| Date |
This happened |
| Oct 21, 1266 |
Swedish statesman Birger Jarl, considered to be the founder of Stockholm, dies |
| Mar 06, 1475 |
Birth of Italian artist Michelangelo |
| Dec 20, 1483 |
First book in Sweden is printed |
| Jan 3,1496 |
Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine |
| Apr 18, 1506 |
The first stone of St Peter's Basilica is laid |
| Jan 3, 1521 |
The German reformist Martin Luther is excommunicated by the Catholic Church |
| Feb 15·1564 |
Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa, Italy |
| Jan 11,1569 |
The first state-run lottery is held in the UK |
| Nov 20,1620 |
The Mayflower reaches America after a 66-day journey |
| Aug 10,1628 |
The Swedish warship Vasa sinks on her maiden voyage |
| Nov 6,1632 |
King Gustaf II Adolf dies at the Battle of Lutzen |
| April 10,1633 |
Residents of London are able to buy bananas for the first time |
| Nov 23,1667 |
The first blood transfusion from an animal to a human is performed |
| Dec 31,1668 |
The Bank of Sweden is founded |
| May 6,1680 |
Karl XI marries the Danish princess Ulrika Eleonora |
| March 31,1685 |
Johan Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Germany |
| Jan 1,1687 |
Sir Isaac Newton releases Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Naturvetenskapens matematiska principer) |
| Nov 21, 1694 |
The author Voltaire is born |
| May 07,1697 |
Stockholm's old castle Tre Kronor is destroyed by fire |
| Nov 27,1701 |
Ander Celsius, who would later develop the Celsius (or centigrade) temperature scale, is born |
| May 23,1707 |
The botanist Carl von Linné is born |
| Feb 22,1732 |
George Washington becomes the first president of the United States, is born |
| Feb 17,1753 |
Sweden introduces the Gregorian calendar |
| Nov 30,1755 |
Lissabon, Portugal, is wiped out by huge wave |
| Jan 15,1759 |
The British Museum opens in London |
| Aug 19,1772 |
King Gustaf III stages a coup d'etat |
| Jan 17,1773 |
British explorer James Cook crosses the South Pole |
| Jun 07, 1775 |
The United Colonies change their name to the United States |
| Feb 14,1779 |
The British explorer James Cook dies on a beach in Hawaii |
| March 13, 1781 |
The planet Uranus is discovered |
| Nov 21 1783 |
The Frenchman Montgolfier ascends with a hot-air balloon carrying passengers |
| May 21 1786 |
The chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who discovered the atomic element oxygen, dies |
| July 14 1789 |
The Bastille in Paris is stormed, marking the start of the French Revolution |
| March 16 1792 |
King Gustav III is shot at a masquerade party at the Stockholm Opera House |
| April 23 1792 |
The French national anthem "La Marseillaise" is written in Marseille |
| Jan 28, 1807 |
London becomes the world's first city to have gas streetlights |
| May 3, 1808 |
Admiral Cronstedt turns over Fort Sveaborg to the Russians |
| May 17, 1808 |
Gotland is liberated after being occupied for one month |
| Feb 11, 1809 |
The steamboat is patented |
| March 1, 1810 |
The Polish child prodigy Frédéric Chopin is born |
| April 11, 1814 |
Napoleon is forced to resign from the emperor's throne |
| May 15, 1814 |
Norway declares its independence |
| Jan 14, 1818 |
The Finnish author and historian Zacharias Topelius is born |
| Dec 24, 1818 |
The priest Mohr in Salzburg writes the classic Silent Night |
| March 20, 1828 |
The Norwegian author and playwright Henrik Ibsen is born |
| Oct 21, 1833 |
Alfred Nobel is born |
| Aug 15, 1843 |
The Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen is established |
| Jul 01, 1847 |
First US postage stams go on sale |
| Jan 23, 1849 |
The first female physician graduates in the US |
| April 10, 1849 |
The safety pin is patented in the US |
| Jan 1, 1852 |
The US inventor Elisha Otis invents the elevator |
| Jan 16, 1853 |
André Michelin is born and later founds the tyre maker Michelin together with his brother |
| March 06, 1853 |
The opera La Traviata by Verdi premiers in Venice |
| July 01, 1855 |
Stamps are used for the first time in Sweden, and Stockholm has 37 mailboxes |
| March 05, 1856 |
Sweden's first real railway is opened between Örebro and Nora |
| April 25, 1859 |
Work begins on the Suez Canal, a link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean |
| April 03, 1860 |
The Pony Express starts its first regular mail routes in California |
| Oct 17, 1860 |
