| 1284 | legendary date of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading the children away | 733 |
| 1483 | Richard III becomes King of England—last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty | 534 |
| 1522 | Ottoman Empire begins a six-month seige of Rhodes that ends with an Ottoman victory and annexation of the island of Rhodes | 495 |
| 1541 | conquistador Francisco Pizarro assassinated in Lima, Peru; the city he founded | 476 |
| 1730 | French astronomer Charles Messier is born in Badonviller, France | 287 |
| 1793 | pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White dies, agr 72 | 224 |
| 1796 | American astronomer and mathematician David Rittenhouse dies, age 64 | 221 |
| 1797 | Charles Newbold is issued the first U.S. patent for a cast-iron plow | 220 |
| 1810 | French pioneer balloonist Joseph-Michel Montgolfier dies, agr 69 | 207 |
| 1824 | Irish mathematical physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), physicist, born in Belfast | 193 |
| 1830 | George IV of the United Kingdom dies after a controversial reign of 10 years, age 67 | 187 |
| 1843 | Treaty of Nanking goes into effect ending the First Opium War between China and the U.K.—Hong Kong is ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" | 174 |
| 1848 | June Days Uprising ends in Paris when National Guard is called to quell protesting working class—4500 killed, 4000 deported | 169 |
| 1870 | Christmas is established as a Federal Holiday by President Grant | 147 |
| 1883 | Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, and explorer Edward Sabine dies in England, age 94 | 134 |
| 1892 | American writer and novelist Pearl Sydenstricker Buck born in Hillsboro, West Virginia | 125 |
| 1902 | King Edward VII founds the Order of Merit for exceptional meritorious service in the armed forces, art, literature, and science | 115 |
| 1906 | first Grand Prix race, Le Mans, France | 111 |
| 1917 | first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight in the Great War | 100 |
| 1934 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act establishing credit unions | 83 |
| 1936 | maiden flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 designed and built by Heinrich Focke—first fully controllable helicopter | 81 |
| 1942 | first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter—becomes the most successful aircraft in naval history | 75 |
| 1943 | Austrian-born American biologist and physician and Nobel laureate Karl Landsteiner dies in New York City, age 75 | 74 |
| 1945 | United Nations charter signed in San Francisco | 72 |
| 1959 | St. Lawrence Seaway officially opens for shipping | 58 |
| 1960 | Madagascar gains its independence from France | 57 |
| 1974 | UPC is used for the first time to sell a retail product—a pack of chewing gum | 43 |
| 1986 | Soyuz T-15 docks for the second time with Mir—undocked the previous day from Salyut 7 | 31 |
| 1995 | Irish physicist and Nobel laureate Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton dies in Belfast, age 91 | 22 |
| 2003 | The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional | 14 |
| 2010 | Chicago Cubs become the first MLB franchise to play 20,000 games | 7 |
| 2012 | discovery of Styx, the fifth known moon of Pluto, by a team led by astronomer Mark R. Showalter | 5 |
| 2015 | U.S. Supreme Court rules in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriages are protected by the Constitution | 2 |
| 2016 | Opportunity reaches 4416 sols—twice the operational time for her sister Spirit on the surface of Mars | 1 |
| 2016 | inauguration of the Panama Canal expansion | 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 |