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31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in July 2024

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in July 2024

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in July 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Jul 1874 – 150 years ago
The first kidnapping for ransom in the USA.
Charley Ross, aged 4 and his brother Walter, aged 6, were kidnapped outside their home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by two men in a horse-drawn carriage. They went to a store and Walter was sent inside to buy fireworks. The carriage drove away while he was inside, taking Charley, who was never seen again. His father received several ransom demands for $20,000, but whenever it was offered the kidnappers failed to collect it.

2 Jul 1964 – 60 years ago
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 came into effect in the USA. The landmark act outlawed racial and sexual discrimination.

3 Jul 1924 – 100 years ago
The General Seafoods Company was founded by American inventor and entrepreneur Clarence Birdseye.
It specialised in frozen foods and the equipment for producing, transporting, storing and displaying it. The company was later renamed General Foods. It was acquired by the Postum Cereal Company in 1929, which adopted the name General Foods for its own business. It merged with Kraft in 1990.

4 Jul 1774 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: the Orangetown Resolutions were adopted in New York. The resolutions called for the Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts) passed by the British Parliament to be repealed. This led to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, the American Revolutionary War in April 1775, and the American Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

5 to 27 Jul 1924 – 100 years ago
The 1924 Summer Olympic Games were held in Paris, France.

6 Jul 1974 – 50 years ago
The BBC broadcast its first experimental quadraphonic radio programme BBC in Quad.
Listeners required two stereo radios: the sound for the front speakers was broadcast on Radio 2 and the rear speakers on Radio 3.

7 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
Elvis Presley’s radio debut. Disc jockey Dewey Phillips played Presley’s first single That’s All Right on WHBQ in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It proved popular, and Phillips called Presley into the studio for an interview later that day.

8 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The first piece of apartheid legislation came into effect in South Africa: the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949.
It was repealed in 1985.

9 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
York Minster in England was struck by lightning, which set fire to the roof and destroyed the south transept.

10 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The first television with a rectangular screen was introduced in Ohio, USA. The screen measured 16 x 12 inches.

11 Jul 1274 – 750 years ago
Birth of Robert I (‘Robert the Bruce’), King of Scotland (1306–29).

12 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Czech-born British media magnate Robert Maxwell bought the Daily Mirror newspaper.
(He died in 1991. Subsequent investigations found that he had misappropriated the company’s pension fund.)

13 Jul 1024 – 1000 years ago
Death of Henry II, (‘Saint Henry the Exuberant’), Holy Roman Emperor (1014–24). (Urinary infection, aged 51.)
Succeeded by Conrad II (from March 1027).

14 Jul 1999 – 25 years ago
U.S. limited release of the supernatural horror film The Blair Witch Project.
(Full release: 30th July. UK première: 8th October, released: 22nd October.)

15 Jul 1274 – 750 years ago
Death of Saint Bonaventure, Italian Franciscan theologian, philosopher and Doctor of the Church. (Canonised in 1482.)

16 to 22 Jul 1994 – 30 years ago
21 fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.

17 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
The national minimum drinking age in the USA was raised from 18 to 21.

18 Jul 1994 – 30 years ago
The Rwandan Civil War ended. Rwandan Patriotic Front victory.

19 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
Elvis Presley’s first single That’s All Right was released.

20 Jul 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the 20th July plot.
The German Resistance movement attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in Berlin and remove the Nazi Party from power in a coup. The attempt failed. The movement’s central figure, Claus von Stauffenberg, and his fellow conspirators were executed the following day. The Gestapo also arrested at least 7,000 members of the resistance movement, of whom 4,980 are known to have been executed. This effectively ended the German Resistance movement.

21 Jul 1899 – 125 years ago
Birth of Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His best-known novels include The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. Winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

22 Jul 1959 – 65 years ago
The science fiction horror film Plan 9 From Outer Space was released in the USA. It has been named the worst film ever made, and has gained a huge cult following. (U.S. preview: March 1957 as Grave Robbers From Outer Space. UK release: March 1960).

23 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her title, after nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse magazine. Suzette Charles replaced her.

24 Jul 1824 – 200 years ago
The results of the world’s first public opinion poll were published in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper in the USA. The poll asked voters in Wilmington, Delaware how they would vote in the 1824 U.S. presidential election. 70 percent favoured Andrew Jackson. (Jackson narrowly won the popular vote, but John Quincy Adams was elected president.)

25 Jul 1959 – 65 years ago
The first hovercraft to cross the English Channel: the SRN-1, designed by British inventor Christopher Cockerell.

26 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Death of George Gallup, American statistician and public-opinion surveyor who established the Gallup Poll.

27 Jul 1824 – 200 years ago
Birth of Alexandre Dumas fils, French novelist and playwright. Best known for his romantic novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias). It was adapted by Giuseppe Verdi into his opera La Traviata, and into numerous plays and films called Camille.
Son of Alexandre Dumas père, who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

28 Jul 1964 – 60 years ago
NASA launched its Ranger 7 space probe on a mission to the Moon.
On 31st July it sent back the first close-up images of the lunar surface.

29 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The BBC began broadcasting regular weather forecasts on television.

30 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
The Television Act was passed in the UK. This led to the establishment of the commercial TV network.
The Independent Television Authority (ITA) began operating on 4th August.
ITV began broadcasting in the London area in September 1955 and was available nationally by September 1962.

31 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
The first successful ascent of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, by Italian mountaineers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. (Ardito Desio, who is often credited with the first ascent, led the expedition but did not go to the summit.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in June 2024

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in June 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in June 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Jun 1974 – 50 years ago
The Heimlich manoeuvre (a procedure for rescuing choking victims using abdominal thrusts) was first published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

2 Jun 1924 – 100 years ago
The Indian Citizenship Act came into effect in the USA. It granted full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the USA.