The first British Open golf tournament is staged, with Willie Park Senior finishing as the winner. |
| March 04, 1861 |
US President Abraham Lincoln takes office in Washington |
| Jan 10, 1863 |
The London Underground is opened |
| Nov 16, 1869 |
The Suez Canal opens |
| Jun 22, 1874 |
Game of lawn tennis is introduced |
| Jan 27, 1879 |
Thomas Edison patents the electric light bulb |
| March 14, 1879 |
Albert Einstein is born |
| Aug 14, 1880 |
Construction of the Cologne Cathedral is completed after more than 600 years |
| Jan 22, 1881 |
An ancient Egyptian obelisk, Cleopatra's Needle, is erected in New York's Central Park |
| Jan 31, 1881 |
Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova is born |
| Feb 07, 1882 |
The last world championship in boxing without gloves is held in the US |
| March 11, 1882 |
More than 300 people in Norway lose their lives due to a storm on Mad Monday |
| Oct 04, 1883 |
The Orient Express makes its maiden journey from Paris to Istanbul |
| Jan 01, 1885 |
The Swedish telegraph network is linked to the rest of Europe |
| Jan 04, 1885 |
The first successful appendicitis operation is performed in Iowa in the US |
| Jan 29, 1886 |
The first gasoline-fueled car is patented |
| March 31, 1889 |
The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris |
| April 16, 1889 |
Charlie Chaplin, one of the greatest actors in the history of film, is born |
| March 15, 1892 |
The first escalator is patented by the US inventor Jesse Reno |
| May 01, 1893 |
Fire destroys 50 farms in Kristinehamn, Sweden |
| Feb 09, 1895 |
The game of volleyball is invented by William G. Morgan in the US |
| Dec 28, 1895 |
The birth of film. Showings of one-minute films by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière |
| March 10, 1896 |
History's first organised marathon is held in Greece |
| March 17, 1899 |
The first mayday call via radio is sent by a ship outside Kent, England |
| Dec 16, 1899 |
Italian soccer club AC Milan is founded |
| Dec 26, 1899 |
French scientist Marie Curie discovers radium |
| June 25, 1903 |
Author George Orwell born |
| June 07, 1905 |
Peaceful separation of Norway from Sweden |
| Nov 14, 1907 |
Author Astrid Lindgren is born |
| Feb 18, 1908 |
Royal Dramatic Theatre inaugurated in Stockholm |
| Jan 16, 1909 |
Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole |
| April 06, 1909 |
North Pole conquered by US polar explorer Robert Peary |
| Dec 10, 1909 |
Selma Lagerlöf receives Nobel Prize in Literature |
| Jan 09, 1910 |
Sweden's first feature film, the Värmlanders, has its premier |
| March 08, 1910 |
The International Women's Day is established |
| April 08, 1912 |
Raul Wallenberg's birthday is born |
| April 15, 1912 |
The Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks |
| April 16, 1912 |
Harriet Quimby is the first woman to fly across the English Channel |
| May 14, 1912 |
August Strindberg dies |
| Aug 23, 1913 |
Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue is completed |
| Dec 01, 1913 |
Henry Ford introduces the assembly line in his manufacturing plant |
| March 27, 1914 |
The first successful blood transfusion takes place at a hospital in Brussels |
| July 28, 1914 |
World War I breaks out |
| Dec 19, 1915 |
French singer Edith Piaf is born |
| Dec 07, 1917 |
Finland's Independence Day |
| April 01, 1918 |
RAF (Royal Air Force), the world's oldest air force, is established |
| July 14, 1918 |
Film director Ingemar Bergman is born |
| Nov 11, 1918 |
Armistice Day/ Veterans Day. End of World War I. |
| Feb 03, 1919 |
The League of Nations (predecessor to the UN) holds its first meeting |
| Sept 12, 1921 |
Karin Hesselgren becomes Sweden's first female member of parliament |
| Jan 01, 1925 |
The city of Kristiana in Norway re-instates its original name Oslo |
| March 30, 1926 |
Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, is born |
| Jan 30, 1927 |
Olof Palme is born |
| May 21, 1927 |
Charles Lindbergh becomes the first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris |
| July 22, 1927 |
The Italian football club A.S Roma is founded |
| Sept 30, 1928 |
Penicillin is discovered by Alexander Fleming |
| Jan 15, 1929 |
Martin Luther King Jr. is born |
| May 02, 1929 |
The first Swedish sound film has its premier |
| May 01, 1931 |
The Empire State Building, the world's tallest at the time, is completed |
