Culture & Daily Rituals
Clothing, cooking, festivals, storytelling, education, and daily customs
History: January 1 (#1)
January 1, 1985 The first British mobile phone call is made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone.
Read commentary →History: January 1 (#2)
January 1, 1902 The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
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January 1, 1773 The hymn that becomes known as "Amazing Grace", previously titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17, Faith's Review and Expectation", is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.
Read commentary →History: January 1 (#5)
January 1, 1726 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, his church cantata for New Year's Day to a libretto by Georg Christian Lehms.
Read commentary →History: January 3 (#2)
January 3, 2009 The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Read commentary →History: January 4 (#2)
January 4, 1903 Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.
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January 4, 1912 The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.
Read commentary →History: January 5 (#1)
January 5, 1914 The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses.
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January 5, 1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
Read commentary →History: January 6 (#1)
January 6, 1838 Alfred Vail and colleagues demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
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January 6, 1725 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, a chorale cantata for Epiphany.
Read commentary →History: January 7 (#1)
January 7, 1955 Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
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January 7, 1954 Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
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January 7, 1610 Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able to distinguish the last two until the following night.
Read commentary →History: January 8 (#1)
January 8, 1735 The premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
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January 8, 1547 The first Lithuanian-language book, the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas, is published in Königsberg.
Read commentary →History: January 9 (#2)
January 9, 1839 The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
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January 9, 2017 Mont-Libre Agile Learning Centre, the province of Quebec's first alternative schooling democratic learning centre to support homeschooled youth, opens in the city of Montreal.
Read commentary →History: January 10 (#1)
January 10, 1812 The first steamboat on the Ohio River or the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.
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January 10, 69 Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba as deputy Roman Emperor.
Read commentary →History: January 11 (#2)
January 11, 1961 Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking New York City's boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens to road traffic.
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January 11, 1759 The first American life insurance company, the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group), is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Read commentary →History: January 11 (#5)
January 11, 1943 Italian-American anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City.
Read commentary →History: January 12 (#1)
January 12, 1997 Space Shuttle program: Atlantis launches from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-81 to the Russian space station Mir, carrying astronaut Jerry M. Linenger for a four-month stay on board the station, replacing astronaut John E. Blaha.
Read commentary →History: January 12 (#2)
January 12, 1969 The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League to win Super Bowl III in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
Read commentary →History: January 14 (#1)
January 14, 1957 Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
Read commentary →History: January 15 (#1)
January 15, 1962 The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.
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January 15, 1910 Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 99 m (325 ft).
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January 15, 1818 A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.
Read commentary →History: January 16 (#2)
January 16, 378 General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.
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January 17, 1904 Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.
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January 17, 1608 Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his men.
Read commentary →History: January 18 (#2)
January 18, 1866 Wesley College is established in Melbourne, Australia.
Read commentary →History: January 19 (#1)
January 19, 1953 Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
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January 19, 1853 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.
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January 19, 1839 The British East India Company captures Aden.
Read commentary →History: January 20 (#1)
January 20, 1788 The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, beginning the British colonization of Australia. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony.
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January 20, 1726 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen (My sighs, my tears), BWV 13, for the second Sunday after Epiphany.
Read commentary →History: January 21 (#1)
January 21, 1963 The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ends operation.
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January 22, 1998 Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
Read commentary →History: January 23 (#1)
January 23, 1957 American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".
Read commentary →History: January 25 (#2)
January 25, 1961 Walt Disney Productions released the animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians, based on Dodie Smith's 1956 children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians.
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January 25, 1960 The National Association of Broadcasters in the United States reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.
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January 25, 1650 As part of the purges following the Great Potosí Mint Fraud of 1649 Francisco Gómez de la Rocha, a rich former corregidor of Potosí, is executed.
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January 25, 1515 Coronation of Francis I of France takes place at Reims Cathedral, where the new monarch is anointed with the oil of Clovis and girt with the sword of Charlemagne.
Read commentary →History: January 26 (#1)
January 26, 1949 The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).
Read commentary →History: January 27 (#2)
January 27, 1726 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72, concluding his third Christmas season in Leipzig on the Third Sunday after Epiphany.
Read commentary →History: January 28 (#2)
January 28, 1960 The National Football League announces expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 1961 NFL season.
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January 28, 1933 The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali Khan and is accepted by Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
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January 28, 1878 Yale Daily News becomes the first independent daily college newspaper in the United States.
Read commentary →History: January 29 (#1)
January 29, 1845 "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
Read commentary →History: January 31 (#1)
January 31, 1949 These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States.
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January 31, 1901 Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters premieres at Moscow Art Theatre in Russia.
Read commentary →History: February 1 (#1)
February 1, 1896 La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
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February 1, 1884 The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
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February 2, 1909 The Paris Film Congress opens, an attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPPC cartel in the United States.
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February 2, 1725 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, based on Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis.
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February 2, 1207 Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established.
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February 2, 2000 First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
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February 3, 1971 New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.
Read commentary →History: February 6 (#1)
February 6, 1820 The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
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February 6, 1959 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
Read commentary →History: February 8 (#1)
February 8, 1910 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
Read commentary →History: February 9 (#2)
February 9, 1978 The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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February 9, 1922 Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
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February 9, 1893 Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, premieres at La Scala, Milan.
Read commentary →History: February 10 (#2)
February 10, 1996 IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
Read commentary →History: February 11 (#1)
February 11, 1946 The New Testament of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first significant challenge to the Authorized King James Version, is published.
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February 11, 1856 The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is deposed.
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February 11, 1937 The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union.
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February 11, 1840 Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.
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February 11, 1997 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read commentary →History: February 13 (#1)
February 13, 1914 Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
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February 13, 1633 Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
Read commentary →History: February 14 (#1)
February 14, 1924 The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
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February 14, 2005 YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
Read commentary →History: February 15 (#1)
February 15, 1852 The Helsinki Cathedral (known as St. Nicholas' Church at time) is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
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February 15, 1972 Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
Read commentary →History: February 17 (#1)
February 17, 1996 In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
Read commentary →History: February 18 (#1)
February 18, 3102 BCE Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna.
Read commentary →History: February 20 (#3)
February 20, 1872 The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
Read commentary →History: February 21 (#1)
February 21, 1947 In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
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February 21, 1828 Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
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February 21, 1925 The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
Read commentary →History: February 23 (#1)
February 23, 1909 The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
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February 23, 1725 J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.
Read commentary →History: February 26 (#1)
February 26, 1909 Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
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February 26, 1606 The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 becomes the first European expedition to set foot on Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea.
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February 26, 1794 The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen burns down.
Read commentary →History: March 2 (#3)
March 2, 1969 In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
Read commentary →History: March 3 (#1)
March 3, 1585 The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza.
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March 3, 724 Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Shōmu who becomes emperor of Japan.
Read commentary →History: March 4 (#2)
March 4, 1957 The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
Read commentary →History: March 5 (#3)
March 5, 1860 Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Read commentary →History: March 9 (#1)
March 9, 1842 Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera composers.
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March 9, 1959 The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
Read commentary →History: March 10 (#1)
March 10, 1496 After establishing the city of Santo Domingo, Christopher Columbus departs for Spain, leaving his brother in command.
Read commentary →History: March 11 (#1)
March 11, 1851 The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.
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March 11, 1702 The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper, is published for the first time.
Read commentary →History: March 12 (#1)
March 12, 2009 Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history.
Read commentary →History: March 15 (#1)
March 15, 1927 The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
Read commentary →History: March 16 (#1)
March 16, 1621 Samoset, an Abenaki, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
Read commentary →History: March 17 (#1)
March 17, 1862 The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened.
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March 17, 1979 The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
Read commentary →History: March 21 (#1)
March 21, 1925 The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
Read commentary →History: March 22 (#3)
March 22, 1631 The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
Read commentary →History: March 23 (#2)
March 23, 2001 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
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March 23, 2021 A container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal for six days.
Read commentary →History: March 25 (#2)
March 25, 1725 Bach's chorale cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1", is first performed on the Feast of the Annunciation, coinciding with Palm Sunday.
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March 25, 1770 Daskalogiannis leads the people of Sfakia in the first Greek uprising against the Ottoman rule
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March 25, 1911 Andrey Yushchinsky is murdered in Kiev, leading to the Beilis affair.
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March 26, 1958 The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.
Read commentary →History: March 27 (#1)
March 27, 1309 Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized Ferrara, a papal fiefdom.
Read commentary →History: March 29 (#1)
March 29, 1999 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
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March 29, 1984 The Baltimore Colts load their possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer their operations to Indianapolis.
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March 29, 2021 The ship Ever Given is dislodged from the Suez Canal.
Read commentary →History: March 31 (#1)
March 31, 1906 The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.
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March 31, 1901 Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák premieres at the National Opera House in Prague.
Read commentary →History: April 2 (#1)
April 2, 1725 J. S. Bach's cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6, is first performed in Leipzig on Easter Monday.
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April 2, 1107 Seljuq sultan Muhammad I Tapar begins the siege of Shahdiz, a fortress of the Nizari Ismailis.
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April 3, 1895 The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
Read commentary →History: April 4 (#2)
April 4, 1581 Francis Drake is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for completing a circumnavigation of the world.
Read commentary →History: April 5 (#1)
April 5, 1998 In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
Read commentary →History: April 6 (#1)
April 6, 1909 Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.
