with no net. More

1974, August 9 – Richard M Nixon resigns the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal. Facing possible impeachment by Congress, he became the only U.S. President ever to resign. Gerald Ford automatically assumed the presidency, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House and becoming the 38th U.S. President. This made him the only person to become the nation's chief executive without being elected to the presidency or the vice presidency. More

1975, August 3 - A  707 passenger flight chartered by the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc, flying in heavy fog crashed into a mountain on approach to Agadir Inezgane , Morocco Airport . All 188 passengers and crew on board were killed. The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error.

1975, August 8 - The term "Global Warming" is used for the first time in a science publication. The article by geochemist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory: "Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" More

1980, August 14-15 - The Solidarity movement in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, signs the Gdansk Agreement with the communist government, marking a significant milestone in the fight for workers' rights. Solidarity opposed Communist rule and was outlawed the following year. Seven years later, the re-legalization of Solidarity occurred and the government agreed to hold partially free parliamentary elections. Solidarity candidates scored stunning victories, paving the way for the downfall of Communism there.

1981, August 13 -  President Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), the 185-page that fulfilled his campaign promise to cut taxes. The act helped accelerate economic growth but it is blamed for being a major contributor to the growth of Income inequality in the U.S. which is now at heights not seen for a century. More

1983, August 21 - Filipino opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., was assassinated at the Manila airport while leaving his plane. Public outcry ultimately led to the collapse of the government of Ferdinand E. Marcos and the inauguration of Corazon C. Aquino, widow of the slain man, as president.

1985, August 2 -  Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) determined that the cause of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar airplane crash was wind-shear associated with an intense thunderstorm downdraft that occurred at the north end of the airport along runway 17. Today we know this intense, localized downburst as a microburst, a weather phenomenon that was not well understood at the time of the accident.

1985, August 12 - Japan Air Lines Flight 123 flight from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan crashes in the area of Mount Takamagahara, 62 miles from Tokyo. The Boeing 747  suffered a severe structural failure and decompression 12 minutes into the flight  and crashed 32 minutes later after flying under minimal control for that time. 524 people died in the accident. All four survivors were seriously injured. The crash of Flight 123 is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history.

1986, August 22 - A volcanic eruption under Lake Nios in Cameroon caused deadly fumes which killed more than 1,500 persons.

1987, August 16 -  A DC-9 Super 82 on Northwest Flight 255 crashes minutes aftertakeoff at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan. The flight was headed to California with a Phoenix stopover.  A four-year-old girl was the sole survivor of the accident,156 people died. The crash was caused by pilot error. More

1990, August 2 - Iraq invades Kuwait, lea ding to the Gulf War and international in tervention to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

1991, August 19 - Soviet hard-line Communists staged a coup, temporarily removing Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The coup failed within 72 hours as democratic reformer Boris Yeltsin rallied the Russian people. Yeltsin then became the leading power in the country. The Communist Party was soon banned and by December the Soviet Union itself disintegrated.

1991, August 24 - Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union, leading to its dissolution later that year.

1991, August 27 - Moldovia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1991, August 31 - Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the Soviet Union and a democratic government is established. 

1998, August 7 - The U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are bombed with truck bombs. The terrorist attacks killed 224 people, among them, 12 Americans, and wounded more than 4,500. The U.S. accuses Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, of masterminding the bombings. On August 20, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missiles launched against bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and to a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, believed to be manufacturing and distributing chemical weapons. More

1998, August 17 - The United States launches cruise missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in
retaliation for the 1998 embassy bombings.

1999, August 17 - The catastrophic magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, causing extensive damage and approximately 17,000 deaths. Named for the quake’s proximity to the northwestern city of İzmit, It is widely remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Turkish history. More

2000, August 12 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea while on a naval exercise inside the Arctic Circle. The entire 118-strong crew perished According to the Russian navy, it had not been carrying nuclear warheads. The cause of the disaster remains unknown although it was attributed to an accidental torpedo explosion. The wreck was brought up from the seabed by a Dutch salvage team more than a year after the accident. More

2002, - August 5 - The turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor is lifted out of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Hatteras N.C. The historic warship sank on December 31 1862 during a storm as it was being towed around Cape Hatteras on its way to Beaufort, North Carolina, to join a fleet being assembled for an attack on Charleston. Many of the sailors were rescued, but 16 of its crew members perished, More

2003, August 14 - A major power blackout affects parts of the northeastern and midwestern United States, as well as Ontario, Canada, leaving millions without electricity.

2005, August 29 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana, causing catastrophic damage and flooding in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

2006, August 24 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the definition of a planet, resulting in the demotion of
Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet."

2008, August 8 - The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics takes place, marking the first time China hosts the Olympic
Games.

2011, August 5 - NASA's Juno spacecraft launches on a mission to study the planet Jupiter

2011, Aug 5 - Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency downgrades the United States debt from its highest rating of AAA to a lesser AA+ rating, marking the first-ever decline of credit worthiness for the U.S. The agency cited America’s $14 trillion outstanding debt and an ineffective political leadership to address the debt reduction. This downgraded rating remains in effect as of January 1, 2023.

2014, August 9 - The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparks protests and civil unrest, leading to a national conversation on racial tensions and police violence in the United States.

2016, August 5-21 - The Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showcasing athletes from around the world.

2017, August 21 - A total solar eclipse, visible across a large portion of the United States, captivates millions of people.

2019, August 5 - India revokes the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed region.

2020, August 4 - A massive explosion at the port of Beirut in Lebanon causes widespread devastation and loss of life.

Online History Resources

46 BC, July 2 - Julius Caesar defeats Pompey the Great at the Battle of Dyrrhachium during the Roman Civil War.

64 CE, 64 July 18 - The Great Fire of Rome begins during the reign of Emperor Nero, lasting for several days and resulting in significant destruction.

365, July 21 - Crete earthquake - An estimated 8.5 magnitude underseas earthquake and resulting Tsunami causes widespread destruction in central and southern Macedonia (Modern Greece), Africa northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, Sicily and Hispania (Spain). On Crete, nearly all towns were destroyed. More

 711, July 19 - The Umayyad conquest of Hispania begins as Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar. the Islamic Arabs and Moors of Berber descent in northern Africa crossed the Strait of Gibraltar onto the Iberian Peninsula, and in a series of raids they conquered Visigothic Christian Hispania.

 756, July 28 - The Papal States are established as Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, donates land to Pope Stephen II, creating a temporal domain for the papacy.

 939, July 12 - The Battle of Simancas takes place between the Kingdom of León and the Caliphate of Córdoba, resulting in a victory for León and the decline of the Caliphate's power in the region.

 987, July 3 -  Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, marking the beginning of the Capetian dynasty.

1002, July 23 - The Holy Roman Emperor Otto III dies in his palace in Paterno, Italy, at the age of 21.

1009, July 15 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

1027, July 6 - Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.

1054, July 16 - The Great Schism occurs: Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople (now called Istanbul) was excommunicated from the Christian church based in Rome, Italy. The resulting split divided the European Christian church into two major branches: the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. 

1060, July 22 - Henry I of France is crowned King of France in Reims.

1099, July 15 - The First Crusaders launch an assault on Jerusalem, ultimately leading to the capture of the city and the establishment of the Crusader states.

1100, July 31- King William II of England, also known as William Rufus, is killed in a hunting accident in the New Forest.

1209, July 22 - The Massacre at Béziers takes place during the Albigensian Crusade, with Crusaders led by Simon de Montfort sacking the city and killing thousands.

1215, July 15 - The signing of the Magna Carta takes place at Runnymede, England, marking a crucial step towards the limitation of monarchic powers.

1223, July 18 - Louis VIII of France is crowned as the King of France in Reims Cathedral.

1230, July 29 - The Treaty of San Germano is signed between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX, ending the Papal-Imperial conflict.

1237, July 28 - The Battle of Posada takes place between the Mongol Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, resulting in a Hungarian victory.

