Yesterday was !
On this day in...
See what historic events that happened for yesterdays date. Click on a year to learn more.
2008
2008 – Iraq War: The United States Armed Forces transfers control of Anbar Province to the Iraqi Armed Forces.
2004
2004 – The Beslan school siege begins when armed terrorists take schoolchildren and school staff hostage in North Ossetia, Russia; by the end of the siege, three days later, more than 385 people are dead (including hostages, other civilians, security personnel and terrorists).
1985
1985 – The wreck of the Titanic is discovered by an American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel.
1983
1983 – Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the commercial aircraft strayed into Soviet airspace, killing all 269 on board, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
1982
1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
1981
1981 – Central African President David Dacko is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General André Kolingba.
1974
1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of one hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).
1973
1973 – A 76-hour multinational rescue effort in the Celtic Sea resulted in the Rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman.
1969
1969 – A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power.
1967
1967 – Six-Day War: The Khartoum Resolution is issued at the Arab Summit, and eight countries adopt the "three 'no's against Israel".
1961
1961 – TWA Flight 529 crashed shortly after takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 78 people on board. At the time, it was the deadliest single plane disaster in U.S. history.
1944
1944 – World War II: Launch of Operation Ratweek, complicating German retreat.
1939
1939 – J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder publish the Oppenheimer–Snyder model, proving for the first time in contemporary physics how black holes could develop.
1939
1939 – World War II: Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II.
1923
1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
1897
1897 – The Tremont Street Subway in Boston opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.
1894
1894 – Over 400 people die in the Great Hinckley Fire, a forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota.
1880
1880 – The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan is routed by the British at the Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
1878
1878 – Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.
1873
1873 – Cetshwayo ascends to the throne as king of the Zulu nation following the death of his father Mpande.
1870
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Sedan is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
1864
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jonesborough, alongside the overall Atlanta campaign, culminates in a Union victory for General William T. Sherman as Confederate General John Bell Hood orders the evacuation of Atlanta.
1862
1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson inflict heavy causalities in the Battle of Chantilly during the Union withdrawal from the Northern Virginia campaign.
1838
1838 – Saint Andrew's Scots School, the oldest school of British origin in South America, is established.
1836
1836 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.
1831
1831 – The Order of St. Gregory the Great is established by Pope Gregory XVI of the Vatican State to recognize high support for the Vatican or for the Pope, by a man or a woman, and not necessarily a Roman Catholic.
1804
1804 – 3 Juno, one of the largest asteroids in the Main Belt, is discovered by the German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.
1774
1774 – Massachusetts Bay colonists rise up in the bloodless Powder Alarm.
1772
1772 – The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa is founded in San Luis Obispo, California.
1763
1763 – Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, endorses Ivan Betskoy's plans for a Foundling Home in Moscow.
1715
1715 – At the age of five, Louis XV becomes king of France in succession to his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV.
1645
1645 – English Civil War. Scottish Covenanter forces abandon their month-long Siege of Hereford, a Cavalier stronghold, on news of Royalist victories in Scotland.
1644
1644 – Battle of Tippermuir: James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose defeats the Earl of Wemyss's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause.
1610
1610 – Claudio Monteverdi's musical work Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) is first published, printed in Venice and dedicated to Pope Paul V.
1604
1604 – Adi Granth, now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, is first installed at Harmandir Sahib.
1532
1532 – Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.
1529
1529 – The Spanish fort of Sancti Spiritu, the first one built in modern Argentina, is destroyed by indigenous people.
1449
1449 – Tumu Crisis: The Mongols capture the Emperor of China.
1355
1355 – King Tvrtko I of Bosnia writes In castro nostro Vizoka vocatum from the Old town of Visoki.
1173
1173 – The widow Stamira sacrifices herself in order to raise the siege of Ancona by the forces of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
1145
1145 – The main altar of Lund Cathedral, at the time the seat of the archiepiscopal see of all the Nordic countries, is consecrated.