3 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
The first episode of the police drama series Dragnet was broadcast on NBC radio in the USA. It ran until 1957. A TV version ran from 1967 to 1970.

4 Jun 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the liberation of Rome, Italy.

5 Jun 1964 – 60 years ago
The first manned deep-ocean research submersible DSV Alvin went into service with the U.S. Navy.

6 Jun 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – D-Day: the Normandy landings.
Over 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France at the start of the Battle of Normandy.
(The battle ended on 25th August. Allied victory.)

7 Jun 1984 – 40 years ago
The U.S. première of the supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters. (Released 8th June. UK 7th December.)

8 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published.

9 Jun 1934 – 90 years ago
Walt Disney’s character Donald Duck made his first appearance, in the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Wise Little Hen.

10 Jun 1924 – 100 years ago
The first political convention to be broadcast on the radio: the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, USA was broadcast on NBC.

11 Jun 1959 – 65 years ago
British engineer Christopher Cockerell unveiled the first full-size practical hovercraft SRN-1 and gave a public demonstration.
It could carry four people over land or water at up to 28 mph.
On 25th July it successfully crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover.

12 Jun 1964 – 60 years ago
The Rivonia trial, Pretoria, South Africa.
Nelson Mandela (the future President of South Africa) and seven other leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) were sentenced to life imprisonment for acts of sabotage aimed at ending apartheid.
(Mandela was released in 1990. He became President in 1994.)

13 Jun 1774 – 250 years ago
Rhode Island becomes the first North American colony to ban the importation of slaves.
Current slaves, and their children, remained slaves.
In 1784 Rhode Island passed the Gradual Emancipation Act, which ruled that children born to slaves would not remain slaves.

14 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
Albert II became the first monkey in space. The USA launched the rhesus monkey on a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 83 miles (134 km). His craft impacted the ground because of a parachute failure and he was killed.

15 Jun to 9 Jul 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Pacific Campaign – the Battle of Saipan (Mariana Islands).
This battle has been called the ‘Pacific D-Day’.
U.S. victory leading to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō (on 22nd July). It also gave the USA a strategic air base in range of the Japanese archipelago.

16 Jun 1624 – 400 years ago
The Virginia Company’s charter was revoked, and Virginia became a Royal Colony.

17 Jun 1994 – 30 years ago
American actor and former football player O. J. Simpson was arrested for murdering his ex-wife and her friend after a low-speed 60-mile pursuit by police.

18 Jun 1959 – 65 years ago
Civil rights: a federal court reversed Arkansas’s law that allowed schools to close to prevent integration. This ended the ‘lost year’ in Little Rock, where all public schools closed from September 1958 to August 1959.

19 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
The first NASCAR race was held, at Charlotte Fairgrounds Speedway in North Carolina, USA. The winner was Jim Roper.

20 Jun 1944 – 80 years ago
The first man-made object to reach space. Germany launched a V-2 rocket (MW 18014) on a test flight from Peenemünde. It reached an altitude of 109 miles before falling back to Earth. The official boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space is the Karman line, at an altitude of 62 miles.

21 Jun 1964 – 60 years ago
Mississippi civil rights workers’ murders, USA. Three civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, were kidnapped and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The activists had been working on the Freedom Summer campaign, which encouraged African Americans to register to vote. Seven Klan members were convicted at the time, but received relatively minor sentences. Another member, Edgar Ray Killen, was convicted in 2005 and received a 60-year sentence.

22 Jun 1874 – 150 years ago
The first lawn tennis sets went on sale in London. They were designed by Walter Clopton Wingfield and included balls, racquets, a net and poles, court markers and instructions. Wingfield is credited with inventing modern lawn tennis.
The world’s first lawn tennis club (Leamington Lawn Tennis Club) opened later that year, and held its first competition.
Wimbledon began hosting international lawn tennis championships in 1877.

23 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
The first 12 women graduated from Harvard Medical School in the USA.

24 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
The first episode of the television Western Hopalong Cassidy was broadcast on NBC in the USA. It was the first network Western TV series.

25 Jun 1524 to 1525 – 500 years ago
The German Peasants’ War (also called the Great Peasants’ Revolt).
Several insurrections broke out in south-west Germany and spread throughout the country. More than 100,000 peasants were killed when the insurrections were suppressed by the military.

26 Jun 1824 – 200 years ago
Birth of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, British mathematician, physicist and engineer. He made important contributions to thermo-dynamics, electricity, and modern physics. The kelvin scale of absolute temperature was named in his honour.

27 Jun 1999 – 25 years ago
The government of Colombia announced that it was including income earned from growing illegal drugs in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It exports an estimated 500 – 700 tons of cocaine each year (half the world’s supply) worth $4 – $10 billion.
The announcement was condemned by the United Nations.

28 Jun 1974 – 50 years ago
Chemists at the University of California, Irvine published the first report that warned that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could damage the Earth’s ozone layer. CFCS were widely used in refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and as aerosol propellants. Production was heavily regulated from 1976, and later banned.

29 Jun 1949 – 75 years ago
The USA withdrew the last of its forces from South Korea following the end of WWII. This left South Korea with weak and ill-equipped defences. It was invaded by North Korea in June 1950, beginning the Korean War.

30 Jun 1934 – 90 years ago
The Night of the Long Knives – Adolf Hitler’s purge (execution) of senior Nazi officials, particularly leaders of the SA paramilitary group (also known as the ‘brownshirts’), and hundreds of other (perceived) political opponents.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in May 2024

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in May 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in May 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The computer programming language BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was released.
It was designed to teach non-scientists/mathematicians how to program, and was released into the public domain.

2 May 1974 – 50 years ago
Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals after being convicted of tax evasion and resigning as vice president. He had hoped to resume his career as a lawyer, but founded a business consultancy instead.

