1576 Hans Sachs (died), German poet and playwright (born 1494)
1736 James Watt (born), Scottish engineer (died 1819)
1764 John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1788 The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.
1798 Auguste Comte (born), French philosopher (died 1857)
1806 The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.
1807 Robert E. Lee (born), American general (died 1870)
1808 Lysander Spooner (born), American philosopher (died 1887)
1809 Edgar Allan Poe (born), American author and poet (died 1849)
1812 Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
1813 Henry Bessemer (born), English engineer and businessman (died 1898)
1829 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust Part 1 receives its premiere performance.
1839 The British East India Company captures Aden.
1839 Paul Cézanne (born), French painter (died 1906)
1840 Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
1853 Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.
1853 Karl Faber (died), German historian (born 1773)
1861 American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
1862 American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
1883 The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1893 Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder receives its premiere performance in Berlin.
1899 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
1915 World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
1915 Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
1920 The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
1923 Jean Stapleton (born), American actress and singer (died 2013)
1927 Carlota of Mexico (died) (born 1840)
1930 Tippi Hedren (born), American actress
1935 Coopers Inc. sells the world’s first briefs.
1937 Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
1939 Phil Everly (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Everly Brothers)
1942 World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma
1943 Janis Joplin (born), American singer-songwriter (Big Brother and the Holding Company) (died 1970)
1943 Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (born)
1944 Shelley Fabares (born), American actress
1946 Dolly Parton (born), American singer-songwriter and actress
1947 Paula Deen (born), American chef and author
1947 Rod Evans (born), English singer-songwriter (Deep Purple and Captain Beyond)
1949 Robert Palmer (born), English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Power Station) (died 2003)
1949 Cuba recognizes Israel.
1953 71.7% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
1953 Desi Arnaz, Jr. (born), American actor
1960 Japan and the United States sign the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
1963 Martin Bashir (born), English journalist
1968 Ray Harroun (died), American race car driver (born 1879)
1969 Junior Seau (born), American football player (died 2012)
1969 Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion ofCzechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
1977 Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen. It also fell in the Bahamas.
1977 President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. “Tokyo Rose”).
1978 The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.
1980 William O. Douglas (died), American jurist (born 1898)
1981 Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
1983 The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
1983 Ham the Chimp (died), Cameroonian-American chimpanzee (born 1956)
1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
1984 Karun Chandhok (born), Indian race car driver
1986 The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers inLahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.
1987 Lawrence Kohlberg (died), American psychologist (born 1927)
1991 Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.
1996 The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
1997 James Dickey (died), American poet and author (born 1923)
1997 Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bankcity.
1998 Carl Perkins (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1932)
2000 Hedy Lamarr (died), Austrian-American actress and mathematician (born 1913)
2006 Wilson Pickett (died), American singer-songwriter (The Falcons) (born 1941)
2006 The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
2008 John Stewart (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Kingston Trio) (born 1939)
2013 A failed attempt to assassinate Ahmed Dogan, chairman of the Bulgarian political party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, on live television is foiled by security guards.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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