4000 BC Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine

794 Charles the Great (aka Charlemagne) opens general synod in Frankfurt

1215 Peking [Beijing], then a city of over one million, under the control of Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured and looted for a month by the Mongols under Genghis Khan

1495 First written record of Scotch Whisky appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller

1543 Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius publishes "De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body in seven books)" a major step forward in understanding human anatomy

1638 1st recorded earthquake in US, at Plymouth, Massachusetts

1657 1st Quakers arrives in New Amsterdam (NY)

1660 Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony

1774 Boston Port Act: Following the passage of the act, the British government orders Port of Boston closed to punish colonists for the Boston Tea Party

1789 1st US congressional act becomes law (on administering oaths)

1792 Kentucky admitted as 15th US state

1796 Last of Britain's troops withdraws from USA

1796 Tennessee admitted as 16th US state

1813 Captain John Lawrence utters Navy motto "Don't give up the ship"

1831 British explorer James Clark Ross discovers the magnetic North Pole on the west coast of Boothia peninsula

1835 6th national black convention (Philadelphia)

1843 Sojourner Truth hears the Spirit of God and changes her name from Isabella Baumfree, leaving NY to begin travelling giving speeches against slavery

1861 1st skirmish in US Civil War at Fairfax Court House, Virginia

1861 British territorial waters & ports off-limits during Civil War

1862 African Slave Trade Treaty Act: Bilateral treaty between the US and UK abolishing the slave trade in all US possessions

1862 General Robert E. Lee assumes command after Joe Johnston is injured at Seven Pines

1866 Renegade Irish American Fenians invade Ontario, Canada from the U.S. and successfully capture Fort Erie. Their purpose was to disrupt the transportation network in Canada until Britain would recognize Ireland’s freedom.

1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico

1869 Thomas Edison granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder (U.S. Patent 90,646)

1872 Charles Albanel's expedition sets off for Hudson Bay overland accompanied by sixteen Amerindian canoeists (they will be the first Europeans to reach it overland about 25 days later)

1877 Society of American Artists forms

1877 US troops authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico

1880 The first pay telephone service in the United States is installed in New Haven, Connecticut

1880 US census is 50,155,783

1886 The railroads of the Southern United States convert 11,000 miles of track from a five foot rail gauge to standard gauge, beginning May 31

1888 California gets its 1st seismograph

1890 US census at 62,622,250

1898 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition opens in Omaha, Neb

1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition opens in Portland, Oregon

1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle

1911 1st US group insurance policy written in Passaic, New Jersey

1922 Over 50,000 Fascists gather for a meeting in Bologna where Mussolini warns that he will lead a full-scale revolt against a government favoring 'anti-Fascist reaction

1927 Peace Bridge between US and Canada opens

1933 Century of Progress world's fair opens in Chicago

1936 Queen Mary completes its maiden voyage, arriving in NY

1941 Germany bans all Catholic publications

1947 US Office of Price Administration (OPA), which issued WW II red and blue rationing coupons, disbands

1947 The development of photosensitive glass, which had occurred ten years previously, is announced publicly

1948 Israel & Arabs agree to a cease fire

1951 1st self-contained titanium plant opens (Henderson, Nevada)

1951 International Cheese treaty signed.  Aims to protect the names and quality of cheeses from different countries

1957 Don Bowden becomes first American to run a sub-4 minute mile (3:58.7) at the Pacific Association AAU Meet in Stockton, California

1961 FM multiplex stereo broadcasting 1st heard

1962 Oscar 2 (ham radio satellite) launched into Earth orbit

1962 SS officer Adolf Eichmann is executed in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes

1965 Coal mine explosion in Fukuoka Japan kills 236

1966 2,400 people attend White House Conference on Civil Rights.  The four areas of discussion were housing, economic security, education, and the administration of Justice

1967 Mayor-council form of government instituted for Washington, D.C.

1972 Iraq nationalizes Iraq Petroleum Company's (IPC) concession owned by British Petroleum, Royal Dutch-Shell, Compagnie Francaise des Petroles, Mobil and Standard Oil of New Jersey

1974 Arab oil ministers decide to end most restrictions on exports of oil to the United States but continue embargo against the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, and Rhodesia

1974 The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine

1977 Russia charges Jewish rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason

1978 The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.  The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states.

1986 Danielle Steel’s romance novel “Wanderlust” is published

1988 "Morton Downey Jr Show" debuts in TV syndication

1992 E Lamps (20 year lightbulb) introduced

1993 Brooklyn NY begins recycling

1996 Sony does not renew lease on megatron in Times Square

1998 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy

2001 Dolphinarium massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv

2003 The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam

2005 The longest oil/natural gas explosion in the Houston, Texas area occurs in Crosby, Texas. The drill was owned by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Company.

2007 Jack Kevorkian is released from prison after serving eight years of his 10-25 year prison term for the 1998 second-degree murder of Thomas Youk

2009 General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

2015 Cruise ship carrying 458 people capsizes on Yangtze River, longest river in Asia, less than 50 survive

2016 Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed - world’s longest at 57km and most expensive tunnel costing €11bn

2021 Prehistoric carvings, between 4,000 and 5,000 years old depicting deer, found in Scotland for the first time at Kilmartin Glen, Argyll

2022 US Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan, assumes post of Commandant, becoming 1st female commander of US military branch