August 16

• August 16, 1419
  Wenceslaus IV, King of Germany and Charles IV's son, dies and is succeeded by Sigismund
• August 16, 1513
  Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian crush the French at the Battle of the Spurs
• August 16, 1777
  American forces win the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vermont
• August 16, 1780
  American troops under General Horatio Gates are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina
• August 16, 1793
  French National Convention declares universal conscription in the Levée en masse
• August 16, 1819
  11 people are killed in the Peterloo massacre after English police charge into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field that have gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation
• August 16, 1829
  The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston from Siam, now Thailand, aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world
• August 16, 1940
  Foreign Correspondent, American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is released
• August 16, 1943
  Sicily is conquered by Allied forces during Operation Husky
• August 16, 2008
  Russia signs a French-brokered peace plan with Georgia, ending their nine-day-old conflict
• August 16, 2009
  Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets a 100 m world record (9.58) at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin

July 31

• July 31, 431
  First Council of Ephesus ends with emergence of cult of the Virgin Mary and exile of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who do not believe that Christ was truly God
• July 31, 904
  Arab forces capture Byzantium city of Thessaloniki for a short term
• July 31, 1498
  During his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrives at an island he named Trinidad because of its 3 hills
• July 31, 1703
  English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire "The Shortest Way With Dissenters", but is pelted with flowers
• July 31, 1922
  18-year-old Ralph Samuelson rides world's first water skis in Minnesota, United States
• July 31, 1932
  The Nazi party becomes the largest single party in the German parliament after German federal election
• July 31, 2007
  Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, the longest-running British Army operation, comes to an end
• July 31, 2011
  In Thailand over 12.8 million people are affected by severe flooding, which couses damages estimated at US$45 billion and leaves 790 people killed, with 58 of the country's 77 provinces affected

July 30

• July 30, 762
  Al-Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph, founds Baghdad and makes it the capital of Abbasid Caliphate
• July 30, 1178
  Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, is crowned King of Burgundy
• July 30, 1358
  Étienne Marcel, a provost of the merchants of Paris and the leader of the Third Estate, is murdered in Paris
• July 30, 1419
  The group of the followers of Jan Hus threw the judge, the burgomaster, and some thirteen council members out of the window of the New Town Hall in Prague triggering Hussite Wars in central Europe
• July 30, 1619
  The first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses, becomes the first legislative assembly in America when it convened at Jamestown
• July 30, 1733
  Society of Freemasons opens first American lodge in Boston
• July 30, 1811
  Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mexican hero priest, is executed by Spanish firing squad during Mexican War of Independence
• July 30, 1863
  Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and developer of the Model T, is born in Dearborn Township, Michigan
• July 30, 1864
  The town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, is burned by Confederate forces under General John McCausland
• July 30, 1930
  The first football world cup, played in Uruguay, is won by Uruguay national football team
• July 30, 1932
  Flowers and Trees, the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, is produced by Walt Disney
• July 30, 1943
  45,000 civilians are killed and practically the entire city destroyed during bombing of Hamburg by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces
• July 30, 1971
  Lunar Rover is used after Apollo 15 landing on the moon
• July 30, 1980
  British New Hebrides becomes independent and takes name Vanuatu
• July 30, 2000
  Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez is re-elected with 59 percent of the vote
• July 30, 2012
  In the worst power outage in world history, the India blackouts leave 620 million people without power
• July 30, 2012
  In the worst power outage in world history, the India blackouts leave 620 million people without power

July 29

• July 29, 1613
  The Globe Theatre, a 20-sided timber building for Shakespeare's plays, is destroyed by fire during a performance of "Henry VIII", but no one is hurt
• July 29, 1693
  The Army of the Grand Alliance is destroyed by the French at the Battle of Neerwinden in the Netherlands
• July 29, 1773
  A large earthquake destroys so much of Antigua that the Spanish move away and built a new capital on a plateau 30 miles away that becomes Guatemala City
• July 29, 1830
  Bourbon monarchy is overthrown during the July Revolution after attempt of Charles X to limit the political and civil rights, so the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, becomes constitutional monarch of France
• July 29, 1875
  Peasants in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans rebel against the Ottoman army
• July 29, 1914
  Russia, an Serbia's ally, orders a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary after Austro-Hungarian forces begin to shell the Serbian capital, Belgrade
• July 29, 1958
  United States President Dwight Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating NASA, the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program
• July 29, 1961
  Wallis and Futuna Islands becomes a French overseas territory
• July 29, 2003
  Second Liberian Civil War ends
• July 29, 2010
  Heavy monsoon rains begin to cause widespread flooding in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, killing nearly 2,000 and leaving roughly a million homeless

