360What happened on this day in history
One moment from the past 360 years for every date, told in 60 words or fewer.
January
- 1 January1801
Ceres, the first asteroid, is discovered
On 1 January 1801, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted a faint moving point of light from his observatory in Palermo. It was Ceres, the first object found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Today Ceres is classed as a dwarf planet, and NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited it from 2015.
- 2 January1959
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity
On 2 January 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 1 towards the Moon. It missed its target by about 6,000 km, but it became the first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity and go into orbit around the Sun. It also found the solar wind, a stream of particles flowing from the Sun.
- 3 January1977
Apple Computer is incorporated
On 3 January 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated in California by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, with early backing from the investor Mike Markkula. That year it released the Apple II, one of the first successful personal computers. Apple later created the Macintosh, the iPod and the iPhone.
- 4 January2004
The rover Spirit lands on Mars
On 4 January 2004, NASA's rover Spirit bounced to a landing on Mars, cushioned by airbags. Planned to work for 90 days, it explored for more than six years and found strong signs that water once flowed there. Its twin, Opportunity, landed three weeks later and drove more than 45 km.
- 5 January1769
James Watt patents his improved steam engine
On 5 January 1769, the Scottish engineer James Watt received a patent for a separate condenser, which made steam engines far more efficient. His engines went on to power factories, mines and mills, and helped drive the Industrial Revolution. The unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
- 6 January1838
Morse and Vail first demonstrate the electric telegraph
On 6 January 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrated their electric telegraph at the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey, sending a message through 3 km of wire. Their system of dots and dashes, Morse code, later carried news and messages across continents within minutes.
- 7 January1927
The first transatlantic telephone call
On 7 January 1927, the first commercial telephone service across the Atlantic opened, linking New York and London by radio. A three-minute call cost about $75, a huge sum at the time. Undersea telephone cables followed in 1956, and calls between continents became part of everyday life.
- 8 January1889
Hollerith patents his punched-card tabulating machine
On 8 January 1889, the American inventor Herman Hollerith received a patent for a machine that counted data using punched cards. It processed the 1890 US census in a fraction of the usual time. His company later became part of IBM, and punched cards fed computers for decades.
- 9 January2007
Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone
On 9 January 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in San Francisco, describing it as a phone, an iPod and an internet device in one. Its touchscreen and, from 2008, its App Store changed how billions of people communicate, take photos, shop and find their way.
- 10 January1863
The world's first underground railway opens in London
On 10 January 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened between Paddington and Farringdon in London, the first underground railway in the world. Steam trains ran through shallow tunnels, and about 38,000 passengers rode on the first day. The London Underground now has 11 lines and about 270 stations.
- 11 January1922
Insulin is first given to a patient
On 11 January 1922, in Toronto, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person with diabetes to receive an insulin injection. After the extract was purified, his health improved dramatically. Insulin turned diabetes from a fatal disease into a manageable one, and Frederick Banting and John Macleod won the 1923 Nobel Prize.
- 12 January1895
Britain's National Trust is founded
On 12 January 1895, the National Trust was founded in Britain by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to protect places of natural beauty and historic interest for everyone. Today it cares for hundreds of historic houses, gardens and nature reserves, and long stretches of coastline.
- 13 January1910
The first public radio broadcast
On 13 January 1910, the inventor Lee de Forest broadcast a live opera performance, featuring the tenor Enrico Caruso, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Only a few listeners with receivers could hear it, faintly. Within two decades, radio had become a mass medium in homes worldwide.
- 14 January2005
The Huygens probe lands on Titan
On 14 January 2005, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe parachuted onto Titan, Saturn's largest moon. It sent back pictures of river channels and pebbles of ice. It remains the most distant landing ever made by a spacecraft, about 1.2 billion km from Earth.
- 15 January1902
The young Abdulaziz recovers Riyadh
On 15 January 1902, Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud and a small band of companions recovered Riyadh. The young leader, later King Abdulaziz, began three decades of unification that led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
- 16 January1909
Explorers reach the South Magnetic Pole
On 16 January 1909, Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay, members of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, reached the South Magnetic Pole after hauling their sledges for more than 2,000 km. The magnetic pole, where compass needles point straight down, slowly moves over time.
- 17 January1773
Cook's ships are the first to cross the Antarctic Circle
On 17 January 1773, the ships of the British navigator James Cook, HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure, became the first known vessels to cross the Antarctic Circle. Blocked by ice, Cook never sighted Antarctica itself, but his voyage showed that any southern continent lay far to the south.
- 18 January1919
The Paris Peace Conference opens
On 18 January 1919, leaders of the victorious powers met in Paris to settle the peace after the First World War. The conference produced the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties, redrew the map of Europe and created the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations.
- 19 January2006
New Horizons sets off for Pluto
On 19 January 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft, the fastest ever to leave Earth. After a journey of more than nine years, it flew past Pluto in July 2015 and sent back the first close-up pictures, revealing icy mountains and a vast heart-shaped plain.
- 20 January1885
A patent for the roller coaster
On 20 January 1885, the American inventor LaMarcus Thompson received a patent for a 'roller coasting structure'. His Switchback Railway at Coney Island in New York, opened in 1884, carried riders at about 10 km/h. Roller coasters became one of the world's favourite fairground rides.
- 21 January1976
Concorde begins passenger flights
On 21 January 1976, British Airways and Air France began the first supersonic passenger flights with Concorde, from London to Bahrain and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. Concorde flew at twice the speed of sound and crossed the Atlantic in about three and a half hours. It retired in 2003.
- 22 January1970
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet enters service
On 22 January 1970, Pan Am flew the first passenger service of the Boeing 747 from New York to London. The 'jumbo jet' could carry about 400 passengers, more than twice as many as earlier jets. Lower fares followed, and air travel opened up to millions of people.
- 23 January1960
Two explorers dive to the deepest point of the ocean
On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh took the bathyscaphe Trieste to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific's Mariana Trench, about 10,900 m down. The descent took almost five hours. They saw a flat-looking fish, proof that life survives at enormous pressure.
- 24 January1984
Apple launches the Macintosh
On 24 January 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh personal computer. It made the mouse and on-screen windows, icons and menus popular with ordinary users, instead of typed commands. It sold for $2,495 and set the style that most computers still follow today.
- 25 January1924
The first Winter Olympics open in Chamonix
On 25 January 1924, a 'winter sports week' opened in Chamonix, in the French Alps, with about 250 athletes from 16 nations. It was later recognised as the first Winter Olympic Games. Events included skiing, skating, ice hockey and bobsleigh.
- 26 January1926
John Logie Baird demonstrates television
On 26 January 1926, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird showed moving television pictures to members of the Royal Institution in his workshop in London. The images were small and flickering, but recognisable faces could be seen. Within a decade, regular television broadcasts had begun.
- 27 January1880
Edison receives his patent for the electric lamp
On 27 January 1880, Thomas Edison received a US patent for his carbon-filament electric lamp. Long-lasting and affordable, it helped bring electric light into homes and streets. In 1882 his company opened power stations in London and New York to supply electricity.
- 28 January1813
Pride and Prejudice is published
On 28 January 1813, Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice was published in London, without her name on it. The witty story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy became one of the best-loved novels in the English language, read and filmed around the world.
- 29 January1886
Karl Benz patents the motor car
On 29 January 1886, the German engineer Karl Benz applied for a patent for his 'vehicle powered by a gas engine', the three-wheeled Benz Patent-Motorwagen. It is widely regarded as the first true motor car. Two years later, his wife Bertha drove it more than 100 km to show what it could do.
- 30 January1969
The Beatles play their last live concert, on a rooftop
On 30 January 1969, the Beatles played an unannounced concert on the roof of their Apple Corps office in London. Crowds gathered in the streets below until police asked them to turn down the volume. It was the band's last public performance, lasting about 42 minutes.
- 31 January1958
Explorer 1, America's first satellite, is launched
On 31 January 1958, the United States launched Explorer 1, its first satellite. An instrument designed by James Van Allen detected belts of radiation trapped around the Earth by its magnetic field. They are now known as the Van Allen belts.
February
- 1 February1884
The first part of the Oxford English Dictionary appears
On 1 February 1884, the first instalment of what became the Oxford English Dictionary was published, covering words from 'A' to 'Ant'. The editors had asked the public to send in examples of words in use. The full dictionary took until 1928 to finish, and it is still being updated online.
- 2 February1971
Countries sign a treaty to protect wetlands
On 2 February 1971, countries meeting in the city of Ramsar signed the Convention on Wetlands, one of the first global agreements to protect nature. Wetlands such as marshes, mangroves and lakes shelter wildlife and clean water. The date is now marked every year as World Wetlands Day.
- 3 February1966
Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon
On 3 February 1966, the Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land gently on the Moon, on the Ocean of Storms. It sent back the first pictures from the lunar surface and showed that the ground was firm enough to support a lander, not covered in deep dust.
- 4 February2004
Facebook is launched
On 4 February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and fellow students launched 'TheFacebook' for students at Harvard University. It soon opened to other universities and then to everyone. Facebook grew into the world's largest social network, with about three billion users, and changed how people share news and keep in touch.
- 5 February1924
The BBC broadcasts its time signal 'pips' for the first time
On 5 February 1924, the BBC first broadcast the six short beeps of the Greenwich Time Signal, sent from the Royal Observatory. The final pip marks the exact start of the hour. Listeners used them to set their clocks, and the pips are still heard on BBC radio today.
- 6 February1952
Elizabeth II becomes Queen
On 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom on the death of her father, King George VI, while she was visiting Kenya. She was 25. She reigned for 70 years, until 2022, the longest reign in British history.
- 7 February1984
An astronaut flies free in space
On 7 February 1984, the American astronaut Bruce McCandless flew about 100 m away from the space shuttle Challenger using a jet-powered backpack, with no safety line. It was the first untethered spacewalk. A famous photograph shows him floating alone against the blackness of space.
- 8 February1910
The Boy Scouts of America is founded
On 8 February 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell's scouting movement in Britain. Scouting taught young people outdoor skills, first aid and community service. The world scouting movement today has tens of millions of members in more than 170 countries.
- 9 February1895
Volleyball is invented
9 February 1895 is the date usually given for the invention of volleyball by the PE teacher William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He called his gentler indoor game 'mintonette': players hit a ball back and forth over a high net. Renamed volleyball, it became an Olympic sport in 1964 and is played by millions worldwide.
- 10 February1996
A computer beats the world chess champion in a game
On 10 February 1996, IBM's Deep Blue computer beat Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, in the first game of a match in Philadelphia. Kasparov came back to win the match, but in a rematch in 1997 Deep Blue won overall, a milestone for artificial intelligence.
- 11 February2016
Scientists announce they have detected gravitational waves
On 11 February 2016, scientists of the LIGO observatory announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein a century earlier. The signal came from two black holes colliding about 1.3 billion light-years away. Three leading scientists shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 12 February1809
Charles Darwin is born
On 12 February 1809, Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. His voyage around the world on HMS Beagle led him to the theory of evolution by natural selection, published in 1859 in On the Origin of Species. It became the foundation of modern biology.
- 13 February1895
The Lumière brothers patent the cinématographe
On 13 February 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière patented the cinématographe in France, a light machine that could film, develop and project moving pictures. Later that year they used it for the first public, paid film show in Paris, often called the birth of cinema.