1242, July 5 - The Battle of Lake Peipus occurs between the Teutonic Knights and the Novgorod Republic, with the Novgorod forces emerging victorious.

1253, July 10 - Mindaugas is crowned as the first and only King of Lithuania, establishing the Kingdom of Lithuania.

1260, July 3 - The Battle of Ain Jalut occurs between the Mongol Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate, resulting in a decisive Mamluk victory and halting the Mongol expansion into the Middle East.

1290, July 18 - The Edict of Expulsion is issued in England, ordering the expulsion of all Jews from the country.

1307, July 22 - King Philip IV of France orders the arrest of the Knights Templar, marking the beginning of their persecution and eventual dissolution.

1392, July 17 - The Joseon Dynasty is established in Korea with the crowning of King Taejo as the first king of Joseon.

1389, July 15 - The Battle of Kosovo takes place between the Ottoman Empire and an alliance of Balkan states led by Serbia, resulting in a costly but inconclusive outcome.

1456, July 5 - The Siege of Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár) by Sultan Mehmet II begins. Hungarian forces led by John Hunyadi a Hungarian nobleman and warlord of Vlach lineage, defended the city, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat. The battle had significant consequences, as it stabilized the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary for more than half a century and delaying the Ottoman advance in Europe.

1499, July 22 - The Swiss Confederation defeats the forces of the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Dornach. More

1520, July 8 - The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops reach Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

1536, July 9 - Anne Boleyn is executed in England for high treason.

1567, July 24 -  Abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots.   After failing to quash a rebellion of Scottish peers, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son. More

1588, July 29 - The Spanish Armada is defeated. The Spanish fleet was led by the Duke of Medina Sidonia and its purpose was to  overthrow Elizabeth I, to reinstate Catholicism in England , to end England's support for the Dutch Republic, and prevent attacks by English and Dutch privateers against Spanish interests in the Americas. The English fleet was under the command of Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham. His second in command was Sir Francis Drake. The Spanish Armada defeat is considered one of England's greatest military achievements. More

1609, July 2 - The Dutch explorer Henry Hudson sails into what is now New York Harbor, later establishing Dutch claims to the region.

1620, July 22 - The Mayflower departs from England on its voyage to North America, carrying the Pilgrims who would establish the Plymouth Colony.

1643, July 2 - The Battle of Adwalton Moor takes place during the English Civil War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Parliamentarian forces.

1652, July 4 - The Battle of Plymouth takes place during the First Anglo-Dutch War, with the English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake repelling a Dutch attack on Plymouth.

1663, July 3 - King Charles II of England grants a charter establishing the Carolina Colony, named in honor of his father, Charles I.

1664, July 23 - The Siege of New Amsterdam ends when the Dutch surrender to the English, who then rename the settlement New York.

1670, July 30 - The Hudson's Bay Company receives a royal charter from King Charles II, granting it exclusive trading rights in the Hudson Bay region of North America.

1688, July 10 - The Siege of Derry begins during the Williamite War in Ireland, as the predominantly Protestant city resists a Catholic Jacobite army.

1690, July 1 - The Battle of the Boyne takes place in Ireland, resulting in a victory for Protestant King William III over Catholic King James II and securing Protestant rule in Ireland.

1715, July 31 - The Urca de Lima and 9 other treasure ships on their way back to Spain from Havana were all lost in a hurricane off the Atlantic coast. More than 700 seamen, including the Spanish commander, drowned. More than $15 million worth of treasure sank to the bottom of the ocean. Spain managed to recover about $4 million of the treasure. The rest remained on the ocean floor for more than 250 years. More

1718, July 28 - The city of New Orleans is founded by French colonists under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.

1742, July 26 - The Battle of Dettingen occurs during the War of the Austrian Succession, marking the last time a reigning British monarch, King George II, personally leads his troops in battle.

1769, July 16 - Fr. Junípero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá. This is the first of the California Missions.  Fr. Junipero Sierra founded eight more of the 21 California missions: Carmel, San Antonio, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco (Mission Dolores). San Juan Capistrano, Santa Clara, and San Buenaventura,  Serra’s missions helped strengthen Spain’s control of Alta California.

1775, July 3 - George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1775, July 26 - Benjamin Franklin appointed first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress before the Declaration of Independence was even signed. More

1776, July 4 - The United States declares independence from Great Britain.

1777, July 31 -  The Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. His Masonic membership opened many doors in Philadelphia and Lafayette's advocates included the recently arrived American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, urged Congress to accommodate the young Frenchman who had offered to serve without pay.

1779, July 16 - The United States Congress establishes the Badge of Military Merit, later known as the Purple Heart, to honor soldiers wounded in battle.

1788, July 26 - New York ratifies the U.S. Constitution and becomes the 11th of the original 13 states to join the Union.

1789, July 14 - The fall of the Bastille takes place. Many consider this event the start of the French Revolution. It is now commemorated in France as a national holiday. More

1790, July 16 - President George Washington signs the Residence Act bill which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The bill declared that the exact location was to be selected by President Washington. The initial shape of the federal district was a square from land donated by Maryland and Virginia, measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side and totaling 100 square miles (259 km2). More

1796, July 11 - The United States takes possession of Detroit from the British during the American Revolutionary War, in accordance with the terms of the Jay Treaty.

1799, July 2 - The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta, providing a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. More

1803, July 4 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced in the United States.

1809, July 2 - Shawnee Chief Tecumseh calls on all Native peoples to unite and resist the growing loss land to the white settlers. proposing that if united,  the various tribes had enough strength to stop the white settlers. More

1810, July 20 - Colombian Declaration of Independence from Spain.

1811, July 5 - Venezuela declares its independence from Spain

1816, July 9 - Argentina declares its independence from Spain

1821, July 28 - Peru declares its independence from Spain.

1838, July 2 -  Enslaved Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors and gaining control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba. More

1840, July 23 - The British North America was approved by the British Parliament. The Act, also known as the Act of Union it was and proclaimed on February 10, 1841, in Montreal. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them. More

1847, July 24 - Pioneer Day . Completing a treacherous thousand-mile exodus, an ill and exhausted Brigham Young and fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon, as they were commonly known, pioneers viewed their arrival as the founding of a Mormon homeland. hence Pioneer Day. More

1847, July 26 - Liberia declaration of Independence.

1862, July 1 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the first income tax bill, establishing a 3% income tax on annual incomes of $600-$10,000 and a 5% tax on incomes over $10,000.

1863, July 1-3 - The Battle of Gettysburg takes place in Pennsylvania. The loss ended Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s ambitious second quest to invade the North and bring the Civil War to a swift end. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day engagement was the bloodiest single battle of the conflict. More

1863, July 7 - Kit Carson begins his campaign against the Navajo that resulted in their removal from the Four Corners area to southeastern New Mexico.

1866, July 30, The New Orleans Massacre:  a mob of ex-Confederates led an armed attack on a group of Louisiana Republicans and their African American supporters as they convened in the Mechanics Institute Building in New Orleans., site of a reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention 38 people were killed and 146 wounded. More

1867, July 1 - Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the National Day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada.

1868, July 28 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is officially adopted, having been ratified by the requisite number of states. The  Amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. 

1881, July 2 - President James A. Garfield was shot and mortally wounded as he entered a railway station in Washington, D.C. He died on September 19th.

1881, July 19 - Sitting Bull and his people return to the United States from Canada to surrender. More

1890, July 3 -  Idaho is admitted into the Union becoming the 43rd State. 

1890, July 10 - Wyoming is admitted into the Union  becoming the 44th State.

1893, July 1 - President Grover Cleveland undergoes a secret operation on a friend’s yacht to remove a cancerous growth from his mouth. The entire left side of his jaw was removed along with a small portion of his soft palate. Two weeks later, he was fitted with a rubber prosthesis which he wore until his death in 1908. The secrecy was mostly maintained for 24 years until  one of the doctors wrote an article describing what had transpired. More

1898, July 21 - Guam was ceded to the United States by Spain.

