| 1304 | Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan dies after a reign of 14 years, age 61 | 714 |
| 1424 | Battle of Verneuil in Normandy results in a decisive English victory over the forces of France and Scotland | 594 |
| 1498 | Cesare Borgia becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate | 520 |
| 1560 | Scottish parliament establishes the Confession of Faith Ratification Act with Protestantism established as the national religion | 458 |
| 1585 | settlers arrive on expedition organized by Walter Raleigh and led by Ralph Lane to colonize Roanoke Island—first colony | 433 |
| 1601 | French mathematician Pierre de Fermat born | 417 |
| 1657 | Robert Blake, chief founder of the Royal Navy's supremacy dies at sea off Plymouth, age around 59 | 361 |
| 1668 | estimated 8.0 earthquake devastates Anatolia, Ottoman Empire—8000 deaths | 350 |
| 1786 | Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, dies in Potsdam after a reign of 46 years, age 74 | 232 |
| 1786 | David Crockett, American frontiersman, born in Greene County, Tennessee | 232 |
| 1862 | Dakota War of 1862 is initiated when the Lakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley | 156 |
| 1896 | Bridget Driscoll is killed by an automobile near the Crystal Palace in Surrey, age around 45—first pedestrian auto fatality | 122 |
| 1907 | Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the U.S., opens in Seattle | 111 |
| 1908 | first fully animated film Fantasmagorie by French caricaturist Émile Cohi is released—runs 80 sec | 110 |
| 1942 | regular combat missions against Germany begins for the U.S. Eighth Air Force based in England | 76 |
| 1943 | Allies complete the conquest of Sicily | 75 |
| 1950 | North Korean soldiers kill 42 U.S. Army prisoners of war—Hill 303 massacre | 68 |
| 1953 | first documented meeting of Narcotics Anonymous | 65 |
| 1958 | U.S. Air Force launches Pioneer 0 on the first mission beyond Earth orbit—launch vehicle breaks up 74 seconds after launch | 60 |
| 1959 | Quake Lake near Yellowstone National Park is formed by 7.5 earthquake causing rockslide to block the Madison RIver | 59 |
| 1959 | Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is released—highly influential best selling jazz recording | 59 |
| 1965 | U.S. Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war | 53 |
| 1969 | German physicist and Nobel laureate Otto Stern dies in Berkeley, California, age 81 | 49 |
| 1970 | U.S.S.R. launches Venera 7 on its mission to Venus—would become first craft to land on another planet | 48 |
| 1977 | Soviet Union's icebreaker Arktika becomes first surface ship to North Pole | 41 |
| 1978 | Double Eagle II becomes first manned balloon to cross the Atlantic | 40 |
| 1980 | Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain, age 9 weeks, disappears on a camping trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock)—taken by a dingo | 38 |
| 1982 | first CD's roll off an assembly line near Hanover, Germany | 36 |
| 1996 | Claudie André-Deshays becomes the first French woman in space with the launch of Soyuz TM-24 to Mir | 22 |
| 1999 | 7.4 earthquake strikes Izmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000 | 19 |
| 1999 | Saturn probe Cassini encounters Earth for a gravity-assisted increase in speed about 2 years after launch | 19 |
| 2004 | Australian novelist and short story writer Thea Astley dies in New South Wales, age 78 | 14 |
| 2005 | American astrophysicist John Norris Bahcall dies in New York City, age 70 | 13 |
| 2006 | Bangladeshi poet, columnist, and journalist Shamsur Rahman dies in Dhaka, age 76 | 12 |
| 2008 | Michael Phelps sets record by earning his eighth gold medal in a single Olympics | 10 |
| 2009 | turbine failure at Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam destroys Russia's largest power plant and kills 75 | 9 |
| 2012 | American electronic and computer engineer Victor "Vic" Poor dies, age 79 | 6 |
| 2015 | bomb explodes inside the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand killing 20 and injuring another 125 | 3 |
| 2016 | HAV-304 Airlander 10, largest airship makes its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire, England | 2 |
| 2017 | van is driven into a crowd of people on the Las Ramblas avenue in Barcelona—13 killed, 100 others injured | 1 |
| 2017 | gravitational waves are detected from the merger of two neutron stars, GW170817, in NGC 4993 about 130 million light-years distant | 1 |
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 |