EVENTS
- 1923 – Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s burial chamber is opened.
- 1937 – Nylon is invented.
- 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.
- 1968 – 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
- 1972 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th NBA point.
- 1985 – Hezbollah is founded. The Lebanese political party and militant group is classified as a terrorist organization by several western countries.
- 1987 – The first trial against John Demjanjuk begins in Jerusalem. Demjanjuk was falsely accused of being a particularly brutal Nazi guard dubbed “Ivan the Terrible”; in a separate trial in 2011, he was convicted by a German criminal court as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people.
- 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect. The global warming pact was ratified by 191 countries to date – excluding the United States.
- 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-2005 regular season.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1831 – Nikolai Leskov (Russian author, playwright, journalist)
- 1898 – Katharine Cornell (American actress, producer)
- 1940 – Sonny Bono (Singer and Congressman)
- 1941 – Kim Jong-il (North Korean politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea)
- 1954 – Iain Banks (Scottish author)
- 1958 – Ice-T (Rapper and Actor)
- 1959 – John McEnroe (Tennis Player)
- 1979 – Valentino Rossi (Italian motorcycle racer)
DEATHS
- 1932 – Edgar Speyer (American/English financier, philanthropist)
- 1957 – Josef Hofmann (Polish/American pianist, composer)
- 1984 – M. A. G. Osmany (Bangladeshi general)
- 2002 – Walter Winterbottom (England football manager)
- 2013 – Tony Sheridan (English singer-songwriter, guitarist)