1898, July 25 - During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico, which was then a Spanish colony. In 1917, Puerto Rico became an unincorporated Territory of the U.S. and Puerto Ricans became American citizens. Partial self-government was granted in 1947 allowing citizens to elect their own governor. In 1951, Puerto Ricans wrote their own constitution and elected a non-voting commissioner to represent them in Washington. More

1900, July 19 - Italian King Umberto I was killed in Monza by Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci. He was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III. More

1903, July 15 - Ernest Pfennig, a Chicago dentist, orders the first Original Model A Ford car. The car is delivered a week later on July 23, 1903. A total of1,750 cars were made from 1903 through 1904 and sold at an average price of $850 More

1908, July 26 - The Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established.

1911, July 24 - American archeologist Hiram Bingham reaches the ruins of Machu Picchu. Although widely credited with being the first westerner to reach the site, other reports indicate a other Europeans had seen it before Bingham, but he was the one who revealed it to the world at large. Local Peruvians, including the expedition's guide, Melchor Arteaga knew of the site. Nine years before Bingham's expedition, Agustin Lizárraga, a local farmer searching for new land for agriculture with some family members came upon Machu Pichu and carved an inscription on a wall in the Temple of the Three Windows that said: "Agustín Lizárraga, July 14th 1902". More 

1914, July 28 - World War I outbreak of hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Serbia begin.

1914, July 31 - Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo closes the New York Stock Exchange to stop the European liquidation of American securities caused by the outbreak of WWI.  After several days of selloffs, about $3 billion (equivalent to $90 billion in 2023) of foreign portfolio investments had been sold. All of the world’s financial markets also closed. The Sock market remained closed for four months opening again on December 12, 1914. Bond trading had restarted on November 28, 1914. The liquidation of European-held securities transformed the United States from a debtor nation to a creditor nation for the first time in its history. More  

1915, July 24 - The  excursion boat S.S. Eastland, known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes rolles over into the Chicago river at the wharf's edge. More than 2,500 passengers and crew members were on board that day – and 844 people lost their lives, including 22 entire families. More

1917, July 2 -  Following King Constantine I abdication, under pressure from the Allies, Greece  ends three years of neutrality by entering World War I alongside Britain, France, Russia and Italy. 

1918, July 15 -  The Second Battle of the Marne  was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. It lasted a year ending on July 18, 1919.

1918, July 16 - Russia’s last Imperial Family; Nicholas and Alexandra, and their five children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey, were murdered by the Bolsheviks. More

1921, July 27 - The Insulin hormone is successfully isolated by Canadian doctors Frederick Banting and Charles Best. More

1921, July 28 - Hitler becomes Party Chairman and leader of the Nazis.

1932, July 28 - The Bonus Army,  a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand early cash redemption of their service bonus certificates. They were forcibly disbanded by the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. 

1933, July 22 - Wiley Post completes a solo flight around the world in the Lockheed 5C Vega Winnie Mae. This record-breaking flight demonstrated several significant new aviation technologies. More

1936, July 17 - The Spanish Civil War begins.  In a matter of days, a well-planned military uprising splits the county in half, with one zone controlled by the government (known as Republicans, Loyalists, or Reds), and the other by the rebels (also referred to as Nationalists, Fascists, or Whites)  An estimated half million people perished during the civil war which lasted until 1939. Franco ruled Spain as a dictator for almost 40 years until his death in 1975.  More 

1940, July 10 - The Battle of Britain begins as Nazi Germany launches air attacks on southern England. More

1941, July 7 - The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa, begins.

1941, July 26 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8832, freezing Japanese assets in the United States and eleven days later, on August 1, declares an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan, bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. On December 7 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. More at: WWII Museum and the The Independent Institute   

1943, July 10 - American and British forces invade Sicily by air and sea. 

1943, July 12 - Battle of Kursk: Russia stops the German advance. More

1943, July 19,  Approximately 700 aircrafts of the USAAF flew over Rome and dropped 9.000 bombs on the city. This raid was intended to only damage the freight yard and the steel factory in the San Lorenzo district of Rome, but it also struck apartments and the Papal Basilica, killing 1500 people. More

1943, July 24 - Operation Gomorrah begins. 791 British bombers took off under cover of darkness tow. ard Hamburg, Germany. The air fleet was composed of British Lancaster, Stirling, Wellington, and Halifax bombers flying in six waves. Each wave had between 100 to 120 aircraft hoping to concentrate as much destruction as possible.  More

1943, July 25 - Mussolini is deposed. The Fascist Grand Council ousted Mussolini from office and placed him under arrest two weeks after the Allied attack on Sicily. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy then ordered Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.

1943, July 28 - During World War II, a firestorm killed 42,000 civilians in Hamburg, Germany. after 2,326 tons of bombs and incendiaries were dropped by the Allies. 

1944, July 20 - German military leaders attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the government. Their plot fails. More

1945, July 16 - The first atomic bomb “ nicknamed “Gadget,” is successfully tested at the Trinity Site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Gadget detonated with between 15 and 20 kilotons of force, slightly more than the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Atomic Age had begun. More

1945, July 17 - The Potsdam Conference begins. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman— start a multi day meeting in Potsdam, Germany, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. During the conference, President Truman informed the Soviet leader that the United States had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Reportedly, Stalin, was already well-informed about the U.S. nuclear program thanks to the Soviet intelligence network. More

1945, July 30 - The USS Indianapolis is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sinks within minutes. Only 316 of the 1,196 men on board survived. The Indianapolis had just completed its major mission; the delivery to Tinian Island in the South Pacific of a key components of the atomic bomb that would be dropped a week later at Hiroshima.

1947, July 18 - President Harry Truman signs the second Presidential Succession Act. The original act of 1792 had placed the Senate president pro tempore and Speaker of the House in the line of succession, but in 1886 Congress had removed them. The 1947 Executive order reinserted those officials but placed the Speaker ahead of the president pro tempore. In 1965, Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana and Representative Emanuel Celler of New York introduced joint resolutions in the Senate and House of Representatives aimed at clarifying and defining in the Constitution, the rules on Presidential succession and inability. Congress approved the 25th Amendment on 1965. The states completed ratification by February 10, 1967, and President Lyndon Johnson certified the amendment on February 23, 1967.

1947, July 26 - President Harry Truman signs The National Security Act of 1947 . The Act mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. Government and created many of the institutions that Presidents found useful when formulating and implementing foreign policy, including the National Security Council (NSC).

1948, July 20 - The second peacetime draft began with passage of the Selective Service Act of 1948 after the STSA expired. The new law required all men of age 18 to 26 to register. It also created the system for the "Doctor Draft", aimed at inducting health professionals into military service. More

1948, July 26 - President Harry S. Truman signs executive order 9981 banning segregation in the Armed Forces. More

1949, July 27 - First flight of the de Havilland DH 106 Comet, world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. More

1951,  July 27 - The Korean War armistice is signed, ending three years of fighting and establishing a demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. 1951. No peace treaty is signed .

1952, July 23 - The Egyptian army led by by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a revolution toppling King Farouk in a coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement and, changing Egypt from a monarchy to a republic. The Revolution ushered in a wave of revolutionary politics in the Arab World, and contributed to the escalation of decolonization and the development of Third World solidarity during the Cold War. More

1952, July 25 - Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. commonwealth.

1953, July 26 - Fidel Castro's revolutionary "26th of July Movement." begins and culminates by overthrowing dictator Fulgencio
Batista in 1959. Although he once declared that Cuba would never again be ruled by a dictator, Castro's government became a Communist dictatorship.

1953, July 27 - The Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice by U.S. and North Korean delegates at Panmunjom, Korea. It brought an end to the hostilities that lasted just over three years and killed 2.5 million people. More

1955, July 17 -  Disneyland opens for its first guests.; a special 'International Press Preview' event, which was only open to invited guests. More

1956, July 26 - Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company, which administered the canal and was owned primarily by British and French shareholders. On October 29, Israel invades the Egyptian Sinai.  and on November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. Political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated the United Kingdom and France and strengthened Nasser. It later became clear that Israel, France and Britain had conspired to plan the invasion. More

1958, July 29 - NASA is established by U.S. Congress legislation. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operations on October 1, 1958.