| Oct 12, 1931 |
The Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro is inaugurated |
| Feb 27, 1933 |
The Berlin Reichstag (parliament) building is severely damaged by fire |
| May 02, 1933 |
The first report of a mysterious monster in Scotland's Loch Ness is received |
| Sept 21, 1934 |
Singer Leonard Cohen is born |
| Jan 08, 1935 |
Singer Elvis Presley is born |
| Sept 13, 1936 |
Landslide in Loen, Norway |
| Jan 22, 1939 |
A uranium atom is split for the first time at Columbia University in New York |
| Dec 15, 1939 |
The film "Gone with the Wind" premiers in Atlanta |
| March 13, 1940 |
The Russo-Finnish Winter War ends |
| Oct 09, 1940 |
John Lennon is born |
| Dec 07, 1941 |
Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese Empire |
| June 06, 1944 |
Operation Overlord landings in Normandy (D-day) |
| Aug 06, 1945 |
Hiroshima is destroyed by a US nuclear bomb |
| Oct 24, 1945 |
United Nation is founded |
| Jul 31, 1946 |
Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) is founded |
| Nov 19, 1946 |
Sweden becomes a member of the UN |
| Jan 08, 1947 |
Singer David Bowie is born |
| Feb 07, 1947 |
A Bedouin boy makes the sensational discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Old Testament) in a cave |
| April 27, 1947 |
Thor Heyerdal launches the raft Kon-Tiki from Calloo, Peru |
| May 11, 1947 |
The first Ferrari (125 S) debuts at the Piacenza racing circuit |
| Oct 14, 1947 |
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier |
| Jan 10, 1949 |
Gramophone records on vinyl are sold for the first time |
| Oct 01, 1949 |
Disney World, the world's largest amusement park at the time, opens in Florida |
| Feb 10, 1950 |
US swimmer Mark Spitz is born |
| April 18, 1951 |
The Coal and Steel Union (forerunner to the EU) is founded |
| May 19, 1951 |
The Swedish parliament enacts a law on religious freedom |
| May 23, 1951 |
The Tetra milk pack is presented |
| Sept 01, 1952 |
Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is featured in Life Magazine |
| March 05, 1953 |
Joseph Stalin dies |
| May 06, 1954 |
Roger Bannister is the first to run the Dream Mile (English Mile) under four minutes |
| July 19, 1954 |
Elvis Presley's single "That's All Right/Blue Moon of Kentucky" is released |
| Sept 04, 1956 |
Regular TV broadcasts begin in Sweden |
| Sept 24, 1957 |
Barcelona's Camp Nou football stadium is opened |
| Oct 04, 1957 |
The satellite Sputnik I is launched |
| Jan 30, 1958 |
The French design guru Yves Saint Laurent holds his first fashion show in Paris |
| June 19, 1958 |
Brazilian football icon Pelé wins his first World Cup in Stockholm (beating Sweden 5-2) |
| Jan 08, 1959 |
Charles de Gaulle becomes the first President of the Fifth French Republic |
| Jan 05, 1960 |
Arlanda Airport is opened for traffic |
| Dec 01, 1960 |
The first "Christmas Calendar" on Swedish television is broadcasted |
| Jan 20, 1961 |
John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States |
| Aug 04, 1961 |
Barack Obama, the 44th US president, is born |
| Aug 13, 1961 |
The Berlin Wall is erected |
| Sept 18, 1961 |
Swedish UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld is killed while en route to negotiate a cease fire between UN non-combatant and Katangese troops |
| Feb 06, 1962 |
The Vasa Shipyard is inaugurated in Stockholm |
| Sept 11, 1962 |
The Beatles record their first record |
| Feb 11, 1963 |
The Beatles record their first LP, "Please, Please Me", in a single day |
| Nov 22, 1963 |
US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas |
| Jan 13, 1964 |
The Beatles release their first single, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", in the US |
| April 10, 1964 |
The Beatles' second album is released |
| March 18, 1965 |
The first space walk is performed by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov |
| May 12, 1965 |
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the moon |
| May 27, 1965 |
Kolmården zoo is opened |
| Sept 29, 1966 |
The Chevrolet Camaro is introduced |
| Dec 15, 1966 |
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is released in Italy, a year before being released in the US |
| May 12, 1967 |
The first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, "Are You Experienced", is released in the United Kingdom |
| June 01, 1967 |
The Beatles' album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" band is released |