- 14 February1946
ENIAC, an early electronic computer, is unveiled
On 14 February 1946, the University of Pennsylvania unveiled ENIAC, one of the first general-purpose electronic computers. It filled a large room, weighed about 27 tonnes and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, yet it could do in seconds calculations that took people days. Six women were its first programmers.
- 15 February2013
A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk
On 15 February 2013, a space rock about 20 m wide exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk in Russia, shining brighter than the Sun. Its shock wave shattered windows across the city and injured about 1,500 people, mostly from flying glass. It was the largest such event recorded in more than a century.
- 16 February1923
Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun's burial chamber
On 16 February 1923, the archaeologist Howard Carter opened the sealed burial chamber of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Inside stood a huge gilded shrine. It took years more to reach the king's coffins and his famous gold mask.
- 17 February1959
The first weather satellite is launched
On 17 February 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, the first satellite designed to measure weather, by observing cloud cover. It wobbled in orbit, so its data was hard to use. But it opened the way for weather satellites, which now help forecast storms and save lives.
- 18 February1930
Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
On 18 February 1930, the young astronomer Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto by comparing photographs of the night sky at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The name was suggested by an 11-year-old girl in England, Venetia Burney. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
- 19 February1878
Edison patents the phonograph
On 19 February 1878, Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph, the first machine that could record sound and play it back. It recorded on a cylinder wrapped in tinfoil. His first recording was reportedly 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. It led to the record industry.
- 20 February1962
John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth
On 20 February 1962, the astronaut John Glenn circled the Earth three times in the Friendship 7 capsule, in a flight of almost five hours. He was the first American to orbit the planet. In 1998, aged 77, he flew in space again on the shuttle Discovery.
- 21 February1804
The first railway journey by a steam locomotive
On 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick's steam engine hauled 10 tons of iron, five wagons and about 70 men along a tramway at the Penydarren ironworks in Wales. It was the first journey by a steam locomotive on rails, and a first step towards the railway age.
- 22 February1727
Founding Day: the First Saudi State is founded
Every 22 February, Saudi Arabia celebrates Founding Day. It marks 1727, when Imam Muhammad bin Saud founded the First Saudi State in Diriyah, laying the foundations of the nation. Saudis celebrate with traditional dress, heritage events and festivities across the Kingdom.
- 23 February1893
Rudolf Diesel is granted a patent for his engine
On 23 February 1893, the German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a new kind of engine, which ignites its fuel by squeezing air until it is very hot, with no spark. Diesel engines became the workhorses of ships, trains, trucks and generators worldwide.
- 24 February1968
Astronomers announce the discovery of pulsars
On 24 February 1968, the journal Nature published the discovery of the first pulsar, a source of radio pulses arriving every 1.3 seconds. It was spotted by the graduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell in Cambridge. Pulsars turned out to be spinning neutron stars, the collapsed cores of dead stars.
- 25 February1837
An early electric motor is patented
On 25 February 1837, the American blacksmith Thomas Davenport received one of the first patents for an electric motor, powered by batteries. It was too expensive to succeed at the time. Today electric motors are everywhere, in fans, washing machines, trains and electric cars.
- 26 February1935
Radar is demonstrated in Britain
On 26 February 1935, the Scottish scientist Robert Watson-Watt and his assistant Arnold Wilkins showed that radio waves bouncing off an aircraft could reveal its position, near Daventry in England. Radar was rapidly developed and became vital in the Second World War. Today it guides aircraft and ships and helps forecast weather.
- 27 February1932
James Chadwick reports the neutron
On 27 February 1932, the journal Nature published a letter from the British physicist James Chadwick reporting the 'possible existence of a neutron', a particle with no electric charge inside the atom's nucleus. The discovery transformed nuclear physics, and Chadwick won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1935.
- 28 February1953
Watson and Crick work out the structure of DNA
On 28 February 1953, in Cambridge, James Watson and Francis Crick worked out the double helix structure of DNA, using X-ray images made by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. The twisted ladder showed how living things copy and pass on genetic information. Their paper appeared in April.
- 29 February1880
Tunnellers break through the Gotthard rail tunnel
On 29 February 1880, workers digging from both ends of the Gotthard rail tunnel in Switzerland met in the middle. The 15 km tunnel through the Alps, then the longest in the world, opened in 1882 and linked northern Europe and Italy by rail. A new, even longer tunnel opened in 2016.
March
- 1 March1872
Yellowstone becomes the world's first national park
On 1 March 1872, US President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law making Yellowstone, in the Rocky Mountains, the world's first national park. It protects geysers, hot springs, forests and wildlife such as bison and wolves. Today there are thousands of national parks around the world.
- 2 March1969
Concorde makes its first flight
On 2 March 1969, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner Concorde took off for the first time, from Toulouse in France, for a 27-minute test flight. It later flew passengers at twice the speed of sound, crossing the Atlantic in about three and a half hours, until it retired in 2003.
- 3 March1875
Bizet's opera Carmen is first performed
On 3 March 1875, Georges Bizet's opera Carmen opened at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Its first audiences were cool towards it, and Bizet died three months later. But its melodies, such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song, made it one of the most performed operas in the world.
- 4 March1890
Scotland's Forth Bridge opens
On 4 March 1890, the Forth Bridge opened, carrying the railway across the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh. Its giant red steel cantilevers made it one of the great engineering feats of its age, and the longest single-span bridge in the world at the time. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- 5 March1979
Voyager 1 flies past Jupiter
On 5 March 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter. It revealed volcanoes erupting on the moon Io, the first active volcanoes seen beyond Earth, and faint rings around the planet. Voyager 1 later left the solar system and is the most distant human-made object.
- 6 March1869
Mendeleev's periodic table is presented
On 6 March 1869, the periodic table of the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev was presented to the Russian Chemical Society. He arranged the elements by weight and properties, leaving gaps for ones not yet found. When gallium, scandium and germanium were discovered, they matched his predictions.
- 7 March1876
Alexander Graham Bell is granted the telephone patent
On 7 March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a US patent for the telephone. Three days later, he made the first call to his assistant in the next room: 'Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.' Within decades, telephones linked homes and businesses across the world.
- 8 March1979
Philips shows the compact disc
On 8 March 1979, the Dutch company Philips demonstrated a prototype compact disc player to the press in Eindhoven. Developed with Sony, the CD stored music as digital code read by a laser, with no hiss or scratches. CDs went on sale in 1982 and became the main way to buy music for two decades.
- 9 March1959
The Barbie doll goes on sale
On 9 March 1959, the American company Mattel introduced the Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Created by Ruth Handler and named after her daughter, Barbara, it became one of the best-selling toys in history, with more than a billion sold.
- 10 March1977
Astronomers discover the rings of Uranus
On 10 March 1977, astronomers watching from an aircraft-mounted telescope over the Indian Ocean saw a star blink on and off several times as Uranus passed in front of it. The flickers revealed thin, dark rings around the planet. Voyager 2 photographed them in 1986.
- 11 March1702
The first daily newspaper in English is published
On 11 March 1702, The Daily Courant appeared in London, the first daily newspaper in the English language. It was a single sheet with news, mostly from abroad. The founder promised to report facts without adding comments, and let readers judge for themselves.
- 12 March1989
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web
In March 1989, the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN near Geneva, wrote a proposal for linking documents across computers. His manager called it 'vague but exciting'. It became the World Wide Web, and 12 March is celebrated as the web's birthday.
- 13 March1781
William Herschel discovers Uranus
On 13 March 1781, the musician and astronomer William Herschel spotted a faint disc through his home-made telescope in Bath, England. He first thought it was a comet. It proved to be a new planet, Uranus, the first discovered with a telescope, doubling the known size of the solar system.
- 14 March1879
Albert Einstein is born
On 14 March 1879, Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. His theories of relativity changed our understanding of space, time and gravity, and his work on light helped found quantum physics. He won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. The date is also celebrated as Pi Day, from 3.14.
- 15 March1985
The first .com internet address is registered
On 15 March 1985, a computer company in Massachusetts, Symbolics, registered symbolics.com, the first .com domain name. Few people noticed at the time. Today there are more than 150 million .com addresses, and the name became shorthand for the online economy.
- 16 March1926
Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket
On 16 March 1926, the American physicist Robert Goddard launched the first rocket powered by liquid fuel, from a farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. It flew for about two and a half seconds and rose about 12 m. Modern space rockets use the same basic idea.
- 17 March1845
The rubber band is patented
On 17 March 1845, Stephen Perry of the London company Messrs Perry and Co was granted a patent for rubber bands, made from vulcanised rubber. Cheap and simple, they became one of the most widely used everyday objects in offices, homes and post rooms.
- 18 March1965
Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk
On 18 March 1965, the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 spacecraft and floated in space for about 12 minutes, tied by a tether. His suit ballooned in the vacuum, and he had to let out air to squeeze back inside. He later became a celebrated space artist.
- 19 March1932
The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
On 19 March 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in Australia, carrying trains, cars and people across the harbour. Its steel arch, nicknamed 'the Coathanger', spans 503 m. Together with the Opera House, it became one of the world's best-known city views.
- 20 March1800
Volta describes the first battery
On 20 March 1800, Alessandro Volta described his 'pile' of zinc and copper discs in a letter to the Royal Society in London. It was the first battery, giving a steady electric current for the first time. The volt, the unit of electric potential, is named after him.
- 21 March2006
The first tweet is sent
On 21 March 2006, the co-founder Jack Dorsey posted the first message on the service that became Twitter: 'just setting up my twttr'. Limited at first to 140 characters, Twitter became a place where news broke and public figures spoke directly to the world. It was renamed X in 2023.
- 22 March1960
A patent for the laser is granted
On 22 March 1960, Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes received a US patent for the 'optical maser', the idea behind the laser. Theodore Maiman built the first working laser that May. Lasers now read barcodes, carry internet data along fibres, cut metal and help eye surgeons.
- 23 March1839
'OK' appears in print for the first time
On 23 March 1839, the Boston Morning Post printed 'o.k.' as a joke abbreviation for 'oll korrect', a playful misspelling of 'all correct'. The fashion for such abbreviations soon faded, but OK survived and spread. It is now one of the most widely used words on Earth.
- 24 March1882
Robert Koch announces the cause of tuberculosis
On 24 March 1882, the German doctor Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had found the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, then a leading cause of death. His discovery led to better diagnosis and, decades later, cures. The date is marked every year as World Tuberculosis Day.
- 25 March1807
The first fare-paying railway passengers
On 25 March 1807, the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales began carrying fare-paying passengers in a horse-drawn carriage on rails. It was the first passenger railway service in the world. The line later used steam and electric trains and ran until 1960.
- 26 March1953
Jonas Salk announces a polio vaccine
On 26 March 1953, the American scientist Jonas Salk announced on radio that he had successfully tested a vaccine against polio, a disease that paralysed thousands of children every year. After a huge trial, it was approved in 1955. Salk did not patent it. Polio is now close to being wiped out.
- 27 March1899
Marconi sends a radio message across the English Channel
On 27 March 1899, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless message across the English Channel, from Wimereux in France to South Foreland in England, about 50 km. Less than three years later, he received a signal across the Atlantic.
- 28 March1930
Constantinople officially becomes Istanbul
On 28 March 1930, a new Turkish postal law officially adopted the name Istanbul for the city long known in many languages as Constantinople. Spanning Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus, Istanbul is Türkiye's largest city and one of the great historic cities of the world.