3 May 1999 – 25 years ago
The Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, Oklahoma, USA.
An exceptionally powerful F5 tornado devastated southern Oklahoma, particularly Bridge Creek, Del City, Midwest City, Moore, and Oklahoma City. 41 people were killed and 583 were injured, and it caused over $1 billion in damage.
It produced the highest wind-speed ever recorded on Earth: 302 mph, measured in Bridge Creek.
(Another tornado struck parts of the same area, and adjacent areas, in May 2013, killing 24 people.

4 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of E. Nesbit, (Edith Nesbit), British children’s writer and poet.
Best known for The Railway Children, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, and Five Children and It.
Co-founder of the Fabian Society.

5 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Council of Europe was founded

6 May 1949 – 75 years ago
EDSAC – the Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer – ran its first program.
It was the first practical stored-program computer, and was built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University, UK.

7 May 1824 – 200 years ago
The first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, in Vienna, Austria.
It is regarded as Beethoven’s greatest work, and is one of the most-performed symphonies in the world.

8 May 1984 – 40 years ago
The Soviet Union announced that it was boycotting the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, USA.

9 May 1949 – 75 years ago
Britain’s first self-service coin-operated laundrette opened in Bayswater, London.

10 May 1824 – 200 years ago
The National Gallery in London opened to the public.
It was located in Pall Mall. It moved to its present building in Trafalgar Square in 1838.

11 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The song I Get Around by the Beach Boys was released.
In July it became their first #1 hit single.

12 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Tony Hancock, British comedian and actor.
Best known for the radio/TV series Hancock’s Half Hour. (Died 1968.)

13 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The English Electric Canberra jet bomber made its first flight.
In 1951 it became the first jet to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. It could fly higher than any other aircraft of that era, and set an altitude record of 70,310 feet. Over 900 were produced, and it remained in service with the British RAF until 2006.

14 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The first stage of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed, and the reservoir began filling.
The dam was completed in 1970 and the reservoir reached full capacity in 1976.

15 to 16 May 1974 – 50 years ago
The Ma’alot massacre, Israel.
Palestinian terrorists took 115 people (including 105 students) hostage at the Netiv Meir Elementary School.
Israeli Defence Forces stormed the school the following day.
The terrorists killed 25 of the hostages, and about 70 others were injured. Three terrorists were killed.
Israel retaliated by bombing Palestinian villages and refugee camps in southern Lebanon, killing at least 27 people and injuring 138.

16 May 1874 – 150 years ago
The Mill River flood, Williamsburg, Massachusetts, USA.
The Williamsburg Reservoir Dam burst and sent 600 million gallons of water down the valley in a 20-foot wave.
Four towns were devastated. 139 people were killed and about 800 people were left homeless.
It was the first recorded dam disaster in the USA.
(Cause: cost cutting – the dam’s strength was insufficient to hold back the amount of water.)

17 May 1999 – 25 years ago
SETI@home released a free screensaver. It used spare processing power on personal computers to analyse data from the Arecibo radio telescope for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

18 to 19 May 1964 – 60 years ago
Thousands of Mods and Rockers rioted at seaside towns along the south coast of England, most notably in Brighton, but also in Margate, Hastings and Broadstairs. Many of them received prison sentences as a result.
The Brighton riots are depicted in the film Quadrophenia.

19 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Engineers at AT&T in the USA sent fifteen photographs by fax from Cleveland, Ohio to New York City.
Their system transmitted the photos as audio signals over telephone lines rather than using radio, which had previously been used.

20 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Armed Forces Security Agency (now the National Security Agency) was established in the USA.

21 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Two wealthy students from the University of Chicago in Illinois, USA kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks.
Nathan Leopold (aged 19) and Richard Loeb (18) lured the boy into their rented car, killed him with a chisel, then dumped his body in a culvert. In September they were both sentenced to life imprisonment for murder + 99 years for kidnapping.
They committed the crime as a demonstration of their ‘intellectual superiority’ and believed it was the ‘perfect crime’.
The murder inspired numerous books, plays and films.

22 May 1984 – 40 years ago
Hewlett-Packard launched the LaserJet laser printer.
It was the first laser printer for IBM PC compatible personal computers.

23 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was established.

24 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The Estadio Naciona disaster, Lima, Peru. The worst disaster in football history.
A referee disallowed a goal during an Olympic qualifying match between Peru and Argentina. Peruvian fans invaded the pitch, and police fired tear gas into the crowd. Fans tried to flee the stadium but found the exits locked.
328 people were killed in the crush, and 500 were injured.

25 to 27 May 1994 – 30 years ago
The First International Conference on the World Wide Web was held at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
It is held annually and is now known as the Web Conference.

26 May 1999 – 25 years ago
The National Assembly for Wales (now the Senedd) was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

27 May 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Francis Beaufort, Irish hydrographer and an officer in the British Royal Navy.
Best known for creating the Beaufort scale for measuring wind speed, and for creating the Beaufort cipher encryption system.

28 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded.

29 May 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of G. K. Chesterton, British novelist, short story writer, philosopher and critic.
Best known for his Father Brown stories.

30 May 1964 – 60 years ago
Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist.
He conceived and helped create the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

31 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Patricia Roberts Harris, American politician and diplomat.
The first African American woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet (Jimmy Carter).
She was also the first African American woman to become a U.S. ambassador, and the first to sit on the board of a Fortune 500 company.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2024

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in April 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in April 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch (an attempted revolution in November 1923). He used his time in prison to write his famous memoir Mein Kampf. He was released after eight months.

2 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
Death of Georges Pompidou, President of France (1969–74 – died in office).
Succeeded by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on 27th May.

3 Apr 1934 – 90 years ago
British inventor Percy Shaw patented the Cat’s Eye reflective road stud.
He set up a company to manufacture them in 1935, and in 1937 he was awarded a government contract to mass produce them for national use.

4 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The first BBC radio broadcast for schools: the composer Sir Walford Davies gave a talk on music.
Regular schools broadcasting began in 1928.

