Today in History
Browse our historical archive by date to see what happened on any day of the year. Each page is presented as a classic, newspaper-styled front page of real events retold by The Yesterday Times. Explore history day by day and discover the stories that shaped our world.
January
- January 1 — Ellis Island Opens as Gateway for Millions
- January 20 — Obama Sworn In as 44th President
February
- February 14 — PayPal Alumni Launch YouTube Video Site
March
- March 17 — British Quit Boston; Washington's First Triumph
April
- April 12 — Gagarin Orbits Earth in 108-Minute
- April 14 — President Lincoln Shot at Ford's Theatre
- April 15 — Titanic Found 12,500 Feet Down
May
- May 8 — Iron Age Corpse Found in Danish Bog
June
July
- July 1 — Sony's Walkman Frees the Listener From the Living Room
- July 2 — Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act; Segregation Outlawed
- July 3 — Lee Repulsed; Great Assault on Cemetery Ridge Fails
- July 4 — Congress Unanimously Declares Colonies Free
- July 5 — Presley’s First Single Cut at Sun
- July 6 — Boeing 777's First Fatal Crash Kills 3 in San Francisco
- July 7 — West Germany Wins World Cup
- July 8 — Abe Assassinated During Campaign Speech in Nara
- July 9 — Fourteenth Amendment Ratified; Citizenship Guaranteed
- July 10 — All 13 Rescued From Thai Cave
- July 11 — Zheng He Sets Sail on Grand Voyage
- July 12 — France Wins World Cup, Beats Brazil 3-0
- July 13 — World Cup Opens in Montevideo as 13 Nations Vie
- July 14 — Bastille Falls to the People of Paris
- July 15 — French Soldiers Unearth Key to Egypt's Ancient Scripts
- July 16 — U.S. Detonates First Atomic Bomb in New Mexico Desert
- July 17 — Malaysia Jet Downed Over Ukraine
- July 18 — Comaneci, 14, Records First Perfect 10
- July 19 — Cassini Snaps Saturn With Earth as Pale Dot
- July 20 — Viking 1 Lands on Mars, Sends First Photos
- July 21 — Rowling's Final Potter Tale Sets 24-Hour Sales Record
- July 22 — Soviet Dogs First to Fly in Space, Return Safely
- July 23 — Megawati Sworn In as Indonesia's
- July 24 — Johnson Takes Office, Vows Brexit Deadline
- July 25 — Mozart's New Symphony in G Minor Enters His Catalogue
- July 26 — Clinton First Woman to Win Major Party Nomination
- July 27 — Auchinleck Holds Axis at El Alamein
- July 28 — Tangshan Quake Kills 240,000, China Reports
- July 29 — Tolkien's Epic 'Fellowship' Is
- July 30 — Uruguay Wins First World Cup Final, 4–2
- July 31 — Passchendaele Offensive Opens
August
- August 1 — Bangladesh Benefit Rocks Garden, Raises Funds
- August 2 — Einstein Warns Roosevelt of Atomic Peril
- August 3 — Fighting Dinosaurs Fossil Unearthed in Gobi Desert
- August 4 — Beirut Devastated by Massive Blast
- August 5 — Juno Probe Blasts Off for Jupiter, Solar Wings Deployed
- August 6 — Atomic Bomb Devastates Hiroshima
- August 7 — Marines Storm Guadalcanal, Opening Pacific Offensive
- August 8 — Amiens Offensive Opens as Allies Strike Decisive Blow
- August 9 — Ferguson Erupts as Grand Jury Weighs Brown Case
- August 10 — Vasa Sinks in Stockholm Harbor on Maiden Voyage
- August 11 — DJ Kool Herc's Bronx Party Ignites Hip Hop
- August 12 — Sue's Discovery Rewrites T. rex History
- August 13 — Berlin Border Sealed
- August 14 — Quaid-i-Azam Hails New Dominion of Pakistan as British Rule Ends
- August 15 — India Wins Freedom; Joins Commonwealth
- August 16 — Elvis Presley Dies at 42; Found at Graceland
- August 17 — Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' Sets Jazz on a New Course
- August 18 — Suffrage Amendment Ratified; 26 Million Women to Vote
- August 19 — Paris Rises Against the Hun As Allies Close
- August 20 — Warsaw Pact Tanks Roll Into Prague, Crush Reform Drive
- August 21 — Total Eclipse Sweeps Coast to Coast
- August 22 — Perelman Refuses Fields Medal For Poincare Proof
- August 23 — World Wide Web Opens to Public
- August 24 — Gutenberg's Masterwork Completed
- August 25 — Springsteen's 'Born to Run' Captures the Moment
- August 26 — Beatles' 'Hey Jude' Sets Record as Longest No. 1
- August 27 — Stevie Ray Vaughan Dies in Helicopter Crash
- August 28 — Mississippi Negro Youth Slain; Body Found in River
- August 29 — Faraday Demonstrates Electrical Induction
- August 30 — Marshall Confirmed as First Negro Justice
- August 31 — Diana, Princess of Wales, Dies in Paris Crash
September
- September 1 — German Troops Storm Poland as Hitler Opens European War
- September 2 — Swissair Jet Crashes Off Nova Scotia, 229 Dead
- September 3 — Treaty of Paris Ends American War
- September 4 — Stanford Duo Launches Google Search Engine
