1716 Gottfried Leibniz (died), German philosopher and mathematician (born 1646)
1740 Johann van Beethoven (born), German singer and educator (died 1792)
1770 James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile
1797 Charles Lyell (born), Scottish geologist and lawyer (died 1875)
1831 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (died), German philosopher (born 1770)
1840 Claude Monet (born), French painter (died 1926)
1889 Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in seventy-two days.
1896 Mamie Eisenhower, American wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 36th First Lady of the United States (died 1979)
1910 Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.
1915 Booker T. Washington (died), American educator, author, and activist (born 1856)
1922 The BBC begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1947 Buckwheat Zydeco (born), American accordion player
1947 P. J. O’Rourke (born), American journalist and author
1948 Charles, Prince of Wales (born)
1957 The Apalachin Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
1967 American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser.
1979 Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
1982 Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
1991 In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.
1995 A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.
1997 Eddie Arcaro (died), American jockey (born 1916)
2010 Germany’s Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins Formula One’s Drivers Championship to become the sport’s youngest champion.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017