- 29 March1974
Mariner 10 makes the first visit to Mercury
On 29 March 1974, NASA's Mariner 10 flew past Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, and sent back the first close-up pictures. They showed a cratered world that looks much like the Moon. Mariner 10 was also the first spacecraft to use a planet's gravity, Venus's, to change course.
- 30 March1867
The United States agrees to buy Alaska
On 30 March 1867, the United States agreed to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents an acre. Critics called it 'Seward's Folly', after the Secretary of State who arranged it. Gold, fish and later oil proved its value. Alaska became a US state in 1959.
- 31 March1889
The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated
On 31 March 1889, the engineer Gustave Eiffel climbed to the top of his new iron tower in Paris and raised the French flag. Built for the World's Fair, it was the tallest structure on Earth, at about 300 m. Many critics hated it at first. It is now the symbol of Paris.
April
- 1 April2004
Google launches Gmail
On 1 April 2004, Google launched Gmail, offering one gigabyte of free storage, hundreds of times more than rival free email services. Because of the date, many people thought it was an April Fool's joke. Gmail grew into the world's most used email service, with more than a billion users.
- 2 April1845
The first photograph of the Sun is taken
On 2 April 1845, the French physicists Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault took the first detailed photograph of the Sun, a daguerreotype exposed for a fraction of a second. Sunspots are visible on it. Today telescopes in space watch the Sun around the clock to forecast space weather.
- 3 April1973
The first call from a handheld mobile phone
On 3 April 1973, Martin Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, made the first public call from a handheld mobile phone, on a street in New York. He called a rival at another company. The prototype weighed about 1.1 kg. Today there are more mobile phone subscriptions than people on Earth.
- 4 April1975
Microsoft is founded
On 4 April 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to write software for the new personal computers. Its Windows operating system and Office programs went on to run on most of the world's desktop computers.
- 5 April1722
European sailors reach Easter Island
On 5 April 1722, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to reach Rapa Nui, a remote island in the Pacific. Because of the day, he named it Easter Island. He found the giant stone statues, the moai, carved by the island's Polynesian people. Hundreds still stand.
- 6 April1896
The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens
On 6 April 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece, inspired by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin. About 240 athletes from 14 nations took part in nine sports. The marathon was won by a Greek water carrier, Spyridon Louis.
- 7 April1948
The World Health Organization is founded
On 7 April 1948, the World Health Organization came into being as an agency of the United Nations, to improve health worldwide. It led the campaign that wiped out smallpox in 1980. The date is marked every year as World Health Day.
- 8 April1820
The Venus de Milo statue is found
On 8 April 1820, a farmer on the Greek island of Milos found a marble statue buried in the ground, later known as the Venus de Milo. Carved more than 2,000 years ago, it was taken to Paris, where it became one of the most famous works in the Louvre museum.
- 9 April1959
NASA introduces its first astronauts
On 9 April 1959, NASA introduced the 'Mercury Seven', the first American astronauts, chosen from military test pilots. They included Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first to orbit Earth. They became national heroes.
- 10 April2019
The first image of a black hole is revealed
On 10 April 2019, astronomers of the Event Horizon Telescope released the first picture of a black hole: a ring of glowing gas around a dark shadow, in the galaxy M87. Eight radio observatories around the world worked together as one telescope the size of the Earth.
- 11 April1970
Apollo 13 launches towards the Moon
On 11 April 1970, Apollo 13 lifted off for the Moon. Two days later, an oxygen tank exploded, and the crew radioed: 'Houston, we've had a problem.' The landing was abandoned. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, the three astronauts swung around the Moon and returned safely on 17 April.
- 12 April1961
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space
On 12 April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth once in Vostok 1, in a flight of 108 minutes. As he lifted off, he said: 'Poyekhali!', 'Let's go!' The date is marked every year by the United Nations as the International Day of Human Space Flight.
- 13 April1997
Tiger Woods wins the Masters at 21
On 13 April 1997, Tiger Woods won the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, at the age of 21, by a record 12 strokes. He was the youngest winner of the event and the first of African-American and Asian heritage. He went on to win 15 major titles.
- 14 April2003
The Human Genome Project is completed
On 14 April 2003, scientists announced the completion of the Human Genome Project, which read the roughly 3 billion letters of human DNA. It found that people have only about 20,000 genes. The work transformed medicine and is freely available to scientists everywhere.
- 15 April1912
The Titanic sinks
In the early hours of 15 April 1912, the liner Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on its first voyage, after hitting an iceberg. About 1,500 people died, as there were too few lifeboats. The disaster led to new international rules on safety at sea, including lifeboats for everyone aboard.
- 16 April1853
India's first passenger train runs
On 16 April 1853, India's first passenger train ran 34 km from Bombay, now Mumbai, to Thane, pulled by three steam engines and carrying about 400 guests. Indian Railways is now one of the largest railway networks in the world, carrying billions of passengers each year.
- 17 April1964
Geraldine Mock flies solo around the world
On 17 April 1964, the American pilot Geraldine 'Jerrie' Mock landed in Columbus, Ohio, after 29 days, becoming the first woman to fly solo around the world. She flew a small single-engine plane called the Spirit of Columbus, covering about 37,000 km.
- 18 April1906
An earthquake strikes San Francisco
On 18 April 1906, a powerful earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by fires that burned for days. About 3,000 people are thought to have died, and much of the city was destroyed. Studies of the San Andreas Fault afterwards helped scientists understand how earthquakes happen.
- 19 April1965
Gordon Moore predicts the growth of computer chips
On 19 April 1965, the engineer Gordon Moore published an article predicting that the number of components on a computer chip would double roughly every year, later revised to every two years. 'Moore's law' held for decades, as chips became ever smaller, faster and cheaper.
- 20 April1902
Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium
On 20 April 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie succeeded in isolating radium chloride in their laboratory in Paris, after processing tonnes of ore. Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win in two sciences, physics and chemistry.
- 21 April1960
Brasília becomes Brazil's capital
On 21 April 1960, Brasília was inaugurated as Brazil's new capital, built in about four years on an empty high plain in the centre of the country. Planned by Lúcio Costa, with buildings by the architect Oscar Niemeyer, its layout is shaped like an aeroplane or a bird.
- 22 April1970
The first Earth Day
On 22 April 1970, about 20 million Americans took part in the first Earth Day, with rallies and clean-ups calling for protection of the environment. New laws on clean air and water followed. Earth Day is now marked in more than 190 countries.
- 23 April2005
The first video is posted on YouTube
On 23 April 2005, the YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted the site's first video, 'Me at the zoo', 19 seconds long, filmed in front of elephants in San Diego. YouTube grew into the world's biggest video platform, where more than 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
- 24 April1990
The Hubble Space Telescope is launched
On 24 April 1990, the space shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. A flaw in its mirror was fixed by astronauts in 1993. Since then, Hubble has helped measure the age of the universe and captured some of the most famous images in astronomy.
- 25 April2016
Saudi Arabia launches Vision 2030
On 25 April 2016, Saudi Arabia announced Vision 2030, a national plan led by HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy beyond oil, develop tourism, culture and sport, and open new opportunities for young Saudis. It has since driven giga-projects, reforms and major international events.
- 26 April1986
The Chernobyl nuclear accident
On 26 April 1986, a reactor exploded during a safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in what was then the Soviet Union. Radioactive material spread across Europe, and more than 100,000 people were evacuated. It remains the worst nuclear power accident and led to safer reactor designs.
- 27 April2005
The Airbus A380 makes its first flight
On 27 April 2005, the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, made its first flight from Toulouse in France. With two full decks, it can carry more than 800 passengers, though most airlines fit about 500 seats. It entered service with Singapore Airlines in 2007.
- 28 April1947
The Kon-Tiki raft sets sail across the Pacific
On 28 April 1947, the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set sail from Peru on Kon-Tiki, a raft of balsa logs. After 101 days and about 7,000 km, they reached Polynesia, showing that ancient peoples could have made such voyages. The raft is in a museum in Oslo.
- 29 April1899
An electric car becomes the first to pass 100 km/h
On 29 April 1899, near Paris, the Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy reached 105.88 km/h in La Jamais Contente, a bullet-shaped electric car. It was the first road vehicle to go faster than 100 km/h, more than a century before today's electric cars.
- 30 April1993
CERN makes the World Wide Web free for everyone
On 30 April 1993, CERN, the European physics laboratory, put the software for the World Wide Web in the public domain, so anyone could use and build on it without paying fees. That decision helped the web grow from a few hundred websites to more than a billion.
May
- 1 May1851
The Great Exhibition opens in London
On 1 May 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace, a vast building of iron and glass in London's Hyde Park. More than 100,000 exhibits from around the world showed off new machines, inventions and crafts. About six million visitors came, and it inspired world's fairs and expos ever since.
- 2 May1952
The first jet airliner passenger service
On 2 May 1952, a de Havilland Comet of the British airline BOAC took off from London for Johannesburg, the world's first scheduled passenger service by jet airliner. Jets flew higher, faster and more smoothly than propeller planes, and soon transformed long-distance travel.
- 3 May1978
The first spam email is sent
On 3 May 1978, a marketing manager at the computer company DEC sent an advertising message to about 400 users of ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet. Many recipients complained. It is remembered as the first spam email. Today spam makes up a large share of all email sent.
- 4 May1904
The United States takes over building the Panama Canal
On 4 May 1904, the United States took control of the unfinished Panama Canal project from a failed French company. After a decade of work, battling disease and landslides, the canal opened in 1914, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- 5 May1961
Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space
On 5 May 1961, the astronaut Alan Shepard flew into space aboard Freedom 7, a 15-minute flight that rose about 187 km before splashing down in the Atlantic. Ten years later, he walked on the Moon with Apollo 14, and famously hit two golf balls there.
- 6 May1954
Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile
On 6 May 1954, the British medical student Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, at a track in Oxford, timing 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Many had thought it impossible. His record lasted just 46 days.
- 7 May1824
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is first performed
On 7 May 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was first performed in Vienna. Beethoven, by then almost completely deaf, stood on stage, and had to be turned around to see the audience applauding. Its final movement, the 'Ode to Joy', is now the anthem of Europe.
- 8 May1980
Smallpox is declared eradicated
On 8 May 1980, the World Health Assembly declared that smallpox had been wiped out worldwide, after a global vaccination campaign. The disease had killed hundreds of millions of people over the centuries. It remains the only human disease ever eradicated.
- 9 May1950
The Schuman Declaration proposes European cooperation
On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed that France and Germany pool their coal and steel industries, to make war between them 'materially impossible'. It led to the European Coal and Steel Community and later the European Union. The date is celebrated as Europe Day.
- 10 May1869
The golden spike completes America's first transcontinental railroad
On 10 May 1869, a ceremonial golden spike was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah, joining the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads. Coast-to-coast travel across the United States, which had taken months, could now be done in about a week. Thousands of Chinese and Irish workers built the line.
- 11 May1949
Siam is renamed Thailand
On 11 May 1949, the Kingdom of Siam officially changed its name to Thailand, meaning 'land of the free'. The name had first been adopted in 1939, then changed back. Thailand, the only Southeast Asian country never colonised by a European power, is now a major tourism destination.