1960, July 1 - The Somali republic was formed on July 1, 1960, as a unification of the Trust Territory of Italian Somaliland, and British Somaliland. The independence day of Somalia is a national holiday observed annually in Somalia and the diaspora worldwide.

1962, July 1 - Rwanda gains independence from Belgium. Independence Day in Rwanda is a somewhat muted affair. Kwibohora, (July 4) is celebrated as Rwanda Liberation Day. On this day in 1994 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) secured the capital of Kigali and ended the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

1962, July 1 - Burundi gains its freedom from Belgium.

1962, July 10 - The U.S. Patent Office issued Patent No. 3,043,625 to “Nils Ivar Bohlin, Goteborg, (Volvo) for the three-point seatbelt. Volvo was so convinced of its safety potential safety that it made the patent available for other manufacturers, and motorists, to benefit from.

1964, July 2 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

1964, July 6 - Malawi Independence Day.

1964, July 23 - President de Gaulle proposes at a news conference in the Salle des Fetes of the Elysee Palace, that the United States, the Soviet Union, Communist China and France agree to get out and stay out of the Indochinese peninsula as a means of ending the fighting in Laos and South Vietnam. He also proposes, once the fighting had ended, a massive program of economic and technical aid to the peoples of North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. More

1964, July 29 -  Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe reaches the Moon and takes the first close-up images of earths' satellite. During its final 17 minutes of flight, it sent back 4,316 images of the lunar surface. The last image taken 2.3 seconds before impact had a resolution of just half-a-meter.  More

1965, July 26 - Maldives Independence Day

1965, July 29 - The 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, arrives in Vietnam. More

1965, July 30 - Medicare is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. His gesture drew attention to the 20 years it had taken Congress to enact government health insurance for senior citizens after Harry Truman had proposed it. In fact, Medicare’s history dated back even further. More

1969, July 20 - American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin land the Apollo 11 mission Lunar Module “Eagle” in the Sea of Tranquility and become the first humans to walk on the moon. More

1971, July 1 - The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

1973, July 10 - The Bahamas gains its independence by the United Kingdom Government, Order in Council.  This date is now celebrated as the country's Independence Day.

1975, July 5 - Cape Verde Independence Day from Portugal - Effective date of the Agreement Between Portugal and Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) signed on 18 December 1974.[

1975, July 5 - Guinea-Bissau Independence Day - Declaration of independence during the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence.[52]

1975, July 6 - Comoros Independence Day from France. Unilateral declaration of independence by the Chamber of Deputies of Comoros following the 1974 Comorian independence referendum.[

1976, July 4 - The United States celebrates its bicentennial with a day of parades, concerts, and fireworks.

1976, July 20 - Viking 1 Lands on Mars' on the western slope of Chryse Planitia (the Plains of Gold). Viking 1 found a place in history when it became the first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of Mars and return images of the surface. More

1976, July 28 - A 7.8 earthquake razes the Chinese city of Tangshan located about 68 miles east of Beijing. The official death toll,  reported was 242,000 persons, but it may have been twice as high. At least 700,000 more people were injured and the property damage was extensive.

1978, July 25 - Louise Brown gives birth to the world’s first "test-tube baby", in Oldham, northwest England. More 

1979, July 12 - Kiribati Independence Day

1980, July 30 - Vanuatu, achieves independence from the United Kingdom and France under Prime Minister Walter Lini.

1982, July 9 - Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727 flight from Miami to San Diego, with stops in New Orleans and Las Vegas. crashed in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner after being forced down shortly after takeoff due to wind shear which the pilots were not informed about prior to takeoff. All 145 on board, as well as 8 people on the ground, were killed. More

1985, July 10 - French secret service agents planted two bombs and sank the Greenpeace Flagship The Rainbow Warrior. One crew member was killed. More

1985, July 13 - Live Aid, a global rock concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, is held in London and Philadelphia.

1988, July 3 - The U.S. cruiser USS Vincennes shoots down the Iranian passenger jet, Iran Air 655, with a surface-to-air missile, killing 290 people. More

1990, July 27 - The Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted coup d'état in Trinidad and Tobago.

1994, July 4 - Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture the Rwandan capital of Kigali, ending the Rwandan Genocide.

1994, July 12 - Germany's Constitutional Court ended the ban on sending German troops to fight outside the country which  had been in effect since the end of World War II. The ruling allowed German troops to join in United Nations and NATO
peace-keeping missions. On July 14, German military units marched in Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, the first appearance of German troops there since World War II.

1995, July 23 - Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp separately discover the Comet Hale–Bopp. The comet becomes visible to the naked eye a year later and stays visible for a record 18 months, due to its massive nucleus size. This is twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811, the previous record holder. Accordingly, Hale–Bopp was dubbed the great comet of 1997. Sadly, 39 people who were part of the "Heaven's Gate" cult in San Diego committed mass suicide as the comet came close to Earth. More

1996, July 17 - TWA Flight 800 departed Kennedy International Airport in New York bound for Paris but exploded in mid-air 12 minutes after takeoff.  All 212 passengers and 17 crew members on board were killed. Although it could not be determined with certainty, the likely ignition source was a short circuit.  Problems with the aircraft's wiring were found, including evidence of arcing in the fuel quantity indication system (FQIS) wiring that enters the tank. More

1997, July 1 - Hong Kong is handed over from Britain to China, ending over 150 years of British rule.

2000, July 25 - Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde passenger jet on an international charter flight from Paris to New York, crashes shortly after takeoff,. All 109 people on board and four on the ground were killed. It was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history. More

2005, July 7 - A series of coordinated terrorist attacks in London, England, kill 52 people and injure over 700.

2009, July 7 - The United Nations declares a famine in parts of southern Somalia, the first time the term has been used in almost 20 years.

2011, July 9 - South Sudan gains independence from Sudan ending a decades-long civil war and becoming the world's newest country.

2013,  July 3 - Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, is overthrown in a military coup.

2014, July 17 -  Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, fired by Moscow-backed separatists. In January of 2023, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed Russia's involvement in the downing of flight MH17. More

2015, July 14 - Iran and six world powers reach a historic nuclear deal in Vienna, Austria.to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

2016, July 14 - Terrorist Attack in the city of Nice kills 86 people and injures 434 others. More

Note: These are some of the many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of May, listed by year. Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate. Online History Resources

Cecilia Payne's work on the nature of variable stars showed that the wide variation in stellar spectra is due mainly to the different ionization states of the atoms and hence different surface temperatures of the stars, not to different amounts of the elements. Concluding that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking work from almost 100 years ago, was initially rejected because it contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time, which held that there were no significant elemental differences between the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved she was correct. More

On June 14 , 1777, the Second Continental Congress issued a resolution adopting the Flag of the United States. It wasn't until 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.

There have been twenty-seven official versions of the flag to date. The current version of the flag dates to August 21, 1959, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state. More

323 BCE, June 10 - Death of Alexander the Great: The renowned military leader and conqueror, Alexander the Great, dies in Babylon at the age of 32. More

632 CE, June 8 - Death of Prophet Muhammad: The founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, passes away in Medina, Saudi Arabia, marking a significant event in the history of the Islamic faith.

793 CE, June 8 - The Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne, the sacred heart of the Northumbrian kingdom in England occurs, highlighting the  Viking expansion, and incursions throughout Europe. More

987 CE, June 1 - Coronation of Hugh Capet: Hugh Capet is crowned as the King of the Franks, marking the beginning of the Capetian dynasty and the consolidation of power in France.

1005, June 29 - The Battle of Lechfeld takes place between the East Frankish (German) forces under Henry II and the invading Hungarian armies, resulting in a decisive victory for the East Frankish forces.

1014, June 23 - The Battle of Clontarf occurs in Ireland, where the forces of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland, defeat the Viking invaders.

