Today In History – This Day In History Funny Events

In 351–352, the Jews of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina revolted against the rule of Constantius Gallus, brother-in-law of Emperor Constantius II and caesar of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. The revolt, which occurred during the Roman civil war of 350–353, was crushed by Gallus' general Ursicinus.

The Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus breaks out. After his arrival at Antioch, the Jews begin a rebellion in Palestine.

Constantinople was a historical city located on the Bosporus, which served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman empires between its consecration in 330 and the formal abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922. Constantinople was founded in 324, initially as New Rome, during the reign of Constantine the Great on the site of the existing settlement of Byzantium and in 330 became the capital of the Roman Empire. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). In the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital moved to Ankara. The city was officially renamed Istanbul on 28 March 1930. As of December 2025, it is the most populous city in Europe, with a population of more than 16 million residents, straddling the Bosporus Strait and lying in both Europe and Asia, and is the financial centre of Turkey.

In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders that the dome be rebuilt.

The Second Council of Lyon was the fourteenth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convoked on 31 March 1272 and convened in Lyon, Kingdom of Arles, in 1274. Pope Gregory X presided over the council, called to act on a pledge by Byzantine emperor Michael VIII to reunite the Eastern church with the West. The council was attended by about 300 bishops, 60 abbots and more than a thousand prelates or their procurators among whom were the representatives of the universities. Due to the great number of attendees, those who had come to Lyon without being specifically summoned were given "leave to depart with the blessing of God" and of the Pope. Among others who attended the council were James I of Aragon, the ambassador of the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos with members of the Greek clergy and the ambassadors of Abaqa Khan of the Ilkhanate. Thomas Aquinas had been summoned to the council, but died en route at Fossanova Abbey. Bonaventure was present at the first four sessions but died at Lyon on 15 July 1274. As at the First Council of Lyon, Thomas Cantilupe was an English attendee and a papal chaplain.

In France, the Second Council of Lyon opens to regulate the election of the Pope.

The 1487 siege of Málaga was an action during the Reconquest of Spain in which the Catholic Monarchs of Spain conquered the city of Mālaqa from the Emirate of Granada. The siege lasted about four months. It was the first conflict in which ambulances, or dedicated vehicles for the purpose of carrying injured persons, were used. Geopolitically, the loss of the emirate's second largest city—after Granada itself—and its most important port was a major loss for Granada. Most of the surviving population of the city were enslaved or put to death by the conquerors.

The Siege of Málaga commences during the Spanish Reconquista.

Louis XIV was King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. He is a symbol of the Age of Absolutism in Europe for styling himself as "The Sun King", which portrayed him as supreme leader. He presided over a great expansion of the French colonial empire and a patronage of arts in his court at the Palace of Versailles that defined the Baroque style of French architecture. His reign of 72 years and 110 days remains the longest of any sovereign monarch in history.

Louis XIV of France begins construction of the Palace of Versailles.

The Battle on Vrtijeljka was fought on the hill of Vrtijeljka near Cetinje between a Venetian irregular force and an advancing Ottoman force on 7 May 1685 at the start of the Morean War. The Venetian force was made up of fighters from the neighbouring areas, including the band of acclaimed hajduk Bajo Pivljanin, and several Christian tribes. The large Ottoman force was led by sanjak-bey Süleyman of Scutari.

Battle of Vrtijeljka between rebels and Ottoman forces.

Stockholm is the capital and most populous city of Sweden, as well as the largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately 1 million people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.5 million in the metropolitan area. The city stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Outside the city to the east, and along the coast, is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. The city serves as the county seat of Stockholm County.

Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed by fire. It is replaced in the 18th century by the current Royal Palace.

New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 census, New Orleans is the most populous city in Louisiana, the second-most populous in the Deep South after Atlanta, and the twelfth-most populous in the Southeastern United States; the New Orleans metropolitan area, with about 1 million residents, is the 59th-most populous metropolitan area in the United States. New Orleans serves as a major port and commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast region. The city is coextensive with Orleans Parish.

The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.

Pontiac's War was launched in 1763 by a confederation of Native Americans who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Warriors from numerous nations joined in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region. The war is named after Odawa leader Pontiac, the most prominent of many Indigenous leaders in the conflict.

Pontiac's War begins with Pontiac's attempt to seize Fort Detroit from the British.