Read commentary →History: April 10 (#1)
April 10, 1724 Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.
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April 10, 428 Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Read commentary →History: April 11 (#1)
April 11, 1727 Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany).
Read commentary →History: April 15 (#1)
April 15, 1817 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc found the American School for the Deaf (then called the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons), the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut.
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April 15, 1738 Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, receives its premiere performance in London, England.
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April 15, 1755 Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London.
Read commentary →History: April 16 (#1)
April 16, 1908 Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.
Read commentary →History: April 17 (#1)
April 17, 1492 Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.
Read commentary →History: April 19 (#2)
April 19, 1770 Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
Read commentary →History: April 21 (#1)
April 21, 1934 The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1994, it is revealed to be a hoax).
Read commentary →History: April 23 (#2)
April 23, 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104, illustrating the topic of the Good Shepherd in pastoral music.
Read commentary →History: April 24 (#2)
April 24, 1990 STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
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April 25, 1829 Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the British Empire.
Read commentary →History: April 27 (#1)
April 27, 1667 Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register.
Read commentary →History: April 28 (#2)
April 28, 1253 Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
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April 28, 1294 Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols with the reigning title Oljeitu.
Read commentary →History: April 30 (#2)
April 30, 2008 Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
Read commentary →History: May 1 (#1)
May 1, 1915 RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.
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May 1, 1486 Christopher Columbus presents his plans for discovering a western route to the Indies to the Spanish Queen Isabella I of Castile.
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May 1, 1885 The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opens for business.
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May 2, 1670 King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.
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May 2, 1611 The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.
Read commentary →History: May 4 (#2)
May 4, 1256 The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
Read commentary →History: May 5 (#1)
May 5, 1891 The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.
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May 5, 1920 Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder.
Read commentary →History: May 6 (#1)
May 6, 1949 EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.
Read commentary →History: May 7 (#1)
May 7, 1952 The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.
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May 7, 1931 The stand-off between criminal Francis Crowley and 300 members of the New York Police Department takes place in his fifth-floor apartment on West 91st Street, New York City.
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May 7, 1846 The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Read commentary →History: May 10 (#3)
May 10, 1294 Temür, Khagan of the Mongols, is enthroned as Emperor of the Yuan dynasty.
Read commentary →History: May 11 (#1)
May 11, 1919 Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
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May 11, 2009 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read commentary →History: May 15 (#1)
May 15, 1997 The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
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May 15, 1725 Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Ich bin ein guter Hirt, BWV 85, about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Read commentary →History: May 16 (#1)
May 16, 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
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May 16, 946 Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.
Read commentary →History: May 17 (#1)
May 17, 1984 Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
Read commentary →History: May 17 (#2)
May 17, 1792 The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
Read commentary →History: May 20 (#2)
May 20, 1714 Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.
Read commentary →History: May 21 (#1)
May 21, 1932 Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
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May 21, 1925 The opera Doktor Faust, unfinished when composer Ferruccio Busoni died, is premiered in Dresden.
Read commentary →History: May 22 (#4)
May 22, 2012 Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
Read commentary →History: May 23 (#1)
May 23, 1829 Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
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May 23, 1609 Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
Read commentary →History: May 24 (#1)
May 24, 1976 The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.
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May 24, 1883 The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
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May 24, 1683 The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum.
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May 24, 1956 The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.
Read commentary →History: May 25 (#1)
May 25, 1895 Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
Read commentary →History: May 27 (#1)
May 27, 1937 In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
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May 27, 1930 The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
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May 27, 1927 The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
Read commentary →History: May 29 (#2)
May 29, 1825 The Coronation of Charles X of France takes place in Reims Cathedral, the last ever coronation of a French monarch.
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May 29, 1852 Jenny Lind leaves New York after her two-year American tour.
Read commentary →History: June 1 (#1)
June 1, 1961 The Canadian Bank of Commerce and Imperial Bank of Canada merge to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the largest bank merger in Canadian history.
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June 1, 1495 A monk, John Cor, records the first known batch of Scotch whisky.
Read commentary →History: June 7 (#1)
June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites-only" car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.
Read commentary →History: June 10 (#2)
June 10, 1523 Copenhagen is surrounded by the army of Frederick I of Denmark, as the city will not recognise him as the successor of Christian II of Denmark.
Read commentary →History: June 10 (#3)
June 10, 1793 The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris. A year later, it becomes the first public zoo.
Read commentary →History: June 11 (#2)
June 11, 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach leads his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his second cycle, the chorale cantata cycle.
Read commentary →History: June 11 (#5)
June 11, 2008 The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.
Read commentary →History: June 12 (#1)
June 12, 1982 A nuclear disarmament rally and concert is held in New York City.
