This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. 23 people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.
The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.
The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.
A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.
Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.
Peru: a landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.
The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.
Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito-Stalin Split.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 people and causes thousands to flee their homes.
The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.
World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.
Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.
The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.
The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.
World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada the Stanley Cup.
Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.
American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.
American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
March Revolution: In Berlin there is a struggle between citizens and military, costing about 300 lives.
Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
Flanders Campaign of the French Revolution, Battle of Neerwinden.
The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.
New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.
The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins in the Colony of Virginia.
Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.
An earthquake affects the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, leaving up to 20,000 dead.
Ridda wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr.
The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius's will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
English