EVENTS
- 1556 – The deadliest earthquake on record kills some 830,000 people. The epicenter was in the Wei River Valley in Shaanxi Province, China.
- 1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London.
- 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell was awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming America’s first woman doctor.
- 1907 – Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.
- 1937 – In Moscow, 17 leading Communists went on trial, accused of participating in a plot engineered by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Stalin’s regime and assassinate its leaders. After a seven-day trial, 13 of them were sentenced to death. Trotsky fled to Mexico where he was assassinated in 1940.
- 1943 – In North Africa, British forces under General Bernard Montgomery captured Tripoli in Libya.
- 1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua.
- 1950 – Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital. Despite international protests, the Knesset passed a resolution stating that the divided city will be the country’s capital.
- 1957 – Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company. Today, the Frisbee is used around the world as both a toy and as part of flying disc games, such as Ultimate.
- 1960 – The Trieste dives to a record depth of 10,911 meters (35,797 ft). Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the bottom of Challenger Deep, the Earth’s deepest known point.
- 1968 – The American ship USS Pueblo was seized by North Koreans in the Sea of Japan amid claims the Navy ship was spying. The ship was confiscated and its crew held in captivity until December, with one fatality.
- 1973 – President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
- 1975 – The TV comedy Barney Miller debuts on ABC.
- 1986 – The first artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Among the first inductees were Ray Charles, James Brown, and Elvis Presley.
- 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State
BIRTHDAYS
- 1737 – John Hancock (Declaration of Independence)
- 1832 – Edouard Manet (Artist)
- 1897 – Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian politician, activist)
- 1898 – Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) was born in Riga, Latvia. He developed a new way of film making utilizing artistic montages (a series of arbitrary images) to deliver an emotional impact. Prior to him, most film makers showed scenes in strictly chronological sequences. His classic films include Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible.
- 1919 – Ernie Kovacs (American comedian, actor)
- 1926 – Bal Thackeray (Indian politician)
- 1944 – Rutger Hauer (Actor)
- 1957 – Princess Caroline of Monaco (Princess)
- 1974 – Tiffani-Amber Thiessen (Actress)
- 1984 – Arjen Robben (Dutch footballer)
DEATHS
- 1944 – Edvard Munch (Norwegian painter)
- 1986 – Joseph Beuys (German sculptor, illustrator)
- 1989 – Salvador Dalí (Spanish painter)
- 2002 – Pierre Bourdieu (French sociologist)
- 2005 – Johnny Carson (American television host)