EVENTS
- 1788 – The Steamboat is invented.
- 1790 – Start of the US Supreme Court.
- 1793 – France declares war on the United Kingdom.
- 1884 – The first fascicle of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published. The book contained entries A to Ant.
- 1913 – New York Grand Central Station Opens.
- 1960 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, four African-American students sat down and ordered coffee at a lunch counter inside a Woolworth’s store. They were refused service, but did not leave. Instead, they waited all day. The scene was repeated over the next few days, with protests spreading to other southern states, resulting in the eventual arrest of over 1,600 persons for participating in sit-ins.
- 1968 – Eddie Adams takes one of the Vietnam War’s best-known pictures. The image of the execution of a Vietcong officer in Saigon helped build opposition to the war.
- 1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile. His triumphant return marked the beginning of the Iranian Revolution.
- 2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia crashes.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1552 – Edward Coke (English judge, politician)
- 1878 – Hattie Caraway (1878-1950) the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Bakersville, Tennessee. Her husband became the U.S. Senator from Arkansas. Following his death in 1931, she filled the remainder of his term, then was elected herself, serving a total of 14 years.
- 1895 – Hollywood director John Ford (1895-1973) was born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Known for The Grapes of Wrath and The Searchers, he also served in World War II as chief of the Photographic Unit of OSS, and earned two Academy Awards for documentaries made during the war.
- 1901 – Clark Gable (Actor)
- 1931 – Boris Yeltsin (Russian Leader)
- 1946 – Elisabeth Sladen (English actress)
- 1948 – Rick James (Singer)
- 1967 – Meg Cabot (Author of Princiess Diaries)
- 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley (Daughter of Elvis)
DEATHS
- 1851 – Mary Shelley (English author)
- 1966 – Buster Keaton (American actor, director, producer)
- 1976 – Werner Heisenberg (German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1981 – Geirr Tveitt (Norwegian composer)
- 2002 – Hildegard Knef (German actress)