| July 03, 1967 |
The studio album "Flowers" by the Rolling Stones is released |
| Sept 03, 1967 |
Sweden changes from driving on the left side to the right side of the road |
| April 18, 1968 |
The old London Bridge is sold to a US company |
| Jan 30, 1969 |
The Beatles hold their last public appearance |
| March 02, 1969 |
The Concorde jet plane takes its maiden test flight |
| July 21, 1969 |
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to step on the moon |
| Aug 15, 1969 |
The Woodstock music festival opens |
| Dec 02, 1971 |
The first concert is performed in the newly renovated Finlandia Hall in Helsinki |
| Nov 14, 1972 |
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index closes above 1,000 for the first time |
| Jan 05, 1973 |
Bruce Springsteen debuts with the album "Greetings from Asbury Park N.J." |
| Jan 14, 1973 |
Elvis Presley's live concert "Aloha from Hawaii" is recorded |
| Aug 23, 1973 |
A bank robbery in Stockholm eventually leads to the term "Stockholm Syndrome" |
| Sept 11, 1973 |
Military coup in Chile |
| April 06, 1974 |
With his recording of "Hooked on a Feeling" Björn Skifs' becomes the first Swedish artist to top the singles list in the US |
| April 07, 1974 |
Sweden wins the European Song Contest with the ABBA song "Waterloo" |
| June 26, 1977 |
Elvis Presley gives his last concert in Indianapolis |
| July 14, 1977 |
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is born |
| July 01, 1979 |
A law prohibiting parental corporal punishment is passed in Sweden |
| Jan 19, 1980 |
In Sweden, the Tjörn Bridge collapses after being rammed by a ship called the Clipper |
| Nov 23, 1980 |
Earthquake in Italy |
| April 12, 1981 |
Maiden flight of the space shuttle |
| Oct 27, 1981 |
The Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground in Sweden |
| Jan 02, 1984 |
Tarzan actor Johnny Weismuller dies |
| May 05, 1984 |
Sweden wins the European Song Contest with the Herreys' song "Diggi-Loo Diggiley" |
| Sept 18, 1984 |
Sweden loses a fantastic final in the Canada Cup in ice hockey to Canada by 6-5 |
| July 07, 1985 |
Boris Becker wins Wimbledon. At 17 years and five months, he is the youngest player to do so |
| Jan 16, 1986 |
The first meeting of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is held. |
| Feb 28, 1986 |
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is shot on a Stockholm street |
| April 26, 1986 |
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster occurs in the Ukraine |
| May 14, 1986 |
The musical "Chess" premiers |
| Feb 19, 1989 |
The Globe Arena is opened in Stockholm |
| Nov 20, 1989 |
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is adopted by the UN General Assembly |
| Feb 11, 1990 |
Nelson Mandela is released from prison in Cape Town after more than 27 years |
| May 17, 1991 |
The Bank of Sweden decides to link the SEK to the European Currency Union (ECU) |
| July 10, 1994 |
Sweden beats Romania in soccer World Cup and advances to semi finals |
| Sept 28, 1994 |
The ferry Estonia capsizes leaving 850 people dead |
| Jan 01, 1995 |
Sweden becomes a member of the EU |
| April 26, 1996 |
Luleå Hockey wins their first title in the Swedish Hockey League |
| May 11, 1997 |
A computer (Deep Blue) beats a world champion (Garry Kasparov) at chess for the first time by 3.5 to 2.5 |
| June 23, 1998 |
The Heathrow Express train service to Heathrow Airport begins in London |
| Oct 8, 1998 |
The Gardemoen rail line to Oslo's airport is opened |
| Oct 31, 1998 |
John Glenn takes a space flight with Discovery at the age of 77 |
| Jan 31, 1999 |
World population exceeds six billion |
| Nov 25, 1999 |
The Arlanda Express train service begins |
| Jan 03, 2001 |
Tarja Halonen becomes Finland's first female president |
| Jan 01, 2002 |
Euro notes and coins are launched |
| Oct 19, 2002 |
Inauguration of the Copenhagen Metro, with driverless trains |
| Oct 03, 2004 |
"Desperate Housewives" premiers |
| July 07, 2007 |
Seven new wonders of the world are recognised with 100 million people voting |
| March 26, 2008 |
A mountain wall in Ålesund, Norway, collapses causing a landslide that sweeps away homes |
| July 12, 2008 |
Leonard Cohen's concert at the Q2 Arena in London results in a new album |
| Aug 16, 2009 |
Usain Bolt sets a new record of 9.58 seconds for 100 meters in Berlin |