| 217BC | Battle of Lake Trasimene—Hannibal enacts a disasterous defeat on Roman forces under Gaius Flaminius | 2234 |
| 109 | Emperor Trajan inagurates the Aqua Traiana that brings water into the city of Rome from Lake Bracciano | 1909 |
| 637 | Battle of Moira is largest battle in Irish history—victory for Domnail II over kingdoms Ulster and Dalriada | 1381 |
| 1314 | Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce | 704 |
| 1340 | Battle of Sluys—French fleet is destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by Edward III | 678 |
| 1398 | Hongwu Emperor, founder and first emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China, dies, age 69 | 620 |
| 1441 | Eton College founded by Henry VI | 577 |
| 1478 | Las Palmas on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands is founded as "Real de Las Palmas" by Castilian Juan Rejón | 540 |
| 1497 | first recorded sighting of North America by explorer John Cabot | 521 |
| 1509 | Henry VIII is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey | 509 |
| 1519 | Italian aristocrat Lucrezia Borgia dies in Ferrara, Itally, age 39 | 499 |
| 1571 | Miguel López de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines | 447 |
| 1604 | Samuel de Champlain reaches the mouth of a river in the Bay of Fundy which he names Saint John River | 414 |
| 1812 | Napolean's Grand Armée of 685,000 men crosses the Neman River invading Russia—six months later 22,000 return | 206 |
| 1821 | forces led by Simón Bolivar defeat Spanish Royalist forces in the Battle of Carabobo—leads to the independence of Venezuela | 197 |
| 1880 | 'O Canada' is first performed at a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet in Quebec City—now the national anthem of Canada | 138 |
| 1893 | Fridtjof Nansen departs in Fram to explore arctic region | 125 |
| 1908 | Stephen Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president, dies, age 71 | 110 |
| 1916 | Mary Pickford becomes first actress to sign a million-dollar contract | 102 |
| 1922 | the American Professional Football Association, formed two years earlier, changes its name to the National Football League | 96 |
| 1938 | meteoroid explodes approximately 12 miles above Chicora, Pennsylvania—only a few small fragments are found | 80 |
| 1948 | U.S.S.R. halts all surface traffic to Berlin—leads to the Berlin airlift | 70 |
| 1949 | "Hopalong Cassidy" airs as the first network (NBC) Western television series | 69 |
| 1973 | arson set fire in the UpStairs Lounge in the French Quarter of New Orleans kills 32 and injures 15 others | 45 |
| 1974 | U.S.S.R. discontinues its development program to lead to manned lunar exploration | 44 |
| 1981 | Humber Bridge near Kingston upon Hull, England, opens—span of 4626 ft is longest in the world at the time | 37 |
| 1987 | American comedian, actor, writer, composer, and conductor John Herbert "Jackie" Gleason dies in Florida, age 71 | 31 |
| 1997 | American film, television and stage actor Brian Keith (born Robert Alba Keith) dies in Malibu, California, age 75 | 21 |
| 1999 | NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite is launched | 19 |
| 1999 | daily recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in the U.S. Senate begins 11 years after the House | 19 |
| 2002 | near Igandu, Tanzania, a passenger train rolls backwards into a slow moving freight train killing 281 and injuring 500 others | 16 |
| 2008 | German mathematician Gerhard Ringel dies in Santa Cruz, California, age 88 | 10 |
| 2010 | at Wimbledon John Isner beats Nicolas Mahut in the longest match in tennis history—fifth set ended 70-68; match over 11 hours | 8 |
| 2010 | Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia | 8 |
| 2012 | Jim Thome of the Phillies sets the MLB walk-off homeruns record hitting his 13th—5 players have 12 | 6 |
| 2013 | British Information Technology consultant and author James Martin dies in Bermuda, age 79 | 5 |
| 2013 | ESA's COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits satellite COROT retired after 6 year 6 month mission (2.5 years nominal) | 5 |
| 2013 | Italian mathematician Mauro Francaviglia dies, age 60 | 5 |
| 2014 | American film, television, and stage actor Eli Herschel Wallach dies in New York City, age 98 | 4 |
| 2015 | Susan Ahn Cuddy, the first Asian-American woman and the first female gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy, dies in Los Angeles, age 100 | 3 |
Dates are always somewhat ambiguous, the exact date depends on whether local time is used (and local time where) or Universal Time—for events on the surface of the Earth, local time is probably best but for an event that spans across the planet, it is not clear which local time to use!.
For events in space it is more ambiguous.
Further for dates after the original adoption of the Gregorian calendar but before it became accepted in different countries, the date given may be a Julian date or a Gregorian date depending upon where the event occurred.
And, even the year may be different since the first of the year has not always been January 1 in all countries!
The attempt is to use a date that is the one that is typically given.
| day before yesterday | yesterday | tomorrow | day after tomorrow |