Read commentary →History: June 13 (#1)
June 13, 1855 Twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes ("The Sicilian Vespers"), is premiered in Paris.
Read commentary →History: June 16 (#1)
June 16, 1911 IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
Read commentary →History: June 17 (#1)
June 17, 1901 The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.
Read commentary →History: June 17 (#2)
June 17, 1673 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reach the Mississippi River and become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.
Read commentary →History: June 17 (#3)
June 17, 1242 Following the Disputation of Paris, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were burnt in Paris.
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June 17, 1579 Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
Read commentary →History: June 18 (#1)
June 18, 1948 Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Read commentary →History: June 19 (#1)
June 19, 1978 Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication.
Read commentary →History: June 19 (#2)
June 19, 1988 Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
Read commentary →History: June 23 (#1)
June 23, 1926 The College Board administers the first SAT exam.
Read commentary →History: June 24 (#2)
June 24, 1724 On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach leads the first performance of his Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, the third cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.
Read commentary →History: June 24 (#3)
June 24, 1571 Miguel López de Legazpi conquers Manila for Spain, modern day capital of the Philippines.
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June 24, 1918 First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
Read commentary →History: June 26 (#3)
June 26, 1889 Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.
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June 26, 1948 Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is published in The New Yorker magazine.
Read commentary →History: June 26 (#5)
June 26, 1409 Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon.
Read commentary →History: June 27 (#1)
June 27, 1995 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-71, the first space shuttle mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
Read commentary →History: June 29 (#1)
June 29, 1995 Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
Read commentary →History: June 30 (#1)
June 30, 1859 French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
Read commentary →History: July 1 (#1)
July 1, 1881 The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
Read commentary →History: July 1 (#3)
July 1, 1766 François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
Read commentary →History: July 3 (#1)
July 3, 1952 The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
Read commentary →History: July 3 (#4)
July 3, 1884 Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
Read commentary →History: July 4 (#1)
July 4, 1939 Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
Read commentary →History: July 4 (#2)
July 4, 1862 Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
Read commentary →History: July 4 (#3)
July 4, 1855 The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn.
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July 4, 1584 Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island.
Read commentary →History: July 5 (#1)
July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass delivers his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" speech in Rochester, New York.
Read commentary →History: July 5 (#2)
July 5, 1954 The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin.
Read commentary →History: July 6 (#1)
July 6, 1536 The explorer Jacques Cartier lands at St. Malo at the end of his second expedition to North America. He returns with none of the gold he expected to find.
Read commentary →History: July 7 (#1)
July 7, 1959 Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
Read commentary →History: July 8 (#1)
July 8, 1889 The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
Read commentary →History: July 10 (#2)
July 10, 1877 The then-villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
Read commentary →History: July 10 (#3)
July 10, 1789 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta.
Read commentary →History: July 11 (#2)
July 11, 1893 The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
Read commentary →History: July 12 (#1)
July 12, 1543 King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
Read commentary →History: July 12 (#3)
July 12, 1580 The Ostrog Bible, one of the early printed Bibles in a Slavic language, is published.
Read commentary →History: July 14 (#1)
July 14, 1790 Inaugural Fête de la Fédération is held to celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation.
Read commentary →History: July 15 (#2)
July 15, 1870 Canadian Confederation: Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.
Read commentary →History: July 15 (#3)
July 15, 1741 Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
Read commentary →History: July 16 (#1)
July 16, 1941 Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as an MLB record.
Read commentary →History: July 16 (#2)
July 16, 1916 Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
Read commentary →History: July 17 (#1)
July 17, 180 Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
Read commentary →History: July 18 (#1)
July 18, 1723 Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136, in Leipzig on the eighth Sunday after Trinity.
Read commentary →History: July 18 (#2)
July 18, 1334 The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
Read commentary →History: July 18 (#3)
July 18, 1968 Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.
Read commentary →History: July 19 (#1)
July 19, 1843 Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
Read commentary →History: July 19 (#2)
July 19, 1983 The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
Read commentary →History: July 20 (#1)
July 20, 1831 Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish their land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.
Read commentary →History: July 20 (#2)
July 20, 1903 The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.
Read commentary →History: July 21 (#1)
July 21, 1925 Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph (241 km/h) on land. At Pendine Sands in Wales, he drives Sunbeam 350HP built by Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).
Read commentary →History: July 22 (#1)
July 22, 1793 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
Read commentary →History: July 22 (#2)
July 22, 1598 William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, is entered on the Stationers' Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers' Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.
Read commentary →History: July 23 (#1)
July 23, 1936 In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.
Read commentary →History: July 24 (#1)
July 24, 1935 The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee.
Read commentary →History: July 24 (#2)
July 24, 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and takes possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.
Read commentary →History: July 25 (#1)
July 25, 1965 Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.
