EVENTS
- 1792 – The United State Postal Service is established.
- 1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York.
- 1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” is premiered. It is one of the world’s best-known ballets.
- 1913 – Works to build Australia’s capital city commence. Canberra is an entirely planned city and was chosen as the Australian capital as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne.
- 1942 – Edward O’Hare is named America’s first World War II flying ace.
- 1943 – German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel broke through American lines at Kasserine Pass in North Africa as inexperienced U.S. Troops lost their first major battle of World War II in Europe, with 1,000 Americans killed.
- 1944 – U.S. bombers attack German aircraft manufacturing centers, in a bombing campaign that became known as the “Big Week”. The goal was to achieve air superiority to secure the invasion of Europe.
- 1962 – John Glenn is the first American to orbit the earth.
- 1988 – The Nagorno-Karabakh War is triggered by der Autonomous Oblast’s secession from Azerbaijan. Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent state, but the territory is still internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1819 – Alfred Escher (Swiss businessman, politician)
- 1902 – Ansel Adams (Photographer)
- 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt (Artist)
- 1924 – Sidney Portier (Actor)
- 1934 – Bobby Unser (Race Car Driver)
- 1951 – Gordon Brown (Prime Minister of Great Britain)
- 1963 – Charles Barkley (Basketball Player)
- 1966 – Cindy Crawford (Model)
- 1967 – Kurt Cobain (Singer)
- 1988 – Rihanna (Singer)
DEATHS
- 1895 – Frederick Douglass (American author, activist)
- 1961 – Percy Grainger (Australian composer)
- 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini (Italian businessman, created Lamborghini)
- 1996 – Toru Takemitsu (Japanese composer)
- 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson (American journalist, author)