- 12 May1820
Florence Nightingale is born
On 12 May 1820, Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy. She cut deaths in military hospitals by insisting on cleanliness, and founded the first professional school of nursing in London in 1860. Her birthday is celebrated as International Nurses Day.
- 13 May1940
Churchill offers 'blood, toil, tears and sweat'
On 13 May 1940, three days after becoming British Prime Minister in the Second World War, Winston Churchill told Parliament: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.' It was the first of several famous wartime speeches that rallied the British people.
- 14 May1796
Edward Jenner gives the first vaccination
On 14 May 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with material from a cowpox sore. When later exposed to smallpox, the boy did not fall ill. Jenner's discovery was the first vaccine, and led eventually to the eradication of smallpox.
- 15 May1940
Nylon stockings go on sale across the United States
On 15 May 1940, nylon stockings went on sale in shops across the United States, and about four million pairs were sold within days. Nylon, invented at DuPont by Wallace Carothers's team, was the first fully synthetic fibre. It is now used in clothing, ropes and countless products.
- 16 May1929
The first Academy Awards are presented
On 16 May 1929, the first Academy Awards were presented at a dinner in Hollywood, in a ceremony lasting about 15 minutes. Wings, a film about First World War pilots, won the top prize. The Oscars are now the world's best-known film awards.
- 17 May1865
The International Telegraph Union is founded
On 17 May 1865, 20 European countries founded the International Telegraph Union in Paris, to agree common rules for sending telegrams across borders. Now the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, it coordinates radio frequencies and satellite orbits. The date is World Telecommunication Day.
- 18 May1980
Mount St Helens erupts
On 18 May 1980, the volcano Mount St Helens in Washington state, USA, erupted after an earthquake caused its north side to collapse in the largest landslide ever recorded. Ash spread across 11 states. The eruption taught scientists much about predicting volcanic eruptions.
- 19 May1910
Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet
On 19 May 1910, the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet. Newspapers had reported that the tail contained poisonous gas, and some people panicked and bought 'comet pills'. Scientists explained the gas was far too thin to harm anyone, and nothing happened. Halley's Comet returns in 2061.
- 20 May1927
Charles Lindbergh sets off to fly solo across the Atlantic
On 20 May 1927, the American pilot Charles Lindbergh took off from New York in the Spirit of St. Louis. After 33 and a half hours alone, he landed in Paris, completing the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Huge crowds greeted him, and he won a $25,000 prize.
- 21 May2023
Saudi astronauts launch to the International Space Station
On 21 May 2023, the Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni launched from Florida on the Ax-2 mission. They became the first Saudis to visit the International Space Station, and Barnawi became the first Saudi woman in space. They carried out 14 experiments in about eight days.
- 22 May1980
Pac-Man is released
On 22 May 1980, the video game Pac-Man went on sale in Japan, designed by Toru Iwatani of the company Namco. Players steer a yellow circle through a maze, eating dots and avoiding ghosts. It became one of the most famous video games ever made.
- 23 May1995
The Java programming language is released
On 23 May 1995, Sun Microsystems publicly released Java, a programming language designed so that the same program could run on any kind of computer. Created by a team led by James Gosling, it became one of the world's most used languages, powering apps, websites and Android phones.
- 24 May1883
New York's Brooklyn Bridge opens
On 24 May 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opened across New York's East River, linking Manhattan and Brooklyn. Its central span of 486 m made it the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, and the first to use steel wire cables. Emily Roebling helped oversee its completion.
- 25 May1977
Star Wars opens in cinemas
On 25 May 1977, George Lucas's science-fiction film Star Wars opened in American cinemas. Its groundbreaking special effects and story of good against evil made it a worldwide hit. It launched one of the biggest film series in history and changed how films were made and marketed.
- 26 May1897
Bram Stoker's Dracula is published
On 26 May 1897, the Irish writer Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published in London. Told through letters and diary entries, the story of a vampire count was a modest success at first. It went on to inspire hundreds of films, plays and books.
- 27 May1937
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opens
On 27 May 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians, and about 200,000 people walked across. Its main span of about 1,280 m made it the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Painted 'International Orange', it is one of the most photographed bridges on Earth.
- 28 May1959
Two monkeys return safely from space
On 28 May 1959, the monkeys Able and Baker flew about 480 km high on a US rocket and returned safely, becoming the first primates to survive a flight into space. Their journey helped show that living creatures could withstand launch, weightlessness and re-entry.
- 29 May1953
Hillary and Tenzing reach the top of Everest
At about 11:30 on 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa mountaineer from Nepal, became the first people known to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, 8,849 m above sea level.
- 30 May2020
The first crewed launch by a private spacecraft
On 30 May 2020, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken launched to the International Space Station on SpaceX's Crew Dragon, the first time a privately built spacecraft carried people into orbit. It was also the first crewed launch from the United States since 2011.
- 31 May1859
The Big Ben clock starts keeping time
On 31 May 1859, the Great Clock in the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London began keeping time. Its great bell, nicknamed Big Ben, first rang out in July. Famous for its accuracy, the clock is still adjusted by adding or removing old pennies on its pendulum.
June
- 1 June1980
CNN launches the first 24-hour news channel
On 1 June 1980, Ted Turner launched CNN, the Cable News Network, in Atlanta, the first television channel to broadcast news 24 hours a day. Rolling live coverage changed how the world followed events, and many other 24-hour news channels followed.
- 2 June1953
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is televised
On 2 June 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. For the first time, a coronation was broadcast on television, and millions of people bought or borrowed sets to watch. The same day, news arrived that Everest had been climbed.
- 3 June1965
Ed White makes the first American spacewalk
On 3 June 1965, the astronaut Ed White floated outside the Gemini 4 spacecraft for about 23 minutes, using a hand-held gas gun to move around. He enjoyed it so much that he was reluctant to go back inside, calling it 'the saddest moment of my life'.
- 4 June1783
The Montgolfier brothers fly a hot-air balloon in public
On 4 June 1783, the French paper makers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier sent up an unmanned hot-air balloon made of cloth and paper in Annonay, France. It rose about 2,000 m. Later that year, people made the first balloon flights.
- 5 June1972
The first UN conference on the environment opens
On 5 June 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment opened in Stockholm, Sweden, the first global meeting about protecting nature. It created the UN Environment Programme. The opening day is now marked every year as World Environment Day.
- 6 June1944
D-Day: Allied forces land in Normandy
On 6 June 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, in the largest seaborne invasion in history, with about 156,000 troops on the first day. It opened a new front in western Europe, and within a year the Second World War in Europe was over.
- 7 June1975
The first Cricket World Cup begins
On 7 June 1975, the first Cricket World Cup began in England, with eight teams playing one-day matches of 60 overs per side. In the final at Lord's, the West Indies beat Australia. The tournament has become one of the most watched sporting events, especially in South Asia.
- 8 June1949
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is published
On 8 June 1949, George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in London. It imagined a future in which 'Big Brother' watches everyone and the truth is constantly rewritten. Words from the book, such as 'Big Brother' and 'doublethink', entered everyday language.
- 9 June1973
Secretariat wins horse racing's Triple Crown
On 9 June 1973, the racehorse Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes in New York by an astonishing 31 lengths, completing the American Triple Crown. His time of 2 minutes 24 seconds is still a record for the race, and he is widely considered the greatest racehorse ever.
- 10 June1829
The first Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
On 10 June 1829, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge raced each other in rowing boats on the River Thames at Henley for the first time. Oxford won. The Boat Race became an annual event on the Thames in London and is one of the world's oldest sporting contests.
- 11 June1910
Jacques Cousteau is born
On 11 June 1910, the French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau was born. He co-invented the Aqua-Lung, which let divers breathe underwater for long periods, and his films and television series showed millions of people the life of the oceans for the first time.
- 12 June1979
A pedal-powered plane flies across the English Channel
On 12 June 1979, the cyclist Bryan Allen pedalled the Gossamer Albatross, a very light aircraft with a propeller driven by bicycle pedals, from England to France. The 36 km flight took almost three hours and won a prize for the first human-powered crossing of the Channel.
- 13 June1983
Pioneer 10 passes beyond the outer planets
On 13 June 1983, NASA's Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune, then the most distant planet from the Sun, becoming the first spacecraft to pass beyond all the known planets. It carries a plaque with a message for anyone who might find it.
- 14 June1951
UNIVAC I, the first US commercial computer, is delivered
On 14 June 1951, UNIVAC I was formally dedicated at the US Census Bureau, the first computer made for business and government use in the United States. In 1952, it correctly predicted the result of the US presidential election on live television, surprising many viewers.
- 15 June1844
Charles Goodyear patents vulcanised rubber
On 15 June 1844, the American inventor Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanised rubber, made by heating rubber with sulphur. Raw rubber turned sticky in heat and brittle in cold; his process made it tough and stretchy. It made car tyres, hoses and countless products possible.
- 16 June1963
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space
On 16 June 1963, the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched aboard Vostok 6 and orbited the Earth 48 times in almost three days. A former textile worker and amateur parachutist, she was 26. She remains the only woman to have flown a space mission alone.
- 17 June1985
Prince Sultan bin Salman becomes the first Arab in space
On 17 June 1985, HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the first Arab and first Saudi in space. During the seven-day mission, he helped deploy the Arabsat satellite and carried out experiments.
- 18 June1815
The Battle of Waterloo
On 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, British-led and Prussian armies defeated the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. His defeat ended more than two decades of war in Europe. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
- 19 June1846
An early baseball game is played under modern rules
On 19 June 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the New York Nine beat the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 23–1. It is often cited as the first recorded baseball game played under written rules. Baseball became America's national pastime.
- 20 June1837
Victoria becomes Queen
On 20 June 1837, 18-year-old Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom on the death of her uncle, King William IV. She reigned for almost 64 years, a period of industrial growth, railways and scientific progress now known as the Victorian era.
- 21 June1948
The Manchester Baby runs the first stored program
On 21 June 1948, the Manchester Baby, an experimental computer at the University of Manchester, ran the first program stored in a computer's own electronic memory. Earlier machines had to be rewired for each new task. Almost every computer since works on the same principle.
- 22 June1675
King Charles II founds the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
On 22 June 1675, King Charles II signed a warrant to build an observatory at Greenwich, near London, to chart the stars and help sailors find their longitude. In 1884, the line through Greenwich was chosen as the Prime Meridian, longitude zero.
- 23 June1868
A patent for the typewriter is granted
On 23 June 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes and his partners received a US patent for a 'type-writer'. Their later design introduced the QWERTY layout of keys, which spread to typewriters worldwide and is still used on computer keyboards and phones today.
- 24 June1859
A battle inspires the founding of the Red Cross
On 24 June 1859, the Swiss businessman Henri Dunant saw thousands of wounded soldiers left without care after the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy. His book about it led to the founding of the Red Cross in 1863 and the first Geneva Convention. Dunant shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
- 25 June1910
Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is first performed
On 25 June 1910, The Firebird, a ballet with music by the young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, was first performed in Paris by the Ballets Russes. Its colourful, dramatic score made Stravinsky famous overnight, and he became one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.
- 26 June1945
The United Nations Charter is signed
On 26 June 1945, delegates from 50 countries signed the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco, at the end of the Second World War. Its aim was to save future generations from war. The UN came into being that October and now has 193 member states.
- 27 June1967
The world's first cash machine opens
On 27 June 1967, the first cash machine was opened at a Barclays bank branch in Enfield, north London. Customers used special paper vouchers instead of cards. ATMs spread worldwide, letting people withdraw money at any hour. There are now millions of them.