1065, June 28 - Westminster Abbey is consecrated in London, England, becoming the site of coronations and burials for English monarchs.

1071, June 29 - The Battle of Manzikert takes place, where the Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Empire, leading to the gradual decline of Byzantine power in Anatolia.

1099, June 7 - The Crusaders begin the Siege of Jerusalem, a pivotal event during the First Crusade that eventually leads to the capture of the city. On June 15, the Crusaders enter Jerusalem and establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem, marking the culmination of the First Crusade.

1108, June 1 - Louis VI is crowned as the King of France.

1119, June 24 - The Order of the Knights Templar is founded in Jerusalem.

1139, June 24 - The Battle of Ourique takes place, where Afonso Henriques defeats the Almoravids and establishes the Kingdom of Portugal.

1153, June 6 - The Treaty of Wallingford is signed, ending the civil war in England between King Stephen and Empress Matilda, and establishing Henry II as the undisputed king.

1162, June 18 - Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is formally canonized as a saint by Pope Alexander III.

1178, June 18 - Five monks in Canterbury, England, observe an unusual phenomenon on the moon; a meteor event,now known as the "Canterbury Tales"
 
1184, June 16 - The Battle of Fimreite takes place in Norway, where King Sverre Sigurdsson defeats the forces of Magnus Erlingsson, securing his rule.

1191, June 8 - Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) arrives in Acre, beginning his involvement in the Third Crusade.

1215, June 15 - King John of England signs the Magna Carta and authenticates it with a wax seal. The Magna Carta was the product of political crisis and an uprising of the leading men of England. It was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.

1381, June 14 - Peasants' Revolt begins in England.

1494, June 7 - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the New World between them.

1523, June 6 - Sweden National Day. Celebrates the election of King Gustav Vasa and the new constitutions of  1809 and 1974. The election of King Gustav Vasa was the de facto end of the Kalmar Union and has been seen as a formal declaration of independence.

1665, June 7 - The first recorded victims of the Great Plague of London die - 

1752, June 10 - Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite-in-a-thunderstorm experiment is said to have taken place on this day in 1752. More

1775, June 18 - The Battle of Bunker Hill takes place near Boston, Mass, in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War.

1775, June 22 - The Continental Congress approves the first release of $1 million in bills of credit (paper currency) to help fund the American Revolutionary War. Another $1 million was authorized in July. By the end of 1775, Congress had authorized a total of $6 million bills of credit.  The currency quickly lost value, partly because it was not backed by a physical asset like gold or silver, but also due to the fact that too many bills were printed. The loss in value inspired the term "not worth a continental". More

1777, June 13 - Marquis De Lafayette accompanied by Baron De Kalb arrive on North Island, Georgetown County, S.C.  to serve alongside General Washington. Lafayette was 19 at the time. He and George Washington went on to develop a strong bond. More

1777, June 14 - The Second Continental Congress issues a resolution adopting the Flag of the United States. It wasn't until 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law. There have been twenty-seven official versions of the flag to date. The current version of the flag dates to August 21, 1959, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state. More

1783, June 5 - The first sustained flight occurred as a hot-air balloon was launched at Annonay, France, by brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, reaching an altitude of about 6,000 feet.

1788, June 21 -  New Hampshire ratifies the U.S. Constitution and becomes the 9th State and last necessary state of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1788, June 25 - Virginia ratifies the U.S Constitution and becomes the 10th State.

1792, June 1 - Kentucky was admitted to the U.S and becomes the 15th State.

1796, June 1 - Tennessee was admitted to the U.S and becomes the 16th State.

1812, June 18 - President James Madison signed into law a resolution passed by Congress declaring war with Great Britain marking the beginning of the War of 1812 which ended December 24, 1814 when the two nations met in Belgium and signed the Treaty of Ghent. ending the war and restoring the previously recognized boundaries between the United States and British territory in North America. The Senate unanimously ratified the Treaty of Ghent on February 16, 1815. More

1815, June 18 - Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars.

1836, June 15 - Arkansas was admitted to the U.S and becomes the 25th State.

1837, June 20 - Queen Victoria ascends to the British throne - 

1846, June 15 - The Oregon Treaty is signed, establishing the U.S.-Canadian border at the 49th parallel. Tribes are not consulted as the 49th Parallel becomes the boundary. Many Native people on either side of the line wake up in a different country, living under different laws than those they knew the night before. More

1863, June 20 - West Virginia was admitted to the U.S and becomes the 35th State.

1865, June 19 - Union General Gordon Granger announces in Galveston, Texas, that all slaves in Texas are free, an event, now celebrated as "Juneteenth".

1867, June 19 - Maximilian was executed on a hill outside Querétaro.M bringingin an end to France's the short lived  Mexican empire.
1872, June 6 -  Pioneering feminist, Susan B. Anthony, was fined for voting in a presidential election at Rochester, New York. More

1876, The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, takes place in southern Montana. More

1885, June 17, The disassembled Statue of Liberty arrives in New York aboard the French steamer Isere . The statue, a gift from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and has became known around the world as an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy. More

1893, June 7 - Gandhi 's first act of civil disobedience took place in South Africa when he went there to work  for an Indian company after studying to become a lawyer in England. When railroad officials made Gandhi sit in a third-class coach even though he had purchased a first-class ticket, Gandhi refused and police forced him off the train. This event changed his life. More

1896, June 4 - Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company takes his first car for a spin on the city of Detroit. More

1898, June 12 - The Philippines declared their independence from Spain. Later that year, the Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War and Spain ceded the Philippines to the US, the islands were occupied by U.S. forces. and became an American colony until after World War II.

1900, June 1 - The Boxer Rebellion begins in China. An uprising against against the spread of Western and Japanese influence including western religion begun by peasants but was eventually supported by the government. The Boxer Rebellion was put down by the Eight-Nation Alliance of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. More

1903, June 16 - The Ford Motor Company was officially incorporated. Founder Henry Ford and 12 investors launched his venture in a converted factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. It was his third attempt at establishing an automotive business. At the time, the company could only produce a few cars a day. More 

1905, June 7 - Norway Union Dissolution and Independence Day from Sweden. (National Day, commemorating the Independence from Denmark and the Constitution of Norway is celebrated  on17 May 17, 1814).

1910, June 15th - The British Terra Nova Expedition led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, sails from Cardiff, Wales for Antarctica. Scott wanted to continue the scientific work that he had begun when leading the Discovery Expedition from 1901 to 1904, and wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. He and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, where they found that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 34 days. Scott's party of five died on the return journey from the pole. More

1914,  June 28 - Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo, touching off a conflict between the Austro-Hungarian government and Serbia that escalated into World War I.

1916, June 3 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs the National Defense Act which authorized an expanded Army of 175,000, and an enlarged National Guard of 450,000 and brought the states’ militias more under federal control and gave the president authority, in case of war or national emergency, to mobilize the National Guard for the duration of the emergency.

1917, June 26 - The first American troops arrive in Europe. However, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) did not fully participate at the front until October, when the First Division, one of the best-trained divisions of the AEF, entered the trenches at Nancy, France. More

1919, June 4 - The 19th amendment granting women the right to vote is passed by Congress. The amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920.  U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certifies the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, giving women the Constitutional right to vote. It had been first proposed in Congress, forty two years earlier in1878, More

1919, June 28 - The signing of the Treaty of Versailles formally ended World War I. According to the terms, Germany was assessed sole blame for the war, it had to pay reparations of $15 Billion. It was also forced to give up Alsace-Lorraine and all overseas colonies. The treaty also prohibited German rearmament.

1922, June 14 - Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. President to broadcast a message over the radio. 

1924, June 2 - The government of the United States confers citizenship on all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the country. The right to vote, however, was governed by state law; until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting. More

1938, June 25 - Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, setting the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour.

1940, June 10 -  Norway surrenders to Nazi Germany, two months after Germany attacked Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940. On that same day, Denmark surrendered and was occupied. The Norwegians resisted for two months but surrendered on June 9, 1940.

