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Saint Petersburg

federal city and former capital of Russia

77 dated entries naming Saint Petersburg, drawn from 61 separate years between 1703 CE and 2015 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Leningrad, Petrograd, St Petersburg, St. Petersburg in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 1703May 27 (May 16 OS) – The city of Saint Petersburg, Russia is founded, following Peter the Great's reconquest of Ingria from Sweden during the Great Northern War.source
  • 1712May 19 – Peter the Great moves the capital of Russia from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1715June 22 – Tsar Peter the Great of Russia witnesses the attempt of 45 Dutch and English ships to enter the small harbour at Saint Petersburg and decides that additional harbours are necessary for Russia to be able import Western goods.source
  • 1716September 26 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, eldest son of the Tsar Peter the Great and heir to the throne, flees from Saint Petersburg with his mistress, Efrosinya Fedorova, along with her brother and three servants. After spending more than a year in Austria, he returns to Russia where he is arrested and dies in prison in 1718.source
  • 1719October 21 – The Red Canal is opened in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, after seven years of construction, at a ceremony in the presence of the Tsar Peter the Great.source
  • 1723August 15 – The Peterhof Palace is opened in a formal ceremony just outside Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire.source
  • 1727January 6 – Martin Spanberg and two other members of the First Kamchatka expedition arrive in Okhotsk, after a journey from Saint Petersburg of almost two years. After the end of winter, the 63-member group, commanded by Vitus Bering, proceeds to the Kamchatka River, to prepare for exploration of the Arctic.source
  • 1730February 28 – Vitus Bering returns to the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg after completing the First Kamchatka expedition.source
  • 1730May 9 (April 28 O.S.) – The coronation of Anna of Russia as Empress of Russia takes place in Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1736August 12 – A fire in Saint Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, destroys 2,000 buildings, the city's post office, and several palaces.source
  • 1740January - The Ice House was built in St. Petersburg.source
  • 1743September 11 – Russian noble Natalia Lopukhina is flogged in front of the Twelve Collegia building in Saint Petersburg, bringing a conclusion to the "Lopukhina Affair" plotted by France and the Duchy of Holstein.source
  • 1745September 1 – Catherine the Great marries Peter III of Russia, in Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1761June 6 – (May 26 old style); A transit of Venus occurs, and is observed from 120 locations around the Earth. In his observations by telescope at St. Petersburg, Mikhail Lomonosov notes a ring of light around the planet's silhouette as it begins the transit, and becomes the first astronomer to discover that the planet Venus has an atmosphere.source
  • 1764March 31 – A mutual defense treaty between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia is signed in Saint Petersburg between representatives of Russia's Empress Catherine the Great and Prussia's King Frederick the Great. By agreement, each nation agrees (for an eight-year period) to commit 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 horses to the defense of the other in case of an attack, and secretly agree to maintain security within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.source
  • 1765April 26 – At Saint Petersburg, German engineer Christian Kratzenstein presents to the Russian Academy of Sciences a perfected version of the arithmetical machine originally invented by Gottfried Leibniz. Kratzenstein claims that his machine solves the problem with the Leibniz machine has with calculations above four digits, perfecting the flaw where the machine is "prone to err whenever it is necessary to make a number of 9999 move to 10000", but the machine is not developed further.source
  • 1771April 4 – The first quarantines are started in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to fight the bubonic plague epidemic. Over the next 12 months, more than 52,000 people die from the plague in Moscow alone.source
  • 1772December 14 – Russian government offices reopen at Moscow and Saint Petersburg after being closed for 15 months because of an epidemic of bubonic plague.source
  • 1776September 24 – The Bolshoi Theatre company hosts its first annual opera season, with the opening of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.source
  • 1780November 28 – A lightning strike in Saint Petersburg begins a fire that burns 11,000 homes.source
  • 1782Saint Petersburg, Russia has 300,000 inhabitants.source
  • 1782Bronze Horseman, sculpture of Peter the Great, unveiled in St. Petersburgsource
  • 1782August 7 – Étienne Maurice Falconet's Bronze Horseman statue of Tsar Peter the Great is unveiled in Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1783Malo-Kalinkin Bridge (St. Petersburg) builtsource
  • 1785Great Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade opened in Saint Petersburgsource
  • 1786Court Riding Arena in Saint Petersburg begins constructionsource
  • 1787Lomonosov Bridge completed in Saint Petersburgsource
  • 1796September - The King visits the Imperial court of Catherine the Great in Saint Petersburg in Russia to be engaged to Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia. He discontinues the plans when told that she will not be required to convert to Lutheranism.source

