100 Fun Facts About On This Day in History

The first crewed mission to land on the Moon achieved this historic feat in which decade?

Armstrong and Aldrin touched down in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins stayed in lunar orbit aboard Columbia.

In what year did a pilot first officially break the sound barrier, flying faster than the speed of sound?

Chuck Yeager achieved this milestone on October 14, 1947, in the Bell X-1 aircraft, marking a significant advancement in aviation history.

Senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated the Roman dictator Julius Caesar on the Ides of March of which year?

44 BC was the year; the senators feared his power, his domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king.

Which Washington state volcano, until then the state's fifth-highest peak, erupted catastrophically on May 18, 1980?

Mount St. Helens had been Washington's fifth-highest peak before the eruption, one of the most significant volcanic events in US history.

In what year did Pearl Harbor pull the United States into World War II?

The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service struck the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York and sank in which year?

1912, in the early hours of 15 April; of the roughly 2,208 people aboard, about 1,500 died, one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.

What year did Martin Luther King Jr. give his 'I Have a Dream' speech?

More than 250,000 people heard it from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 of that year.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison, after 27 years, in what year?

Mandela was released on February 11, 1990, a pivotal moment in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9 of which year, with German reunification following less than a year later?

1989 was the year; the fall of the Berlin Wall became the symbolic end of the Cold War.

What date was D-Day, when Allied troops landed in Normandy in World War II?

The landings on June 6, 1944, opened Operation Overlord and began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe.

World War II officially began with Germany's invasion of which country on September 1, 1939?

The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, is widely considered the start of World War II.

The Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27 of which year?

The 1st Ukrainian Front reached the camp that day; the date has been International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005.

The first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on what date?

August 6, 1945: the B-29 Enola Gay dropped 'Little Boy', a uranium gun-type bomb, on Hiroshima that morning; Truman's statement announced the new weapon sixteen hours later.

Black Tuesday, the most devastating stock market crash in U.S. history, occurred in what year?

Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, marked a sharp downturn in the stock market and contributed to the start of the Great Depression.

On what date did the Continental Congress adopt the Declaration of Independence?

July 4, 1776: Congress adopted the Declaration's final text that day in the Pennsylvania State House, later Independence Hall; most delegates signed the engrossed copy on August 2.

The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France in what year?

1803: the purchase treaty, dated April 30, 1803, transferred about 828,000 square miles from Napoleon's France to the United States for roughly $15 million.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President, was assassinated in what year?

1865: John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, and he died the next morning, five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

The September 11 attacks, a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks, occurred in which year?

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, targeted the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

The United States officially marks V-J Day on which date, when Japan's formal surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri?

September 2 is when the surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay; the UK instead marks August 15, when the surrender was first announced.

On which date did V-E Day, marking the Allies' acceptance of Nazi Germany's surrender, occur?

May 8, 1945: the Allies celebrated V-E Day after Germany's surrender signed at Reims on May 7 took effect; a second signing at Karlshorst, Berlin, late on May 8 led the USSR to mark May 9.

Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame on December 2 of which year?

1804: Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame de Paris on December 2, 1804, in a ceremony attended by Pope Pius VII.

The euro arrived for non-cash transactions on January 1 of what year?

1999: the euro launched as a non-cash accounting currency on January 1, 1999, replacing the European Currency Unit at par; notes and coins followed on January 1, 2002.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a trigger for World War I, occurred in what city?

Sarajevo: Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student, shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in the Bosnian capital on June 28, 1914.

Bastille Day, France's national day, commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison on which date?

July 14 also marks the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, a festival celebrating the unity of the French people one year after the storming.

Explorer Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas on October 12 of which year?

Columbus's expedition made landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492, marking a significant moment in European exploration.

The first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest was achieved in which year?

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.

In what year was Solidarity, the Polish trade union, founded?

Solidarity (Solidarność) was founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, led by Lech Wałęsa.

In what year did British soldiers shoot unarmed civilians in Derry on 'Bloody Sunday'?

Also known as the Bogside Massacre, it happened on January 30, 1972, during a protest march.

Google was incorporated in California on September 4 of which year?

1998: Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google in California on September 4, 1998, working from Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park; the company celebrates its birthday on September 27.

In which year was Earth Day first celebrated?

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, mobilizing millions of Americans for environmental activism.

Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I, is observed annually on which date?