April 28

• April 28, 357
  Roman Emperor Constantius II visits Rome for the first time and only time in his life
• April 28, 1202
  King Philip II of France throws out King of England John, which resulted in the collapse of most of the Angevin Empire and contributed to the subsequent growth in power of the Capetian dynasty during the 13th century
• April 28, 1253
  Nichiren, a Buddhist monk, establishes a new sect of Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism
• March 30, 1282
  Inhabitants in Palermo massacres French occupation forces in Sicily after a Frenchman harassed a woman, beginning the War of the Sicilian Vespers
• April 28, 1376
  Good Parliament, the longest Parliament up until that time, begin to work
• April 28, 1503
  Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola, which considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms (arquebus) and mark end of period of knighthood in Europe
• April 28, 1628
  King Kristian IV of Denmark signs a three year alliance with Sweden. Both powers agree to come to the defense of Stralsund if attacked
• April 28, 1738
  Pope Clement XII issues the Eminenti Apostolatus Specula prohibiting Catholics from becoming Freemasons, the first papal decree against the Freemasons
• April 28, 1760
  French forces besieging Quebec defeat the British in the Battle of Sainte-Foy
• April 28, 1789
  Fletcher Christian, master's mate on board HMS Bounty, leads a mutiny on the ship as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific
• April 28, 1818
  President Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on Great Lakes and Lake Champlain
• April 28, 1819
  In India a British hunting party discovers the painted caves at Ajanta
• April 28, 1914
  American engineer Willis Carrier patents air conditioner
• April 28, 1925
  Netherlands and Great Britain return to gold standard
• April 28, 1935
  Moscow Metro, the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union, opens
• April 28, 1945
  Benito Mussolini is executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans while attempt to escape north
• April 28, 1967
  Expo 67, the most attendees World Fair, opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• April 28, 1969
  Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization
• April 28, 1992
  The two remaining countries of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro - form a new state, named the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• April 28, 2004
  30 St Mary Axe, commercial skyscraper, also known as The Gherkin, opens in London and becomes one of the most recognised examples of contemporary architecture

April 19

• April 19, 1215
  English barons assemble an army of some 2,000 men near London and demand that King John address their call for tax relief
• April 19, 1763
  Teedyuscung, a Lenape Indian leader, is burned to death while sleeping in his cabin in the Wyoming Valley
• April 19, 1775
  At Concord bridge near Boston British troops, who want to seize colonial's weapons and gunpowder, are repulsed by Massachusetts militia with heavy losses to the British which marks beginning of the American Revolution
• April 19, 1783
  Catherine II, the Empress of Russia, annexes the Crimean Khanate to the Russian empire as Taurida Governorate after series of Russo-Turkish wars
• April 19, 1794
  Tadeusz Kosciusko force Russians out of Warsaw
• April 19, 1810
  Simon Bolivar, a military and political leader, is sent by Venezuelan junta with a delegation to the United Kingdom to seek British aid and recognition
• April 19, 1824
  Lord Byron, an English poet, dies of malaria in Greece at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for Greek independence
• April 19, 1839
  Treaty of London constitutes Belgium as an independent kingdom and confirms the independence of the German-speaking part of Luxembourg
• April 19, 1892
  The prototype of the first commercially successful American automobile is completed in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Charles Duryea and his brother Frank
• April 19, 1897
  The first Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon, is run from Ashland, Massachusetts, to Boston
• April 19, 1903
  49 Jews are murdered, 700 houses destroyed, and 600 stores pillaged during pogrom in Kishinev triggered by blood libel against Jews and tolerated by the state
• April 19, 1948
  Chiang Kai-shek is elected President of Nationalist China
• April 19, 1951
  21-year-old Kiki Hakansson, Miss Sweden, wins the first Miss World beauty pageant held in London, England, as part of the Festival of Britain
• April 19, 1971
  Salyut 1, the first manned lab in orbit, is launched by USSR
• April 19, 1995
  Timothy McVeigh bombs the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, and wounding 450
• April 19, 2005
  Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, succeeds Pope John Paul II, becoming the 265th pope, Pope Benedict XVI

