Yesterday was !
On this day in...
See what historic events that happened for yesterdays date. Click on a year to learn more.
2021
2021 – Virgin Galactic launches its founder, Richard Branson, into space, the first company ever to do so.
2015
2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape.
2011
2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.
2010
2010 – Spain defeats the Netherlands to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg.
2010
2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.
2006
2006 – Mumbai train bombings: 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
1995
1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July.
1991
1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
1990
1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins.
1983
1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
1982
1982 – The Italy National Football Team defeats West Germany at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to capture the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
1979
1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
1978
1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
1977
1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1973
1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
1972
1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
1971
1971 – The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed.
1962
1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
1962
1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
1960
1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
1960
1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1960
1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger.
1957
1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.
1950
1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
1947
1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France.
1943
1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
1943
1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
1941
1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
1940
1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.
1936
1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
1934
1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.
1924
1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday.
1922
1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens.
1921
1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
1921
1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic.
1921
1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.
1920
1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.
1919
1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.
1914
1914 – The US Navy launches the USS Nevada (BB-36) as its first standard-type battleship.
1914
1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.
1906
1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.
1899
1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.
1897
1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon.
1893
1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua.
1893
1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
1889
1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
1882
1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
1864
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
1848
1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.
1836
1836 – The Fly-fisher's Entomology is published by Alfred Ronalds. The book transformed the sport and went to many editions.
1833
1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed.
1804
1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
1801
1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
1798
1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
1796
1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
1789
1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
1735
1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
1616
1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
1576
1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland".
1476
1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances.
1410
1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne.
1405
1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
1346
1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.
1302
1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army.
1174
1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.
911
911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy.
813
813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius).