1. 215 BC - A temple built on the Capitoline Hill is dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.

2. 1014 - King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control.

3. 1154 - Damascus surrenders to Sultan Nur ad - Din van Aleppo.

4. 1229 - Ferdinand III of Castile conquers Cáceres.

5. 1343 - St. George's Night Uprising in Estonia.

6. 1348 - The Order of the Garter is founded by King Edward III of England.

7. 1504 - King Maximilian I routes troops to Bavaria.

8. 1516 - Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorses "the German Beer Purity Law".

9. 1563 - The cornerstone is laid for El Escorial, the new Spanish royal palace commissioned by Philip II.

10. 1597 - William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.

11. 1616 - William Shakespeare dies in Stratford - upon - Avon, England.

12. 1616 - The Netherlands buys de Briel/Vlissingen/Fort Rammekens from England.

13. 1625 - Prince Frederick Henry is appointed stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel.

14. 1625 - Maurice of Orange, the hereditary stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, dies in The Hague.

15. 1633 - Sweden and the Protestant German monarchy form the Union of Heilbronn.

16. 1635 - The oldest US public institution, Boston Latin School, is founded.

17. 1635 - War on the Chesapeake - Claiborne vs. Calvert, Round 1: The sloop Cockatrice engages the St. Margaret and St. Helen at Pocomoke Sound.

18. 1660 - The Treaty of Oliva is established between Sweden and Poland.

19. 1661 - English King Charles II is crowned in London.

20. 1662 - Connecticut is chartered as an English colony.

21. 1702 - Queen Anne is crowned at Westminster Abbey, London.

22. 1705 - Richard Steele's play Tender Husband premieres in London.

23. 1723 - Cornelis Steenoven is elected archbishop of Utrecht.

24. 1789 - President - elect George Washington moves into Franklin House, New York.

25. 1795 - William Hastings is acquitted in England of high treason.

26. 1798 - The Dutch emperor accepts a new constitution.

27. 1826 - Missolonghi, Greece is captured by the Turks.

28. 1827 - Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton presents his theory of systems of rays.

29. 1838 - The English steamship Great Western crosses the Atlantic and docks in NYC.

30. 1849 - Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and members of the Petrashevsky Circle are arrested in St. Petersburg.

31. 1851 - Canada issues its 1st postage stamp - a three - pence beaver.

32. 1860 - The Democratic Convention in Charleston, South Carolina is divided over slavery.

33. 1861 - Arkansas troops seize Fort Smith on the Arkansas River.

34. 1861 - Robert E. Lee is named commander of Virginia Confederate forces (US Civil War).

35. 1864 - The Battle of Cane River, Louisiana (Red River Expedition, Monett's Ferry).

36. 1867 - Queen Victoria and Napoleon III turn down plans for a Channel Tunnel.

37. 1871 - Blossom Rock in San Francisco Bay is blown up.

38. 1878 - The 1st Dutch test drive of a steam tram takes place.

39. 1882 - Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida premieres in Cairo.

40. 1883 - John Heemskerk Abrahamszoon forms the Dutch government.

41. 1891 - Jews are expelled from Moscow, Russia.

42. 1900 - The 1st known occurrence of the word "hill billie" appears in the NY Journal.

43. 1904 - The American Academy of Arts & Letters is formed.

44. 1908 - Denmark, Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden sign the North Sea Accord.

45. 1910 - An international exhibition opens in Brussels, Belgium.

46. 1915 - The ACA becomes the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA).

47. 1916 - Lord Dunsany's Night at an Inn premieres in NYC.

48. 1918 - The Dover Patrol overthrows a German U - boat in the East Sea.

49. 1920 - The Turkish Grand National Assembly meets for the 1st time in Ankara, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

50. 1923 - Inauguration ceremonies take place at Gdynia, Poland to mark its new status as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter.