EVENTS
- 1829 – The typewriter is invented.
- 1952 – Egyptian army officers launched a revolution changing Egypt from a monarchy to a republic.
- 1962 – The Telstar satellite relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.
- 1972 – Landsat 1 launched. The first satellite in the US’s LANDSAT program, the Landsat discovered an uninhabited island off the eastern coast of Canada in 1976. The island is now called Landsat Island.
- 1982 – The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling.
- 1992 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia. The Republic of Abkhazia, is a disputed territory of Georgia and is recognized as an independent state by only a handful of counties including Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Tuvalu.
- 1995 – Comet Hale–Bopp discovered. Also known as C/1995 O1 by the scientific community, this well known comet was discovered independently by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1892 – Haile Selassie I (Ethiopian emperor)
- 1936 – Don Drysdale (Baseball pitcher)
- 1957 – Theo van Gogh (Dutch director)
- 1961 – Woody Harrelson (Actor)
- 1965 – Slash (Guitar player for Guns n’ Roses)
- 1967 – Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Actor)
- 1968 – Gary Peyton (Basketball Player)
- 1973 – Nomar Garciapara (Baseball player)
- 1976 – Judit Polgár (Hungarian chess player)
- 1980 – Michelle Williams (American singer-songwriter, producer, actress)
- 1989 – Daniel Radcliffe (Actor – Harry Potter)
DEATHS
- 1885 – Ulysses S. Grant (American general, politician, 18th President of the United States)
- 1951 – Philippe Pétain (French general, politician, 119th Prime Minister of France)
- 1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker (American pilot, Medal of Honor recipient)
- 2011 – Amy Winehouse (English singer-songwriter)
- 2013 – Emile Griffith (Virgin Islander boxer)