EVENTS
- 1852 – The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg opens to the public. It is one of the world’s largest and oldest museums and was originally founded in 1764.
- 1869 – The biggest gold nugget in history is found. The “Welcome Stranger” was found at Moliagul in Australia and had a calculated refined weight of 71.081 kg.
- 1909 – The world’s first synthetic plastic is developed. Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite at a meeting of the American Chemical Society that day.
- 1917 – The Constitution of Mexico is ratified.
- 1919 – United Artists is founded. Charlie Chaplin was one of the film studio’s founders.
- 1924 – The Greenwich Time Signal is broadcast for the first time. The “BBC pips” are 5 short and 1 long tones that are broadcast by many BBC radio stations to mark the precise start of the hour.
- 1953 – The movie Peter Pan is released by Walt Disney.
- 1958 – The Tybee Bomb is lost.
- 1971 – Apollo 14 lands on the moon.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1840 – John Boyd Dunlop (Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber)
- 1878 – André Citroën (French engineer, businessman, founded Citroën)
- 1900 – Adlai Stevenson (American politician, 31st Governor of Illinois)
- 1919 – Red Buttons (Actor)
- 1934 – Henry Aaron (Baseball Player)
- 1942 – Roger Staubach (Football Player)
- 1969 – Michael Sheen (Welsh actor)
- 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese footballer)
- 1992 – Neymar (Brazilian footballer)
DEATHS
- 1881 – Thomas Carlyle (Scottish historian)
- 1938 – Hans Litten (German jurist)
- 1993 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz (American director, screenwriter, producer)
- 2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Indian guru)
- 2010 – Harry Schwarz (German/South African lawyer, politician, diplomat, 13th South African Ambassador to the United States)