- 28 June1919
The Treaty of Versailles is signed
On 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, formally ending the First World War between Germany and the Allied powers. It also set up the League of Nations.
- 29 June1995
An American shuttle docks with the Russian space station Mir
On 29 June 1995, the US space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir, forming the largest spacecraft then in orbit. Crews shook hands through the hatch. The partnership led directly to the International Space Station.
- 30 June1908
A huge explosion flattens a Siberian forest
On 30 June 1908, a huge explosion over the Tunguska region of Siberia flattened about 80 million trees across more than 2,000 square kilometres. Scientists think a space rock exploded in the air. The date is now marked as Asteroid Day, to raise awareness of the need to watch the skies.
July
- 1 July1867
Canada becomes a self-governing dominion
On 1 July 1867, the British North America Act came into force, uniting the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a new self-governing country, the Dominion of Canada. Other provinces joined later. Canadians celebrate the date every year as Canada Day.
- 2 July1900
The first Zeppelin airship flies
On 2 July 1900, the first rigid airship built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, LZ 1, rose over Lake Constance in Germany, carrying five people for about 18 minutes. Zeppelins later carried passengers across the Atlantic, until the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 ended the airship era.
- 3 July1938
Mallard sets the world speed record for steam
On 3 July 1938, the British steam locomotive Mallard reached 203 km/h on a slight downhill stretch near Grantham, England. It remains the fastest speed ever recorded by a steam locomotive. Mallard is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.
- 4 July2012
Scientists announce the discovery of the Higgs boson
On 4 July 2012, scientists at CERN near Geneva announced that the Large Hadron Collider had found a new particle matching the Higgs boson, predicted in 1964. It helps explain why basic particles have mass. Peter Higgs and François Englert won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- 5 July1687
Isaac Newton's Principia is published
On 5 July 1687, Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, known as the Principia, was published in London. It set out his laws of motion and universal gravitation, explaining why apples fall and planets orbit the Sun. It is one of the most important science books ever written.
- 6 July1885
Louis Pasteur saves a boy with a rabies vaccine
On 6 July 1885, the French scientist Louis Pasteur began treating nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog, with an experimental vaccine. The boy survived. Rabies had been almost always fatal. The success made Pasteur famous and led to the Pasteur Institute.
- 7 July1928
Sliced bread goes on sale
On 7 July 1928, a bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri, began selling bread sliced by a machine invented by Otto Rohwedder. Customers loved the convenience, and within a few years most bread in the United States was sold sliced, giving rise to the saying 'the best thing since sliced bread'.
- 8 July2011
The last space shuttle mission launches
On 8 July 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Florida on STS-135, the 135th and final flight of NASA's space shuttle programme. The shuttles had flown for 30 years, launching the Hubble Space Telescope and building the International Space Station.
- 9 July1877
The first Wimbledon tennis championship begins
On 9 July 1877, the first lawn tennis championship began at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London, with 22 men taking part. Spencer Gore won the final. Wimbledon is now the oldest and one of the most famous tennis tournaments in the world.
- 10 July1962
Telstar, the first communications satellite to relay TV, is launched
On 10 July 1962, the satellite Telstar 1 was launched. Within weeks, it relayed the first live television pictures across the Atlantic, between the United States and Europe. Today, hundreds of communications satellites carry television, phone calls and internet data around the world.
- 11 July1987
The world's population reaches five billion
The United Nations marked 11 July 1987 as the day the world's population reached about five billion people. The date is now marked each year as World Population Day. The world passed eight billion in November 2022 and is expected to peak in the 2080s.
- 12 July2022
The James Webb Space Telescope's first images are revealed
On 12 July 2022, NASA released the first full-colour images from the James Webb Space Telescope, including the deepest, sharpest infrared view of the distant universe yet. Thousands of galaxies, some of whose light set out more than 13 billion years ago, filled a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length.
- 13 July1985
Live Aid concerts raise money for famine relief
On 13 July 1985, the Live Aid concerts were held at Wembley Stadium in London and in Philadelphia, organised by the musicians Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to help people facing famine in Ethiopia. Broadcast to an estimated 1.5 billion viewers, they raised tens of millions of pounds.
- 14 July1789
The storming of the Bastille
On 14 July 1789, crowds in Paris stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, at the start of the French Revolution. The revolution ended the absolute monarchy in France and spread ideas of liberty and equality. The French celebrate 14 July as their national day.
- 15 July1799
The Rosetta Stone is found
On 15 July 1799, French soldiers rebuilding a fort near Rashid, known to Europeans as Rosetta, in Egypt, found a stone carved with the same text in three scripts, including Greek and hieroglyphs. It became the key that let the scholar Jean-François Champollion decipher ancient Egyptian writing in 1822.
- 16 July1969
Apollo 11 launches for the Moon
On 16 July 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 from Florida, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. About a million people watched nearby. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon.
- 17 July1955
Disneyland opens in California
On 17 July 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, a theme park with lands built around stories and characters. The opening day was chaotic, with heat and crowds, but the park became a huge success and inspired theme parks around the world.
- 18 July1968
Intel is founded
On 18 July 1968, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel in California. In 1971, it released the 4004, the first commercial microprocessor: a whole computer processor on a single chip. Intel's chips powered most personal computers for decades.
- 19 July1843
Brunel's SS Great Britain is launched
On 19 July 1843, the SS Great Britain, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was floated out in Bristol. It was the first large ocean-going ship with an iron hull and a screw propeller, the design almost all ships use today. Restored, it is now a museum in Bristol.
- 20 July1969
Humans walk on the Moon for the first time
On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in the lunar module Eagle. Stepping onto the surface, Armstrong said: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' About 600 million people watched on television.
- 21 July1983
The coldest temperature on Earth is recorded
On 21 July 1983, scientists at the Soviet research station Vostok, on the ice sheet of Antarctica, recorded an air temperature of minus 89.2°C. It remains the lowest directly measured air temperature on Earth. Satellites have since detected even colder spots on the ice surface.
- 22 July1933
Wiley Post completes the first solo flight around the world
On 22 July 1933, the American pilot Wiley Post landed in New York after flying alone around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, in his plane Winnie Mae. He used an autopilot and radio direction finder, new technologies that made long solo flights possible.
- 23 July1999
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is launched
On 23 July 1999, the space shuttle Columbia launched the Chandra X-ray Observatory, under the command of Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle. Chandra sees X-rays from exploding stars, black holes and hot gas in galaxy clusters, and is still working.
- 24 July1911
Hiram Bingham reaches Machu Picchu
On 24 July 1911, the American explorer Hiram Bingham was guided by local farmers to Machu Picchu, a 15th-century Inca city high in the Andes of Peru. His photographs made it famous worldwide. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by more than a million people a year.
- 25 July1909
Louis Blériot flies across the English Channel
On 25 July 1909, the French aviator Louis Blériot flew his monoplane from Calais to Dover, the first flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane. The 37-minute flight won him a newspaper prize and showed that aircraft could cross the sea.
- 26 July1887
The first book of Esperanto is published
On 26 July 1887, the eye doctor L. L. Zamenhof published the first book describing Esperanto in Warsaw, a language he designed to be easy to learn and to help people of different nations understand each other. It is still spoken by an estimated hundreds of thousands of people.
- 27 July1921
Banting and Best isolate insulin
On 27 July 1921, at the University of Toronto, Frederick Banting and his student Charles Best isolated insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. Within months, it saved the life of a boy with diabetes. Banting shared the Nobel Prize and sold the patent for one dollar so it could help everyone.
- 28 July1914
The First World War begins
On 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Alliances drew in the great powers within days. The war lasted more than four years and cost about 20 million lives.
- 29 July1958
NASA is created
On 29 July 1958, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, in response to the Soviet Sputnik. NASA put astronauts on the Moon and has since sent robotic explorers to every planet in the solar system.
- 30 July1930
Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup
On 30 July 1930, Uruguay beat Argentina 4–2 in the first FIFA World Cup final, at the new Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Thirteen teams had taken part. The World Cup's centenary tournament in 2030 will open with matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
- 31 July1790
The first US patent is granted
On 31 July 1790, Samuel Hopkins received the first patent issued under the new US patent law, for an improved way of making potash, used in soap and fertiliser. It was signed by President George Washington. The US Patent Office has since granted more than 12 million patents.
August
- 1 August1981
MTV goes on the air
On 1 August 1981, MTV, a cable television channel playing music videos around the clock, began broadcasting in the United States. Its first video was, fittingly, 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. MTV changed the music industry, making a song's video as important as the song.
- 2 August1873
San Francisco's cable car makes its first run
On 2 August 1873, Andrew Hallidie tested the first cable car on Clay Street in San Francisco. Cars gripped a moving cable under the street, which pulled them up steep hills that horses struggled with. San Francisco's cable cars still run today, a symbol of the city.
- 3 August1958
A submarine reaches the North Pole under the ice
On 3 August 1958, the American nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to reach the North Pole, travelling under the Arctic ice. Its crew of 116 crossed from the Pacific to the Atlantic beneath the ice cap, proving there was no land under the Pole.
- 4 August1958
The Billboard Hot 100 chart begins
On 4 August 1958, the American magazine Billboard published its first Hot 100 chart, ranking songs by sales and radio play. Ricky Nelson's 'Poor Little Fool' was the first number one. The Hot 100 remains the best-known measure of a hit song in the United States.
- 5 August1914
The first electric traffic light is installed
On 5 August 1914, the first electric traffic signal in the United States was installed at a crossroads in Cleveland, Ohio, with red and green lights and a buzzer to warn of changes. Amber lights came later. Traffic lights now control roads in almost every city in the world.
- 6 August1991
The first website goes public
On 6 August 1991, Tim Berners-Lee posted a public summary of his World Wide Web project and opened the first website to the world. Hosted at CERN, it explained what the web was and how to make web pages. Today there are more than a billion websites.
- 7 August1959
The first photograph of Earth from orbit
On 7 August 1959, the United States launched the satellite Explorer 6. A week later, it sent back the first photograph of Earth taken from orbit, a crude, blurry image of sunlit clouds over the Pacific. Today satellites photograph the whole planet every day.
- 8 August2008
The Beijing Olympics open
At 8 pm on 8 August 2008, chosen because eight is considered a lucky number in China, the Beijing Olympic Games opened with a spectacular ceremony. At these Games, the swimmer Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals and Usain Bolt won the 100 m in a world record.
- 9 August1936
Jesse Owens wins his fourth Olympic gold
On 9 August 1936, the American athlete Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics, in the 4 x 100 m relay, after winning the 100 m, 200 m and long jump. His achievement made him one of the most celebrated athletes in history.
- 10 August1793
The Louvre opens as a public museum
On 10 August 1793, the Louvre, a former royal palace in Paris, opened to the public as a museum, displaying hundreds of paintings. It is now the world's most visited museum, home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, with almost 10 million visitors in some years.
- 11 August1999
A total solar eclipse crosses Europe and Asia
On 11 August 1999, the Moon's shadow swept from the Atlantic across Europe, the Middle East and South Asia to the Bay of Bengal, in what may have been the most-watched total solar eclipse in history. Hundreds of millions of people lived in or near its path.