5 Apr 1874 – 150 years ago
Austrian composer Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus was performed for the first time, in Vienna.

6 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
The Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo.
It was the first time that Sweden won the contest.
ABBA went on to be one of the most successful groups in music history.

7 Apr 1724 – 300 years ago
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion was performed for the first time, at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig.

8 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
The song Band on the Run by Paul McCartney and Wings was released. It was the title track of their 1973 album.

9 Apr 1024 – 1000 years ago
Death of Pope Benedict VIII. Succeeded by John XIX.

10 Apr 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: two Slovak Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and wrote a report (the Vrba–Wetzler report) which detailed for (possibly) the first time the extent of the atrocities taking place there.

11 Apr 1899 – 125 years ago
Spanish–American War: the Treaty of Paris came into effect, officially marking the end of the war and the end of the Spanish Empire. Spain relinquished its sovereignty of Cuba, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the USA.
This marked the USA’s beginning as a world power.

12 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
The first mass commercial spam campaign was launched.
U.S. lawyers Canter & Siegel flooded around 6,000 Usenet message boards with ads for their services in connection with a Green Card Lottery. Their internet service was swiftly terminated, but they said they gained 1,000 new clients from the campaign and made $100,000 from it.

13 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in the film Lilies of the Field.

14 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of Louis Sullivan, American architect. Regarded as ‘the father of modern American architecture’ and ‘the father of skyscrapers’.

15 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The first Rand McNally Road Atlas was published in the USA (as the Rand McNally Auto Chum).

16 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
The Rolling Stones released their first album The Rolling Stones in the UK.
(USA: May 30th with the sub-title England’s Newest Hit Makers.)

17 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) was founded when Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged.

18 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The Cross Word Puzzle Book was published in the USA by Simon & Schuster. It was the world’s first crossword puzzle book, and the company’s first publication. The book contained a compilation of crossword puzzles from the New York World newspaper. It was an instant success and helped establish Simon & Shuster, which became one of the world’s largest publishing companies.

19 Apr 1824 – 200 years ago
Death of Lord Byron, British poet and politician. One of the greatest British poets, and a leading figure of the Romantic movement. Father of Ada Lovelace, who is considered the first computer programmer.
(Died of sepsis/fever while fighting for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, aged 36.)

20 Apr 1999 – 25 years ago
The Columbine High School massacre, Colorado, USA.
Two students went on a shooting spree, killing 12 students and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.

21 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
American astronomer Alexander Wolszczan announced the discovery of the first exoplanets (planets outside our solar system).
They orbited the pulsar PSR B1257+12.

22 Apr 1724 – 300 years ago
Birth of Immanuel Kant, German philosopher. One of the leading philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment.

23 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
The British Empire Exhibition opened in Wembley, London.

24 Apr 1974 – 50 years ago
Death of Bud Abbott, American comedian and actor (Abbott & Costello).

25 Apr 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Guglielmo Marconi, Italian electrical engineer and inventor who developed long-distance radio transmission.
Joint winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing wireless telegraphy.

26 Apr 1994 – 30 years ago
The first post-apartheid multiracial elections were held in South Africa, with 18 million blacks eligible to vote for the first time.
Nelson Mandela was elected president and took office on 10th May.

27 Apr 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: Exercise Tiger – a large-scale rehearsal for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.
The exercise took place on Slapton Sands in Devon, UK, and involved the use of live ammunition to acclimatise 30,000 Allied servicemen to battle conditions. Due to coordination and communication issues, up to 450 U.S. servicemen were killed in ‘friendly fire’ incidents. During the exercise, their boats were also torpedoed by German forces, and at least 749 U.S. servicemen were killed.

28 Apr 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Francis Baily, British astronomer. Best known for his observations of Baily’s Beads, which can be seen during a total solar eclipse. He was also a co-founder and president of the Royal Astronomical Society.

29 Apr 1964 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Soviet Union, reported to the U.S. State Department in Washington that hidden microphones had been planted in the Embassy. The Embassy set about finding and removing them all, and found more than 40 over the next month.
(A similar incident happened when Soviet contractors built a new U.S. Embassy, starting in 1979, and packed it with listening devices.)

30 Apr 2004 – 20 years ago
The Sasser computer worm was created and released.
It affected unpatched versions of Microsoft’s Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems.
It had significant effects on computer systems worldwide, including halting France’s news agency, causing the cancellation of Delta Air Lines transatlantic flights, halting the work of banks, insurance offices and the European Commission, and disabling the British Coastguard’s mapping system and a number of X-ray machines.
A German student, Sven Jaschan, was arrested for creating it. He received a 21-month suspended sentence.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in March 2024

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in March 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in March 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
A national speed limit of 55 mph came into effect in the USA because of the oil crisis.
The limit was partially lifted in 1987 and fully repealed in 1995.

2 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
U.S. Air Force Captain James Gallagher completed the first non-stop round-the-world flight.
He landed his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, having taken off from there 94 hours and one minute earlier.

3 Mar 1849 – 175 years ago
The United States Department of the Interior was formed.

4 to 10 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
Cyclone Mahina hit Bathurst Bay in Queensland, Australia, killing between 300 and 400 people.
It was the deadliest cyclone in Australian history, and may have been the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. It produced the largest-recorded storm surge of 43 feet (13 metres) which swept up to 3 miles (5 km) inland.

5 Mar 1984 to Mar 1985 – 40 years ago
The 1984 miners’ strike, UK.
6,000 coal miners in Yorkshire, England began a strike to protest against pit closures and job losses.
On 6th March the National Coal Board announced that 20 mines in the north of England, Scotland and Wales would close, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. On 12th March the strike in Yorkshire became a national one involving tens of thousands of miners.

6 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
American world heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay was given the name Muhammad Ali after joining the Nation of Islam.

