Category: It happened today…

  1876  Birth of the American novelist Jack London. 1893  Birth of Hermann Goering, head of the German Air Force during WWII. 1904  The automobile engineer Henry Ford sets a new land speed record...

  1807  Birth of the American founder of Cornell University, Ezra Cornell. 1864  Charing Cross railway station in London opens. 1892  French painter Paul Gauguin aged 44 marries a 13 year old Tahitian girl....

1645  William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, is beheaded. 1840  The Penny Post is introduced in Britain. The sender of the letter now pays the postage whereas under the previous system, the recipient would have...

  1799  Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces income tax in Britain to pay for the war against France. 1806  Lord Nelson, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, is buried at St Paul’s...

  1558  France recaptures Calais from the English. 1768  Birth of Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Napoleon. 1789  George Washington elected first president of the United States by an electoral college. 1925  Birth of...

  1412  Birth of Joan of Arc. 1540  King Henry VIII of England marries his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. 1838  Samuel Morse demonstrates his electromagnetic telegraph system. 1913  Birth of American actress Loretta...

  1066  Death of the English King Edward the Confessor. 1925  Nellie Taylor Ross becomes the first woman governor in the USA. 1931  Birth of American actor Robert Duvall. 1938  Birth of the future...

  1643  Birth of British physicist Sir Isaac Newton. 1884  The Fabian Society is formed in London. 1896  Utah becomes the 45th state of the Union. 1967  Donald Campbell is killed on Coniston Water...

  1777  George Washington defeats the British at Princeton. 1892  Birth of South African born novelist J.R.R. Tolkien. 1918  Ernest Rutherford announces that he has split the atom. 1946  William Joyce, who became known...

  1769  The British Royal Academy opens. 1788  Georgia becomes the fourth state of the Union. 1900  Britain’s first municipal crematorium opens in Hull. 1943  Manilla falls to Japanese forces. 1971  Sixty six people...

  1869  Birth of French painter Henri Matisse. 1880  Birth of George Marshall, American general and politician who devised the Marshall plan for a post war Europe in 1945. 1937  Birth of British actor...

  1865  Birth of English novelist Rudyard Kipling. 1916  Royal favourite Rasputin is murdered in St Petersburg. 1922  Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1968  Death of Trygve Lie who was...

  1694  Death of Queen Mary II of England. 1856  Birth of future US president, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. 1908  Strongest earthquake ever to hit Europe destroys Messina in Sicily. 1937  Death of French composer...

  1571  Birth of Johannes Kepler, German astronomer. 1831  HMS Beagle sets sail from Devonport England, on a five year scientific expedition. On board is a young Charles Darwin. 1901  Birth of Marlene Dietrich....

  1893  Birth of Mao-Tse-tung. 1914  Birth of American actor Richard Widmark. 1943  The German battlecruiser scharnhorst is sunk by the Royal Navy. 1972  Death of former US President Harry S Truman. 1974  Death of...

  1066  William the Conqueror is crowned King of England. 1914  British and German troops engage in a truce on the Western Front. 1926  Hirohito accedes the Japanese throne on the death of his...

  1167  Birth of English monarch, King John. 1914  The first German bomb lands in Britain. 1922  Birth of American actress Ava Gardner. 1951  King Idris I of Libya declares independence. 1980  Death of...

  1805  Birth of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons. 1886  Death of author William Makepeace Thackeray. 1888  Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his earlobe. 1973  Death of the original strongman Charles Atlas. 1997...

  1858  Birth of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. 1895  Wilhelm Rontgen demonstrates X rays for the first time. 1943  Death of Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit and many other children’s book characters. 1949...

  1937  Birth of American actress Jane Fonda. 1940  Death of the American author F Scott Fitzgerald. 1945  Death of American General George S Patton. He had been injured in a car crash shortly...