April 13

• April 13, 989
  Byzantine emperor Basil II beats Bardas Phokas the Younger, a Byzantine general who took a conspicuous part in three revolts for and against the ruling Macedonian dynasty
• April 13, 1111
  In Rome, Pope Paschalis II crowns Heinrich V Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
• April 13, 1517
  Tuman bay II, the last Mamluk sultan of Egypt, is hanged as Osman's army occupies Cairo
• April 13, 1598
  King Henry IV of France endorses the Edict of Nantes, which ends the religion Wars in France and grant political rights to French Huguenots
• April 13, 1640
  English Short Parliament is formed to obtain money to finance military struggle with Scotland in the Bishops' Wars
• April 13, 1759
  French beat European Allies in Battle of Bergen
• April 13, 1775
  Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act, which forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland, to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland
• April 13, 1861
  After 34 hours of bombardment Federal garrison at Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces
• April 13, 1868
  Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, commits suicide with a pistol presented him by Queen Victoria at Magdala as the British troops storm the citadel
• April 13, 1869
  George Westinghouse, an American engineer, patents the railroad air brake, which enables the engineer to brake a train from the locomotive, making high-speed travel safe
• April 13, 1912
  The British Royal Flying Corps, later Royal Air Force, is organized in Great Britain with naval and military wings and a central flying school
• April 13, 1919
  British General Reginald Dyer orders 50 riflemen to fire on assembly of 10,000 protesting Indian nationalists at Jalianwala Bagh in City of Amritsar in Pubjab, northwest India, without warning, continued firing for 10 minutes, resulting in 379 killed and 1200+ wounded
• April 13, 1924
  The monarchy is abolished via Greek plebiscite for a republic follows the catastrophic outcome of the Asia Minor Campaign
• April 13, 1943
  Warsaw ghetto uprising begins in Poland
• April 13, 1957
  12 Angry Men, a drama film adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose, is released
• April 13, 1975
  Phalangists, members of Christian Kataeb Party, kills 27 Palestinians traveling in Ain el-Rummaneh, thus begin Lebanese Civil War
• April 13, 1987
  Portugal and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement in which Macau would be returned to China in 1999
• April 13, 1990
  The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre of Polish officers during World War II
• April 13, 2015
  A vessel with up to 550 migrants on board sinks off the Libyan coast, marking start of European migrant crisis, the rising number of refugees and migrants coming to the European Union

April 3

• April 3, 1024
  The Song Dynasty of China first prints paper money in Sichuan province, due to a shortage of copper for coinage
• April 3, 1043
  Edward the Confessor, the last king of the House of Wessex, is crowned king of England
• April 3, 1367
  Anglo-Gascon army under Edward the Black Prince beat Franco-Castilian forces at the Battle of Najara, in Spain
• April 3, 1559
  Philip II of Spain and Henry II of France sign the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, ending a long series of wars between the Hapsburg and Valois dynasties, and between England and France
• April 3, 1657
  English Lord Protector Cromwell refused the crown, which are offered by English Humble Petition
• April 3, 1796
  The first elephant is shipped to the US from Bengal, India, by Broadway showman Jacob Croninshield
• April 3, 1860
  The Pony Express, a mail system in United States, which assemble 120 riders, 184 stations, and 400 horses, starts
• April 3, 1897
  The Vienna Secession, a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, is founded by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, and others
• April 3, 1948
  US President Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan transferring US$5 billion aid to 16 European countries to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II
• April 3, 1973
  Martin Cooper, an engineer at Motorola company, demonstrates to the media the first mobile phone, Motorola DynaTAC, and makes the first portable cell phone call
• April 3, 1975
  Bobby Fischer is stripped of world chess title for refusing to defend
• April 3, 2000
  In the US Justice Department versus Microsoft anti-trust case, Judge Thomas Jackson rules that Microsoft acted illegally to protect its operating system monopoly, and used its monopoly position to attempt to monopolize the market for Web browser software

