Browse historical events day by day — discoveries, spaceflight, war, culture and disasters.
Euro currency introduced
1. january 2002
Elvis Presley born
8. january 1935
Margrethe II becomes Queen of Denmark
14. january 1972
Gulf War begins
17. january 1991
Harald V becomes King of Norway
17. january 1991
First Martin Luther King Day observed
20. january 1986
Roe v. Wade ruling
22. january 1973
Challenger shuttle disaster
28. january 1986
Mahatma Gandhi assassinated
30. january 1948
Columbia shuttle disaster
1. february 2003
Facebook launched
4. february 2004
Nelson Mandela released from prison
11. february 1990
Darwin and Lincoln both born
12. february 1809
Dolly the sheep cloning announced
22. february 1997
Russia invades Ukraine
24. february 2022
Olof Palme assassinated
28. february 1986
Yellowstone — world's first national park
1. march 1872
Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima disaster
11. march 2011
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web
12. march 1989
Albert Einstein born
14. march 1879
Julius Caesar assassinated — Ides of March
15. march -44
Treaty of Rome signed (foundation of EU)
25. march 1957
US purchases Alaska from Russia
30. march 1867
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
4. april 1968
Germany invades Norway
9. april 1940
Yuri Gagarin — first human in space
12. april 1961
Abraham Lincoln shot
14. april 1865
Titanic sinks
15. april 1912
First Earth Day celebrated
22. april 1970
Hubble Space Telescope launched
24. april 1990
Chernobyl nuclear disaster
26. april 1986
Haymarket affair — origin of May Day
1. may 1886
Osama bin Laden killed
2. may 2011
Karl Marx born
5. may 1818
VE Day — Germany surrenders
8. may 1945
Deep Blue defeats Kasparov
11. may 1997
Norwegian Constitution signed at Eidsvoll
17. may 1814
Lindbergh crosses Atlantic solo
21. may 1927
George Floyd killed — BLM movement surges
25. may 2020
Dow Jones Industrial Average first published
26. may 1896
First 24 Hours of Le Mans race
26. may 1923
Apollo 10 returns from the Moon
26. may 1969
Hillary and Norgay summit Everest
29. may 1953
Tiananmen Square massacre
4. june 1989
Robert F. Kennedy shot
5. june 1968
D-Day — Normandy landings
6. june 1944
Norway-Sweden union dissolved
7. june 1905
Anne Frank receives her diary
12. june 1942
Magna Carta signed
15. june 1215
Watergate break-in
17. june 1972
UK votes for Brexit
23. june 2016
Franz Ferdinand assassinated — sparks WWI
28. june 1914
First iPhone released
29. june 2007
US Declaration of Independence
4. july 1776
Higgs boson confirmed at CERN
4. july 2012
Dolly the sheep born — first cloned mammal
5. july 1996
Bastille Day — French Revolution begins
14. july 1789
Apollo 11 launches for the Moon
16. july 1969
Moon landing — Armstrong steps out
20. july 1969
Oslo and Utøya terror attacks
22. july 2011
Blériot flies across English Channel
25. july 1909
World War I begins
28. july 1914
Charles and Diana wedding
29. july 1981
Britain declares war on Germany
4. august 1914
Marilyn Monroe found dead
5. august 1962
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
6. august 1945
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
9. august 1945
Berlin Wall construction begins
13. august 1961
India gains independence
15. august 1947
Woodstock festival begins
15. august 1969
Elvis Presley dies
16. august 1977
Vesuvius eruption destroys Pompeii
24. august 79
MLK delivers "I Have a Dream"
28. august 1963
Princess Diana dies in car crash
31. august 1997
WWII begins — Germany invades Poland
1. september 1939
Google founded
4. september 1998
September 11 attacks
11. september 2001
Mexican Independence Day
16. september 1810
US Constitution signed
17. september 1787
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation
22. september 1862
James Dean dies in car crash
30. september 1955
Ford Model T released
1. october 1908
Sputnik 1 — first artificial satellite
4. october 1957
Columbus reaches the Americas
12. october 1492
Olav V becomes King of Norway
14. october 1957
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier
14. october 1947
Cuban Missile Crisis begins
16. october 1962
Black Monday stock crash
19. october 1987
Sydney Opera House opens
20. october 1973
Black Thursday — Wall Street crashes
24. october 1929
First ARPANET message — birth of the internet
29. october 1969
Barack Obama elected US President
4. november 2008
Berlin Wall falls
9. november 1989
WWI armistice — war ends
11. november 1918
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address
19. november 1863
JFK assassinated in Dallas
22. november 1963
King Haakon VII arrives in Norway
25. november 1905
Winston Churchill born
30. november 1874
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat
1. december 1955
Attack on Pearl Harbor
7. december 1941
John Lennon shot dead
8. december 1980
UN Declaration of Human Rights adopted
10. december 1948
Amundsen reaches South Pole first
14. december 1911
Boston Tea Party
16. december 1773
Wright Brothers — first powered flight
17. december 1903
Soviet Union dissolved
25. december 1991
Indian Ocean tsunami
26. december 2004