Peoples Republic of China admitted to United Nations, 1971
The Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC) was one of the founder members of the United Nations in 1945. Following their declaration the People’s Republic of China (PRC)…
French National Convention dissolved, 1795
In September 1792 the French National Convention met for the first time. It replaced the Legislative Assembly, which created it in order to draw up a new republican constitution. Their…
Southern Rhodesians chose not to join the Union of South Africa, 1922
In 1889, The British South Africa Company (BSAC) received a charter granting it the right to administer the territories between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika in south-east Africa. The…
Mino-Owari earthquake, 1891
At just after half-past-six on the morning of 28th October 1891 an earthquake shook the provinces of Mino and Owari, on the Nōbi Plain, Japan, the effects of which were…
Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded, 1618
Born in Devon in 1552 into a Protestant, Walter Raleigh served in Ireland during the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions between 1580 and 1581. He received forty-thousand acres of land…
Coronation of George I, King of the Hellenes, 1863
In October 1862, following a power struggle that had lasted nearly two decades, King Otto of Greece lost his throne following a constitutionalist coup while he visited the Peloponnese. Ambassadors…
Work finished on Mount Rushmore sculpture, 1941
During the early 1920s, the state historian of South Dakota, Doane Robinson, promoted his idea of commissioning giant sculptures of key figures in the history of the West, such as…
First aerial bombing, 1911
On 29th September 1911, the Italian government declared war on the Ottoman Empire having failed to achieve their demand for control of those Ottoman territories that make up modern day…
BBC Television Service started broadcasting, 1936
The first television broadcast in Britain was made on 30th September 1929 using an electromechanical system pioneered by the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird. His Baird Television Development Company Ltd…
Last hanging at Tyburn gallows, 1783
The gallows at Tyburn in London were the site of the demise of many infamous characters. The first record of an execution there dates from 1196 when the leader of…
Nixon won presidential election, 1968
On 5th November 1968, Richard Millhous Nixon won the U.S. presidential election following a turbulent campaign that saw the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, as well…
First Sex Pistols gig, 1975
On 6th November 1975, one of the most infamous rock bands of all time played their first concert at St. Martin’s College of Art in London. The Sex Pistols emerged…
Jesús García saves the town of Nacozari, 1907
In 1898, Jesús García moved with his family to the town of Nacozari in the Mexican province of Sonora. His father worked as a blacksmith in the town, which was…
The Louvre opened as a museum, 1793
On 8th November 1793, as the Reign of Terror began in Revolutionary France the Palais du Louvre (Louvre Palace) first opened in its new role housing a national museum. The…
First issue of Rolling Stone published, 1967
In 1966 Jann Wenner dropped out of Berkeley and sought work as a journalist. His friend and mentor the music critic Ralph J. Gleason found him a job working at…
Signing of the Armistice ended the Great War, 1918
After over four years of war, in the Autumn of 1918 the forces of the Central powers began a slow retreat from the Western Front following a series of Allied…
Stanley found Livingstone, 1871
On 8th December 1840 Dr. David Livingston sailed from Britain to embark on missionary work in southern Africa. The month before he left he had received a medical licence from…
Sir Thomas Fairfax died, 1671
Thomas Fairfax was born in January in 1612 at Denton Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of Ferdinando Fairfax, the second Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and his wife, Mary Sheffield,…
First manmade object to orbit another planet, 1971
On 30th May 1971, an Atlas-Centaur rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the Mariner 9 spacecraft. NASA’s Mariner program was an investigation of Mars, Venus and Mercury using unmanned probes.…
Philosopher G.W.F. Hegel died, 1831
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born on 27th August 1770 in Stuttgart, which was then part of the Duchy of Württemberg where his father served as a revenue officer. Hegel…