Read commentary →History: July 25 (#2)
July 25, 1908 Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in kombu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
Read commentary →History: July 26 (#1)
July 26, 1989 A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Read commentary →History: July 26 (#2)
July 26, 1882 Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.
Read commentary →History: July 27 (#1)
July 27, 1866 The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland.
Read commentary →History: July 29 (#1)
July 29, 1871 The Connecticut Valley Railroad opens between Old Saybrook, Connecticut and Hartford, Connecticut in the United States.
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July 29, 1565 The widowed Mary, Queen of Scots marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, in a Catholic ceremony.
Read commentary →History: July 30 (#1)
July 30, 1863 Valuev Circular banned the publication of religious, educational and training books in Ukrainian in the Russian Empire.
Read commentary →History: August 1 (#1)
August 1, 1714 George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
Read commentary →History: August 1 (#4)
August 1, 2007 The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
Read commentary →History: August 2 (#1)
August 2, 1873 The Clay Street Hill Railroad begins operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.
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August 2, 1870 Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
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August 2, 1982 The Helsinki Metro, the first rapid transit system of Finland, is opened to the general public.
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August 3, 1829 The Treaty of Lewistown is signed by the Shawnee and Seneca peoples, exchanging land in Ohio for land west of the Mississippi River.
Read commentary →History: August 5 (#1)
August 5, 1888 Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
Read commentary →History: August 5 (#2)
August 5, 1882 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, today known as ExxonMobil, is established officially. The company would later grow to become the holder of all Standard Oil companies and the entity at the center of the breakup of Standard Oil.
Read commentary →History: August 5 (#3)
August 5, 1858 Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.
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August 5, 1874 Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
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August 5, 1860 Charles XV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
Read commentary →History: August 7 (#1)
August 7, 1858 The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.
Read commentary →History: August 8 (#1)
August 8, 1831 Four hundred Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.
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August 8, 1576 The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on the island of Hven.
Read commentary →History: August 8 (#5)
August 8, 2008 A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.
Read commentary →History: August 11 (#1)
August 11, 1973 At the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in The Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc hosts a house party widely considered to mark the birthplace of hip hop culture and music. DJ Kool Herc demonstrates a new technique of beat juggling and Coke La Rock performs a new style of vocal performance called rapping.
Read commentary →History: August 13 (#1)
August 13, 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101, a chorale cantata on a famous tune.
Read commentary →History: August 13 (#2)
August 13, 1536 Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance.
Read commentary →History: August 14 (#1)
August 14, 1948 An Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers known as Beaver drop occurred. This program relocated beavers from Northwestern Idaho to Central Idaho by airplane and then parachuting the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin .
Read commentary →History: August 14 (#2)
August 14, 1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
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August 14, 1901 The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#1)
August 15, 1969 The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in Bethel, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#2)
August 15, 1914 A servant of American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, sets fire to the living quarters of Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, and murders seven people there.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#3)
August 15, 1843 The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
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August 15, 1843 Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Read commentary →History: August 15 (#5)
August 15, 1248 The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)
Read commentary →History: August 16 (#1)
August 16, 1876 Richard Wagner's Siegfried, the penultimate opera in his Ring cycle, is premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
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August 16, 1989 A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.
Read commentary →History: August 16 (#3)
August 16, 1550 Rabbi Moses Isserles issues his ruling in the Bragadin-Giustiniani dispute, one of the earliest instances of a copyright suit over any book.
Read commentary →History: August 16 (#4)
August 16, 2008 The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.
Read commentary →History: August 17 (#1)
August 17, 1907 Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the U.S. and a popular tourist attraction, opens in Seattle, Washington.
Read commentary →History: August 17 (#2)
August 17, 1876 Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the last opera in his Ring cycle, premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
Read commentary →History: August 17 (#4)
August 17, 1784 Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of 12,000 reals from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.
Read commentary →History: August 19 (#1)
August 19, 1960 Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
Read commentary →History: August 19 (#2)
August 19, 1725 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a cantata setting the unchanged text of Neander's hymn.
Read commentary →History: August 20 (#1)
August 20, 1920 The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
Read commentary →History: August 21 (#2)
August 21, 1878 The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Read commentary →History: August 23 (#1)
August 23, 1927 Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.
Read commentary →History: August 24 (#1)
August 24, 394 The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, the latest known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs, is written.
Read commentary →History: August 25 (#1)
August 25, 1980 The last performance of the Jahrhundertring at the Bayreuth Festival receives ovations of 45 minutes.
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August 25, 1609 Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
Read commentary →History: August 28 (#1)
August 28, 1859 The Carrington event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record to strike the Earth. Electrical telegraph service is widely disrupted.
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August 28, 1830 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in U.S. railroads.