7 Mar 1274 – 750 years ago
Death of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian.

8 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
Charles de Gaulle Airport opened in Paris, France.

9 Mar 1824 –200 years ago
Birth of Leland Stanford, American industrialist and politician.
Co-founder (with his wife) of Stanford University.
Governor of California (1862–63). U.S. Senator from California (1885–93).

10 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
American Nazi wartime broadcaster ‘Axis Sally’ (Mildred Gillars) was found guilty of treason by a jury in Washington D.C., USA
She was sentenced to 10 – 30 years in prison and fined $10,000. She was released in June 1961.

11 Mar 1824 – 200 years ago
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in the USA. It is now a federal agency within the Department of the Interior.
It is responsible for laws and policies relating to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

12 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
New Hampshire became the first U.S. state to legally sell lottery tickets.

13 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
The U.S. Senate voted to restore the death penalty, which had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1972.
The death penalty was restored in 1976.

14 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
Jack Ruby, the American nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald after he was arrested for assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
He appealed, but died of lung cancer less than three years later.

15 Mar 1874 – 150 years ago
The Second Treaty of Saigon was signed by France and Vietnam. It effectively made Vietnam a French protectorate.

16 Mar 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Matthew Flinders, British navigator and cartographer.
He led the first inshore navigation of Australia, and was the first person to call the country by that name. He was also part of the expedition that confirmed that Tasmania was an island.

17 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
The first radio distress signal was sent. It was transmitted by the East Goodwin Lightship to the South Foreland Lighthouse to summon a lifeboat when the merchant ship Elbe ran aground on the Goodwin Sands off the coast of Kent, England.

18 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
Saturn’s moon Phoebe was discovered by American astronomer William Henry Pickering while he was studying photographic plates taken in Peru in August 1898. It was the first moon to be discovered from photos.

19 Mar 1524 – 500 years ago
Florentine explorer Giovanni de Varrazano became the first European to reach the Atlantic coast of North America.
He reached Pamlico Sound, North Carolina on this date, continued north to New Brunswick in Canada, and then sailed southwards, exploring and surveying the coast to Florida.

20 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
Britain’s Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips escaped from an attempted kidnapping in London.
The would-be kidnapper shot and wounded three people who tried to intervene.

21 Mar 1999 – 25 years ago
Death of Ernie Wise, British comedian and actor (Morecambe and Wise).

22 Mar 1934 – 90 years ago
The first Masters Tournament was held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA.

23 Mar 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Bette Nesmith Graham, American typist and artist. The inventor of Liquid Paper correction fluid.
Mother of the musician Michael Nesmith (The Monkees). (Died 1980.)

24 Mar 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born American escape artist, illusionist and stunt performer.

25 Mar 1924 – 100 years ago
Greece became a republic. The monarchy was abolished and the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed.
Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis became its first president.

26 Mar 1934 – 90 years ago
Driving tests were introduced in Britain. They were voluntary until June 1935.

27 Mar 1899 – 125 years ago
The first international radio transmission.
Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi broadcast a radio telegraph message across the English channel from Wimereux in northern France to the South Foreland Lighthouse in England. The message was addressed to The Times newspaper and reported the success of his trials.

28 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
Radio Caroline, Britain’s first off-shore pirate radio station, began broadcasting.

29 Mar 1974 – 50 years ago
The Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi, China by a group of farmers who were digging a well.
The 8,000 life-sized warriors, plus chariots and horses were buried with the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (247 BC – 221 BC), to protect him in the afterlife. Non-military figures were later discovered in nearby pits. They included government officials, acrobats, musicians and strongmen.

30 Mar 1964 – 60 years ago
The first episode of the television quiz show Jeopardy! was broadcast on NBC in the USA.

31 Mar 1949 – 75 years ago
The first 7-inch 45 rpm vinyl single record was released. The first single was PeeWee the Piccolo, released by RCA Victor.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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29 newsworthy historical anniversaries in February 2024

29 newsworthy historical anniversaries in February 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 29 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in February 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Feb 1964 – 60 years ago
The Beatles’ song I Want to Hold Your Hand became their first #1 hit on the USA’s Billboard Hot 100 chart.

2 Feb 1964 – 60 years ago
The action figure G.I. Joe was launched in the USA. (It was launched in the UK in 1966 as Action Man.)

3 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States (1913–21).

4 Feb 1974 – 50 years ago
The Patty Hearst kidnapping. The granddaughter of American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. After two months as a hostage, she joined her captors and helped them further their cause, and served two years in prison for bank robbery. She was later pardoned by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

5 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
BBC Radio broadcast the ‘six-pips’ Greenwich Time Signal for the first time.

6 Feb 1959 – 65 years ago
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first U.S. patent for an integrated circuit. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor had a similar idea and filed his patent in the spring. Noyce’s patent was granted first, in April 1961, while Kilby’s application was still being analysed. Both men are now jointly recognised as the inventors of the integrated circuit.

7 Feb 1964 – 60 years ago
Beatlemania: the British rock band the Beatles arrived in New York City for their first U.S. tour, and were met by thousands of screaming fans. On 9th February they made their first live appearance on American television, on The Ed Sullivan Show, where they performed for an audience of 73 million people.

8 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
The first coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the USA. General John Joseph Carty of Bell Telephone in Chicago, Illinois spoke to an estimated 50 million listeners.

9 Feb 1949 – 75 years ago
The world’s first Department of Space Medicine was established, at the U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine in Texas. Hubertus Strughold became the first Professor of Space Medicine.

10 Feb 1824 – 200 years ago
Birth of Samuel Plimsoll, British politician and social reformer. Best known for creating the Plimsoll line which indicates a ship’s maximum safe draught. Plimsoll athletic shoes are so named because of their similar appearance to the Plimsoll lines on ships.

11 Feb 824 – 1200 years ago
Death of Pope Paschal I. Succeeded by Eugene II on 4th June.

12 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time, in New York City, USA.

