Events Pre-1600 671 – Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku. The instrument, which measures time and indicates hours, is placed in the capital of Ōtsu. 1190 – Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem. 1225 – Pope Honorius III issues the bull Vineae Domini custodes in which he approves the mission of Dominican friars to Morocco. 1329 – The Battle of Pelekanon is the last attempt of the Byzantine Empire to retain its cities in Asia Minor. 1358 – Battle of Mello: The peasant forces of the Jacquerie are crushed by the army of the French nobility. 1422 – Ottoman Sultan Murad II besieges Constantinople, but is ultimately unsuccessful. 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. 1539 – Council of Trent: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice. 1596 – Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island.
1601–1900 1619 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt. 1624 – Signing of the Treaty of Compiègne between France and the Netherlands. 1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries". 1719 – Jacobite risings: Battle of Glen Shiel. 1782 – King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) is crowned. 1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China. 1793 – The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris. A year later, it becomes the first public zoo. 1793 – French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship. 1805 – First Barbary War: Yusuf Karamanli signs a treaty ending the hostilities between Tripolitania and the United States. 1829 – The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on the Thames in London. 1838 – Myall Creek massacre: Twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians are murdered. 1854 – The United States Naval Academy graduates its first class of students. 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia. 1863 – During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.RIVA PALACIOS, Vicente (1940). México á través de los siglos: historia general y completa del desenvolvimiento social, político, religioso, militar, artístico, científico y literario de México desde a antigüedad más remota hasta la época actual; obra, única en su género. (G. S. López edición). México. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi. 1868 – Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia is assassinated. 1871 – Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea. 1873 – Russian forces under General von Kaufmann capture the city of Khiva from the Khanate of Khiva. 1878 – League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in the Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece. 1886 – Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and burying the famous Pink and White Terraces. Eruptions continue for three months creating a large, long fissure across the mountain peak. 1898 – Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines begin the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba.;;
1901–present 1916 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire is declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. 1918 – World War I: The Austro-Hungarian battleship sinks off the Croatian coast after being torpedoed by an Italian MAS motorboat; the event is recorded by camera from a nearby vessel. 1924 – Fascists kidnap and kill Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome. 1935 – Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson. 1935 – Chaco War ends: A truce is called between Bolivia and Paraguay who had been fighting since 1932. 1940 – World War II: Fascist Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom, beginning an invasion of southern France. 1940 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions in his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia. 1940 – World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ends. 1942 – World War II: The Lidice massacre is perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. 1944 – World War II: Six hundred forty-three men, women and children are massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France. 1944 – World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 228 men, women and children are massacred by German troops. 1944 – In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game. 1945 – World War II: Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei. 1947 – Saab produces its first automobile. 1957 – John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset in the 1957 Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party government. 1960 – Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashes near Mackay Airport in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing 29. 1963 – The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, is signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. 1964 – United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill's passage. 1967 – The Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire. 1977 – James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later. 1980 – The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela. 1982 – Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub. 1987 – June Democratic Struggle: The June Democratic Struggle starts in South Korea, and people protest against the government. 1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities. 1991 – Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009. 1994 – China conducts a nuclear test for DF-31 warhead at Area C (Beishan), Lop Nur, its prominence being due to the Cox Report. 1996 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin. 1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members. 1999 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. 2001 – Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa. 2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom. 2003 – The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. 2008 – Sudan Airways Flight 109 crashes at Khartoum International Airport, killing 30 people. 2009 – Eighty-eight year-old James Wenneker von Brunn opens fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shoots Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended. 2018 – The Opportunity rover sends its last message back to Earth. The mission was finally declared over on February 13, 2019. 2024 – A plane crash in Malawi leaves 10 people dead, including the country's Vice President Saulos Chilima. 2025 – Eleven people are killed, including the perpetrator, and eleven others are injured, in a mass shooting at a secondary school in Graz, Austria.
Births Pre-1600 867 – Emperor Uda of Japan (died 931) 940 – Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani, Persian mathematician and astronomer (died 998) 1213 – Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi, Persian poet and philosopher (died 1289) 1465 – Mercurino Gattinara, Italian statesman and jurist (died 1530) 1513 – Louis, Duke of Montpensier (1561–1582) (died 1582) 1557 – Leandro Bassano, Italian painter (died 1622)
1601–1900 1632 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (died 1710) 1688 – James Francis Edward Stuart, claimant to the English and Scottish throne (died 1766) 1713 – Princess Caroline of Great Britain (died 1757) 1716 – Carl Gustaf Ekeberg, Swedish physician and explorer (died 1784) 1753 – William Eustis, American physician and politician, 12th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1825) 1804 – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist and herpetologist (died 1884) 1819 – Gustave Courbet, French-Swiss painter and sculptor (died 1877) 1825 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (died 1897) 1832 – Edwin Arnold, English poet and journalist (died 1904) 1832 – Nicolaus Otto, German engineer (died 1891) 1832 – Stephen Mosher Wood, American lieutenant and politician (died 1920) 1835 – Rebecca Latimer Felton, American educator and politician (died 1930) 1839 – Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Danish lawyer and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Denmark (died 1912) 1840 – Theodor Philipsen, Danish painter (died 1920) 1843 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1900) 1851 – Cora Agnes Benneson, American attorney (died 1919) 1854 – Sarah Grand, Irish feminist writer (died 1943) 1859 – Emanuel Nobel, Swedish-Russian businessman (died 1932) 1862 – Mrs. Leslie Carter, American actress (died 1937) 1863 – Louis Couperus, Dutch author and poet (died 1923) 1864 – Ninian Comper, Scottish architect (died 1960) 1865 – Frederick Cook, American physician and explorer (died 1940) 1878 – Margarito Bautista, Nahua-Mexican evangelizer, theologian, and religious founder (died 1961) 1880 – André Derain, French painter and sculptor (died 1954) 1882 – Nils Økland, Norwegian Esperantist and teacher (died 1969) 1884 – Leone Sextus Tollemache, English captain (died 1917) 1886 – Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor and producer (died 1973) 1891 – Al Dubin, Swiss-American songwriter (died 1945) 1893 – Hattie McDaniel, American actress (died 1952) 1897 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (died 1918) 1898 – Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt (died 1983) 1899 – Stanisław Czaykowski, Polish racing driver (died 1933)
1901–present 1901 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (died 1988) 1904 – Lin Huiyin, Chinese architect and poet (died 1955) 1907 – Fairfield Porter, American painter and critic (died 1975) 1907 – Dicky Wells, American jazz trombonist (died 1985)Wells's exact date of birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been born on June 10, 1907 1909 – Lang Hancock, Australian soldier and businessman (died 1992) 1910 – Frank Demaree, American baseball player and manager (died 1958) 1910 – Howlin' Wolf, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1976) 1911 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harpsichord player and musicologist (died 1984) 1911 – Terence Rattigan, English playwright and screenwriter (died 1977)