- September 5 — Clay Takes Light Heavyweight Gold in Rome Ring
- September 6 — Ripken Breaks Gehrig's Iron-Man Mark at 2,131 Games
- September 7 — London Blitz Begins as RAF Holds
- September 8 — NBC Boldly Goes: 'Star Trek' Launches Tonight With Alien Hunt
- September 9 — Eisenhower Signs Civil Rights Act, First Since Reconstruction; Thurmond Filibuster Fails
- September 10 — Biggest Experiment in History Powers Up at CERN Near Geneva
- September 11 — Terrorists Kill 2,977; Hijackers Turn Planes Into Weapons
- September 12 — Hurricane Smashes Guadeloupe; 1,200 Dead, Island Ruined
- September 13 — Miyamoto's Plumber Jumps Into Japanese Homes
- September 14 — Gravitational Waves Detected From Black Hole Collision
- September 15 — Lehman Brothers Files Chapter 11; $600 Billion in Assets
- September 16 — Mendelssohn Finishes Violin Concerto, His Last
- September 17 — Egypt and Israel Sign Peace Framework at Camp David
- September 18 — Voyager 1 Captures First Distant Image of Earth and Moon Together
- September 19 — Quake Kills Thousands, Levels City Blocks; 100,000 Homeless
- September 20 — King Crushes Riggs in $100,000 'Battle of the Sexes'
- September 21 — O'Connor Confirmed as First Woman on Supreme Court
- September 22 — Lincoln Issues Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
- September 23 — New Planet Discovered by Mathematical Prediction; Neptune Found
- September 24 — India's Probe Enters Mars Orbit on Debut Try
- September 25 — Madison's Amendments Win Congressional Approval
- September 26 — Soviet Officer Ignores Computer Alert, Halts Nuclear Response
- September 27 — Ford Model T Leaves Plant; Mass Motor Age Dawns
- September 28 — Ferry Estonia Sinks in Baltic Storm; 852 Perish in Hours
- September 29 — NASA Returns to Flight with Shuttle Discovery Launch
- September 30 — NBC Unveils 'Cheers,' a Sitcom Set in Boston Bar
October
- October 10 — Nobel Economics Prize to 3 US Scholars
- October 11 — Sullivan Is First U.S. Woman to Spacewalk
- October 12 — Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier in Vienna
- October 13 — 69 Days Underground End in Joy
- October 14 — Yeager Breaks Sound Barrier in Rocket Plane Over Mojave
- October 15 — China Launches First Astronaut Into Orbit Aboard Shenzhou 5
- October 16 — Kennedy Sees Cuba Missile Photos; 13-Day Crisis Opens
- October 17 — Burgoyne Yields Sword; 6,200 British Troops Surrender at Saratoga
- October 18 — Phillis Wheatley, African Poetess, Granted Her Freedom
- October 19 — Scipio Crushes Hannibal at Zama, Ending 17-Year Punic War
- October 20 — Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crashes in Mississippi; Six Killed
- October 21 — Nelson Falls at Trafalgar as British Fleet Crushes Combined Enemy
- October 22 — Sartre Refuses Nobel Prize in Literature
- October 23 — Mutsuhito Proclaims Meiji Era After Seizing Shogunate's Seat at Edo
- October 24 — Concorde Makes Final Commercial Flight, Ending Era of Supersonic Passenger Travel
- October 25 — Henry V Smashes French Host at Agincourt; King Fights Hand-to-Hand
- October 26 — Eleven Clubs Found Football Association in London to Codify the Game
- October 27 — Soviet Officer Blocks Nuclear Torpedo Launch, Averting War
- October 28 — Cleveland Dedicates Liberty's Colossus; Harbor Throngs Witness
- October 29 — Market Panic Ends Bull Run of 1920s
- October 30 — Romania Mourns 64 Killed in Bucharest Nightclub Blaze
- October 31 — Luther Posts Ninety-five Theses; Reformation Begins
November
- November 1 — Michelangelo Unveils Sistine Ceiling to Public Worship
- November 2 — Britain Pledges Jewish Homeland in Palestine; Cabinet Authorises Declaration
- November 3 — Clinton Wins Presidency, Ends Republican Era
- November 4 — Carter Finds Step to Tomb of Tutankhamun in Thebes
- November 5 — Guy Fawkes Seized in Parliament Cellars With 36 Barrels of Powder
- November 6 — Lincoln Wins Presidency on 40 Percent Vote
- November 7 — Bolsheviks Storm Winter Palace, Seize Power in Russia
- November 8 — Roosevelt Sweeps to Presidency in Democratic Landslide
- November 9 — East Germans Flood West as 28-Year Berlin Wall Opens After Press Conference
- November 11 — Marshal Foch Accepts German Surrender at Compiègne
- November 22 — President Kennedy Slain in Dallas; Johnson Sworn In as 36th President
December
- December 7 — Japanese Planes Bomb Pearl Harbor; 2,403 Dead in Surprise Raid
- December 17 — Men Fly at Kitty Hawk; New Era Opens
- December 25 — Berners-Lee Unveils WorldWideWeb, First Browser
- December 31 — Yeltsin Steps Down; Putin Takes Helm
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