EVENTS
- 1909 – The Indianapolis 500 race track opens for the first time.
Indianapolis 500 rage - 1919 – Afghanistan gains independence From the United Kingdom. The Central Asian country came under British control in 1859, The country was considered to be a buffer for the British trade in opium and as a frontier to protect their interests in India. Despite trying several times to consolidate their rule over Afghanistan, the Afghan people remained hostile to British control and in 1919, King Amanullah declared Afghanistan to be independent from Britain’s protection. The declaration launched a war called the Third Anglo-Afghan War, which ended with the signing of the Rawalpindi Treaty on this day. The treaty granted Afghanistan independence from the British.
- 1934 – In Germany, a plebiscite was held in which 89.9 percent of German voters approved granting Chancellor Adolf Hitler additional powers, including the office of president.
- 1945 – Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
- 1960 – Sputnik 5 is launched by USSR. The Soviet spacecraft carried two dogs, Strelka and Belka, who became the first living beings to survive in space.
- 1964 – World’s first geostationary satellite is launched. Syncom 3, a communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. A geostationary satellite is a manmade object that follows the Earth’s rotation around its axis. Because of this, it looks like it is not moving in the sky for observers on Earth. Like all geostationary satellites, Syncom 3 was placed in orbit about 22,00 miles from Earth, above the Equator and near the International Date Line. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were broadcast to the United States with the help of this satellite.
- 1978 – A fire at the Rex Cinema in Abadan, Iran, kills over 400 people. The incident which is considered to be a run-up to the Iranian Revolution occurred during the screening of “The Deers”, a film by Iranian director Masoud Kimiai. It is thought that 4 extremists locked the gates of the theater and set it on fire. Many people at the time believed that the fire was started by SAVAK, the Iranian intelligence agency.
- 1990 – Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert.
- 1991 – Race riots break out in the Crown Heights area of New York city. The violent race riots broke out between African-American and Orthodox Jewish residents of Crown Heights after 2 children were accidentally run down by the motorcade of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a leader of the Orthodox Jews. This resulted in a 3-day long riot that ended in the death of 2 men and several injuries.
- 1991 – Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev is overthrown by a coup.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1871 – Orville Wright (Airplane Inventor)
Orville Wright - 1883 – Coco Chanel (French fashion designer, founded the Chanel Company)
- 1919 – Malcolm Forbes (American publisher)
- 1931 – Willie Shoemaker (Horse racing jockey)
- 1942 – Fred Thompson (American politician, actor)
- 1946 – Bill Clinton (42nd US President)
- 1963 – John Stamos (Actor)
- 1965 – Kyra Sedgwick (Actor)
- 1966 – Lee Ann Womack (Singer)
- 1969 – Matthew Perry (Actor)
DEATHS
- 14 – Augustus (Roman emperor)
- 1895 – John Wesley Hardin (American outlaw, gunfighter)
John Wesley Hardin - 1936 – Federico García Lorca (Spanish poet, playwright, director)
- 1977 – Groucho Marx (American comedian, actor)
- 1994 – Linus Pauling (American chemist, activist, Nobel Prize laureate)
