1138 A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria.
1582 Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy,Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1649 Sack of Wexford: After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops (under Oliver Cromwell) stormed the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.
1739 Grigory Potemkin (born), Russian military leader and politician (died 1791)
1767 Surveying for the Mason–Dixon Line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
1776 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Valcour Island On Lake Champlain a fleet of American boats is defeated by the Royal Navy, but delays the British advance until 1777.
1809 Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand.
1809 Meriwether Lewis (died), American soldier and explorer, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (born 1774)
1809 Orson Squire Fowler (born), American phrenologist (died 1887)
1811 Inventor John Stevens’ boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York City, New York, andHoboken, New Jersey).
1811 Johann Conrad Ammann (died), Swiss physician and naturalist (born 1724)
1814 Jean-Baptiste Lamy (born), French archbishop (died 1888)
1821 George Williams (born), English founder of the YMCA (died 1905)
1844 Henry J. Heinz (born), American businessman, founded the H. J. Heinz Company (died 1916)
1852 The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
1862 American Civil War: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
1872 Harlan F. Stone (born), American lawyer and jurist, 12th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1946)
1876 Paul Masson (born), French cyclist (died 1944)
1884 Eleanor Roosevelt (born), American politician and humanitarian, 34th First Lady of the United States (died 1962)
1889 James Prescott Joule (died), English physicist (born 1818)
1890 In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
1899 Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free Stateerupts.
1899 The Western League is renamed the American League.
1906 San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
1910 Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.
1918 Jerome Robbins (born), American choreographer, director, and producer (died 1998)
1919 Art Blakey (born), American drummer and bandleader (died 1990)
1929 JC Penney opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 U.S. states.
1942 World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat aJapanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
1946 Daryl Hall (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Hall & Oates)
1946 Gary Mallaber (born), American drummer (Steve Miller Band)
1947 Al Atkins (born), English singer-songwriter (Judas Priest)
1947 George McCorkle (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Marshall Tucker Band) (died 2007)
1947 Lucas Papademos (born), Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece
1947 Thomas Boswell (born), American columnist
1950 Television: CBS’s mechanical color system is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
1958 Pioneer program: NASA launches the lunar probe Pioneer 1 (the probe falls back to Earth and burns up).
1961 Chico Marx (died), American comedian and actor (born 1887)
1963 Édith Piaf (died), French singer-songwriter and actress (born 1915)
1963 Jean Cocteau (died), French author, poet, and playwright (born 1889)
1965 Dorothea Lange (died), American photographer (born 1895)
1967 Artie Lange (born), American actor and comedian
1968 Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele andWalter Cunningham aboard.
1972 A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
1975 The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host and Andy Kaufman, Janis Ian and Billy Preston as guests.
1976 George Washington’s appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
1984 Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
1986 Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
1987 Start of Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka that killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians and hundreds of Tamil Tigers & Indian Army soldiers.
1991 Redd Foxx (died), American comedian and actor (born 1922)
2000 NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery.
2001 The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
2002 A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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