| 19BC | Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) dies in Brundisium in southern Italy, age 50 | 2035 |
| 1327 | Edward II, King of England, murdered in Berkeley Castle about nine months after being deposed, age 43 | 690 |
| 1576 | Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano dies in Rome, age 74 | 441 |
| 1595 | Juan de Oñate is awarded a contract to settle the area that will become New Mexico | 422 |
| 1745 | Jacobite army led by Bonnie Prince Charlie defeat the British forces in the first significant battle at Prestonpans, Scotland | 272 |
| 1780 | Benedict Arnold gives plans to the fortress at West Point to the British | 237 |
| 1792 | National Covention declares France a republic–abolishes the monarchy | 225 |
| 1832 | Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott dies, age 61 | 185 |
| 1866 | English writer Herbert George "H. G." Wells is born in Kent | 151 |
| 1897 | The Sun of New York publishes the editorial with the reply "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" | 120 |
| 1926 | French electical engineer Léon Charles Thévenin who developd the circuit analysis theorem Thévenin's theorem, dies in Paris, age 68 | 91 |
| 1933 | Salvador Lutteroth Gonzales runs the first ever CMLL wrestling show in Mexico—birth of Lucha Libre | 84 |
| 1937 | 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien first published | 80 |
| 1938 | New England Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island—kills estimated 800 | 79 |
| 1942 | B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight | 75 |
| 1962 | first observation of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's 300-foot radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia | 55 |
| 1964 | maiden flight of the XB-70 Valkyrie, mach 3 bomber | 53 |
| 1964 | Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom | 53 |
| 1968 | Zond 5 is recovered—first craft to reach vicinity of the moon and return to Earth | 49 |
| 1970 | Monday Night Football debuts | 47 |
| 1974 | American writer with three consectuive #1 novels Jacqueline Susann dies in New York City, age 56 | 43 |
| 1981 | Belize becomes independent from Britain | 36 |
| 1991 | Armenia is granted independence from the U.S.S.R. | 26 |
| 1999 | 7.3 earthquake in central Taiwan kills 2415, injures 11,305 others, and leaves 100,000 homeless | 18 |
| 2001 | Deep Space 1 encounters comet 19P/Borrelly | 16 |
| 2002 | American physicist and science fiction writer Robert Lull Forward dies in Seattle, age 70 | 15 |
| 2003 | Galileo ends mission with a fiery plunge into the atmosphere of Jupiter | 14 |
| 2007 | American television evangelist Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard dies in Atlantis, Florida, age 88 | 10 |
| 2008 | last game played in Yankee Stadium, the house that Ruth built, after 85 years | 9 |
| 2011 | president of Brazil Dilma Vana Rousseff becomes the first woman to open the U.N. General Assembly | 6 |
| 2012 | Israeli historian and philosopher Yehuda Elkana dies in Jerusalem, age around 78 | 5 |
| 2012 | discovery photograph taken of Comet ISON—Russia's International Scientific Optical Network | 5 |
| 2013 | gunmen open fire in the Westgate Centre shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya—72 killed | 4 |
| 2013 | Netherlands pastor Guisèle Berkel-Larmonie becomes the first female pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be ordained in Europe | 4 |
| 2014 | Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission spacecraft, MAVEN, is inserted into orbit about Mars | 3 |
| 2015 | Polish-born Australian producer of children and family entertainment Yoram Jerzy Gross dies in Sydney, age 88 | 2 |
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 |