Events: F

F

• FAA delegation of 737 MAX certification tasks to Boeing 2013 – Nov 2016The share of certification work on the 737 MAX that the FAA delegated to Boeing’s own authorized representatives, 2013 to 2016, as counted by the House committee.
• Fall of Tenochtitlan 30 May 1521 – 13 Aug 1521The siege that began on 30 May 1521 ended on 13 August 1521 with the capture of Cuauhtémoc.
• Fall of the Afghan government, 2021 Aug 2021The collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
• Fall of the Berlin Wall 9 Nov 1989The opening of the border between East and West Berlin on 9 November 1989.
• Fallout on the Lucky Dragon No. 5 1 Mar 1954 – 23 Sep 1954The Japanese tuna boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru was showered with Bravo fallout; all 23 crew were made ill and the chief radio operator died on 23 September 1954.
• Families’ suit against Saudi Arabia 2003 –Families of 11 September victims sued Saudi Arabia in 2003. A judge ruled in 2025 that the case may go on; Saudi Arabia denies the allegations and the case is undecided.
• Famine in the Volga and North Caucasus, 1932–33 1932–1933The famine in Russian regions including the Volga, the Central Black Earth region and the Kuban; Werth and the Kyiv demographers group the Kuban with Ukraine.
• Farming colonies in Ottoman Palestine 1882–1914Agricultural colonies founded from the 1880s with money from European backers, among them Edmond de Rothschild.
• FDA accelerated approval of Aduhelm (2021) 7 Jun 2021The FDA's 7 June 2021 accelerated approval of Biogen's Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm.
• FDA approval of OxyContin (1995) 1995The FDA's 1995 approval of Purdue's OxyContin, with a label saying its design was believed to reduce abuse liability.
• FDA review of thalidomide (1960) 1960–1962The FDA's review of the thalidomide application, in which medical officer Frances Kelsey withheld approval for lack of evidence.
• February Revolution 8–16 Mar 1917The uprising in Petrograd in March 1917 (February in the old Russian calendar) that ended the monarchy.
• Federal funding and trust accounts for Native Americans, 2009 to 2018 2009–2018The Cobell settlement of 2009 to 2012 and the 2018 Civil Rights Commission finding on Indian Health Service funding.
• Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative 22 Jun 2021 –Interior Department investigation begun in June 2021 into the federal Indian boarding school system.
• Federal lobbying spending by big firms, 2023 to 2025 2023–2025OpenSecrets totals, from Senate records, of what some of the largest lobbying clients spent on federal lobbying in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
• Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing on credit ratings, 2 June 2010 2 Jun 2010The commission heard Warren Buffett and Moody’s chief executive at the New School in New York.
• Financial crisis of 2008 2007–2009The collapse of U.S. housing finance and the banking panic that followed.
• Finding tetraethyl lead’s anti-knock effect, 1921 9 Dec 1921General Motors’ research men in Dayton found that tetraethyl lead stopped engine knock.
• Fink’s conversation with Musk at Davos, 22 January 2026 22 Jan 2026On stage at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting Larry Fink interviewed Elon Musk, in a session the Forum published.
• First Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement 18 Jan 1974The agreement of 18 January 1974 that pulled Egyptian and Israeli forces apart along the Suez Canal.
• First flight around the world 6 Apr 1924 – 28 Sep 1924Flight by U.S. Army Air Service crews in 1924, in Douglas World Cruisers. Four planes started and two finished.
• First Foster Grant sunglasses sold on the Atlantic City boardwalk (1929) 1929Foster Grant sold its first sunglasses at a Woolworth’s on the Atlantic City boardwalk, at ten cents.
• First Intifada 9 Dec 1987 – 13 Sep 1993Palestinian uprising that began on 9 December 1987 in the Gaza Strip and spread to the West Bank.
• First message on the ARPANET 29 Oct 1969A login attempt from UCLA to the Stanford Research Institute. Two letters went through, then the system crashed.
• First Opium War 1839–1842War between Britain and China, 1839 to 1842, ended by the Treaty of Nanking.
• First sale of ethyl gasoline, 1923 1 Feb 1923Gasoline treated with tetraethyl lead went on sale in Dayton.
• First Soviet atomic test 29 Aug 1949The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb on 29 August 1949.
