1421 - The sea broke the dikes at Dort, Holland, drowning an estimated 100,000 people.
1492 - A contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1521 - Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church after refusing to admit to charges of heresy.
1524 - Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, discovers New York Bay
1534 - Sir Thomas More thrown into London Tower
1793 - Battle of Warsaw
1808 - Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of US ships
1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54ø 40' N
1839 - Guatemala forms republic
1861 - Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union. 8th state to secede
1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia
1864 - Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges
1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination
1875 - "Snooker" (variation of pool) invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain
1895 - Treaty of Shimonoseki signed, ends 1st Sino-Japanese War
1907 - Ellis Island, NY-11,745 immigrants arrive
1924 -
1924, Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer
Company merge to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [H]
1937 - Cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Elmer J Fudd & Petunia Pig, debut
1939 - SN Behrman's "No Time for Comedy," premieres in NYC
1941 - British troop land in Iraq
1941 - Office of Price Administration OPA forms (handled rationing)
1941 - Yugoslavia; surrender to Nazis ending 11 days of futile resistance against the invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner.
1942 - Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp
1943 - Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul
1943 - SS-lt-general Jurgen Stoop arrives in Warsaw
1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
1945 - Mussolini flees from to Milan
1946 - Syria declares independence from French administration
1947 - Jackie Robinson bunts for his 1st major league hit
1951 - NY Yankee Mickey Mantle's 1st game, he goes 1 for 4
1958 - Brussel's (Belgium) World Fair opens
1961 - 33rd Academy Awards - "Apartment," Burt Lancaster & Liz Taylor win
1961 - About 1,200 CIA-trained and financed Cuban exiles began what was to end as the ill-fated "Bay of Pigs"
invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
[H]
1964 - Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Mustang. ($2368 base)
1964 - Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world.
1969 - Czechoslovakia's Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek (considered the architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring) is deposed by Russian tanks and troops
1969 - A jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 - Apollo 13 limps back safely. Two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Mission commander Lovell reported to mission control on Earth: "Houston, we've had a problem here
1974 - Ted Bundy victim Susan Rancourt disappears from CWU, Ellensburg, WA
1975 - Phnom Penh falls to Communist insurgents, ending Cambodia's 5-year war
1978 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Carl Sagan for "Dragons of Eden"
1983 - In Warsaw, police route 1,000 Solidarity supporters
1986 - IBM produces 1st megabit-chip
1986 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Larry McMurtry for "Lonesome Dove"
1989 - Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $245 per week
1989 - Polish labor union Solidarity was granted legal status after nearly a decade of struggle and suppression, clearing the way for the downfall of Poland's Communist Party.
1991 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, at 3004.46. Experts hailed it as forecasting an end to the recession.
1992 - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee the modest pace of economic expansion wasn't adequate, a remark interpreted as a signal he might cut interest rates further.
1993 - A federal court jury convicted two Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King's civil rights in the black motorist's 1991 arrest and beating. Two other officers were acquitted.
1996 - A jury in
Los Angeles opted to spare Erik and Lyle Menendez the death penalty,
recommending that the brothers instead serve life in prison without parole for
gunning down their wealthy parents.
1997 - House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced that former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, would lend him $300,000
to pay his fines after the Georgia Republican admitting to using tax-exempt donations for political activities.
2000 - With an eye toward China, the Clinton administration decided not to sell Taiwan all the weapons it had requested.
2001 - Giants slugger Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer ever to reach 500 career home runs.
2001 - Mississippi voters, by a 2-1 margin, decided to keep their state flag, which includes the Confederate battle cross in the upper left-hand corner.
Birthdays
Today
1539 - Tobias Stimmer, Swiss
painter/cartoonist (Comedia)
1586 - John Ford, English dramatist ('Tis Pity She's a Whore)
1622 - Henry Vaughan, English poet (Silex Scintillans)
1699 - Robert Blair, Scottish poet (Grave)
1837 - J.P. (John Pierpoint) Morgan (financier) US banker/CEO (US Steel)
1882 - Artur Schnabel, Lipnik Austria, pianist (Beethoven Piano Sonatas)
1885 - Karen Blixen-Finecke, [Isak Dinesen], Danish writer (Out of Africa)
1894 - Nikita Khrushchev (U.S.S.R. premier [1958 - 1964] 1st secretary USSR
[1953-64] )
1897 - Thornton Wilder (Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist: The Bridge of San Luis
Rey [1928] and playwright: Our Town [1938], The Skin of Our Teeth [1943])
1903 - Gregor Piatigorsky, Ekaterinoslav Russia, cellist
1918 - William Holden (Beedle, Jr.) (Academy Award-winning actor: Stalag 17
[1953], Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Born
Yesterday, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Casino Royale, Moon is Blue, Network, Picnic,
Sunset Boulevard, The Towering Inferno, The World of Suzie Wong)
1923 - Harry Reasoner (newsman: Sixty Minutes, CBS Sunday Night News with Harry
Reasoner, ABC News with Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters)
1923 - Lindsay Anderson (director: This Sporting Life, The Whales of August,
Glory! Glory!, Britannia Hospital, If..., O Lucky Man!)
1923 - Solly (Solomon) Hemus (baseball)
1928 - Cynthia Ozick, US, author (Pagan Rabbi & Other Stories)
1930 - Chris Barber (musician: trombone, bandleader: Petite Fleur; appeared in
film: Look Back in Anger)
1930 - Genevieve (Ginette Auger) (actress)
1932 - Graziella Sciutti, Italian opera singer
1933 - Sherm Plunkett (football)
1934 - Don Kirshner (music publisher: Aldon Music with Al Nevins, Brill Building
mogul: Screen Gems Music: started Bubblegum music fad with creation of The
Monkees)
1934 - Warren Chiasson (jazz musician)
1935 - Lamar Lundy (football)
1937 - Daffy Duck, animated character
1943 - Dennis Hextall (hockey: son of Hockey Hall of Famer, Bryan A. Hextall)
1944 - Bobby Curtola (singer)
1949 - Monroe Eley (football)
1950 - Pedro Garcia (baseball)
1951 - Olivia Hussey, Buenos Aires, actress (Romeo & Juliet, Death on Nile)
1956 - "Sugar" Ray Charles Leonard, Wilming, boxer (Oly-gold-1976)
1961 - Boomer (Norman) Esiason (football player: QB NY Jets; Cincinnati Bengals
QB: Super Bowl XXIII)
Famous
deaths
0485 - Proclus, Greek
mathematician, dies in Athens
1272 - Zita/Cita, Italian maid/saint, dies at about 59 dies
1630 - Christian I, ruler of Anhalt-Bernburg (battle of White Mt), dies
1679 - John van Kessel, Flemish painter, dies at 53
1790 - Benjamin Franklin, US inventor, publisher, (Poor Richard's Almanac),
statesman dies at 84 [H]
1838 - J Schopenhauer, writer, dies at 71
1945 - Hannie Schaft, "Girl with red hair," executed
1945 - Walter Model, German fieldmarshal, commits suicide at 54
1983 - Mark W Clark, US general (WW II), dies at 87
1987 - Dick Shawn, comedian (Producers), dies on stage at 57
1990 - Ralph David Abernathy, US civil rights leader, dies 69
1997 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (1983-93), dies at 78