November 11: the armistice was signed in Foch's railway carriage at Compiègne around 5:45 am and took effect at 11:00 on November 11, 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

The Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (EEC), was signed in what year?

1957: six countries signed the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Rome's Capitoline Hill; it came into force on January 1, 1958.

In which year did Vesuvius bury Pompeii and Herculaneum?

79 AD: Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum; the traditional date is August 24, but a charcoal inscription found in 2018 points to an autumn eruption.

The Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon Bonaparte was decisively defeated, took place in what year?

The Battle of Waterloo occurred on June 18, 1815, ending Napoleon's reign and the Napoleonic Wars.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which killed all seven astronauts, occurred in what year?

The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, due to damage sustained during launch.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in which year?

The inaugural games of the modern Olympics took place from April 6 to April 15, 1896, reviving the ancient Greek tradition.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians on May 27 of what year?

The iconic Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27, 1937, with vehicular traffic beginning the following day.

Which planet was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier and Johann Galle on September 23, 1846?

Neptune was discovered through mathematical prediction by Le Verrier and subsequently observed by Galle, based on irregularities in Uranus's orbit.

Prohibition began under the 18th Amendment on January 17 of which year?

1920: the 18th Amendment, ratified in January 1919, took effect on January 17, 1920, when the Volstead Act made the country dry; repeal came with the 21st Amendment in 1933.

World War I began with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia on which date?

July 28, 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia one month after Franz Ferdinand's assassination; Russia mobilised in Serbia's defence and the alliance system produced a general European war by early August.

German Unity Day, celebrating the reunification of Germany, is observed annually on which date?

German Unity Day on October 3 commemorates the formal act of German reunification in 1990, after decades of division.

In what year did the 'Bloody Sunday' march in Selma, Alabama occur?

On March 7, 1965, civil rights marchers attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma were brutally attacked by state troopers.

Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4 of which year, beginning a 444-day crisis for 52 American hostages?

1979 is the year; 444 days later, in January 1981, the 52 hostages were finally released.

The Philippines declared its independence from Spanish colonial rule on June 12 of which year?

Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines from Spain on June 12, 1898, in Kawit, Cavite.

Alexander Graham Bell made the first intelligible telephone call on March 10 of which year?

1876: Bell made the first intelligible telephone call on March 10, 1876, telling his assistant 'Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you'; his patent had been granted three days earlier.

Disneyland, the first Disney theme park, opened on July 17 of which year?

Disneyland in Anaheim, California, opened on 17 July 1955 with an invitation-only dedication day; the general public was admitted the following day.

The People's Republic of China was officially proclaimed by Mao Zedong on October 1 of what year?

1949: Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the Tiananmen Gate rostrum on October 1, 1949, at 3 pm, after the Communist victory in the civil war.

On which date is International Women's Day observed each year?

March 8: the date stems from the women's strike in Petrograd on March 8, 1917 (February 23 in the old Russian calendar) that helped spark the February Revolution; the UN began marking it in 1975.

The second atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on what date?

August 9, 1945: the B-29 Bockscar dropped 'Fat Man', a plutonium implosion bomb, on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima; Japan announced its surrender on August 15.

The Boston Tea Party, a protest against British taxation, occurred on December 16 of which year?

1773: on the night of December 16, 1773, Sons of Liberty members, some dressed as Mohawks, dumped 342 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.

The Wright brothers made the first powered, controlled flight on December 17 of which year?

1903: on December 17, 1903, the Wright Flyer made four flights near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the longest, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.

Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957 from a site in which present-day country?

Kazakhstan: Sputnik 1 lifted off from the Tyuratam range in the Kazakh SSR, the site that became the Baikonur Cosmodrome; Russia signed a lease for it with independent Kazakhstan in 1994.

Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth on April 12, 1961 aboard which spacecraft?

Vostok 1: Gagarin's single orbit aboard Vostok 1 lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing, and he ejected at about 7 km to parachute down separately from the capsule.

Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl plant exploded on April 26 of which year?

1986: Reactor 4 exploded during a safety test in the early hours of April 26, 1986; nearby Pripyat was not evacuated until the following afternoon, about 36 hours later.

On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart how many seconds into its flight?

73 seconds: Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff when cold-stiffened O-rings in the right solid rocket booster let hot gas burn through to the external tank.

The Great Fire of London began on September 2, 1666 in a bakery on which street?

Pudding Lane: the fire began in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane early on September 2, 1666, and burned four days, destroying some 13,200 houses and St Paul's Cathedral.

