EVENTS
- 1814 – Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
- 1899 – Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States.
- 1921 – First sports broadcast on the radio.
- 1947 – Jackie Robinson is the first African American to play in a modern-day Major League Baseball game.
Jackie Robinson - 1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins. The ex-Nazi was one of the main organizers of the Holocaust, in which millions of people were slaughtered. He was hanged for war crimes in 1962.
- 1968 – A week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law prohibited discrimination in housing, protected civil rights workers and expanded the rights of Native Americans.
- 1970 –Apollo 13 is launched.
- 1972 – The first episode of “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” is aired. The BBC’s classic comedy show, which was chaired by Humphrey Lyttelton until his death in 2008, is one of the longest-running British radio shows of all time.
- 1979 – Uganda’s dictator Idi Amin is overthrown. The despot’s 8-year rule was characterized by extensive human rights abuse and repression. According to estimates, hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of his actions.
- 1983 – Harold Washington became the first African-American mayor of Chicago, receiving 51 percent of the vote. Re-elected in 1987, he suffered a fatal heart attack at his office seven months later.
- 2006 – Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano is arrested. Provenzano was one of Cosa Nostra’s central figures. The mafioso was arrested near Corleone, Sicily after 40 years on the run.
- 2006 – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has enriched uranium. The Iranian nuclear program has become a source of great controversy. Several countries, some of them possessing nuclear weapons themselves, accuse Tehran of developing an Iranian atom bomb.
BIRTHDAYS
- 145 – Septimius Severus (Roman Emperor)
- 1722 – Christopher Smart (English actor, playwright, poet)
- 1794 – American orator Edward Everett (1794-1865) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts
- 1893 – Dean G. Acheson (Secretary of State)
- 1913 – Oleg Cassini (Fashion Designer)
- 1960 – Jeremy Clarkson (English journalist)
- 1980 – Mark Teixeira (Baseball player)
- 1987 – Joss Stone (Singer)
Joss Stone
DEATHS
- 1983 – Dolores del Río (Mexican actress)
- 1985 – Enver Hoxha (Albanian politician, Prime Minister of Albania)
- 1987 – Primo Levi (Italian chemist, author)
Primo Levi - 2007 – Kurt Vonnegut (American author)
- 2013 – Maria Tallchief (American ballerina)