The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the Coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799. Many of the revolution's ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, and its values remain central to modern French political discourse. It was caused by a combination of social, political, and economic factors which the existing regime proved unable to manage.

French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. Mentored during the Classical period, he incorporated more complex structure and emotion in his later works. Beethoven's musical style was a key driver of the transition to Romantic music, and the expansion of popular forms such as the symphony and string quartet. His compositions have attracted casual and scholarly interest, and remain among the most performed in the world.

World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer's supervision.

The London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations among the three Great Powers resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian prince. The decisions were ratified in the Treaty of Constantinople later that year. The treaty followed the Akkerman Convention which had previously recognized another territorial change in the Balkans, the suzerainty of the Principality of Serbia.

Greece's independence is recognized by the Treaty of London.

The 1840 Natchez tornado was a deadly tornado that hit Natchez, Mississippi, on Thursday, May 7, 1840. The tornado, while officially unrated, was the second-deadliest tornado in United States history; at least 317 people were killed and at least 109 were injured. Its 35-mile-long (56 km), 1,000-yard-wide path was marked by severe damage and uncertain estimates of casualties, though many enslaved Africans—possibly numbering in the hundreds—reportedly died on plantations in Louisiana. Tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis retroactively rated the tornado F4 on the Fujita scale, while another report ranked it F5.

The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in United States history.

The Cambridge Chronicle was a weekly newspaper that served Cambridge, Massachusetts. The newspaper was founded by Andrew Reid in May 1846. It ceased publication of its print edition in 2022, after being purchased by Gannett. It no longer publishes stories of its own, instead re-publishing regional stories from other Gannett papers.

The Cambridge Chronicle, America's oldest surviving weekly newspaper, is published for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery.

American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.

A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century.

The world's oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.

Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd (Петроград) and later Leningrad (Ленинград), is the second-largest city in Russia, after Moscow, the nation's capital. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. With an area of 1,439 square kilometres, Saint Petersburg is the smallest administrative division of Russia by area. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, and a historically strategic Baltic port, it is governed as a federal city.

In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver. In some parts of the former Soviet Union the anniversary of this day is celebrated as Radio Day.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire

The Twenty-One Demands was a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the government of the Republic of China on 18 January 1915. The secret demands would greatly extend Japanese control of China. Japan would keep the former German leased territory it had conquered at the start of World War I in 1914 and would have increased influence in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia while having an expanded role in railways. The most extreme demands would give Japan a decisive voice in finance, policing, and government affairs: the latter would make China in effect a protectorate of Japan, and thereby reduce Western influence.

Japanese 21 Demands Ultimatum to China (Commemorated as National Day of Humiliation)

The 1920 Kiev offensive was a major part of the Polish–Soviet War. It was an attempt by the armed forces of the recently established Second Polish Republic led by Józef Piłsudski, in alliance with the Ukrainian People's Republic led by Symon Petliura, to seize the territories of modern-day Ukraine which mostly fell under Soviet control after the October Revolution as the Russian Soviet Republic.

Kiev Offensive: Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force capture Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.

The Treaty of Moscow, signed between Soviet Russia (RSFSR) and the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) in Moscow on 7 May 1920, granted de jure recognition of Georgian independence in exchange for promising not to grant asylum on Georgian soil to troops of powers hostile to Bolshevik Russia.

Treaty of Moscow: Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.

The Art Gallery of Ontario is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street West in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) of physical space, making it one of the largest art museums in North America and the second-largest art museum in Toronto, after the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition to exhibition spaces, the museum also houses an artist-in-residence office and studio, dining facilities, event spaces, gift shop, library and archives, theatre and lecture hall, research centre, and a workshop.

The Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, opens the first exhibition by the Group of Seven.

The Jinan incident or 3 May Tragedy began as a 3 May 1928 dispute between Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and Japanese soldiers and civilians in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in China, which then escalated into an armed conflict between the NRA and the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Jinan incident begins with Japanese forces killing the Chinese negotiating team in Jinan, China, and going on to kill over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.

The 1930 Salmas earthquake occurred on 7 May at 01:34:26 IRST in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The earthquake, which was among Iran's largest, measured 7.1 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Prior to the earthquake a strong foreshock was felt fifteen hours earlier. Reports from seismologists and seismological organizations indicate that up to 3,000 fatalities may have occurred in northwest Iran and southeast Turkey.

The 7.1 Mw Salmas earthquake shakes northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Up to three-thousand people were killed.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans were loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 for what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.