13 Feb 1849 – 175 years ago
Birth of Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician. Chancellor of the Exchequer (1886), Leader of the House of Commons (1886–87), Secretary of State for India (1885–86). Father of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

14 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

15 Feb 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Irish-born British polar explorer. One of the leading explorers during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He led three British expeditions to the Antarctic.

16 Feb 1824 – 200 years ago
The Athenaeum Club was founded in London.

17 – 22 Feb 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Pacific Campaign – the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll.
U.S. victory.

18 Feb 1954 – 70 years ago
The Church of Scientology was founded in Los Angeles, California, USA.

19 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Lee Marvin, American film actor. Known for his tough-guy roles (The Big Heat, The Wild One, The Dirty Dozen, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Cat Ballou and more.) (Died 1987.)

20 Feb 1524 – 500 years ago
Death of Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler.
One of the last rulers of the K’iche’ people in what is now Guatemala.
Killed in battle by a Spanish conquistador.

21 Feb 1849 – 175 years ago
Second Anglo–Sikh War – the Battle of Gujrat (now in Pakistan).
British victory over the Sikh Empire.
As a result, the British won the war (which ended on 30th March) and annexed the Punjab.

22 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the first Presidential radio address, to an audience of around 5 million people.

23 Feb 1954 – 70 years ago
The first field test of the polio vaccine began in Pittsburgh, USA.
The trial initially involved just two schools, but in April a year-long national trial began, involving 1.8 million children.

24 Feb 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Honus Wagner, American baseball player.

25 Feb 1964 – 60 years ago
American boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight champion after beating Sonny Liston.

26 Feb – 1 Apr 1924 – 100 years ago
Adolf Hitler went on trial in Germany for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison, but served only nine months. While he was in prison, he dictated his autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf.

27 Feb 1999 – 25 years ago
The first pay-per-view football match was broadcast in the UK: Oxford United versus Sunderland.
Sky TV subscribers could watch the match live for £7.95.

28 Feb 1994 – 30 years ago
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (commonly known as the Brady Act or the Brady Bill) came into effect in the USA. It imposed a five-day waiting period and federal background checks on purchasers of firearms.
(The National Instant Criminal Background Check System was introduced in 1998 and the five-day waiting period was scrapped.)

29 Feb 2004 – 20 years ago
The President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted in a coup after a three-week uprising. He was forced into exile in South Africa. He was succeeded by Boniface Alexandre who became the provisional president until May 2006.
(Aristide was allowed to return to Haiti in 2011.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in January 2024

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in January 2024

Posted on by admin

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in January 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
The Bronx was annexed by New York City.

2 Jan 1974 – 50 years ago
The maximum national speed limit in the USA was reduced to 55 MPH to conserve fuel during the OPEC oil embargo. The oil embargo was lifted in March 1974, but the speed limit remained in force and was made permanent in January 1975. It was repealed in 1995.

3 Jan 1624 – 400 years ago
Birth of William Tucker, the first African-American born in America.

4 Jan 1944 to 30 Apr 1945 – 80 years ago
World War II: Operation Carpetbagger. The U.S. Army Air Forces dropped weapons and supplies to resistance fighters in France, Italy and the Low Countries.

5 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveiled his Fair Deal programme in his State of the Union address.

6 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Genes were photographed for the first time, by Daniel C. Pease and Richard F. Baker at the University of Southern California, USA.

7 Jan 1934 – 90 years ago
The first Flash Gordon comic strip was published. It was created by Alex Raymond to compete with the Buck Rogers comic strip.

8 Jan 1324 – 700 years ago
Death of Marco Polo, Venetian/Italian merchant, explorer and writer. Best known for his book The Travels of Marco Polo, which details his travels along the Silk Road in Asia.

9 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Death of Tommy Handley, British radio comedian. Best known for It’s That Man Again (ITMA).

10 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
Columbia Pictures, the American film studio and production company, was established. The company was originally founded as the Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales Corporation in 1918.

11 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
The U.S. Surgeon General, Luther L. Terry, published a report which concluded that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. This was the first official U.S. government report on the health issues of smoking. Warnings were placed on packaging from January 1965. (An earlier report, published in the UK in March 1962, had reached the same conclusion.)

12 Jan 1959 – 65 years ago
The Motown record label was founded in Detroit, Michigan, USA by Berry Gordy. (It was initially known as Tamla Records.)

13 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
Bob Dylan’s album The Times They Are A-Changin’ was released.

14 Jan 1994 – 30 years ago
U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Kremlin Accords. They agreed to stop pre-targeting nuclear missiles at any nation, and to dismantle Russia’s nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

15 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
The BBC broadcast the first play written specifically for radio: A Comedy of Danger by Richard Hughes.

16 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of Robert W. Service, (‘the Bard of the Yukon’), British-born Canadian poet, writer and traveller. Best known for his poems about the Klondike Gold Rush.

17 Jan 1874 – 150 years ago
Death of Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai-American conjoined twins. The original Siamese twins.

18 Jan 1974 – 50 years ago
The first regular episode of the science fiction-action television series The Six Million Dollar Man was broadcast on ABC in the USA. It ran for five seasons until March 1978.

19 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Birth of Robert Palmer, British rock singer. His songs included Addicted to Love, Simply Irresistible and Bad Case of Loving You. (Died 2003.)

20 Jan 1964 – 60 years ago
The first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was published.

21 Jan 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of Vladimir Lenin, Russian communist leader. Architect and first head of the Soviet Union.

22 Jan 1984 – 40 years ago
The first Apple Macintosh computer went on sale.

23 Jan 1849 – 175 years ago
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the USA to receive a medical degree.

24 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Birth of John Belushi, American comedian and actor (Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers). (Died 1982.)

