Events

• 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople.
• 1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, is rounded up and incinerated.
• 1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
• 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in Battle of Barari Ghat.
• 1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London).
• 1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to join the United States.
• 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States.
• 1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.
• 1806 - Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred at St Paul's Cathedral.
• 1816 - Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for Miners at Hebburn Colliery.
• 1822 - The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process.
• 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
• 1857 - The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9.
• 1858 - Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War.")
• 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
• 1863 - The first section of the London Underground Railway opens -- between Paddington and Farringdon Street.
• 1863 - American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman occurs in Arkansas.
• 1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
• 1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
• 1882 - Oscar Wilde gives his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York.
• 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
• 1900 - S.S. Lazio is founded in Rome, Italy.
• 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.
• 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tzarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.
• 1914 - Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. was founded on the campus of Howard University.
• 1916 - The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated.
• 1917 - World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
• 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.
• 1929 - The Seeing Eye is established in Nashville, Tennessee, with the mission to train dogs for assisting the blind.
• 1941 - First flight of the Avro Lancaster.
• 1945 - The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.
• 1947 - Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia last seen alive.
• 1951 - United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
• 1964 - Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between US military and Panamanian civilians.
• 1972 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.
• 1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
• 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.
• 1997 - A Comair Embraer 120 crashes during approach into Detroit Metro Airport, killing 29 people.
• 2001 - Shenzhou 2, an unmanned Chinese spacecraft, was launched.
• 2002 - The United States Department of Justice announces it's going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
• 2003 - Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes into hangar on take off in Charlotte, NC. All 19 passengers and 2 crew dead.
• 2005 - The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, commonly known as the Naivasha Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group in Naivasha, Kenya
• 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.
• 2006 - The Phantom of the Opera surpasses the record set by Cats for the title of longest running show on Broadway.
• 2007 - An AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crashes in Balad, Iraq. The Islamic Army in Iraq claims to have shot it down.

Births

Balloon Ascension Day (External Link)