19th century

  • 1810The Saint Petersburg main military engineering school becomes the first engineering higher learning institution in the Russian Empire, after the addition of officers' classes, and the application of a five-year term of teaching.source
  • 1813Russky Invalid, a long-running military newspaper, founded in Saint Petersburgsource
  • 1816January 6 – (December 25, 1815 on the Russian Julian calendar): Tsar Alexander I of Russia signs an order, expelling the Jesuits from St. Petersburg and Moscow.source
  • 1825December 26 (O.S.)/December 14 (N.S.) – Some Imperial Russian Army officers stage the Decembrist revolt against Nicholas's accession in Saint Petersburg, but it is thoroughly suppressed by the government.source
  • 1825December 26 (December 14 O.S.) – 3000 Imperial Russian Army officers stage the Decembrist Revolt against Nicholas's accession in Saint Petersburg. The rebellion, however, is successfully suppressed by the government.source
  • 1836December 30 – In Saint Petersburg, the Lehman Theater catches fire, killing 800 people.source
  • 1837October 30 – The Tsarskoye Selo Railway, the first in the Russian Empire, opens between Saint Petersburg Tsarskoselsky station and Tsarskoye Selo (modern-day Pushkin), engineered by Franz Anton von Gerstner.source
  • 1837December 17 – Fire breaks out in the Winter Palace, in Saint Petersburg, Russia killing 30 guards.source
  • 1859February 4 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1866April 4 – Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of St Petersburg.source
  • 1873Demonstration of an electric tram operated on Miller's line at Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky.source
  • 1874January 23 – Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, marries Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1878January 24 – Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, Governor of Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1890January 15 – Ballet The Sleeping Beauty, with music by Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.source
  • 1892December 18 – The Nutcracker ballet, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is premiered at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.source
  • 1893October 28 (October 16 O.S.) – In Saint Petersburg (Russia), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, nine days before his death.source
  • 1894November 26 – Wedding of Nicholas II of Russia and Alix of Hesse in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace at Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1898October 11 – The Kubok Obschestva Velosipednoy Ezdy (Bicycle Riders Society Cup) first Grand Prix in Russia is staged with seven cars near Saint Petersburg, on a route from Alexandrovskaya to Strelna and back again for a total distance of 25 mi, and is won by Pavel Belyaev.source

20th century

  • 1902October 14 – Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Servillia premieres in St. Petersburgsource
  • 1902December 17 – The Commercial Telegraph Agency (TTA, Torgovo-Telegrafnue Agenstvo), predecessor of TASS, is officially established under the Ministry of Finance at Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.source
  • 1905January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg takes place, leading to an unsuccessful uprising.source
  • 1907August 31 – Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the Anglo-Russian Entente in Saint Petersburg, bringing a pause in The Great Game in Central Asia, and establishing the Triple Entente.source
  • 1913February 23 – Joseph Stalin is arrested by the Russian secret police, the Okhrana, in Petrograd, and exiled to Siberia.source
  • 191429 June - world's first high-speed long-range flight of a heavy aircraft Ilya Muromets started, on the route Saint Petersburg - Orsha - Kopys - Kiev - Saint Petersburgsource
  • 1916December 30 – (December 17 Old Style) – The mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered in Saint Petersburg.source
  • 1917March 8 – (February 23, O.S.) – The February Revolution begins in Russia: Women calling for bread in Petrograd start riots, which spontaneously spread throughout the city. — N.S.source
  • 1917March 8 – (N.S.) (February 23, O.S.) – The February Revolution begins: Women calling for bread in Petrograd create riots, which spread throughout the city.source
  • 1917April 8 (N.S.) (March 26, O.S.) – In Petrograd, 40,000 ethnic Estonians demand national autonomy within Russia.source
  • 1917April 16 – (N.S.) (April 3, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin arrives at the Finland Station in Petrograd after a German-sponsored voyage in a sealed train from his exile in Switzerland through Germany and Scandinavia.source
  • 1917April 16 – (N.S.) (April 3, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin arrives at the Finland Station in Petrograd.source
  • 1917July 16–18 – July Days: Serious clashes occur in Petrograd; Vladimir Lenin escapes to Finland; Leon Trotsky is arrested.source
  • 1917July 16–July 18 – Clashes in Petrograd in July Days; Lenin escapes to Finland; Trotsky is arrested.source
  • 1917November 5 (N.S.) (October 23, O.S.) – Estonian and Russian Bolsheviks seize power in Tallinn, Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, two days before the October Revolution in Petrograd.source
  • 1917November 7 – (N.S.) (October 25, O.S.) – October Revolution in Russia: The workers of the Petrograd Soviet in Russia, led by the Bolshevik Party and leader Vladimir Lenin, storm the Winter Palace and successfully destroy the Kerensky Provisional Government after less than eight months of rule. This immediately triggers the Russian Civil War.source
  • 191811 March - Communist government moves from Petrograd to Moscowsource
  • 1919August 18 – Russian Civil War: North Russia intervention – The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, protecting Petrograd on the Baltic Sea, is substantially damaged by British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats (torpedo boats) and military aircraft in a combined operation.source
  • 1920July 19–August 7 – The Second Congress of the Communist International takes place in Saint Petersburg and Moscow; the Twenty-one Conditions are adopted.source
  • 1924January 26 – Petrograd in the Soviet Union is renamed Leningrad; it will revert to Saint Petersburg in 1991.source
  • 1941September 8 – WWII: Siege of Leningrad – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.source
  • 19418 September — The Siege of Leningrad begins: German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.source
  • 1944January 14 – WWII: Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.source
  • 1951July 2 — The cremated remains of Mary Reeser are found at her home in Saint Petersburg, Florida. She is believed to have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. The FBI believes that the near total consumption of her body by the fire was caused by the Wick effect.source
  • 19865 September – The Soviet leg of the World Chess Championship 1986 opens in Leningrad.source
  • 19888 March – Aeroflot Flight 3739 is hijacked en route from Irkutsk to Leningrad.source
  • 19887 October – The Russian tricolor is raised openly for the first time in the Soviet Union during a demonstration in Leningrad.source
  • 1991September 4 – Sverdlovsk's name is restored to its pre-communist–era name Yekaterinburg. Two days later, Leningrad is renamed St. Petersburg.source
  • 1998July 17 – In Saint Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.source

21st century

  • 200622 August – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612, a scheduled passenger flight operated by Saint Petersburg-based airline Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise, flying from Anapa Airport to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg, crashes in Donetsk Oblast, near the Russian border, killing all 170 people on board.source
  • 2015October 31 – Metrojet Flight 9268, an Airbus A321 airliner en route to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, crashes near Al-Hasana in Sinai, killing all 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board. Later investigations revealed a bomb was likely responsible for the crash with Islamic State being the primary suspect. *source

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