EVENTS
- 1732 – Benjamin Franklin begins publication of his Poor Richard’s Almanac.
- 1777 – George Washington’s Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
- 1886 – Sherlock Holmes’ ‘The Adventure of Beryl Coronet’ begins on this date. The short detective story written by Arthur Conan Doyle and featuring detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and assistant Dr. Watson began on this date with the theft of 3 precious crystals from a coronet. The story is the 11th in a series of 12 stories contained in ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’.
- 1946 – War broke out in French Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacked the French seeking to oust them from Vietnam. This marked the beginning of a thirty-year conflict which eventually led to heavy U.S. involvement and ended with a Communist victory in April 1975 after U.S. withdrawal from South Vietnam.
- 1971 – ‘A Clockwork Orange’ released. The dystopian film was directed by Stanley Kubrick and was based on a novella of the same name by British author, Anthony Burgess. Based in a futuristic London, the film opened with critical acclaim, though the centrality of violence in it drew a lot of mainstream criticism. Today, the movie is considered to be one of the best movies of the 20th century.
- 1972 – Apollo 17 returns to Earth. The last mission of the United States’ Apollo program spent 12 days in space and was the first human spaceflight launched at night from the United States. The three-member crew spent more time orbiting the Moon and on the surface of the Moon than during any other Moon landings. It was also the last time humans set foot on Earth’s only natural satellite.
- 1984 – Hong Kong Treaty Signed. Formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, the Sino-British Treaty was signed by Zhao Ziyang of China and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom in Beijing. The treaty decided the fate of Hong Kong as a territory of China from July 1, 1997.
- 1984 – Wayne Gretzky at age 23 is the youngest NHL player to score 1,000 points
- 1997 – The movie ‘Titanic’ based on the ship of the same name, is released. It was the largest grossing movie for 12 years. Avatar surpassed it.
- 1998 – The House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, approving two out of four Articles of Impeachment, charging Clinton with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstr 2012 Election of First female President of South Korea. Park Geun-hye is the eleventh President of South Korea and also holds the distinction of being the first female head of state in Northeast Asia. She assumed office in February 2013. ucting justice.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1790 – British explorer William Parry (1790-1855) was born in Bath, England. He conducted Arctic expeditions and made three attempts to find a Northwest Passage.
- 1875 – Historian Carter Woodson (1875-1950) was born in New Canton, Virginia. He introduced black studies to American colleges and universities. His works included ‘The Negro in Our History’ and ‘The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861’.
- 1906 – Leonid Brezhnev (Leader of the Soviet Union)
- 1915 – Édith Piaf (French singer-songwriter, actress)
- 1967 – Criss Angel (Magician)
- 1972 – Alyssa Milano (Actress)
- 1974 – Ricky Ponting (Australian cricketer)
- 1974 – Jake Plummer (NFL Quarterback)
- 1980 – Marla Sokolof (Actress)
- 1980 – Jake Gyllenhaal (Actor)
DEATHS
- 1848 – Emily Brontë (English novelist)
- 2000 – John Lindsay (American politician, 103rd Mayor of New York City)
- 2008 – Dock Ellis (American baseball player)
- 2009 – Hussein-Ali Montazeri (Iranian theologian, scholar, activist)
- 2012 – Robert Bork (American lawyer, scholar, United States Attorney General)