King John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15 of which year?

1215: King John set his seal to Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15, 1215, neutral ground between Windsor Castle and the rebel barons' base at Staines.

Charles Lindbergh ended his solo Atlantic flight on May 21, 1927 at which airfield?

Le Bourget: Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget airfield outside Paris at 10:22 pm on May 21, 1927, after about 33.5 hours in the air.

The Hindenburg airship burned on May 6, 1937 while trying to land in which U.S. state?

New Jersey: the Hindenburg caught fire while docking at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937; 36 people died in the disaster.

Which German submarine torpedoed the liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915?

U-20: Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger's U-20 fired a single torpedo off the Old Head of Kinsale, and the Lusitania sank in about 18 minutes with nearly 1,200 dead.

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart vanished while flying from Lae toward which Pacific destination?

Howland Island: Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were bound for tiny Howland Island, roughly midway between Australia and Hawaii, where the Coast Guard cutter Itasca waited to guide them in by radio.

Krakatoa's cataclysmic eruption in the Sunda Strait climaxed on August 27 of which year?

1883: Krakatoa's final explosions on August 27, 1883, were heard as far as Perth and Mauritius, and the tsunamis that followed killed more than 36,000 people.

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit San Francisco at 5:12 am on April 18 of which year?

1906: the quake struck at 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, along the San Andreas Fault; the fires that burned for three days afterward did more damage than the shaking itself.

On December 6, 1917, a munitions ship explosion devastated which Canadian city?

Halifax: the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in Halifax Harbour and exploded, killing nearly 2,000 people and flattening the Richmond district.

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at Birla House in New Delhi on January 30 of which year?

1948: Nathuram Godse shot Gandhi, then 78, as he walked to a prayer meeting at Birla House on January 30, 1948; the house later became the Gandhi Smriti museum.

Which state's ratification on August 18, 1920 completed the 19th Amendment on women's suffrage?

Tennessee: on August 18, 1920, 24-year-old legislator Harry Burn switched to 'aye' after a note from his mother, and Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify, the three-fourths needed.

The United States bought Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for what price?

$7.2 million: Secretary of State William Seward's treaty paid Russia $7.2 million, about two cents an acre, for roughly 586,000 square miles; critics mocked the deal as 'Seward's Folly'.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28 of which year?

1886: President Grover Cleveland dedicated the statue on October 28, 1886; it had been meant as a gift for the 1876 centennial, but pedestal fundraising dragged on for a decade.

Gustave Eiffel led officials to the top of his newly finished tower on March 31 of which year?

1889: the tower was finished for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, marking the French Revolution's centenary; Eiffel's permit allowed it to stand only 20 years before dismantling.

The transcontinental railroad’s golden spike was driven on May 10, 1869 in which territory?

Utah: Leland Stanford drove the golden spike at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory, joining the Central Pacific from Sacramento with the Union Pacific from Omaha.

The first nuclear detonation, on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico, had what codename?

It went off at 5:29 am Mountain War Time, three weeks before the same design was used over Japan.

The Cuban Missile Crisis ran from October 16 to 28 of which year?

1962: the thirteen days of October 1962 ended when Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret deal on Jupiter missiles in Turkey.

Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022 at which royal residence?

Balmoral Castle: the Queen died at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire aged 96 after a 70-year reign; a death in Scotland triggered the contingency plan known as Operation Unicorn.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955, sparking a 381-day boycott in which Alabama city?

Montgomery's bus boycott lasted 381 days and launched the public career of a young Martin Luther King Jr.

Brown v. Board of Education was decided by a unanimous 9–0 vote on May 17 of which year?

Chief Justice Earl Warren worked hard to make the ruling unanimous so that segregationists could not seize on a dissent.

Martin Luther King Jr. was shot at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968 in which city?

Memphis: King had come to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers and was shot on the Lorraine Motel balcony; the motel later became the National Civil Rights Museum.

Richard Nixon resigned the U.S. presidency on August 9 of which year?

1974: Nixon announced his resignation on August 8 and left office at noon on August 9, 1974, amid the Watergate scandal; Gerald Ford pardoned him on September 8.

Concorde prototype 001 made its first flight on March 2, 1969 from which city?

Toulouse: prototype 001 took off from Toulouse-Blagnac with test pilot André Turcat at the controls; the British-built 002 followed from Filton on April 9, and 001 first went supersonic on October 1, 1969.