25 Jan to 5 Feb 1924 – 100 years ago
The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France.

26 Jan 1934 – 90 years ago
The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City, USA re-opened and began accepting black performers for the first time. It launched the careers of many popular singers and entertainers.

27 Jan 1984 – 40 years ago
American pop singer Michael Jackson suffered serious burns to his scalp when his hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi commercial.

28 Jan 1999 – 25 years ago
Yahoo! acquired the web hosting service GeoCities. The acquisition was hugely unpopular with users, and many of them left. The U.S. service shut down in 2009.

29 Jan 1944 – 80 years ago
The U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri was launched. It was the last battleship built by the USA. Japan signed its surrender document on board it at the end of WWII in September 1945.

30 Jan to 2 Feb 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Cisterna (Italy). German victory.

31 Jan 1954 – 70 years ago
Death of Edwin H. Armstrong, American inventor and electrical engineer who developed FM radio. (Suicide, aged 63.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in December 2023

31 newsworthy historical anniversaries in December 2023

Posted on by admin

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in December 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
The board game Scrabble was copyrighted and trademarked, and the first sets went on sale. It was designed by James Brunot of Connecticut, USA. It was a revised version of an earlier game by Alfred Mosher Butts.

2 Dec 1823 – 200 years ago
U.S. President James Monroe issued his ‘Monroe Doctrine’. It stated that European interference in any state in the Americas would be treated as an act of hostility against the USA. This was a warning to European countries that were seeking to annex Latin American countries as they gained independence from Spain and Portugal. The doctrine also declared that the USA would remain neutral in European conflicts, and would not interfere in European affairs, but its sphere of interest included the entire Western Hemisphere.

3 Dec 1998 – 25 years ago
The first commercially successful MP3 player, the Diamond Rio PMP300 went on sale in the USA after an injunction filed by the RIAA was lifted. (It was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first successful one, selling around 200,000 units.)

4 Dec 1973 – 50 years ago
The U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 made its closest approach to Jupiter and sent back the first close-up images of the planet.

5 Dec 1933 – 90 years ago
Prohibition was repealed in the USA after more than 13 years.

6 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the first presidential address to be broadcast on radio.

7 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Videotaped instant replay was first used in a live sports broadcast in the USA. CBS broadcast an instant replay of a touchdown during the Army-Navy football game.
(Replays had been used since 1955, using film rather than tape, but it had taken several minutes to process them.)

8 Dec 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: Colossus Mark I, the world’s first programmable, electronic, digital computer, was completed, tested, and found to work satisfactorily. It was then dismantled and shipped (on 18th January 1944) to Britain’s secret cryptanalysis headquarters at Bletchley Park. It began operating there on 5th February, helping with the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher.

9 Dec 1953 – 70 years ago
Red Scare: General Electric announced that all communist employees would be fired.

10 Dec 1898 – 125 years ago
The Spanish–American War officially ended when the USA and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris.
Spain relinquished its sovereignty of Cuba, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the USA.
The USA paid compensation of $20 million in exchange for the Philippines.

11 Dec 1993 – 30 years ago
The novelty song Mr Blobby reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. It was also the Christmas No. 1 single in the UK that year. It is regarded as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded.

12 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Kenya became independent from the UK. Jomo Kenyatta became its first president.

13 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
Birth of Lillian Board, South African-born British athlete. 400 m and 800 m sprinter whose career was cut short when she developed cancer and died in 1970, aged 22.

14 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr and Estle Ray Mann were granted a U.S. patent for their ‘Cathode Ray Amusement Device’ – the first electronic game. (U.S. Patent No. 2,455,992). They built a few prototypes, but it was never produced commercially.

15 Dec 1973 – 50 years ago
The American Psychiatric Association declared that homosexuality was not a mental illness, and removed it from its list of mental disorders.

16 Dec 1773 – 250 years ago
The Boston Tea Party, Massachusetts, USA.
American patriots boarded ships and threw chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor, in a protest against the British Parliament’s tax on tea.

17 Dec 1983 – 40 years ago
An IRA car bomb exploded outside Harrods department store in London, killing 3 police officers and 3 members of the public.

18 Dec 1898 – 125 years ago
The first officially recognised land speed record (39.24 mph) was set by Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat of France in a Jeantaud Duc electric car.

19 Dec 1848 – 175 years ago
Death of Emily Brontë, British novelist and poet. Best known for her only novel Wuthering Heights. (Tuberculosis, aged 30.)

20 to 24 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
Cyprus Crisis: Bloody Christmas.
Intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. 174 Greek Cypriots and 364 Turkish Cypriots were killed. About 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 104 villages were displaced into enclaves, and their houses were ransacked or destroyed.

21 Dec 1963 – 60 years ago
The Daleks made their first appearance on the British science fiction TV series Doctor Who.

22 Dec 1943 – 80 years ago
Death of Beatrix Potter, British children’s writer and illustrator. She created animal characters including Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and many more.

23 Dec 1823 – 200 years ago
The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (commonly known as The Night Before Christmas) was first published (anonymously) in the Sentinel newspaper in Troy, New York, USA. It was written by Clement Clarke Moore.

24 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
The USA’s first National Christmas Tree was lit up in the grounds of the White House.

25 Dec 1223 – 800 years ago
St. Francis of Assisi created the first nativity scene, in Greccio, Italy, after visiting Jesus’s birthplace in the Holy Land.
It proved enormously popular and inspired other communities to stage their own nativity scenes.

26 Dec 1933 – 90 years ago
The Nissan Motor Company was founded in Tokyo, Japan.

27 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of Gustave Eiffel, French civil and structural engineer and architect. Best known for designing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and the framework for the Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA.

28 Dec 1958 – 65 years ago
The 1958 National Football League (NFL) Championship Game – widely known as ‘the greatest football game ever played’.
The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23 – 17 in sudden-death overtime.
It was the first championship game to go into overtime, and marked the beginning of NFL’s surge in popularity.