Read commentary →History: August 29 (#1)
August 29, 708 Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
Read commentary →History: August 30 (#1)
August 30, 1936 The RMS Queen Mary wins the Blue Riband by setting the fastest transatlantic crossing.
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August 30, 70 Titus ends the siege of Jerusalem after destroying Herod's Temple.
Read commentary →History: September 1 (#1)
September 1, 1610 Claudio Monteverdi's musical work Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) is first published, printed in Venice and dedicated to Pope Paul V.
Read commentary →History: September 1 (#2)
September 1, 1355 King Tvrtko I of Bosnia writes In castro nostro Vizoka vocatum from the Old town of Visoki.
Read commentary →History: September 3 (#1)
September 3, 1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.
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September 3, 2016 The U.S. and China, together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions, both formally ratify the Paris global climate agreement.
Read commentary →History: September 4 (#1)
September 4, 1972 The Price Is Right premieres on CBS. It currently is the longest running game show on American television.
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September 4, 2002 The Oakland Athletics win their 20th consecutive game, an American League record, until the Cleveland Indians surpassed it in 2017.
Read commentary →History: September 6 (#1)
September 6, 1620 The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)
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September 6, 1492 Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
Read commentary →History: September 7 (#2)
September 7, 2021 Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador.
Read commentary →History: September 8 (#2)
September 8, 1810 The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board.
Read commentary →History: September 10 (#1)
September 10, 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist.
Read commentary →History: September 11 (#1)
September 11, 1968 John Eliot Gardiner conducts Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Monteverdi Choir at the Proms.
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September 11, 2008 A major Channel Tunnel fire breaks out on a freight train, resulting in the closure of part of the tunnel for six months.
Read commentary →History: September 12 (#2)
September 12, 1983 A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
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September 12, 1910 Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich (with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players. Mahler's rehearsal assistant conductor was Bruno Walter).
Read commentary →History: September 12 (#4)
September 12, 1958 Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.
Read commentary →History: September 13 (#1)
September 13, 1807 Beethoven's Mass in C major, Op. 86, is premiered, commissioned by Nikolaus I, Prince Esterházy, and displeasing him.
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September 13, 1898 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
Read commentary →History: September 15 (#1)
September 15, 1556 Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.
Read commentary →History: September 16 (#2)
September 16, 1966 The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra.
Read commentary →History: September 16 (#4)
September 16, 1996 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-79 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
Read commentary →History: September 17 (#1)
September 17, 1935 The Niagara Gorge Railroad ceases operations after a rockslide.
Read commentary →History: September 18 (#1)
September 18, 1958 The Bank of America introduces its first credit card, the BankAmericard (later renamed the VISA Card), in a test market in Fresno County, California.
Read commentary →History: September 18 (#2)
September 18, 1950 TV Tupi Difusora, the first television station to broadcast in Brazil, begins transmissions on Channel 3 in São Paulo.
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September 18, 1879 The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
Read commentary →History: September 19 (#1)
September 19, 1982 Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.
Read commentary →History: September 20 (#1)
September 20, 1967 The Cunard Liner Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched in Clydebank, Scotland.
Read commentary →History: September 22 (#1)
September 22, 1976 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.
Read commentary →History: September 25 (#1)
September 25, 1906 Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrates the Telekino in the Bilbao Abra (Spain), guiding an electric boat from the shore with people on board, which was controlled at a distance over 2 km (1.2 mi), in what is considered to be the origin of modern wireless remote-control operation principles.
Read commentary →History: September 25 (#3)
September 25, 1997 NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-86 to the Mir space station.
Read commentary →History: September 26 (#1)
September 26, 1580 Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth in Plymouth, England.
Read commentary →History: September 27 (#1)
September 27, 1825 The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened with the engine Locomotion pulling wagons with coal and passengers from Shildon to Darlington to Stockton.
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#1)
September 30, 1936 American journalists Herbert R. Ekins, reporter for the New York World-Telegram, Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal and Leo Kieran of The New York Times start the race to travel around the world on commercial airline flights. The race takes 18 ½ days.
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#2)
September 30, 1882 Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant, the Vulcan Street Plant, begins operation.
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#3)
September 30, 1736 The Lebanese Council of 1736 begins, a major turning point in the reform of the Maronite Church. In the following three days, the assembled Maronite and Latin clergy presided by Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani discuss various reforms and elaborate rules and canons.
Read commentary →History: September 30 (#4)
September 30, 1863 Georges Bizet's opera Les pêcheurs de perles, premieres in Paris.
Read commentary →History: October 1 (#1)
October 1, 1903 Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.
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October 1, 1829 The South African College is founded in Cape Town, later separating into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
Read commentary →History: October 1 (#4)
October 1, 2003 The popular and controversial English-language imageboard 4chan is launched.
