Events Pre-1600 45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. 180 – Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. 455 – Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire; he forces Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of his predecessor, Valentinian III, to marry him. 1337 – Edward the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first duchy in England. 1400 – Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.
1601–1900 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city. 1805 – The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy. 1824 – The Anglo-Dutch Treaty is signed in London, dividing the Malay archipelago. As a result, the Malay Peninsula is dominated by the British, while Sumatra and Java and surrounding areas are dominated by the Dutch. 1842 – The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president. 1860 – The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand Wars. 1861 – The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed. 1862 – The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened.Neil Kent: Helsinki: A Cultural History, p. 18. Interlink Books, 2014. . 1891 – collides with in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board.
1901–present 1921 – The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution. 1942 – Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland. 1945 – World War II: The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture. 1948 – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO. 1950 – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium". 1957 – A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others. 1958 – The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit. 1960 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 1960 – Northwest Airlines Flight 710 explodes and crashes near Cannelton, Indiana, killing 63. 1962 – A Clockwork Orange, a British dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, is published."New Fiction". The Times, 17 May 1962, p. 16. 1963 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people. 1966 – Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb. 1968 – As a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead. 1969 – Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel. 1973 – The Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers. 1979 – Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashes on approach to Vnukovo International Airport, killing 58. 1985 – Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles murder spree. 1988 – A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143. 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet. 1992 – Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242. 1992 – A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%. 2000 – Five hundred and thirty members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in a fire, considered to be a mass murder or suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult. Elsewhere another 248 members are later found dead. 2003 – Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. Thirty-five Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Serbia are destroyed. 2016 – Rojava conflict: At a conference in Rmelan, the Movement for a Democratic Society declares the establishment of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.
Births Pre-1600 763 – Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph (died 809) 1231 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (died 1242) 1473 – James IV of Scotland (died 1513) 1523 – Giovanni Francesco Commendone, Catholic cardinal (died 1584) 1537 – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese daimyō (died 1598)
1601–1900 1611 – Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, Swedish field marshal (died 1662) 1665 – Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, French harpsichord player and composer (died 1729) 1676 – Thomas Boston, Scottish philosopher and theologian (died 1732) 1686 – Jean-Baptiste Oudry, French painter and engraver (died 1755) 1725 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American general and politician (died 1806) 1777 – Patrick Brontë, Irish-English priest and author (died 1861) 1777 – Roger B. Taney, American politician and jurist, 5th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1864) 1780 – Thomas Chalmers, Scottish minister, economist, and educator (died 1847) 1781 – Ebenezer Elliott, English poet and educator (died 1849) 1804 – Jim Bridger, American fur trader and explorer (died 1881) 1806 – Norbert Rillieux, African American inventor and chemical engineer (died 1894) 1820 – Jean Ingelow, English poet and author (died 1897) 1834 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (died 1900) 1839 – Josef Rheinberger, Liechtensteiner-German organist and composer (died 1901) 1842 – Rosina Heikel, Finnish physician (died 1929) 1846 – Kate Greenaway, English author and illustrator (died 1901) 1848 – Ernesta Forti, Italian anarchist and dairy worker 1849 – Charles F. Brush, American businessman and philanthropist, co-invented the Arc lamp (died 1929) 1849 – Cornelia Clapp, American