1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the prince of Benevento, Pandulf IV, is killed battling the encroaching Normans.
1238 - The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
1301 - Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
1795 - The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
1807 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Eylau - Napoléon's French Empire begins fighting against Russian and Prussian forces of the Fourth Coalition at Eylau, Poland.
1812 - The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
1819 - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
1842 - Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
1856 - The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
1863 - HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
1882 - The last heavyweight boxing championship bare-knuckle fight takes place in Mississippi City, Mississippi.
1894 - The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
1898 - Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse.
1904 - A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1907 - The Mud March was the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
1942 - Imperial Japanese naval forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1944 - World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle
1948 - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.
1962 - The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1964 - The Beatles arrive at JFK International Airport to begin their first tour of the United States.
1967 - A fire at a restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama kills 25 people.
1969 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service.
1974 - Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1979 - The final session of the Iranian National Consultative Assembly is held.
1979 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
1984 - Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
1986 - Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
1990 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
1991 - Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
1991 - The IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.
1992 - The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
1995 - Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1999 - Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
2000 - Bahria University is established through Presidential Ordinance No. V of 2000 by the Government of Pakistan.
457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Historical Events on 7 Feb
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Historical Events on 6 Feb
1685 - James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
1788 - Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1815 - New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.
1817 - The Argentinian San MartÃn crosses the Andes with an army in order to liberate Chile from Spanish rule.
1819 - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
1820 - The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.
1840 - Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, founding document of New Zealand.
1843 - The first minstrel show in the United States The Virginia Minstrels opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
1862 - American Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant gives the United States its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee, known as the Battle of Fort Henry.
1899 - Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris (1898), a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
1900 - The international arbitration court at The Hague is created when the Netherlands' Senate ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree. wow
1922 - The Washington Naval Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
1922 - Achille Ratti becomes Pope Pius XI.
1933 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
1934 - Far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
1936 - Olympic Games: Winter Olympic Games - IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
1951 - The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
1952 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
1958 - Eight Manchester United players are killed in the Munich air disaster.
1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1959 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour.
1987 - Justice Mary Gaudron is appointed to the High Court of Australia, the first woman to be appointed.
1992 - The Saami people of the Nordic countries have an official day celebrating their existence.
1996 - A Birgen Air Boeing 757 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Dominican Republic killing 189.
1998 - Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
1998 - In Corsica, the prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in Ajaccio, presumably by Yvan Colonna.
46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio and Juba at Thapsus.