29 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
Russian-born inventor Vladimir K. Zworykin filed a U.S. patent for the first electronic television system. (It was not granted until 1938.)

30 Dec 1948 – 75 years ago
The musical Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter opened on Broadway.
It ran for a total of 1,077 performances.
In 1949 it won the first Tony Award presented for Best Musical.

31 Dec 1923 – 100 years ago
The BBC broadcast the chimes of Big Ben for the first time, to welcome in the New Year. The tradition continues to this day.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in November 2023

30 newsworthy historical anniversaries in November 2023

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Here are 30 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in November 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Nov 1848 – 175 years ago
The first railway bookstall was opened by W. H. Smith at Euston Station, London, UK.

2 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
Harry S. Truman was re-elected as U.S. President for a second term, in the greatest election upset in U.S. history. Every prediction had indicated that Thomas E. Dewey would win. The Chicago Daily Tribune famously (and erroneously) announced Dewey’s ‘victory’ on the front page of its 3rd November issue.

3 Nov 1983 – 40 years ago
In a referendum, the white citizens of South Africa voted to approve the Tricameral Parliament. Indian and coloured South Africans would be represented by new, separate parliamentary chambers, while blacks would continue to be excluded. The new parliament was established in September 1984 and remained in effect until 1994.

4 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alfred (‘Freddy’) Heineken, Dutch brewery executive. He turned Heineken into a worldwide brand using innovative marketing methods. (Died 2002.)

5 Nov 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Vatican City was bombed – the only time this happened during the war. The perpetrators remained a mystery for decades, but it is now known that Italian Fascists dropped five bombs from an unmarked plane in an attempt to knock out the radio station, which they believed was broadcasting military messages to the enemy. Four of the bombs exploded, causing some damage, but no deaths were reported.

6 Nov 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptured Kiev (now in Ukraine) from the Germans. The Germans had destroyed numerous historic buildings.

7 Nov 1973 – 50 years ago
The War Powers Resolution came into effect in the USA. It limits the President’s power to commit the country to an armed conflict without congressional approval.

8 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer. Joint winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for co-inventing the integrated circuit. He also designed the first pocket calculator. (Died 2005.)

9 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alice Coachman, American athlete. The first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal (1948, high jump).

10 Nov 1983 – 40 years ago
American computer student Fred Cohen demonstrated the first computer virus at a computer security seminar. He had created the virus with computer scientist Len Adleman on 3rd November.

11 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
The eternal flame at the tomb of the unknown solder under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France was lit. It was the first modern-day eternal flame in Europe.

12 Nov 1933 – 90 years ago
The first known photographs of the Loch Ness Monster were taken by Hugh Gray, a local man, during one of his regular Sunday walks. (1 photo was later confirmed to be a hoax, and 4 of the others were blank.)

13 Nov 1973 – 50 years ago
Britain declared a state of emergency as a strike by coal miners caused supplies to dwindle. A 3-Day Week was introduced to conserve supplies.

14 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
Birth of King Charles III of the United Kingdom.

15 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
The island of Surtsey, off the coast of Iceland, was ‘born’ when an under-water volcano erupted and rose above the surface of the sea.

16 Nov 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of W. C. Handy, (‘the Father of the Blues’), American blues/jazz composer and trumpet player who introduced Delta blues to a national audience.

17 Nov 1873 – 150 years ago
Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, was formed when the cities of Buda, Pest and Óbuda merged.

18 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Alan B. Shepard, American astronaut. The first American in space. (Died 1998).

19 Nov 1523 – 500 years ago
Pope Clemens VII was elected.

20 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
American inventor Garrett Morgan was granted a U.S. patent for the three-position traffic light. (U.S. Patent No. 1,475,024.)

21 Nov 1953 – 70 years ago
British scientists revealed that the fossilised skull of ‘Piltdown Man’, discovered in England in 1912 and thought to be from one of the earliest humans, was a hoax constructed from the skulls of 3 different species.

22 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President.

23 Nov 1963 – 60 years ago
The first episode of the science fiction television series Doctor Who was broadcast in the UK. It is the longest-running and most successful science fiction TV series in the world.

24 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
Radio Belgium began broadcasting.

25 Nov 1923 – 100 years ago
The first two-way transatlantic radio broadcast. Amateur radio enthusiast Leon Deloy from Nice, France conversed with two other amateur radio operators, Fred Schnell and with John Reinartz, in the USA. They sent Morse code messages using shortwave radios.

26 Nov 1948 – 75 years ago
The first Polaroid instant cameras (the model 95 Land Camera) went on sale, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

27 Nov 1998 – 25 years ago
The Sega Dreamcast video games console was released in Japan. It was Sega’s last games console. (North America: 9th September 1999, Europe: 14th October 1999.)

28 Nov 1958 – 65 years ago
The USA carried out its first successful full-range flight of an Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).
The Soviet Union had already fully tested its first ICBM (the R-7) in August 1957.

29 Nov 1898 – 125 years ago
Birth of C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British novelist, theologian and broadcaster. Best known for The Chronicles of Narnia.

30 Nov 1993 – 30 years ago
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (commonly known as the Brady Bill) was signed into law in the USA by U.S. President Bill Clinton. It required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, and background checks of prospective buyers.
(Effective from 28th February 1994.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this:

The Date-A-Base Book 2028 is here!

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We’re delighted to announce a new edition to our amazing line-up of Date-A-Base Books.

Please welcome The Date-A-Base Book 2028 – our 21st annual edition!

It features more than 3,580 newsworthy historical anniversaries in 2028, including famous births and death, events, discoveries, inventions, and much more.

It’s packed with great ideas for things to write about.

It’s ideal for writing articles, on this day in history features, documentaries, biopics, and other anniversary-related material.

The Date-A-Base Books 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 front covers

Full details (and get your copy of the 2028 edition or any of the others) at ideas4writers.com