1584 Frederick Henry (born), Prince of Orange (died 1647)
1676 Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.
1737 Thomas Paine (born), English-American author, activist, and theorist (died 1809)
1819 Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
1834 US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
1843 William McKinley (born), American politician, 25th President of the United States (died 1901)
1845 “The Raven” is published in the New York Evening Mirror, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe
1846 Karol Olszewski (born), Polish chemist, mathematician, and physicist (died 1915)
1850 Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
1856 Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
1860 Anton Chekhov (born), Russian physician and author (died 1904)
1863 Bear River Massacre.
1874 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (born), American businessman and philanthropist (died 1960)
1880 W. C. Fields (born), American actor (died 1946)
1886 Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
1888 Edward Lear (died), English illustrator, author, and poet (born 1812)
1891 Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.
1900 The American League is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with eight founding teams.
1907 Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
1913 Daniel Taradash (born), American screenwriter (died 2003)
1913 Victor Mature (born), American actor (died 1999)
1915 Bill Peet (born), American illustrator (died2002)
1916 World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
1918 John Forsythe (born), American actor (died 2010)
1925 Robert W. McCollum (born), American virologist and epidemiologist (died 2010)
1927 Gerald D. Klee (born), American psychiatrist and educator (died 2013)
1929 Ed Shaughnessy (born), American drummer (died 2013)
1930 Derek Bailey (born), English guitarist (died 2005)
1933 Sara Teasdale (died), American poet (born 1884)
1936 Patrick Caulfield (born), English painter (died 2005)
1939 Germaine Greer (born), Australian journalist and author
1942 Claudine Longet (born), French-American singer, actress, and dancer
1944 Andrew Loog Oldham (born), English record producer and manager
1944 Katharine Ross (born), American actress
1945 Tom Selleck (born), American actor, screenwriter and producer
1947 Linda B. Buck (born), American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1950 Jody Scheckter (born), South African race car driver
1950 Max Carl (born), American rock singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, for classic rock band, Grand Funk Railroad and southern rock band, 38 Special
1952 Tommy Ramone (born), Hungarian-American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Ramones and Uncle Monk)
1954 Oprah Winfrey (born), American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded the OWN Network and Harpo Productions
1956 H. L. Mencken (died), American journalist (born 1880)
1963 Robert Frost (died), American poet (born 1874)
1964 Alan Ladd (died), American actor (born 1913)
1967 The “ultimate high” of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
1969 Allen Welsh Dulles (died), American diplomat, lawyer, and banker, 5th Director of Central Intelligence (born 1893)
1970 Paul Ryan (born), American politician
1977 Freddie Prinze (died), American actor and comedian (born 1954)
1980 Jimmy Durante (died), American actor, singer, and pianist (born 1893)
1989 Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so
1991 Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
1992 Willie Dixon (died), American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1915)
1996 La Fenice, Venice’s opera house, is destroyed by fire.
1996 President Jacques Chirac announces a “definitive end” to French nuclear weapons testing.
1998 In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
1998 Joseph Alioto (died), American politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (born 1916)
2002 In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes “regimes that sponsor terror” as an Axis of Evil, in which he includesIraq, Iran and North Korea.
2008 Bengt Lindström (died), Swedish painter (born 1925)
2009 Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is convicted of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
2009 The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
2013 Ferrol Sams (died), American physician and author (born 1922)
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
- Patriotism - 4 July, 2017
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- Alternative Facts and Science - 24 January, 2017