The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a momentous debate in the British House of Commons from 7 to 9 May 1940, during the Second World War. The official title of the debate, as held in the Hansard parliamentary archive, is Conduct of the War. Scheduled in advance, it was initiated by an adjournment motion enabling the Commons to freely discuss the progress of the Norwegian Campaign. The debate quickly brought to a head widespread dissatisfaction with the overall conduct of the war by Neville Chamberlain's government.

The Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.

The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead. It was also the first military battle between aircraft carriers.

During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō; the battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.

Sony Group Corporation, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including electronics, imaging and sensing, film and television, music, video games, and others.

Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.

The Council of Europe is an international organisation which aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, representing 46 European member states. The council is an official United Nations observer. It operates with an annual ordinary budget of 656 million euros.

The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.

An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a compact assembly of electronic circuits formed from various electronic components, such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors, and their interconnections. These components are fabricated onto a thin, flat piece ("chip") of semiconductor material, most commonly silicon. Integrated circuits are integral to a wide variety of electronic devices performing functions such as data processing, control, and storage. They have transformed the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization, improving performance, and reducing cost.

The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer.

The First Indochina War, known alternatively internationally as the French Indochina War, was fought in French Indochina between France and the Viet Minh and their respective allies, from 19 December 1946 until 11 August 1954. Most of the engagements of this conflict occurred in Vietnam.

Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Vietnamese victory (the battle began on March 13).

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

Cold War: U-2 Crisis of 1960: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.

The Honda Accord , also known as the Honda Inspire in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. Worldwide, over 19 million units of the car have been sold, making it one of the best-selling automobiles of all time. The Accord nameplate has been applied to a variety of vehicles worldwide, including coupes, station wagons, hatchbacks, and a Honda Crosstour crossover.

Honda Accord officially launched.

Patrick Allan Morrow, is a Canadian photographer and mountain climber. In 1986 he was the first person to climb the Seven Summits in the Carstensz-Version.

Canadian Patrick Morrow becomes the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits.

Michigan is a peninsular state in the Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, Indiana and Illinois to the southwest, Ohio to the southeast, and the Canadian province of Ontario to the east, northeast and north. With a population of 10.14 million and an area of 96,716 sq mi (250,490 km2), Michigan is the tenth-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by total area east of the Mississippi River. The state capital is Lansing, while its most populous city is Detroit. The Metro Detroit region in Southeast Michigan is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies. Other important metropolitan areas include Grand Rapids, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, the Tri-Cities, and Muskegon.

Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was the Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, STS-49.

McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain. As of 2024, it is the largest by revenue and second-largest by number of locations in the world, behind the Chinese chain Mixue Ice Cream & Tea.

Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first "fast-food murder" in Canada.

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work The Scream has become one of the most iconic and acclaimed images in all of Western art.

Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in February.

Mercedes-Benz, commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG is based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Mercedes-Benz AG manufactures luxury vehicles and light commercial vehicles, all branded under the Mercedes-Benz name. From November 2019 onwards, the production of Mercedes-Benz-branded heavy commercial vehicles has been managed by Daimler Truck, which separated from the Mercedes-Benz Group to form an independent entity at the end of 2021.

Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

Kosovo War: Three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft apparently inadvertently bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.

Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers 36,125 square kilometres (13,948 sq mi) with an estimated population of 2,080,000. It borders Senegal to its north and Guinea to its southeast.

In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 2000.

Vladimir Putin is inaugurated as president of Russia.

China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 (CBF6136/CJ6136) was a Chinese domestic passenger flight from Beijing Capital International Airport to Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport. On 7 May 2002, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 operating the flight crashed into the bay near Dalian shortly after the pilot reported fire on board, killing all 103 passengers and 9 crew members. The cause of the fire was later determined to be arson.

A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.

Nicholas Evan Berg was an American freelance radio-tower repairman who went to Iraq after the United States' invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants in response to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse involving the United States Army and Iraqi prisoners. The CIA claimed Berg was murdered by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The decapitation video was released on the internet, reportedly from London to a Malaysian-hosted homepage by the Islamist organization Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad.

American businessman Nick Berg, is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights. Israel's western coast lies on the Mediterranean Sea, its southern tip reaches the Red Sea, and to the east is Earth's lowest point near the Dead Sea. Jerusalem is the government seat and proclaimed capital, while Tel Aviv is Israel's largest urban area and economic centre.

Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.