Events
Up to 1900
1112 - Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and Douce I, Countess of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of the two states. 1377 - Over 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy are killed by Papal troops. 1488 - Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands at Mossel Bay in present-day South Africa, having become the first European to travel round the Cape of Good Hope. 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America. 1781 - British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. 1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence. 1809 – Illinois Territory is created. 1815 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland). 1830 - Greece's sovereignty is confirmed by the London Protocol. 1870 – The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed. 1900 - Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies four days after being shot, and three days after being sworn in to office.
1901 2000
1908 - The Panathinaikos Sports Club is founded in Athens. 1913 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. It lets the Federal government create and collect income tax. 1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down. 1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of submarine warfare. 1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world, at 3,633 metres long. 1930 - The Communist Party of Vietnam is founded in Kowloon, then-British Hong Kong. 1931 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits New Zealand's North Island, mainly the cities of Napier and Hastings. 1943 - The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 672 of the 902 men on board. 1944 – United States troops capture the Marshall Islands. 1945 – World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre fighting against Japan. 1947 - North America's lowest temperature is recorded in Snag, Yukon, Canada. 1952 – The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida. 1955 - Czechoslovakia declares an end to hostilities with Germany. 1958 - The Benelux Economic Union is formed. 1959 – An airplane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. This date becomes known as "The Day The Music Died". 1960 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes a speech in which he says that "winds of change" are blowing across the African continent. 1961 - Start of the Angolan War of Independence. 1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft is launched. 1967 - In Melbourne, Ronald Ryan becomes the last person to be executed in Australia. 1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress. 1972 – The first Winter Olympics to be held in Asia open in Sapporo, Japan. 1972 - Until February 9, a blizzard in Iran kills around 4,000 people. 1976 - In Mozambique, the capital city changes its name from Lourenco Marques to Maputo. 1981 - Gro Harlem Brundtland is elected Prime Minister of Norway. 1988 – The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras. 1989 - In Paraguay, a coup removes Alfredo Stroessner from power. 1994 - Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on mission STS-60. 1995 - Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot a space shuttle. 1996 - An earthquake of magnitude 7 hits Yunnan Province, China, killing over 300 people. 1998 – In Northern Italy 20 people die in a cable car disaster caused by a low-flying United States Military plane. 1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, as the first woman to be executed in the US since 1984.