April 1

• April 1, 1778
  Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, creates "$" symbol
• April 1, 1826
  Samuel Morey, an American inventor, patents the internal combustion engine, an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber
• April 1, 1851
  Rama IV, also known as King Mongkut, succeeds the throne of King of Siam and begins to embrace Western innovations and initiates the modernization of Siam
• April 1, 1865
  At the Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive
• April 1, 1867
  The British government establishes the Straits Settlements, consisted of Singapore, Penang, and Malacca, as a separate Crown Colony
• April 1, 1873
  The British White Star steamship Atlantic, enroute to New York City from Liverpool with 811 passengers under Captain James Agnew Williams, sinks off Nova Scotia killing 565 people, mostly women and children
• April 1, 1933
  Germany begins persecution of Jews, boycotting Jewish businesses
• April 1, 1939
  After three years of Spanish Civil War general Francisco Franco proclaims victory in a radio speech, thus becomes dictator of Spain
• April 1, 1957
  Trial begins in Budapest, Hungary against participants' Hungarian Uprising
• April 1, 1966
  China's Cultural Revolution begins in order to impose Maoism as the dominant ideology and to enforce communism in the country by removing capitalist and cultural elements from Chinese society
• April 1, 1975
  Cambodia President Lon Nol flees for Red Khmer
• April 1, 1976
  American entrepreneur Steven Jobs and electronics engineer Stephen Wozniak incorporate the Apple Computer Company in California, United States, to sell hand-built personal computer called Apple I
• April 1, 1979
  Iran officially becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98 percent vote, overthrowing the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and forcing him into exile
• April 1, 2001
  The Act on the Opening up of Marriage, which allows same-sex couples to legally marry for the first time in the world, goes into effect in the Netherlands

March 31

• March 31, 1084
  Anti-pope Clemens crowns German emperor Henry IV
• March 31, 1492
  King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issue an edict expelling approximately 100,000 Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity
• March 31, 1683
  Emperor Leopold I and king of Poland, John Sobieski, signs covenant against Turkey
• March 31, 1774
  English Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, the first bill of the Intolerable Acts, which closes Boston harbor until restitution for the destroyed tea is made
• March 31, 1790
  In Paris, France, Maximilien de Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club, the most influential political club in the development of the French Revolution
• March 31, 1814
  Alexander I of Russia enters Paris at the head of an anti-Napoleon coalition
• March 31, 1840
  American President Martin Van Buren issues an executive order extending the "10-hour system" to all laborers and mechanics employed on federal public works, as the average daily hours of factory workers was estimated at 11.4
• March 31, 1854
  The Treaty of Kanagawa, concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy and the Tokugawa shogunate, forces Japan to opens ports to foreign trade and formally ends Japan's policy of isolation
• March 31, 1880
  Wabash, Indiana, United States becomes the first town in the world completely illuminated by electrical lighting
• March 31, 1885
  Britain establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland, modern Botswana, after appeals by the Botswana leaders for assistance
• March 31, 1889
  French engineer Gustave Eiffel unfurls the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower, constructed of 7,000 tons of iron and steel, officially marking its completion
• March 31, 1896
  Whitcomb Judson, of Chicago, Illinois, United States, patents a hookless fastening, i.e. zipper
• March 31, 1903
  Richard Pearse, a New Zealand farmer and inventor, flies monoplane several hundred meters in New Zealand, some nine months before the Wright brothers flew their aircraft
• March 31, 1907
  Romanian Army puts down Moldavian farmers' revolt, begun due to the inequity of land ownership, killing roughly 11,000
• March 31, 1931
  An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people
• March 31, 1999
  The Matrix, a science fiction action film depicting a dystopian future, is released
• March 31, 2007
  Sydney, Australia, turns off its lights for one hour between 7:30PM and 8:30PM as a political statement for Global Climate Change for the first time

March 10

• March 10, 1198
  Giralda, a bell tower in Seville, Spain, is built as a Muslim minaret
• March 10, 1734
  Spanish army under Charles III of Spain draws into Naples
• March 10, 1762
  Jean Calas, a French protestant, is tortured and executed in Toulouse on the charge that he has killed his son to prevent him from converting to Catholicismm, who actually made a suicide
• March 10, 1793
  After the failure of the French arms in the Austrian Netherlands the National Convention decrees on a proposal by Georges Danton that there should be established in Paris an extraordinary criminal tribunal, later received the official name of the Revolutionary Tribunal
• March 10, 1814
  Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by a combined Allied Army at the battle of Laon, in France
• March 10, 1820
  Royal Astronomical Society is founded in England
• March 10, 1826
  Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, attains the Portuguese throne
• March 10, 1862
  First U.S. paper money are issued without the backing of precious metals in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1000
• March 10, 1876
  Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call and tells his assistant over the experimental device, which converts words into electrical current and back again, "Mister Watson, come here, I want to see you"
• March 10, 1889
  In Ethiopia Emperor Yohannes IV is killed in a war against the dervishes during the Battle of Gallabat
• March 10, 1952
  Military coup by General Fulgencio Batista occurs in Cuba
• March 10, 1959
  300,000 Tibetans band together in revolt, surrounding the Norbulinka Palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese occupation forces
• March 10, 1985
  Konstantin Chernenko, party leader and President of USSR, dies at age 73