marine biologist (died 1934) 1856 – Mikhail Vrubel, Russian painter (died 1910) 1862 – Martha P. Falconer, American social reformer (died 1941)U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 1862 – Silvio Gesell, Belgian merchant and economist (died 1930) 1864 – Joseph Baptista, Indian engineer, lawyer, and politician (died 1930) 1866 – Pierce Butler, American lawyer and jurist (died 1939) 1867 – Patrice Contamine de Latour, Spanish poet (died 1926) 1877 – Edith New, English militant suffragette (died 1951) 1877 – Otto Gross, Austrian-German psychoanalyst and philosopher (died 1920) 1877 – Ville Kiviniemi, Finnish politician (died 1951) 1880 – Patrick Hastings, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (died 1952) 1880 – Lawrence Oates, English lieutenant and explorer (died 1912) 1881 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) 1884 – Alcide Nunez, American clarinet player (died 1934) 1885 – Ralph Rose, American track and field athlete (died 1913) 1886 – Princess Patricia of Connaught (died 1974) 1888 – Paul Ramadier, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1961) 1889 – Harry Clarke, Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator (died 1931) 1891 – Ross McLarty, Australian politician, 17th Premier of Western Australia (died 1962)Duncan Ross McLarty (Liberal) 1 April 1947 to 23 February 1953 Constitutional Centre of Western Australia 1892 – Floyd B. Barnum, American college football coach (died 1965)Staff (September 15, 1921). "Jamestown College Fall Semester Begins Sept. 20". Jamestown Weekly Alert. Retrieved April 9, 2021.Staff (September 24, 1921). "27 Men Are Out at Jamestown". The Bismarck Tribune. Retrieved April 9, 2021.Staff (October 8, 1921). "Jamestown Will Play Here Today". Grand Forks Herald. Retrieved April 9, 2021.United States Social Security Death Index. FamilySearch. Retrieved April 9, 2021. 1892 – Sayed Darwish, Egyptian singer-songwriter and producer (died 1923) 1894 – Paul Green, American playwright and academic (died 1981) 1895 – Lloyd Rees, Australian painter (died 1988) 1900 – Alfred Newman, American composer and conductor (died 1970)
1901–present 1902 – Bobby Jones, American golfer and lawyer (died 1971) 1903 – Elli Stenberg, Finnish politician (died 1987) 1904 – Chaim Gross, Austrian-American sculptor and educator (died 1991) 1905 – Lillian Yarbo, American comedienne, dancer, and singer (died 1996)Smallwood, Bill. "Delightful Side". Los Angeles Sentinel. March 6, 1947. Page 17. 1907 – Takeo Miki, Japanese politician, 41st Prime Minister of Japan (died 1988) 1907 – Jean Van Houtte, Belgian academic and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1991) 1908 – Brigitte Helm, German-Swiss actress (died 1996) 1910 – Sonny Werblin, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1991) 1912 – Bayard Rustin, American activist (died 1987) 1914 – Sammy Baugh, American football player and coach (died 2008) 1915 – Robert S. Arbib Jr., American ornithologist, writer and conservationist (died 1987) 1915 – Bill Roycroft, Australian equestrian rider (died 2011) 1916 – Ray Ellington, English drummer and bandleader (died 1985) 1917 – Hank Sauer, American baseball player (died 2001) 1919 – Nat King Cole, American singer, pianist, and television host (died 1965) 1919 – Mad Mike Hoare, British-Irish military officer and mercenary (died 2020) 1920 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician, 1st President of Bangladesh (died 1975) 1921 – Meir Amit, Israeli general and politician, 12th Israeli Minister of Communications (died 2009) 1922 – Patrick Suppes, American psychologist and philosopher (died 2014) 1924 – Stephen Dodgson, English composer and educator (died 2013) 1925 – Gabriele Ferzetti, Italian actor (died 2015) 1926 – Siegfried Lenz, Polish-German author and playwright (died 2014) 1927 – Betty Allen, American soprano and educator (died 2009) 1928 – William John McKeag, Canadian businessman and politician, 17th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (died 2007) 1930 – Paul Horn, American-Canadian flute player and saxophonist (died 2014) 1930 – James Irwin, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut, eighth astronaut to walk on the moon (died 1991) 1931 – Patricia Breslin, American actress (died 2011) 1931 – David Peakall, English-American chemist and toxicologist (died 2001) 1932 – Dick Curless, American country music singer (died 1995) 1933 – Myrlie Evers-Williams, American journalist and activist 1933 – Penelope Lively, English author 1935 – Fred T. Mackenzie, American biologist and academic (died 2024) 1935 – Adam Wade, American singer, drummer, and actor (died 2022) 1936 – Ida Kleijnen, Dutch chef (died 2019) 1936 – Ladislav Kupkovič, Slovak composer and conductor (died 2016) 1936 – Ken Mattingly, American admiral, pilot, and astronaut (died 2023) 1937 – Galina Samsova, Russian ballerina (died 2021) 1938 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-French dancer and choreographer (died 1993) 1938 – Keith O'Brien, Northern Ireland-born Scottish cleric, theologian, and cardinal (died 2018) 1938 – Zola Taylor, American singer (died 2007) 1939 – Jim Gary, American sculptor (died 2006)