Read commentary →History: October 5 (#1)
October 5, 1970 The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded in the United States.[citation needed]
Read commentary →History: October 6 (#1)
October 6, 1898 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the largest American music fraternity, is founded at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Read commentary →History: October 7 (#1)
October 7, 1913 Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving vehicle assembly line.
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October 7, 3761 BCE The epoch reference date (start) of the modern Hebrew calendar.
Read commentary →History: October 9 (#1)
October 9, 1701 The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Read commentary →History: October 11 (#1)
October 11, 2001 The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
Read commentary →History: October 12 (#1)
October 12, 1999 The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.
Read commentary →History: October 13 (#1)
October 13, 2013 A stampede occurs in India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 and injuring more than 110.
Read commentary →History: October 14 (#2)
October 14, 1888 Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene.
Read commentary →History: October 15 (#1)
October 15, 1970 During the construction of Australia's West Gate Bridge, a span of the bridge falls and kills 35 workers. The incident is the country's worst industrial accident to this day.
Read commentary →History: October 18 (#1)
October 18, 320 Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).
Read commentary →History: October 19 (#1)
October 19, 1955 The General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union approves the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
Read commentary →History: October 19 (#2)
October 19, 1936 New York World-Telegram reporter Herbert Ekins won a race against two other New York newspaper journalists to travel around the world on commercial airline flights. He accomplished the feat in 18 ½ days. His opponents were New York Evening Journal reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, who finished in second place, and New York Times reporter Leo Kieran.
Read commentary →History: October 19 (#3)
October 19, 2025 Pieces of the French Crown Jewels are successfully stolen during a heist on the Louvre Museum in Paris..
Read commentary →History: October 20 (#1)
October 20, 1973 The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction.
Read commentary →History: October 20 (#2)
October 20, 2002 Top Gear, the revived popular British TV motoring magazine, premieres on BBC.
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#1)
October 22, 1997 Danish fugitive Steen Christensen kills two police officers, Chief Constable Eero Holsti and Senior Constable Antero Palo, in Ullanlinna, Helsinki, Finland during his prison escape.
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#2)
October 22, 1907 A run on the stock of the Knickerbocker Trust Company sets events in motion that will spark the Panic of 1907.
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#3)
October 22, 1883 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust.
Read commentary →History: October 22 (#4)
October 22, 1724 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (Adorn yourself, O dear soul) in Leipzig on the 20th Sunday after Trinity, based on the communion hymn of the same name.
Read commentary →History: October 24 (#1)
October 24, 1851 William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel and Ariel orbiting Uranus.
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October 24, 2018 The world's longest sea crossing, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, opens for public traffic.
Read commentary →History: October 25 (#1)
October 25, 1868 The Uspenski Cathedral, designed by Aleksey Gornostayev, is inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
Read commentary →History: October 27 (#1)
October 27, 1726 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata.
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October 27, 1553 Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus is burned at the stake just outside Geneva.
Read commentary →History: October 28 (#1)
October 28, 1492 Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan.
Read commentary →History: November 1 (#3)
November 1, 1928 The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replaces the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet.
Read commentary →History: November 2 (#1)
November 2, 1936 The BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service begins. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.
Read commentary →History: November 3 (#1)
November 3, 1911 Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.
Read commentary →History: November 3 (#2)
November 3, 1817 The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opens in Montreal.
Read commentary →History: November 5 (#1)
November 5, 1499 The Catholicon, written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier, is published; this is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary.
Read commentary →History: November 6 (#1)
November 6, 1995 Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.
Read commentary →History: November 7 (#2)
November 7, 1723 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, a dialogue cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach for Leipzig, was first performed.
Read commentary →History: November 7 (#3)
November 7, 1987 The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore opens for passenger service.
Read commentary →History: November 8 (#1)
November 8, 1291 The Republic of Venice enacts a law confining most of Venice's glassmaking industry to the "island of Murano".
Read commentary →History: November 10 (#2)
November 10, 1969 National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts Sesame Street.
Read commentary →History: November 12 (#1)
November 12, 1995 Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-74 to deliver the Mir Docking Module to the Russian space station Mir.
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November 12, 1936 In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
Read commentary →History: November 12 (#3)
November 12, 1990 Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
Read commentary →History: November 12 (#4)
November 12, 954 The 13-year-old Lothair III is crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi as king of the West Frankish Kingdom.
Read commentary →History: November 14 (#2)
November 14, 1914 The Joensuu City Hall, designed by Eliel Saarinen, was inaugurated in Joensuu, Finland.
Read commentary →History: November 15 (#1)
November 15, 1971 Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
Read commentary →History: November 17 (#1)
November 17, 1858 The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.
Read commentary →History: November 19 (#1)
November 19, 1985 Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion judgment against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.
