EVENTS
- 1542 – Explorer Cabrillo first finds Catalina Island off California coast.
- 1765 – The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City with representatives from nine colonies meeting in protest to the British Stamp Act which imposed the first direct tax by the British Crown upon the American colonies.
- 1769 – Captain Cook, an English explorer, discovers New Zealand.
- 1916 – In the most lopsided victory in American college football, Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0.
- 1919 – KLM is formed. The official airline of the Netherlands, Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. or KLM, is the oldest airline that still operates under its original name. The first flight of the airline took place on May 17, 1920 between London and Amsterdam in a leased airplane.
- 1940 – During World War II in Europe, German troops invaded Romania to take seize strategic oil fields.
- 1942 – The establishment of the United Nations War Crimes Commission is made by Britain and the US.
- 1944 – Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando Revolt. The short-lived rebellion was staged by prisoners who worked at a crematorium after they learned that the Nazis planned to execute most of the squad. The revolt was quickly put down, and over 450 people were killed.
- 1949 – The German Democratic Republic came into existence in East Germany. Dominated by Soviet Russia, it lasted until German reunification in 1990.
- 1951 – The third government of Israeli is formed by David Ben-Gurion.
- 1959 – People on Earth Get the First Glimpse of the Dark Side of the Moon. Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 took pictures of the far side of the Moon. The images sent by the probe covered about 70% of the far side of Earth’s natural satellite and they were instrumental in helping astronomers make the first atlas of the dark side of the Moon. The far or dark side of the Moon is the side of the Moon that cannot be seen from Earth because of the way the Moon orbits around the Earth and rotate on its own axis. Due to lunar libration, people on Earth can see about 59% of the Moon over time.
- 1984 – NFL running back Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown’s career rushing record.
- 1985 – Palestinian terrorists seized the Italian passenger ship Achille Lauro carrying about 440 persons, threatening to blow it up if Israel did not free 50 Palestinian prisoners. Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly wheelchair-bound American, was murdered.
- 1996 – The Fox News Channel is introduced.
- 2001 – War in Afghanistan begins. American and British troops began air strikes against Al Qaeda and Taliban targets after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin-Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other Al Qaeda operatives, to the United States. Nicknamed Operation Enduring Freedom, the military strikes were part of the so-called Global War on Terror.
- 2003 – California governor Gray Davis is recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1885 – Niels Bohr (Scientist)
- 1931 – Bishop Desmond Tutu (South African religious leader)
- 1952 – Vladimir Putin (Russian President)
- 1955 – Yo Yo Ma (Cellist)
- 1959 – Simon Cowell (Reality Star and Businessman)
- 1968 – Toni Braxton (Singer)
- 1979 – Shawn Ashmore (Actor – X-Men)
- 1982 – Jermain Defoe (English footballer)
DEATHS
- 1708 – Guru Gobind Singh (Indian guru)
- 1792 – George Mason (American politician)
- 1849 – Edgar Allan Poe (American author, poet)
- 1896 – Emma Darwin (English wife of Charles Darwin)
- 2012 – Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (Mexican drug lord)