EVENTS
- 1783 – The first free balloon flight took place in Paris as Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis Francois Laurent d’Arlandes ascended in a Montgolfier hot air balloon. Their flight lasted about 25 minutes and carried them nearly six miles at a height of about 300 feet over Paris. Benjamin Franklin was one of the spectators.
- 1789 – North Carolina is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
- 1877 – The invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound, is announced by Thomas Edison.
- 1920 – The IRA (Irish Republican Army) shot and killed 14 British soldiers in Dublin in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
- 1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia becomes the first woman United States Senator.
- 1941 – Tweety Bird makes its debut. The fictional cartoon canary also just called Tweety made his first appearance in A Tale of Two Kitties, a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon. Tweety was created by animator Bob Clampett who worked on Loony Tunes cartoons.
- 1962 – War between China and India ends. The month long war began over a border dispute between the two countries and ended with a unilateral ceasefire by the Chinese.
- 1964 – Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens in NYC. The suspension bridge connects Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City and at the time of its opening, it was the world’s longest suspension bridge, until the Humber Bridge in the UK opened in 1981.
- 1979 – Mob burns down US embassy in Pakistan. The mob was allegedly incensed by a rumor that the United States was involved in an attack on a mosque in the holy city of Mecca.
- 1992 – The Anglican Church of Australia voted to allow women to become priests. The largest of the dioceses voted against the bill, however, it still received the required two-thirds approval.
- 2004 – The Nintendo DS was released
BIRTHDAYS
- 1694 – Voltaire (Author of Candide)
- 1854 – Pope Benedict XV.
- 1945 – Goldie Hawn (Actress)
- 1963 – Nicollette Sheridan (Actress)
- 1965 – Björk (Icelandic singer-songwriter, producer, actress)
- 1966 – Troy Aikman (NFL Quarterback)
- 1969 – Ken Griffey Jr ((Baseball Player)
DEATHS
- 1899 – Garret Hobart (American lawyer, politician, 24th Vice President of the United States)
- 1959 – Max Baer (American boxer, actor)
- 1970 – C. V. Raman (Indian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1996 – Abdus Salam (Pakistani physicist, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 2012 – Ajmal Kasab (Pakistani terrorist)