Read commentary →History: November 19 (#2)
November 19, 1967 The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.
Read commentary →History: November 20 (#1)
November 20, 1980 Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole.
Read commentary →History: November 20 (#2)
November 20, 1695 Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.
Read commentary →History: November 21 (#3)
November 21, 1969 The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
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November 21, 2019 Tesla launches the SUV Cybertruck. A gaffe occurs during the launch event when its "unbreakable" windows shatter during demonstration.
Read commentary →History: November 22 (#2)
November 22, 1869 In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched.
Read commentary →History: November 22 (#3)
November 22, 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile and forced to land.
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November 23, 2004 The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
Read commentary →History: November 25 (#1)
November 25, 1984 Thirty-six top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Read commentary →History: November 28 (#1)
November 28, 1814 The Times of London becomes the first newspaper to be produced on a steam-powered printing press, built by the German team of Koenig & Bauer.
Read commentary →History: November 28 (#2)
November 28, 1798 Trade between the United States and modern-day Uruguay begins when John Leamy's frigate John arrives in Montevideo.
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November 28, 1991 South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
Read commentary →History: November 30 (#1)
November 30, 1803 The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and Philippines.
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November 30, 1971 Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.
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November 30, 1916 Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty.
Read commentary →History: December 1 (#1)
December 1, 1952 The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.
Read commentary →History: December 2 (#1)
December 2, 1927 Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
Read commentary →History: December 3 (#1)
December 3, 1992 A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
Read commentary →History: December 3 (#2)
December 3, 1904 The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
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December 3, 1910 Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.
Read commentary →History: December 4 (#1)
December 4, 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek lettered fraternity for African-Americans, was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Read commentary →History: December 4 (#2)
December 4, 1991 Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years.
Read commentary →History: December 6 (#1)
December 6, 1933 In United States v. One Book Called Ulysses Judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene despite coarse language and sexual content, a leading decision affirming free expression.
Read commentary →History: December 6 (#2)
December 6, 1492 After exploring the island of Cuba (which he had mistaken for Japan) for gold, Christopher Columbus lands on an island he names Hispaniola.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#1)
December 8, 1864 Pope Pius IX promulgates the encyclical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.
Read commentary →History: December 8 (#4)
December 8, 2013 Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first musical act to perform on all seven continents.
Read commentary →History: December 9 (#1)
December 9, 1968 Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
Read commentary →History: December 13 (#2)
December 13, 1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
Read commentary →History: December 14 (#2)
December 14, 1918 Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premieres at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Read commentary →History: December 14 (#3)
December 14, 2017 The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.
Read commentary →History: December 15 (#1)
December 15, 1893 Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World" a.k.a. the "New World Symphony") by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed by a concert premiere on the evening of December 16.
Read commentary →History: December 16 (#1)
December 16, 1997 Dennō Senshi Porygon: Over 600 kids in Japan suffer photosensitive epileptic seizures after watching an episode of the Pokémon anime.
Read commentary →History: December 19 (#1)
December 19, 1999 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-103, the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
Read commentary →History: December 20 (#2)
December 20, 2004 A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
Read commentary →History: December 21 (#1)
December 21, 2012 2012 phenomenon: Festivities are held in parts of Mesoamerica to commemorate the conclusion of b'ak'tun 13, a roughly 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar whose passing many New Age spiritualists had earlier held to portend a variety of cataclysmic or transformative events.
Read commentary →History: December 22 (#1)
December 22, 1968 Cultural Revolution: People's Daily posted the instructions of Mao Zedong that "The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty."
Read commentary →History: December 23 (#1)
December 23, 1936 Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
Read commentary →History: December 24 (#2)
December 24, 1871 The opera Aida premieres in Cairo, Egypt.
Read commentary →History: December 25 (#1)
December 25, 1725 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.
Read commentary →History: December 25 (#2)
December 25, 1724 J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn.
Read commentary →History: December 25 (#4)
December 25, 336 First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.
Read commentary →History: December 26 (#1)
December 26, 1966 The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
Read commentary →History: December 26 (#2)
December 26, 1723 Bach led the first performance of Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, his first Christmas Cantata composed for Leipzig.
Read commentary →History: December 26 (#3)
December 26, 2012 China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
Read commentary →History: December 27 (#2)
December 27, 537 The second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is consecrated.
Read commentary →History: December 28 (#1)
December 28, 1967 American businesswoman Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
Read commentary →History: December 28 (#3)
December 28, 1912 The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.
Read commentary →History: December 31 (#2)
December 31, 1759 Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
Read commentary →History: December 31 (#3)
December 31, 1831 Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
Read commentary →History: December 31 (#4)
December 31, 1600 The British East India Company is chartered.
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