- 12 August1981
IBM launches its Personal Computer
On 12 August 1981, IBM launched the IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, priced from $1,565. It used Microsoft's operating system and an Intel processor. Other companies soon copied its design, and the 'PC' became the standard for business and home computers worldwide.
- 13 August1913
Stainless steel is first made
On 13 August 1913, the metallurgist Harry Brearley cast a steel containing chromium in Sheffield, England, while looking for a metal for gun barrels. He noticed it did not rust. Stainless steel is now used in cutlery, sinks, surgical tools and buildings around the world.
- 14 August1945
Japan announces its surrender, ending the Second World War
On 14 August 1945, Japan announced it would surrender, ending the fighting of the Second World War. The formal surrender was signed on 2 September. The war, the deadliest conflict in history, had cost the lives of an estimated 70 to 85 million people.
- 15 August1914
The Panama Canal opens
On 15 August 1914, the cargo ship SS Ancon made the first official passage through the Panama Canal, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Using giant locks to lift ships over the land, it cut the sea journey from New York to San Francisco by about 13,000 km.
- 16 August1896
Gold is found in the Klondike
On 16 August 1896, gold was found at Bonanza Creek, near the Klondike River in northwest Canada. When news reached the outside world the next year, about 100,000 people set off for the region in the Klondike Gold Rush, though only a small number became rich.
- 17 August1978
A balloon crosses the Atlantic for the first time
On 17 August 1978, three Americans, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, landed near Paris in the helium balloon Double Eagle II, after six days in the air from Maine. It was the first successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon.
- 18 August1868
Helium is discovered in the Sun
On 18 August 1868, the French astronomer Jules Janssen, watching a solar eclipse in India, saw a bright yellow line in the Sun's light that matched no known element. The element was named helium, after the Greek word for Sun. It was found on Earth only in 1895.
- 19 August1839
Photography is given to the world
On 19 August 1839, the French government announced the details of Louis Daguerre's photographic process, the daguerreotype, and gave it freely to the world. Within months, people everywhere were taking photographs. The date is celebrated as World Photography Day.
- 20 August1977
Voyager 2 is launched
On 20 August 1977, NASA launched Voyager 2. It became the only spacecraft to visit all four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and later entered interstellar space. It carries a golden record of sounds and greetings from Earth.
- 21 August1911
The Mona Lisa is stolen
On 21 August 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who had worked at the museum. It was missing for more than two years before being recovered in Florence in 1913. The theft made it the world's most famous painting.
- 22 August1864
The first Geneva Convention is signed
On 22 August 1864, 12 nations signed the first Geneva Convention, agreeing to protect wounded soldiers and the medical staff caring for them, and adopting the red cross on a white background as a protective symbol. Later conventions extended protection to prisoners and civilians.
- 23 August1966
The first photograph of Earth from the Moon
On 23 August 1966, NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of the Earth from near the Moon, showing a crescent Earth above the lunar horizon. Two years later, the Apollo 8 crew took the famous colour photograph 'Earthrise'.
- 24 August2006
Pluto is reclassified as a dwarf planet
On 24 August 2006, the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, adopted a new definition of a planet. Pluto did not qualify, because it has not cleared its orbit of other objects, and was reclassified as a dwarf planet. The solar system now officially has eight planets.
- 25 August1991
Linus Torvalds announces Linux
On 25 August 1991, the Finnish student Linus Torvalds posted a message announcing a free operating system he was writing 'just a hobby, won't be big'. Linux grew into one of the world's most important pieces of software, running most web servers, supercomputers and Android phones.
- 26 August1920
American women win the right to vote
On 26 August 1920, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was certified, giving women in the United States the right to vote. It followed decades of campaigning by women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The date is marked as Women's Equality Day.
- 27 August1883
Krakatoa erupts
On 27 August 1883, the volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia exploded in one of the most violent eruptions in recorded history. The sound was heard about 4,800 km away. Huge waves killed more than 36,000 people, and ash in the sky caused vivid red sunsets around the world.
- 28 August1845
Scientific American is first published
On 28 August 1845, the first issue of Scientific American appeared in New York, a four-page weekly newspaper about inventions. It is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, and has carried articles by more than 200 Nobel Prize winners.
- 29 August1831
Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction
On 29 August 1831, Michael Faraday showed in London that a changing magnetic field can create an electric current. This discovery, electromagnetic induction, is the principle behind every power-station generator and transformer today.
- 30 August1983
Guion Bluford becomes the first African American in space
On 30 August 1983, the astronaut Guion Bluford launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger, becoming the first African American to travel into space. A US Air Force pilot and aerospace engineer, he flew four shuttle missions.
- 31 August1955
A model solar-powered car is demonstrated
On 31 August 1955, the carmaker General Motors showed the 'Sunmobile', a 38 cm model car powered by solar cells, at an exhibition in Chicago. It was a small demonstration, but it hinted at the future. Solar power is now one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity in the world.
September
- 1 September1939
The Second World War begins
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War lasted until 1945, drew in most of the world's nations and became the deadliest conflict in history.
- 2 September1666
The Great Fire of London begins
In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire broke out in a bakery on Pudding Lane in London. Fanned by strong winds, it burned for four days and destroyed about 13,000 houses and old St Paul's Cathedral. The city was rebuilt in brick and stone.
- 3 September1976
Viking 2 lands on Mars
On 3 September 1976, NASA's Viking 2 lander touched down on Utopia Planitia, a plain on Mars, weeks after its twin, Viking 1. The landers photographed the red, rocky surface, measured the weather and tested the soil for signs of life. Viking 2 worked for more than three and a half years.
- 4 September1998
Google is founded
On 4 September 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University students, incorporated Google in a friend's garage in California. Their search engine ranked web pages by how many other pages linked to them. Google became the world's most used website.
- 5 September1977
Voyager 1 is launched
On 5 September 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1. It flew past Jupiter and Saturn, and in 2012 became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. More than 24 billion km away, it is the most distant human-made object, and still sends faint signals home.
- 6 September1522
The first voyage around the world is completed
On 6 September 1522, the ship Victoria, with 18 survivors aboard, returned to Spain, completing the first voyage around the world. The expedition had set off in 1519 under Ferdinand Magellan, who died on the way. It proved that the oceans were connected and the Earth could be circled by sea.
- 7 September1822
Brazil declares independence
On 7 September 1822, Prince Pedro, the son of Portugal's king, declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, by the Ipiranga brook near São Paulo. He became Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Brazilians celebrate the date as Independence Day.
- 8 September1966
Star Trek is first broadcast
On 8 September 1966, the science-fiction television series Star Trek was first broadcast in the United States. Its crew, from many nations and backgrounds, explored space on the starship Enterprise. It lasted only three seasons but inspired films, new series and many future scientists and engineers.
- 9 September1947
The first computer 'bug' is found
On 9 September 1947, engineers working on the Harvard Mark II computer found a moth trapped in one of its relays, causing an error. They taped it into the logbook as the 'first actual case of bug being found'. The programmer Grace Hopper helped make the story famous.
- 10 September2008
The Large Hadron Collider starts up
On 10 September 2008, scientists at CERN, near Geneva, sent the first beam of protons around the Large Hadron Collider, a 27 km ring and the world's largest particle accelerator. Four years later, it found the Higgs boson.
- 11 September1997
Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars
On 11 September 1997, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor arrived at Mars and went into orbit. Over nine years, it mapped the whole planet in detail and found gullies that suggested water had flowed on its surface in recent times. It helped choose landing sites for later rovers.
- 12 September1962
Kennedy says 'We choose to go to the Moon'
On 12 September 1962, US President John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University in Houston, promising to land astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade, 'not because they are easy, but because they are hard'. Apollo 11 landed in July 1969.
- 13 September1916
Roald Dahl is born
On 13 September 1916, the writer Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents. A wartime fighter pilot, he later wrote much-loved children's books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, which have sold hundreds of millions of copies.
- 14 September1752
Britain changes its calendar and skips 11 days
In 1752, Britain and its colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar used by much of Europe. To catch up, 2 September was followed directly by 14 September 1752, so 11 days were skipped. The change meant the calendar matched the seasons more accurately.
- 15 September1830
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens
On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, the first intercity railway with timetabled passenger trains pulled entirely by steam locomotives. Its success, shown by George Stephenson's Rocket, set off a railway boom in Britain and around the world.
- 16 September1987
The Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer is signed
On 16 September 1987, countries signed the Montreal Protocol, agreeing to phase out chemicals that were thinning the ozone layer, which shields life from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Every country later joined. The ozone layer is now slowly healing.
- 17 September1787
The US Constitution is signed
On 17 September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States, setting up a federal government with separate branches. It came into force in 1789 and is the oldest written national constitution still in use.
- 18 September1851
The New York Times is first published
On 18 September 1851, the first issue of the New-York Daily Times was published, priced at one cent. Its founders promised a serious, fair newspaper. Now The New York Times, it has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other news organisation.
- 19 September1783
A sheep, a duck and a rooster fly in a balloon
On 19 September 1783, the Montgolfier brothers sent a sheep, a duck and a rooster aloft in a hot-air balloon at Versailles, in front of King Louis XVI. They flew for about eight minutes and landed safely, showing living creatures could survive in the air. People flew two months later.
- 20 September1946
The first Cannes Film Festival opens
On 20 September 1946, the first Cannes Film Festival opened on the French Riviera, after an earlier attempt in 1939 was cancelled by the outbreak of war. Films from 21 countries were shown. Cannes became one of the world's most famous film festivals, awarding the Palme d'Or.
- 21 September1937
The Hobbit is published
On 21 September 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published in London. The story of Bilbo Baggins's adventure with a wizard and a band of dwarves was an instant success. It led to The Lord of the Rings and modern fantasy fiction.
- 22 September1888
National Geographic magazine is first published
On 22 September 1888, the National Geographic Society published the first issue of its magazine in Washington, a plain scholarly journal. It later became famous for its photographs of wildlife, places and peoples, and for its yellow-bordered covers.
- 23 September1932
Saudi National Day: the Kingdom is unified
On 23 September 1932, King Abdulaziz Al Saud proclaimed the unification of his lands as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudis celebrate the date every year as National Day, with green flags, fireworks and festivities across the Kingdom.
- 24 September1852
The first powered airship flight
On 24 September 1852, the French engineer Henri Giffard flew about 27 km from Paris to Élancourt in an airship driven by a small steam engine. It was the first powered and steerable flight. Airships later carried passengers across oceans.
- 25 September1956
The first transatlantic telephone cable opens
On 25 September 1956, TAT-1, the first telephone cable under the Atlantic, opened between Scotland and Newfoundland. It could carry 36 calls at once, far clearer than radio. Today, fibre-optic cables under the oceans carry almost all international internet traffic.
- 26 September1969
The Beatles release Abbey Road
On 26 September 1969, the Beatles released Abbey Road, the last album they recorded together. Its cover photograph, of the four walking across a zebra crossing outside the London studio, is one of the most copied in music. Fans still recreate it every day.
- 27 September1825
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens
On 27 September 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in northeast England, the first public railway to use steam locomotives. George Stephenson's engine Locomotion No. 1 pulled the first train, carrying coal and hundreds of passengers.
- 28 September1928
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
On 28 September 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that a mould growing on a dish in his London laboratory had killed the bacteria around it. It produced penicillin, the first antibiotic. Mass-produced in the 1940s, it has saved millions of lives.