1940, June 10 - Italy declares war against France and Great Britain. The Italian entry into the war widened its scope considerably in Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

1941, June 22 -  Nazi Germany Invades the Soviet Union during the Second World War . The Invasion, named Barbarossa, was the largest land offensive in human history, with over 10 million combatants taking part.

1942, June 4 - The battle of Midway -  Early on the morning of June 4, aircraft from four Japanese aircraft carriers attacked and severely damaged the US base on Midway. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, the US carrier forces were just to the east of the island and ready for battle. More

1942, June 11 - Eisenhower is appointed by Army Chief of Staff Marshall to oversee all U.S. operations in Europe. 14 days later, on June 25, 1942, Eisenhower arrived at U.S. headquarters in London and took command.

1944, June 4 - Rome was liberated by the U.S. 5th Army, led by General Mark Clark.

1944, June 6 - Allied forces launch the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, during World War II - Over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” By day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high; more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded. More

1944, June 17 - Iceland National Day. Effective date of the dissolution of the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union following the 1944 Icelandic constitutional referendum.

1944, June 22 - The American forces secured Okinawa. The battle for Okinawa drug out over nearly three months and included some of the worst kamikaze attacks of the warThe United States sustained over 49,000 casualties including more than 12,500 men killed or missing. More

1944, June 24 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the G.I. Bill. More 

1945, June 26 - The United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco. The United Nations Charter was ratified on October 24, 1945.

1948, June 24 - Soviets begin blockade of Berlin in the first major crisis of the cold war.

1948, June 26 - In response to the Soviet blockade, the  U.S. and Great Britain begin an emergency airlift of food and fuel to West Berlin to relieve two million isolated West Berliners. The Russians blockade of Berlin ended on May 12, 1949.

1950, June 25 - North Korea invades South Korea following clashes along the border. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union. Two days later, on June 27, President Harry S. Truman orders U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing the invasion and in support of a U.N. resolution calling for an end to hostilities. The fighting ended with an armistice on 27 July 1953, formally dividing the country at the 38th parallel into North and South Korea. The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities including over 36,000 Americans. More

1951, June 14 - The first UNIVAC, acquired by the United States Census Bureau is dedicated. The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer for business application produced in the U.S. Its design was started by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC who owned EMCC. The company was acquired by Remington Rand which completed the work. (Remington Rand later became part of Sperry, now Unisys) More

1953, June 10 - President Eisenhower rejects isolationism in the Cold War.  More

1953, June 19 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison in New York. They had been found guilty of providing vital information on the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

1954, June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman resigns after pressure from a clandestine CIA operation approved by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, leading to a military take over led by Colonel Castillo Armas. More

1956, June 25 - Detroit built the last Packard that was actually designed by Packard. More

1960, June 26 - Madagascar Independence Day from France.

1960, June 30 - Democratic Republic of the Congo Independence Day

1961, The Antarctic Treaty goes into effect to regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, "all land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude parallel". The 12 original signatories were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States.

1962, June 1 - Samoa Independence Day. While independence was achieved at the beginning of January, Samoa celebrates its independence day on June 1.

1963, June 20 - The U.S. and Soviet representatives signed the "Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Link." (The Hot line) More

1965, June 3 - Major Edward H. White II steps out of the Gemini capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space. On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov was the first man ever to walk in space. 

1965, June 7 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning contraception. With tis decision, the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to privacy, including freedom from government intrusion into matters of birth control.

1967, June 5-10 - The Six-Day War takes place between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

1967, June 8 - The USS Liberty is attacked, during the Six-Day War, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, the USS Liberty was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula. The intelligence ship, was well-marked as an American vessel and only lightly armed. The Israeli attack killed 34 US sailors, and wounded 171 in the two-hour attack. More:  USS Liberty Veterans Association  CIA Statement  History 

1968, June 5 - Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, California.

1971, June, 13 - The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers, a collection of top secret documents exposing U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War. More

1972, June 17 - Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., leading to the Watergate scandal.

1972, June 29 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment." The decision spared the lives of 600 individuals then sitting on death row. Four years later, in another ruling, the Court reversed itself and determined the death penalty was not cruel and unusual punishment. On October 4, 1976, the ban was lifted on the death penalty in cases involving murder.

1975, June 25 - Mozambique Independence Day from Portugal

1976, June 29 - Seychelles Independence Day.

1977, June 27 - Djibouti Independence Day from France

1979, June 18 - Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-II nuclear treaty. The US Senate chose not to ratify the treaty in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which took place later that year. The Supreme Soviet did not ratify it either. More

1982, June 30 - Deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution passes without the necessary
votes.

1986, June 4 - Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top-secret U.S. military intelligence information to Israel.  More

1987, June 12 - In a speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ―tear down this wall‖ and open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform. More

1989, June 4 - Chinese military cracks down on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. More

1990, June 1 - George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a bilateral agreement on Destruction and Non-production of Chemical Weapons and on Measures to Facilitate the Multilateral Convention on Banning Chemical Weapons"  The agreement was signed during a summit meeting in Washington D.C

1990, June 25 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5-4) that it was unconstitutional for any state to require, without providing other options, for a minor to notify both parents before obtaining an abortion.

1991, June 12 - Boris Yeltsin is elected the first democratically elected President of Russia.

1991, June 25 -  The Republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. Ethnic rivalries between Serbians and Croatians quickly erupted. About 200,000 were missing and presumed dead and over two million people became refugees.

1991, June, last Saturday - Day of Hungarian Freedom. Celebrates the restoration of Hungary's sovereignty after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in June 1991

1992, June 12 - Russia Day. The day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet. It has been celebrated annually on 12 June since 1992. 

1993, June 26 - President Clinton orders missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush.

1994, June 11 -  After 49 years, the Soviet military occupation of East Germany ended. At one time there had been 337,800 Soviet troops stationed in Germany. Over 300,000 Russians died during World War II in the Battle for Berlin.

1995, June 29 -  Two days after launch, U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, docks at Mir’s Kristall module as the two spacecraft flew 250 miles above the Lake Baikal region of eastern Russia, forming the world’s heaviest spacecraft up to that time – nearly half a million pounds. More

1997, June 30 - In Hong Kong, the flag of the British Crown Colony was officially lowered at midnight and replaced by a new flag representing China's sovereignty and the official transfer of power.

2001, June 11 - Timothy McVeigh, responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, is executed by lethal injection.

2004, June 28 - The U.S. returns sovereignty to an interim government in Iraq, but maintains roughly 135,000 troops in the country to fight a growing insurgency.

2013, June 6 - Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee, reveals thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill. Snowden came to international attention after stories based on the material appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other publications. Later in June, Edward Snowden, comes forward and admits that he is the source of the recent NSA leaks. On September 2, 2020, a U.S. federal court ruled in United States v. Moalin that the U.S. intelligence's mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. More at Business Insider and NPR

2015, June 26 - The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.

2015, June 27 - Activist Bree Newsome removes the Confederate battle flag from a flagpole on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds. More

Note: These are some of the many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of June, listed by year.  Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate. Online History Resources

Memorial Day honors all service members who lost their lives while in service to the United States, during peace and war. It is a time to reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

      "Soldiers Memorial Day"
When flow’ry Summer is at hand,
And Spring has gemm’d the earth with bloom,
We hither bring, with loving hand,
Bright flow’rs to deck our soldier’s tomb.

Gentle birds above are sweetly singing
O’er the graves of heroes brave and true;
While the sweetest flow’rs we are bringing,
Wreath’d in garlands of red, white and blue.

They died our country to redeem,
And from the loving earth we bring
The wealth of hill, and vale, and stream,
Our grateful land’s best offering

With snowy hawthorn, clusters white,
Fair violets of heav’nly blue,
And early roses, fresh and bright,
We wreathe the red, and white, and blue.

But purer than the fairest flowers,
We strew above the honored dead,
The tender changeless love of ours,
That decks the soldier’s lowly bed.

