EVENTS
- 69 A.D. – Roman Emperor Servius Sulpicius Galba was assassinated by the Praetorian guard in the Roman Forum. He had succeeded Emperor Nero.
- 1535 – Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Church in England as a result of the Act of Supremacy following his break with Rome.
- 1559 – Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was crowned as Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.
- 1582 – Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland.
- 1759 – The British Museum opens. Its collection comprises 8 million items and it is one of the most comprehensive collections in the world.
- 1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter
- 1870 – The first use of a donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party in America appeared in a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly, criticizing former secretary of war Edwin Stanton with the caption, “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion.”
- 1891 – Basketball is invented by James Naismith
- 1943 – The Pentagon, the worlds largest office building, opens.
- 1970 – Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
- 1973 – Nixon orders ceasefire in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The fighting continued anyway until the capture of Saigon by the Vietnam People’s Army on April 30, 1975.
- 1973 – Golda Meir became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit the Pope.
- 1974 – “Happy Days” premieres on ABC.
- 1967 – In football, the first Superbowl is played
- 1992 – Croatia and Slovenia are internationally recognized as independent nations. The Yugoslav federation effectively collapsed as a result.
- 2001 – Wikipedia goes online. The online encyclopedia has since become the largest reference work on the Internet.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1622 – Molière (French playwright, actor)
- 1913 – Lloyd Bridges (Actor)
- 1918 – Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egyptian army officer, politician, 2nd President of Egypt)
- 1929 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Human Rights Activist)
- 1941 – Captain Beefheart (American singer-songwriter)
- 1951 – Charo (Dancer and Actress)
- 1965 – James Nesbitt (Irish actor)
- 1979 – Drew Brees (NFL Quarterback)
- 1980 – Matt Holliday (MLB Baseball Player)
DEATHS
- 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg (Russian economist, philosopher)
- 1947 – Elizabeth Short (American waitress, murder victim)
- 1950 – Henry H. Arnold (American general)
- 1988 – Seán MacBride (Irish politician, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1994 – Harry Nilsson (American singer-songwriter, musician)