- 29 September1954
CERN is founded
On 29 September 1954, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, came into being near Geneva, set up by 12 European countries to study the basic building blocks of matter. CERN discovered the Higgs boson in 2012, and the World Wide Web was invented there.
- 30 September1935
The Hoover Dam is dedicated
On 30 September 1935, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, between Nevada and Arizona. The 221 m concrete dam created Lake Mead, controls floods, supplies water to millions and generates hydroelectric power.
October
- 1 October1908
The Ford Model T goes on sale
On 1 October 1908, the Ford Motor Company began selling the Model T, a simple, tough car priced at $850. With the moving assembly line from 1913, prices fell and more than 15 million were made by 1927, putting much of America on wheels.
- 2 October1950
The Peanuts comic strip is first published
On 2 October 1950, Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts first appeared in seven American newspapers, introducing Charlie Brown and, soon, his dog Snoopy. It ran for almost 50 years and was published in thousands of newspapers in dozens of languages.
- 3 October1990
Germany is reunified
On 3 October 1990, East and West Germany were reunited as one country, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Germans celebrate the date every year as the Day of German Unity.
- 4 October1957
Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, is launched
On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, a metal ball about 58 cm across with four long aerials. It circled the Earth every 96 minutes, sending out radio beeps that people around the world could hear. It began the space age.
- 5 October1910
Portugal becomes a republic
On 5 October 1910, a revolution in Lisbon ended the monarchy in Portugal, and the country became a republic. King Manuel II went into exile in England. The date is a national holiday in Portugal.
- 6 October1927
The Jazz Singer brings sound to feature films
On 6 October 1927, The Jazz Singer opened in New York, the first feature-length film with synchronised singing and spoken dialogue. Audiences heard Al Jolson say: 'You ain't heard nothin' yet!' Within a few years, silent films had almost disappeared.
- 7 October1959
The first photographs of the Moon's far side
On 7 October 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 photographed the far side of the Moon, the side never seen from Earth. The blurry images showed fewer dark plains than the near side. One of the features was later named the Sea of Moscow.
- 8 October1871
The Great Chicago Fire
On 8 October 1871, a fire broke out in a barn in Chicago and spread through the wooden city for two days, destroying about 17,000 buildings and leaving about 100,000 people homeless. The city was rebuilt quickly, and in 1885 it built one of the first skyscrapers.
- 9 October1874
The Universal Postal Union is founded
On 9 October 1874, 22 countries signed a treaty in Bern, Switzerland, creating the General Postal Union, now the Universal Postal Union, so that letters could cross borders easily under common rules. The date is celebrated as World Post Day.
- 10 October1846
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is discovered
On 10 October 1846, just 17 days after the planet Neptune was discovered, the English astronomer William Lassell found its largest moon, Triton. Triton orbits backwards, against Neptune's spin, and has geysers of nitrogen, seen by Voyager 2 in 1989.
- 11 October1910
Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first president to fly
On 11 October 1910, former US President Theodore Roosevelt took a short flight in a Wright Flyer piloted by Arch Hoxsey, at Kinloch Field near St Louis, Missouri. He was the first American president, current or former, to fly in an aeroplane.
- 12 October1999
The world's population reaches six billion
The United Nations marked 12 October 1999 as the day the world's population reached six billion. It had taken just 12 years to grow from five billion. The world reached seven billion in 2011 and eight billion in November 2022.
- 13 October1884
Greenwich is chosen as the Prime Meridian
On 13 October 1884, delegates from 25 countries at the International Meridian Conference in Washington voted to make the meridian through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, London, longitude zero. The world's time zones are still counted from it.
- 14 October1947
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier
On 14 October 1947, the US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager flew the rocket-powered Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, over the Mojave Desert in California. Many had feared aircraft would break apart at that speed. His plane was named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife.
- 15 October1997
The Cassini spacecraft is launched to Saturn
On 15 October 1997, the Cassini spacecraft was launched to Saturn, carrying the European Huygens probe. It orbited Saturn for 13 years, finding geysers of water on the moon Enceladus, before ending its mission by diving into the planet in 2017.
- 16 October1846
Ether anaesthesia is shown in public
On 16 October 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the dentist William Morton gave a patient ether before a surgeon removed a tumour from his neck. The patient felt no pain. Anaesthesia spread worldwide within months. The date is World Anaesthesia Day.
- 17 October1956
Calder Hall nuclear power station opens
On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in northwest England, the first nuclear power station to deliver electricity to a national grid on a commercial scale. It ran for almost 47 years. Nuclear power now provides about a tenth of the world's electricity.
- 18 October1922
The British Broadcasting Company is formed
On 18 October 1922, the British Broadcasting Company was formed by radio manufacturers. It began daily radio broadcasts in November and became the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, in 1927. It is now one of the world's largest broadcasters.
- 19 October1987
Black Monday: stock markets crash
On 19 October 1987, stock markets around the world crashed. In New York, the Dow Jones index fell by 22.6% in a single day, still its largest one-day percentage fall. Markets recovered within about two years, and new 'circuit breakers' were introduced to pause trading in a panic.
- 20 October1973
The Sydney Opera House is opened
On 20 October 1973, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon, with roofs shaped like sails, it took 14 years to build. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
- 21 October1879
Edison's light bulb burns for over 13 hours
On 21 October 1879, in his laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison tested a light bulb with a carbonised cotton thread that glowed for more than 13 hours. Better filaments soon lasted hundreds of hours, and electric light spread around the world.
- 22 October1797
The first parachute jump from a balloon
On 22 October 1797, the Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin cut his basket loose from a hydrogen balloon about 1,000 m above Paris and floated down under a silk parachute. It swayed wildly, but he landed safely. It was the first parachute jump from such a height.
- 23 October2001
Apple introduces the iPod
On 23 October 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a pocket music player that could hold about 1,000 songs. With the iTunes music store from 2003, it changed how people bought and listened to music. More than 400 million iPods were sold.
- 24 October1945
The United Nations comes into being
On 24 October 1945, the Charter of the United Nations came into force, after most signatory countries had ratified it. The UN was created to keep peace and promote cooperation after the Second World War. The date is marked as United Nations Day.
- 25 October1955
The first microwave oven for the home goes on sale
On 25 October 1955, the American company Tappan introduced the first microwave oven for home kitchens, priced at about $1,300. The idea came from Percy Spencer, a radar engineer who noticed a chocolate bar melting in his pocket. Microwaves are now in most homes.
- 26 October1863
The Football Association is founded
On 26 October 1863, representatives of football clubs met at the Freemasons' Tavern in London to found the Football Association and agree a common set of rules. Their rules became the basis of association football, or soccer, now the world's most popular sport.
- 27 October1904
The New York City Subway opens
On 27 October 1904, the first line of the New York City Subway opened, running 14 km from City Hall to 145th Street. About 150,000 people rode it on the first day. It grew into one of the world's largest metro systems, with 472 stations, open 24 hours a day.
- 28 October1886
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated
On 28 October 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated on an island in New York Harbor. A gift from the people of France to the United States, it was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with an iron frame by Gustave Eiffel. It welcomed millions of immigrants arriving by ship.
- 29 October1969
The first message is sent over the internet's ancestor
On 29 October 1969, a student programmer at the University of California, Los Angeles, sent the first message over ARPANET to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute. He meant to type 'login', but the system crashed after 'lo'. ARPANET grew into the network of networks we now call the internet.
- 30 October1938
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast
On 30 October 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio drama of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds in the United States, presented as a series of realistic news bulletins about a Martian invasion. Some listeners were alarmed, and the programme became a famous example of the power of mass media.
- 31 October2011
The world's population reaches seven billion
The United Nations marked 31 October 2011 as the day the world's population reached seven billion people. It had taken just 12 years to grow from six billion. Better health care, food and clean water meant people were living longer. The world passed eight billion in November 2022.
November
- 1 November1755
The great Lisbon earthquake
On 1 November 1755, a powerful earthquake struck Lisbon, followed by a tsunami and fires that destroyed much of the Portuguese capital. The city was rebuilt with wide streets and buildings designed to withstand earthquakes, an early example of modern urban planning and earthquake engineering.
- 2 November1936
The BBC starts the world's first regular high-definition TV service
On 2 November 1936, the BBC began a regular television service from Alexandra Palace in London, described as the world's first regular 'high-definition' service. Only a few hundred homes had sets. The service paused during the Second World War and resumed in 1946.
- 3 November1957
Laika becomes the first animal to orbit the Earth
On 3 November 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog named Laika. She was the first animal to orbit the Earth. The mission showed that a living creature could survive launch and weightlessness, helping prepare the way for human spaceflight four years later.
- 4 November1879
The cash register is patented
On 4 November 1879, James Ritty, a saloon owner in Dayton, Ohio, received a US patent for a mechanical cash register, nicknamed the 'Incorruptible Cashier'. It recorded every sale. The business was later bought and grew into the National Cash Register Company, which spread cash registers to shops worldwide.
- 5 November2013
India launches its first mission to Mars
On 5 November 2013, India launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan. It reached Mars orbit in September 2014, making India the first Asian nation to reach Mars and the first country to succeed on its first attempt. The mission cost less than many Hollywood films.
- 6 November1860
Abraham Lincoln is elected US president
On 6 November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. He led the country through its civil war and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, shortly before Lincoln's assassination that April.
- 7 November1867
Marie Curie is born
Marie Skłodowska Curie was born in Warsaw on 7 November 1867. She moved to Paris to study science and, with her husband Pierre, discovered polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
- 8 November1895
Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays
On 8 November 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a glowing screen in his laboratory and discovered a new kind of invisible ray that could pass through the human body. He called them X-rays. Within months, doctors were using them to see broken bones.
- 9 November1989
The Berlin Wall falls
On the night of 9 November 1989, East Germany opened its border crossings, and crowds poured through the Berlin Wall, which had divided the city since 1961. People celebrated on top of the wall. Less than a year later, on 3 October 1990, Germany was reunified.
- 10 November1871
'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
On 10 November 1871, by the most common account, the journalist Henry Morton Stanley found the Scottish explorer David Livingstone at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, after Livingstone had not been heard from for years. Stanley's greeting, 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?', became one of the most famous lines in the history of exploration.
- 11 November1918
The First World War ends
At 11 o'clock on 11 November 1918, the armistice signed that morning came into force and the guns fell silent on the Western Front, ending the fighting of the First World War. Around 20 million people had died. Many countries still remember the war's victims each November.
- 12 November2014
A spacecraft lands on a comet for the first time
On 12 November 2014, the European Space Agency's Philae lander touched down on Comet 67P after a ten-year journey aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. It was the first landing on a comet. Philae bounced and came to rest in a shadow, but still sent back valuable measurements.
- 13 November1907
The first helicopter flight
On 13 November 1907, the French engineer Paul Cornu lifted off in a twin-rotor machine near Lisieux, rising a short distance off the ground for about 20 seconds. It is regarded as the first free flight of a helicopter carrying a person. Practical helicopters followed in the 1930s and 1940s.
- 14 November1971
Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet
On 14 November 1971, NASA's Mariner 9 entered orbit around Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. After waiting out a planet-wide dust storm, it mapped most of the Martian surface, revealing giant volcanoes, a huge canyon system and ancient riverbeds.
- 15 November1971
Intel announces the first commercial microprocessor
On 15 November 1971, Intel advertised the 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor, a complete computer processor on a single chip. It was designed for a Japanese calculator company. Microprocessors now power everything from phones and cars to washing machines.