We bend and kiss the precious sod,
Swift fall our tears the graves above
Oh! Brothers! from the hills of God,
Look down and see our changeless love. 

Written by Mary B. C. Slade in 1870, two years after Gen. John A. Logan first declared May 30th a Memorial Day for decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. Music to her words was written by Perkins, W. O. (William Oscar). In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May. The change went into effect in 1971. Read about the Origins of Memorial Day

753 BCE, May 1 - According to legend, the city of Rome is founded by Romulus.

585 BCE, May 28 - A solar eclipse occurred during a battle between the Lydians and the Medes in what is now Turkey. It is one of the earliest recorded events in history.

431 BCE, May 7 - The Peloponnesian War begins between Athens and Sparta, marking the start of a decades-long conflict in Ancient Greece.

333 BCE, May 1 - The Battle of Issus takes place between Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia, resulting in a decisive victory for Alexander.

218 BCE, May 4 - Hannibal of Carthage wins the Battle of the Trebia against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. More

325 , May 20 - First Council of Nicaea - the first ecumenical council of Christian bishops at Nicaea, Asia Minor. 

330, May 11 - Byzantium was renamed Constantinople after Emperor Constantine.

1337, May 24 - Beginning of the Hundred Years' War - King Edward III of England formally declares war against King Philip VI of France, marking the start of a long-lasting conflict between the two kingdoms which is referred to as the Hundred Years' War which was eventually won by the French at the Battle of Castillon in 1453. This was largely due to the French use of guns against the English.

1348, May 10 - Siege of Calais begins: King Edward III of England surrounds the city of Calais during the Hundred Years' War, leading to a prolonged siege lasting over a year.

1360, May 8 - The Treaty of Brétigny is signed between England and France, marking a temporary end to the first phase of the Hundred Years' War and granting substantial territorial concessions to England.

1381, May 30 - Peasants' Revolt in England: The Peasants' Revolt, a major uprising against high taxes and social injustice, culminates in a confrontation between rebel forces and King Richard II at Smithfield in London.

1431, May 30 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen. More

1498, May 20 - Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad during his third voyage to the Americas.

1498, May 20 -  Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving in Calicut, where he erected a padrão (stone pillar) to prove he had reached India.  More

1502, May 20 - Christopher Columbus sets sail on his fourth and final voyage to the New World.1536, May 19: Anne Boleyn was beheaded at the Tower of London after being found guilty of adultery and treason against King Henry VIII.

1506, May 2 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is laid by Pope Julius II.

1527, May 6 - The Sack of Rome takes place, as troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, led by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, pillage and destroy the city.

1536, May 19 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, is executed on charges of adultery and treason.

1541, May 8 - Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando De Soto reaches the Mississippi River at a point below Natchez. De Soto was the first European documented to have seen the river.

1543, May 24 - Nicolaus Copernicus publishes his book "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" which formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. In all likelihood, Copernicus developed his model independently of Aristarchus of Samos, an ancient Greek astronomer who had formulated such a model some eighteen centuries earlier.

1559, May 2 - The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars and establishing peace between France and Spain.

1568, May 23 - The Eighty Years' War begins as the Dutch rebels, led by Louis of Nassau, defeat a Spanish force at the Battle of Heiligerlee.

1570, May 20 - The Siege of Famagusta begins during the Ottoman-Venetian War, with the city of Famagusta in Cyprus being besieged by the Ottoman Empire.

1588, May 29 - The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, with the aim of invading England during the Anglo-Spanish War.

1593, May 7- Playwright Christopher Marlowe is killed in a dispute, possibly over a bill, at a tavern in Deptford, London.

1607, May 14 - The first permanent English settlement in America was established at Jamestown, Virginia. 

1610, May 14 - French King Henry IV is assassinated by François Ravaillac in Paris.

1611, May 2 - The Authorized Version of the Bible (King James Version) was first published, and became the standard English language Bible.

1626, May 4 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present-day Manhattan) and establishes the colony of New Amsterdam.

1639, May 4 - The Fundamental Orders, often considered the first written constitution in North America, are adopted by the Connecticut Colony.

1642, May 29 - The city of Montreal is founded by French colonists under the direction of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve.

1652, May 18 - The Battle of Dover takes place during the First Anglo-Dutch War, with the Dutch Republic gaining a decisive victory over England.

1660, May 29 - King Charles II of England is restored to the throne after the period of Commonwealth following the English Civil War.

1670, May 2 - The Hudson's Bay Company is chartered by King Charles II, granting it a monopoly over the fur trade in the region of Hudson Bay in North America.

1689, May 1 -  The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration, granting freedom of worship to Protestant nonconformists.

1692, May 14 - The witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts begin with the arrest of Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good, and Tituba.

1707, May 1 - The Union between England and Scotland is proclaimed. Whales had already been part of England since the 1500's.

1762, - Catherine the Great overthrew Peter III and began her reign as empress of Russia, leading her country into full participation in the political and cultural life of Europe and extending Russian territory.

1765, May 22 - The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required American colonies to provide lodging and supplies to British troops.1841, May 3: New Zealand was declared a British colony.

1787, May 25 - The Constitutional Convention, which would draft the United States Constitution, began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1788, May 23 - South Carolina becomes the 8th State to Ratify the U.S. Constitution

1790, May 29 - Rhode Island becomes the 13th State to Ratify the U.S. Constitution

1792, May 17 - The NY Stock Exchange is born with the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement by 24 stockbrokers defining how stocks could be traded and establishing set commissions.

1804, May 14 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition, set out from St. Louis, Missouri traveling up the Missouri River on a mission to explore and map the newly acquired western territory of the United States. The group consisted of around 30 members, including soldiers, interpreters, scouts, and others. They faced numerous challenges, including harsh weather, treacherous terrain, encounters with Native American tribes, and logistical difficulties.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition made significant contributions to American knowledge of the West. and it continues to be celebrated as a remarkable feat of discovery and an enduring symbol of the nation's westward expansion.  More

1812, May 30 - The United States declared war on Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812.

1844, May 24 - Samuel Morse, inventor of the Telegraph  sent the first official telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?" from  Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.

1846, May 12 - The United States declares war on Mexico, beginning the Mexican-American War. More

1848, May 29 - Wisconsin was admitted to the Union of States and becomes the 30th State

1856, May 21 - Pro-slavery forces attacked and burned the free-state town of Lawrence, Kansas, in what became known as the "Sacking of Lawrence."

1858, May 11 - Minnesota was admitted to the Union of States and becomes the 32nd State 

1861, May 20 - North Carolina became the last of the Confederate states to secede rom the United States, triggering the start of the American Civil War.

1862, May 5 - The Mexican army defeated French forces at the Battle of Puebla

1862, May 20 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act making millions of government owned acres in the west available to "homesteaders". 

1863, May 3 - The Territory of Arizona is created by Congress with Prescott as capital.

1865, May 10 - 1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union forces in Irwinville, Georgia. General, Robert E. Lee, had surrendered on April 9 at Appomattox in Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant.

1869, May 10 - The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed, linking the East Coast and West Coast by rail.

1871, May 10 - The Treaty of Frankfurt am Main is signed, ending the Franco-Prussian War and leaving a stronger unified German state to influence European power politics and compete with England and France.

1873, May 20 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis obtained a U.S. patent on the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants for the very first time creating what we now call jeans.. More

1881, May 21 - The American Red Cross is founded in Washington, D.C. by Clara Barton and a circle of her acquaintances.  Barton led the Red Cross for 23 years. More

1902, May 8 - Martinique's Mount Pelée erupts and destroys the town of Saint-Pierre, killing approximately 30,000 people, 15 percent of the island’s population. in the space of a few minutes. This is considered the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. Mount Pelée is still classified as an active volcano.

1912, May 13 - The U.S. Congress passes the 17th Amendment, modifying Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators. Prior to its passage, senators were chosen by state legislatures. The amendment was ratified on April 8, 1913,  More

1915, May 7 - The passenger liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine during World War I, killing 1,198 people.

