| 356BC | Alexander the Great is born in Pella the capital of Macedonia | 2374 |
| 1031 | Robert II the Pious, King of the Franks, dies after a reign of 43 years in Melun, France, age 59 | 988 |
| 1156 | Emperor Toba, 74th emperor of Japan, dies after a reign of 16 years, age 53 | 863 |
| 1304 | forces of Edward I of England capture the Scottish stronghold Stirling Castle after a three month siege | 715 |
| 1304 | Italian scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) born in Tuscany | 715 |
| 1402 | Battle of Ankara—Timurid victory over the Ottoman forces—only time an Ottoman Sultan is captured | 617 |
| 1526 | Spanish explorer Luis Ponce de León dies in Mexico City, age around 65 | 493 |
| 1592 | invading Japanese capture Pyongyang, Korea | 427 |
| 1704 | Peregrine White, first child born aboard Mayflower after arrival in the New World, dies, age 83 | 315 |
| 1714 | Queen Anne gives Royal Assent to The Longitude Act which provides a prize for the solution to determining longitude accurately | 305 |
| 1793 | Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific coast–first European to cross the North American continent | 226 |
| 1804 | English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist Richard Owen born in Lancaster, England | 215 |
| 1819 | Scottish mathematician John Playfair dies in Edinburgh, age 71 | 200 |
| 1822 | Austro-German monk, geneticist, and botanist Gregor Mendel born | 197 |
| 1866 | German mathematician Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann dies, age 39 | 153 |
| 1871 | British Columbia became the sixth province to join the Confederation of Canada | 148 |
| 1908 | German geophysicist and seismologist Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz dies, age 26 | 111 |
| 1922 | Russian mathematician Andrey (Andrei) Andreyevich Markov dies in Petrograd, age 66 | 97 |
| 1923 | Mexican Revolutionary general José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (Pancho Villa) assassinated, age 45 | 96 |
| 1924 | Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE) is founded in Paris | 95 |
| 1937 | Italian inventor, radio pioneer, and Nobel laureate (1909 Physics) Guglielmo Marconi dies in Rome, age 63 | 82 |
| 1937 | Austrian mathematician and philosopher Olga Hahn-Neurath dies on her birthday, age 55 | 82 |
| 1960 | Etch A Sketch, invented by André Cassagnes, first goes on sale | 59 |
| 1960 | USS George Washington successfully test fires the first ballistic missile, Polaris, while submerged | 59 |
| 1968 | first International Special Olympics Summer Games convenes at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois | 51 |
| 1969 | first men to walk on moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, Apollo 11 | 50 |
| 1973 | Hong Kong and American actor, martial artist, philosopher, and filmmaker Lee Jun-fan (Bruce Lee) dies in Hong Kong, age 32 | 46 |
| 1976 | Viking 1 lands on Mars | 43 |
| 1976 | Hank Aaron hits his 755th home run, the final home run of his career | 43 |
| 1985 | divers for Mel Fisher discover the remains of the Spanish treasure ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha—sunk in 1622 off the Florida Keys | 34 |
| 1994 | Belgian painter of Surrealism Paul Delvaux dies, age 96 | 25 |
| 1997 | USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years | 22 |
| 1999 | Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean | 20 |
| 1999 | space.com website launched | 20 |
| 2003 | British crime novelist Nicolas Freeling (born Nicolas Davidson) dies in Grandfontaine, France, age 76 | 16 |
| 2005 | Canadian actor and voice actor, "Scotty," James Montgomery Doohan dies in Redmond, Washington, age 85 | 14 |
| 2005 | Asian American filmmaker, writer, and community activist Kayo Hatta dies in Encinitas, California, age 47 | 14 |
| 2007 | American singer, evangelist, author, and television personality Tamara Faye "Tammy" Messner (Tammy Faye Bakker) dies, age 65 | 12 |
| 2007 | Swedish physicist and Nobel laureate (1981) Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn dies, age 89 | 12 |
| 2011 | German-born British painter Lucian Michael Freud dies in London, age 88 | 8 |
| 2011 | discovery of Kerberos, fourth moon of Pluto, announced | 8 |
| 2011 | Pico-Satellite Solar Cell experiment (PSSC-2) is ejected from Atlantis—180th and last satellite deployed from a shuttle | 8 |
| 2012 | lone gunman opens fire during a midnight movie screening in Aurora, Colorado—kills 12 and wounds 70 others | 7 |
| 2013 | long-time White House press correspondent Helen Thomas dies in Washington D.C., age 92 | 6 |
| 2015 | U.S. and Cuba formally resume diplomatic relations after 54 years | 4 |
| 2015 | American country musician, songwriter, and record producer Wayne Carson (born Wayne Carson Head) dies, age 72 | 4 |
| 2015 | suicide explosion in Suruç, Turkey outside the Amara Culture Centre kills 34 and injures 104 others | 4 |
| 2017 | American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor Chester Charles Bennington kills himself, age 41 | 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 |