Mark Zuckerberg launched 'TheFacebook' from his Harvard dorm on February 4 of which year?

2004: Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com on February 4, 2004, open at first only to Harvard students; the site dropped 'The' from its name in 2005 after buying facebook.com.

The Soviet Union formally ceased to exist on December 26 of which year?

1991: Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on December 25, 1991, and the red flag over the Kremlin came down that evening; the Supreme Soviet formally dissolved the union the next day.

Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese sovereignty at midnight on July 1 of which year?

1997: the handover at midnight on July 1, 1997, ended 156 years of British rule dating from 1841 and began the 'one country, two systems' arrangement promised for 50 years.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana on August 29 of which year?

2005: Katrina came ashore near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29, 2005; the failure of New Orleans' levees flooded about 80 percent of the city.

The magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami off Japan's Tōhoku coast struck on March 11 of which year?

2011: the magnitude-9.0 quake struck at 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, shaking for about six minutes; the tsunami it sent ashore caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 struck on the morning of which Christian feast?

All Saints' Day: the quake struck on the morning of November 1, 1755, All Saints' Day, when churches were full of lit candles; fires and a tsunami followed the shaking.

William, Duke of Normandy, defeated Anglo-Saxon King Harold at Hastings on October 14 of which year, beginning the Norman Conquest?

1066's battle began around 9 am on a Saturday and lasted until dusk, unusually long for a medieval battle.

Constantinople fell to the Ottomans after a 53-day siege on May 29 of which year?

1453: Mehmed II's Ottoman army breached the Theodosian Walls on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, after a 53-day siege; the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died in the fighting.

Louis XVI was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution on January 21 of which year?

1793: Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, in the square later renamed Place de la Concorde; Marie Antoinette followed him to the scaffold on October 16 that year.

At Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, Nelson commanded the fleet from which flagship?

HMS Victory: Nelson led the weather column aboard the 100-gun first-rate Victory, captained by Thomas Hardy, and was mortally wounded on her quarterdeck; the ship was placed in dry dock at Portsmouth in 1922 and preserved.

The Gunpowder Plot targeted the State Opening of Parliament on November 5 of which year?

1605: Guy Fawkes was found guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords on November 5, 1605; the plotters meant to install James's nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth as a puppet queen.

The Great Chicago Fire burned from October 8 to 10 of which year?

1871: the fire began on the evening of October 8, 1871, near the O'Leary barn on DeKoven Street and destroyed some 17,500 buildings across about 3.3 square miles.

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the bombardment of which site near Charleston?

Fort Sumter: Confederate batteries shelled Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor for 34 hours from April 12, 1861, and Major Robert Anderson's Union garrison surrendered without a combat death on either side.

Lee's surrender to Grant on April 9, 1865 was signed in the parlor of a house owned by whom?

Wilmer McLean: Lee and Grant signed in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's house at Appomattox Court House; McLean had left Manassas after the First Battle of Bull Run swept over his farm in 1861.

James Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill on January 24 of which year?

1848: Marshall spotted gold flakes in the tailrace of Sutter's sawmill on the American River at Coloma on January 24, 1848; the '49ers' rush followed the next year.

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded on December 10 of which year?

1901: the first prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death; Wilhelm Röntgen took the physics prize for discovering X-rays.

Nicholas II and his family were shot by Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918 in which city?

Yekaterinburg: the family was shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, a house demolished in 1977 and later replaced by the Church on the Blood.

Howard Carter uncovered the first step to Tutankhamun's tomb on November 4 of which year?

1922: Carter's workmen found the first step on November 4, 1922, and he opened the tomb on November 26 with Lord Carnarvon, who had agreed to fund just one final season.

The Dunkirk evacuation of May–June 1940 ran under which codename?

Operation Dynamo: named for the dynamo room at Dover Castle where Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned it, the operation lifted more than 338,000 Allied soldiers off Dunkirk between May 26 and June 4, 1940.

Woodstock, held August 15–18, 1969, actually took place on a dairy farm in which New York town?

Max Yasgur's farm was 60 miles from the town the festival was named after; organisers had promised officials no more than 50,000 people.

Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30 of which year?

1975: North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon on April 30, 1975; the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 and Vietnam marks the date as Reunification Day.

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980 in the archway of which Manhattan building?

The Dakota: Chapman shot Lennon at the entrance of the Dakota on West 72nd Street, where he had got Lennon's autograph hours earlier; Lennon died at Roosevelt Hospital that night.