- 16 November1945
UNESCO is founded
On 16 November 1945, 37 countries signed the constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in London. It works to promote education, science and culture, and it keeps the World Heritage List, which protects places such as the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu and the Pyramids of Giza.
- 17 November1869
The Suez Canal opens
On 17 November 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Ships between Europe and Asia no longer had to sail around Africa, cutting thousands of kilometres from the journey. It remains one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
- 18 November1883
Railways create standard time zones
On 18 November 1883, railways in the United States and Canada switched to standard time zones. Before then, towns kept their own local time, which made timetables confusing. The day was nicknamed 'the day of two noons'. A year later, the world chose Greenwich as the prime meridian.
- 19 November1863
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
On 19 November 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln gave a short speech at the dedication of a military cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In about 270 words and two minutes, he described government 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. It became one of history's most famous speeches.
- 20 November1985
Microsoft releases Windows 1.0
On 20 November 1985, Microsoft released Windows 1.0, a graphical system that let users of IBM-compatible PCs work with windows, menus and a mouse instead of typed commands. Later versions, especially Windows 3.0 and Windows 95, became the most widely used computer software in the world.
- 21 November2020
Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 leaders' summit
On 21 and 22 November 2020, Saudi Arabia hosted the summit of the G20, the world's major economies, chaired by King Salman. Held online because of the pandemic, it was the first G20 summit hosted by an Arab country. Leaders focused on the COVID-19 response and supporting the global economy.
- 22 November2022
Saudi Arabia beats Argentina at the World Cup
On 22 November 2022, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina 2–1 at the FIFA World Cup, one of the biggest upsets in the tournament's history. After Argentina led at half-time, Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari scored early in the second half. Argentina went on to win the tournament.
- 23 November1889
The first jukebox plays in San Francisco
On 23 November 1889, a coin-operated phonograph was installed at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. Customers paid a nickel to listen to a recording through one of four listening tubes. It is considered the ancestor of the jukebox and an early step in the music business.
- 24 November1859
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
On 24 November 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, explaining how living things change over many generations through natural selection. The first printing sold out quickly. It became one of the most influential books in the history of science.
- 25 November1952
The Mousetrap opens in London
On 25 November 1952, Agatha Christie's murder mystery play The Mousetrap opened in London's West End. It has run ever since, apart from a pause during the pandemic, making it the longest-running play in the world. Audiences are asked to keep the ending secret.
- 26 November1922
Howard Carter sees 'wonderful things' in Tutankhamun's tomb
On 26 November 1922, the archaeologist Howard Carter made a small hole in a sealed doorway in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and looked in by candlelight. Asked if he could see anything, he replied: 'Yes, wonderful things.' The nearly untouched tomb of Tutankhamun became the most famous archaeological find.
- 27 November1895
Alfred Nobel signs the will that creates the Nobel Prizes
On 27 November 1895, in Paris, the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel signed his last will. He left most of his fortune to fund annual prizes for those who 'conferred the greatest benefit to humankind' in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The first prizes were awarded in 1901.
- 28 November2023
Riyadh wins the right to host Expo 2030
On 28 November 2023, member states of the Bureau International des Expositions voted in Paris to award World Expo 2030 to Riyadh. The Saudi capital won 119 votes in the first round, far ahead of Busan and Rome. Expo 2030 Riyadh is planned to open on 1 October 2030.
- 29 November1929
The first flight over the South Pole
On 29 November 1929, the American aviator Richard Byrd and his crew flew over the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor aircraft named Floyd Bennett. To clear the high mountains on the way, they threw supplies overboard to lighten the plane. The round trip from their Antarctic base took about 19 hours.
- 30 November1872
The first international football match
On 30 November 1872, Scotland and England played the first official international football match, in Glasgow. About 4,000 spectators watched a 0–0 draw. Today, international football is the world's most popular sport, and the FIFA World Cup is watched by billions of people.
December
- 1 December1913
Ford starts its moving assembly line
On 1 December 1913, Henry Ford's Highland Park plant in Michigan began using a moving assembly line for the whole Model T. Cars moved past workers who each did one task. Build times fell from about 12 hours to about 90 minutes, and prices fell too.
- 2 December1804
Napoleon is crowned Emperor of the French
On 2 December 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in Paris, placing the crown on his own head. His armies went on to dominate much of Europe until his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. His legal code still influences laws in many countries.
- 3 December1967
The first human heart transplant
On 3 December 1967, the surgeon Christiaan Barnard and his team at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town performed the first human-to-human heart transplant. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days. Advances in medicine since then mean heart transplant patients now often live for decades.
- 4 December1872
The mystery ship Mary Celeste is found
On 4 December 1872, the crew of the ship Dei Gratia found the Mary Celeste drifting in the Atlantic, east of the Azores. The ship was seaworthy and its cargo nearly untouched, but everyone aboard had vanished, and the lifeboat was missing. What happened has never been explained.
- 5 December1952
The Great Smog of London begins
On 5 December 1952, cold, still weather trapped smoke from coal fires over London, creating a thick, poisonous smog that lasted five days. Thousands of people died from its effects. The disaster led to Britain's Clean Air Act of 1956, an important early law against air pollution.
- 6 December1877
Edison records his voice on the phonograph
In early December 1877, Thomas Edison tested his new phonograph by reciting 'Mary had a little lamb' into it and hearing his own voice played back. Many accounts date this to 6 December. It was the first machine that could both record and reproduce sound.
- 7 December1972
Apollo 17 launches and photographs the 'Blue Marble'
On 7 December 1972, Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission to the Moon, lifted off. On the way, the crew took a photograph of the whole Earth fully lit by the Sun, known as 'The Blue Marble'. It became one of the most reproduced images in history.
- 8 December1864
The Clifton Suspension Bridge opens
On 8 December 1864, the Clifton Suspension Bridge opened across the Avon Gorge in Bristol, England. It was based on a design by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who died before it was finished. Still in daily use, it is one of the most famous bridges of the 19th century.
- 9 December1968
The 'Mother of All Demos' shows the future of computing
On 9 December 1968, the engineer Douglas Engelbart gave a 90-minute demonstration in San Francisco showing the computer mouse, linked text, video calling and shared editing of documents. It is remembered as the 'Mother of All Demos', because it previewed the way people use computers today.
- 10 December1901
The first Nobel Prizes are awarded
On 10 December 1901, five years after Alfred Nobel's death, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. Wilhelm Röntgen won the physics prize for discovering X-rays. The prizes are still presented every year on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
- 11 December2024
Saudi Arabia is confirmed as host of the 2034 World Cup
On 11 December 2024, FIFA's Congress confirmed Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup. It will be the first men's World Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia, with matches planned in Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha and NEOM.
- 12 December1901
Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal
On 12 December 1901, at Signal Hill in Newfoundland, Guglielmo Marconi heard three faint clicks, the Morse code letter 'S', sent by radio from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, about 3,500 kilometres away. It proved that radio waves could cross the ocean.
- 13 December1928
Gershwin's An American in Paris premieres
On 13 December 1928, George Gershwin's orchestral piece An American in Paris was first performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. Inspired by his visit to Paris, it even included real taxi horns. It later inspired an Oscar-winning film of the same name in 1951.
- 14 December1911
Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole
On 14 December 1911, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four companions became the first people to reach the South Pole, using skis and dog sledges. A British team led by Robert Falcon Scott arrived about five weeks later. Amundsen's team returned safely.
- 15 December1970
The first successful landing on another planet
On 15 December 1970, the Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 landed on Venus and sent back data from its surface, the first successful landing on another planet. It recorded a temperature of about 475 degrees Celsius, showing that Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system.
- 16 December1773
The Boston Tea Party
On 16 December 1773, American colonists in Boston boarded three ships and threw 342 chests of British tea into the harbour, protesting against a tax imposed by the British Parliament. The protest became a step on the road to the American Revolution and independence in 1776.
- 17 December1903
The Wright brothers make the first powered flight
On 17 December 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright flew the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds, the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered aeroplane. His brother Wilbur made the longest flight of the day, 59 seconds. Aviation was born.
- 18 December1865
Slavery is abolished in the United States
On 18 December 1865, the US Secretary of State proclaimed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in force, abolishing slavery throughout the United States. About four million people had been enslaved in the country at the start of the civil war.
- 19 December1972
The last crewed Moon mission returns
On 19 December 1972, the Apollo 17 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the last crewed mission to the Moon. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt had spent about three days on the surface. No one has walked on the Moon since, though new missions are planned.
- 20 December1951
Nuclear power first lights electric bulbs
On 20 December 1951, the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho, in the United States, produced the first usable electricity from nuclear energy, lighting four light bulbs. Nuclear power stations now supply around a tenth of the world's electricity.
- 21 December1968
Apollo 8 sets off to orbit the Moon
On 21 December 1968, Apollo 8 launched with Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, the first people to leave Earth's orbit. Three days later, they became the first humans to orbit the Moon and see its far side with their own eyes.
- 22 December1895
The first X-ray image of a human hand
On 22 December 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen made an X-ray image of his wife Anna Bertha's hand, clearly showing her bones and wedding ring. It was the first X-ray of a human body part, and it amazed the world when Röntgen published his discovery days later.
- 23 December1947
The transistor is demonstrated
On 23 December 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, working in William Shockley's group at Bell Labs, demonstrated the first transistor. Smaller and more reliable than vacuum tubes, transistors became the building blocks of all modern electronics. Today's chips contain billions of them.
- 24 December1968
The Earthrise photograph is taken
On 24 December 1968, Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders photographed the Earth rising over the Moon's horizon. The image, known as 'Earthrise', showed our planet as a small, colourful world in the darkness of space, and it inspired many people to care for the environment.
- 25 December2021
The James Webb Space Telescope launches
On 25 December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket. The largest space telescope ever built, it sees in infrared light and can observe some of the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang. Its first images were released in July 2022.
- 26 December1898
Marie and Pierre Curie announce radium
On 26 December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie, with Gustave Bémont, announced to the French Academy of Sciences the discovery of a new radioactive element, which they named radium. Their work founded the study of radioactivity and later led to new treatments for cancer.
- 27 December1831
Darwin sets sail on HMS Beagle
On 27 December 1831, HMS Beagle left Plymouth, England, with the 22-year-old naturalist Charles Darwin aboard. The voyage around the world lasted almost five years. Darwin's observations, including in the Galápagos Islands, later shaped his theory of evolution by natural selection.
- 28 December1895
The first public film screening
On 28 December 1895, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière showed short films to a paying audience at the Grand Café in Paris, using their Cinématographe. Around 30 people watched ten short films. The evening is often seen as the birth of cinema.
- 29 December1959
Richard Feynman imagines nanotechnology
On 29 December 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a talk called 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom' in California. He imagined writing an entire encyclopedia on the head of a pin and building machines from individual atoms. The talk is often seen as the starting point of nanotechnology.
- 30 December1922
The Soviet Union is formed
On 30 December 1922, delegates in Moscow approved a treaty creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian republic. It became one of the world's largest states and lasted until its dissolution in December 1991.
- 31 December1999
Panama takes full control of the Panama Canal
At noon on 31 December 1999, the United States handed full control of the Panama Canal to Panama, under treaties signed in 1977. The canal, opened in 1914, links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and carries a significant share of world trade.