• First World War 28 Jul 1914 – 11 Nov 1918Global war of 1914–1918 between the Allied Powers, with Russia among them until 1918, and the Central Powers.
• First Zionist Congress 1897Congress at Basel in 1897 organized by Theodor Herzl.
• Flick Trial 19 Apr 1947 – 22 Dec 1947The first of the three U.S. industrialist trials at Nuremberg (Case 5), 1947.
• Flight and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries 1948–1972Movement of Jewish communities out of Arab and other Muslim-majority countries, mostly to Israel, from 1948. Israel marks it as an expulsion; historians differ on the causes country by country.
• Flight and expulsion of Palestinians, 1948 1947–1949Flight or expulsion of 700,000 to 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, by Avi Shlaim's count. Palestinians call the events of 1948 the Nakba; historians differ on the causes.
• Forced baptism in Portugal, 1497 1497Mass forced conversion of Jews who had gathered at Lisbon in 1497.
• Forced labor at Mittelbau-Dora 1943–1945Prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora camp were forced to build V-2 rockets at the Mittelwerk plant; over 20,000 died.
• Ford receives the Grand Cross of the German Eagle Jul 1938Presentation to Henry Ford in Dearborn, July 1938, of the highest German decoration for foreigners.
• Ford's apology to the Olson family 21 Jul 1975Meeting of 21 July 1975 at the White House.
• Ford-Werke under Nazi rule, 1938–1945 1938–1945Ford’s German subsidiary from the 1938 truck assembly to its liberation in 1945, and the dispute over how much control Ford kept.
• Ford–Soviet agreement of 1929 1929Agreement between Ford Motor Company and the Soviet government to help open car plants at Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
• Ford’s retraction of 1927 30 Jun 1927Statement dated 30 June 1927 in which Henry Ford retracted the Dearborn Independent’s charges against Jews and called the Protocols forgeries; drafted by Louis Marshall.
• Foreign backing of the Taliban 1994–2001Support from outside Afghanistan for the Taliban, 1994 to 2001, as Human Rights Watch described it in 2001.
• Founding of the Soviet Union 30 Dec 1922The 30 December 1922 declaration and treaty uniting Soviet Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian republic as the USSR.
• Four governments' laws on Native land and labour, 1542 to 1830 1542–1830The Spanish, British, French and U.S. governments each made law about Native peoples' land and labour, on different terms and dates.
• Franco-American alliance of 1778 6 Feb 1778Treaty of alliance and treaty of amity and commerce between France and the United States, signed on 6 February 1778.
• French intervention in the American war 1778–1783France's war against Britain on the side of the United States, from the alliance of 1778 to the peace of 1783.
• French Revolution 1789–1799Upheaval that began in 1789 and overthrew the French monarchy.
• FTC closes its Google search investigation 3 Jan 2013On 3 January 2013 the FTC closed the search-bias part of its investigation of Google without a complaint.
• FTC consent order on Chevron and Hess, 2024–2025 30 Sep 2024 – 17 Jul 2025FTC order of 2024 and 2025 that barred Chevron from putting John B. Hess on its board; the FTC set it aside on 17 July 2025.
• FTC consent order on Exxon and Pioneer, 2024–2025 1 May 2024 – 17 Jul 2025FTC order of 2024 and 2025 that barred Exxon from putting Scott Sheffield on its board; the FTC set it aside on 17 July 2025.
• FTC hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century 2018–2019A series of FTC hearings; the eighth session took up common ownership.
• FTC proposal to update the Hart-Scott-Rodino rules (December 2020) 1 Dec 2020An FTC proposal of 1 December 2020 to modernize the premerger notification rules, on which Vanguard commented on 1 February 2021.
• FTC staff report on Google released by mistake Mar 2015In March 2015 part of an FTC staff report on its 2012 Google investigation was released by mistake in answer to a records request, and reported by The Wall Street Journal.
• FTX bankruptcy 11 Nov 2022FTX and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware on 11 November 2022.
• Fundraising for the 2024 U.S. election Jan 2023 – Dec 2024Money raised and spent in the 2023–24 federal election cycle, as reported to the Federal Election Commission; gifts of this kind are lawful.
• Fusarium keratitis outbreak, 2005-2006 Jun 2005 – Sep 2006Fungal eye infections in contact lens wearers in Asia and the U.S., linked by the CDC to ReNu with MoistureLoc.