Events
Up to 1950
70 - Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle of the Wall of Jerusalem in the Siege of Jerusalem. 1224 - The University of Naples is founded. 1257 - Krakow receives city rights. 1283 - Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, captures Charles II of Naples. 1654 - Queen Christina I of Sweden abdicates (leaves) the throne and secretly converts to Roman Catholicism. 1806 - Louis Bonaparte becomes regent of the Netherlands. 1817 - The first Great Lakes steamer, Frontenac, is launched. 1829 - HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship, Voladora, off Cuba. 1832 - The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis-Philippe. 1837 - Houston, Texas is incorporated as part of the then-Republic of Texas. 1849 – Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy. 1851 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's serial Uncle Tom's Cabin starts a 10-month run in the 'National Era' newspaper. 1862 - The Treaty of Saigon is signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France. The guerrilla, Huong Dinh, continues to fight against the Europeans, against the order of Emperor Tu Duc. 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont, Virginia - Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners. 1870 - Fire rips through Pera, a part of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), destroying over 3,000 houses and killing around 1,300 people. 1883 - The first regularly-scheduled Orient Express leaves Paris. 1888 - An earthquake of over magnitude 5 strikes the Rio de la Plata region between Argentina and Uruguay. 1900 - Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria. 1915 – Denmark amends its constitution to give women the right to vote. 1916 - Louis Brandeis is sworn in as Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 1917 - World War I: Conscription into the military, for the war, begins in the United States. 1924 - The first fax to be sent across the Atlantic Ocean is sent by Ernst Alexanderson. 1941 - 4,000 Chongqing residents choke to death in a bomb shelter during the bombing of Chongqing. 1942 - World War II: The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. 1944 - World War II: Over 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries in Normandy, in preparation for the D-Day landings the next day. 1945 - The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany after World War II, officially takes control. 1946 - A fire at the Fort de la Salle Hotel in Chicago kills 61 people. 1947 – George Marshall calls for aid to war-torn Europe. 1949 - Thailand's first female Member of Parliament, Orapin Chaiyakin, is elected.
1951 2000
1953 - Denmark's Constitution is reformed, allowing a woman to become monarch. Future Queen, Margrethe II of Denmark, becomes next-in-line to the throne. 1956 - Elvis Presley introduces the famous Hound Dog single. 1959 - The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in. 1963 – British politician John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal. 1963 - Mass protests occur in Iran against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is arrested. 1967 – The Six-Day War begins, fought between Israel and its neighbours. 1968 - Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles, California, by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies the next day as a result of his injuries. 1969 - The International Communist Conference begins on Moscow. 1975 - Egypt's Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War. 1975 - The United Kingdom holds a referendum on membership of the European Economic Community, with a majority voting to stay part of the organization. 1976 - The Teton Dam in Idaho collapses, killing 11 people. 1977 – A coup occurs in the Seychelles. 1981 - The first cases of what would later be known as AIDS, are reported. 1984 - Operation Blue Star: Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders a storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest place in the Sikh religion. 1989 – The Unknown Rebel halts a line of tanks in an act of defiance at the Chinese government's violent crackdown at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. 1998 – A seven-week strike begins at General Motors. 1998 - Ethiopia and Eritrea start fighting a border war. 2000 - Sumatra is hit by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake, killing over 100 people. 2000 - A 6-day war begins in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo between Rwandan and Ugandan forces.