1915, May 23 - Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1916, May 31 - June 1: Battle of Jutland - World War I’s biggest naval conflict off the coast of Denmark marks the first and only showdown between German and British naval forces during World War I.

1917, May 17 - First regular airmail service begins, with one round trip a day between Washington, DC, and New York.

1917, May 18 - Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which authorized the Federal Government to temporarily expand the military through conscription. The act eventually required all men between the ages of 21 to 45 to register for military service. More

1918, May 18 - Day of the proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from the Russian Empire.

1918, May 28 - Independence Day - Commenmorates the date on which the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) was founded as the first secular democratic state in the Muslim East. Until 2021, it was marked as Republic Day. In October 2021, it was renamed and became Independence Day.

#cite_note-1" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">1921, May 31 - The Tulsa race massacre began. A two-day-long riot when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies , , and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. More#cite_note-1" style="font-size: 16px; background-image: none; color: rgb(51, 102, 204); overflow-wrap: break-word;">

1927, May 20-21 - Charles Lindbergh becomes the first man to fly solo completed the first solo across the Atlantic Ocean, flying 3,610 miles from New York to Paris in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis in 33 1/2 hours. More

1929, May 16: -The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood.

1932, May 12 - The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr. son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was found in Hopewell Township, New Jersey.

1932, May 21 -  Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (May 20 - May 2021)

1934, May 11 - An enormous dust storm, 1,500 miles long and 600 miles wide, that originated on the west coast, moved eastward across the Great Plains. A total of 300 million tons of topsoil, parched to dust by drought were blown out of the Great Plains. More

1934, May 23 - Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. When World War I began in July 1914, Italy was a partner in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but decided to remain neutral. However, a strong sentiment existed within the general population and political factions to go to war against Austria-Hungary, Italy’s historical enemy.

1937, May 6 - The Hindenburg disaster occurs in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States.

1937, May 12 -  King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey,  following the abdication of his older brother Edward who abdicated so he could marry American socialite Wallis Simpson.

1937, May 27 - In San Francisco, 200,000 people celebrated the grand opening of the Golden Gate Bridge by strolling across it.

1940, May 10 - Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He lead the U.K  through the tumultuous years of World War II.

1941, May 24 - The German Battleship Bismarck sinks the battlecruiser HMS Hood during a naval engagement in the Second World War, resulting in the death of all but 3 of her crew of 1,418. During the engagement, the Bismarck‘s fuel tank was damaged and headed for occupied France to effect repairs. Two days later the Bismarck was attacked by torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal; rendering the battleship's steering gear inoperable. In her final battle the following morning, the already-crippled Bismarck was engaged by two British battleships and two heavy cruisers, and sustained incapacitating damage and heavy loss of life. The ship was scuttled to prevent her being boarded by the British, and to limit further casualties. There were 2,300 German casualties.

1942, May 6 - U.S. Lt. General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines unconditionally to the Japanese. All surviving troops; 12,000 Americans and 66,000 Filipinos, were taken to a prison stockade in Manila. This was the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender.

1945, May 7 - Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II in Europe. More

1946, May 25 - Jordan's Independence Day marking its independence from The United Kingdom.

1948, May 14 - Israel declared its independence from British rule.

1949, May 12 - Soviets end blockade of Berlin.

1949, May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is established with the consolidation of the western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom and the United States. On 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR)  When West and East Germany were reunited in 1990, West Germany’s constitution and official name (Federal Republic of Germany) were adopted by the former East German state.

1953, May 29 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay completed the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. More

1954, May 7 - French defeated at Dien Bien Phu bringing an end to French colonial efforts in Indochina.  Vietnam was partitioned by the Geneva Accords of 1954 into Communist North Vietnam and non-Communist South Vietnam. President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well as military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. In 1961, JFK authorized sending additional Special Forces troops and military advisors to South Vietnam. By the end of 1962, there were approximately 11,000 military personnel in South Vietnam and 16,000 by the end of 1963.

1954, May 17 - The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

1955, May 6 - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) Joins NATO.

1955, May 14 - The Warsaw Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact), a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union formed this alliance as a counterbalance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a collective security alliance concluded between the United States, Canada and Western European nations in 1949. More

1958, May 13 - Vice President Nixon’s motorcade was attacked in Caracas by angry Venezuelans during his goodwill trip through Latin America. The trip was characterized by Latin American anger over the U.S. Cold War policies. Earlier on the trip Nixon had engaged in loud and bitter debates with student groups during his travels through Peru and Uruguay.

1960, May 1 - An American U-2 spy plane flying at 60,000 feet was shot down over Sverdlovsk in central Russia. The pilot, CIA agent Francis Gary Powers, survived the crash, and was tried, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

1960, May 20 - Cameroon National Day. Cameroon gained independence on 1 January 1960, but does not celebrate that date. Instead, it celebrates the National Day on 20 May commemorating the 1972 Cameroonian constitutional referendum.

1960, May 22 -  A magnitude 9.5 earthquake,  The largest earthquake ever measured,  - occurred along the coast of Chile causing a tsunami which radiated outward from a subduction zone along the coast. Its waves reached Hawaii in 15 hours and Japan in 22 hours. In Chile, the earthquake and the tsunami that followed took more than 2,000 lives and caused property damage estimated at $550 million (1960 dollars).The tsunami killed 61 people in Hawaii and 122 in Japan.

1961, May 5 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He piloted the spacecraft Freedom 7 during a 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles (186 kilometers) above the earth.

1961, May 25 - United States President. John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. More

1966, May 26 - Guyana gains Independence from the United Kingdom.

1970, May 4 - Four students were killed and nine others were injured when National Guardsmen opened fire on a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Ohio, United States.

1972, May 26 - U.S. and Soviet Union sign strategic arms control agreement known as SALT I 

1980, May 18 - Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state, killing 57 people. Hundreds of square miles of wilderness were reduced to wasteland,

1981, May 13 - Pope John Paul II was shot four times by Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

1989, May 10 - Tens of thousands of Chinese students and civilians gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to protest for democracy and government accountability, leading to a violent crackdown by the Chinese government. 

1990, May 4 - Day of the Restoration of Latvian Independence after the end of occupation by the Soviet Union. The Supreme Council adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia, and the Latvian SSR was renamed Republic of Latvia.

1991, May 19 - Somaliland Independence day. Officially the Republic of Somaliland,is an unrecognized de facto sovereign state in the Horn of Africa. Its claimed territory has an area of 68,000 square miles with approximately 5.7 million residents

1991, May 24 - Eritrea Independence day from Ethiopia.

1994, May 6 - The Tunnel, or “Chunnel,” built under the English Channel is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II and French president, François Mitterrand. The Chunnel is 31 miles long, 23 of them underwater at an average depth of 150 feet below the sea bed, making it the world’s longest undersea tunnel. The Chunnel cuts travel time between England and France to 35 minutes.

1994, May 10 - Nelson Mandela becomes the first African president of democratic South Africa. .. More

2003, May 1 - United States President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, marking the conclusion of the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces.

2004, May 1 -  Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, along with the island of Malta and the Greek portion of the island of Cyprus joined the EU,

2011, May 2 - Osama bin Laden is killed by US forces in Pakistan.

Note: These are some of the many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of May, listed by year. Dates provided for events that occurred before the Common Era (BCE) may be approximate. Online History Resources

I would read novels,
tales of western yore,
about Billy the Kid,
the Dalton Gang, and more.

The early days, in the West,
travelling before rail,
when covered wagons,
used the Oregon Trail.

Imagine the adventure,
as you travelled along,
miles after miles,
toward your new home.

I remember some stories,
told when on their way.
He wrote many novels,
about the West, Zane Grey

Westward, he rode,
over mountain and plain,
crossing many valleys,
of the lands domain.

Travelling on horseback,
he was doing his best,
pursuing the journey
of the first Pony Express.