EVENTS
- 1431 – The trial against Joan of Arc begins. She was executed on May 30, 1431, exonerated in 1456, and canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.
- 1768 – Philip Astley opens the world’s first modern circus. The British equestrian, who is considered the father of modern circus, opened a riding school in London where he also performed tricks for an audience in the afternoons.
- 1788 – Connecticut becomes an American state.
- 1793 – First balloon flight.
- 1861 – The first shots of the American Civil War are fired. The steamer, Star of the West, was fired upon by the Confederates as it attempted to enter Charleston Harbor.
- 1916 – The Battle of Gallipoli ends. The Gallipoli Campaign during World War I ended with the victory of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1951 – The United Nations opens in Manhattan. It began in 1946.
- 1960 – With the first blast of dynamite, construction work began on the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in southern Egypt. One third of the project’s billion-dollar cost was underwritten by Soviet Russia. The dam created Lake Nasser, one of the world’s largest reservoirs, at nearly 2,000 square miles and irrigated over 100,000 acres of surrounding desert. The dam was opened in January of 1971 by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and President Nikolai Podgorny of the Soviet Union.
- 2005 – The second Sudanese War ends. As an outcome, Southern Sudan is granted autonomy; in 2011, South Sudan becomes an independent nation.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1859 – Carrie Lane Chapman (1859-1947) was born in Ripon, Wisconsin. She was the women’s rights pioneer who founded the National League of Women Voters in 1919.
- 1890 – Kurt Tucholsky (German journalist)
- 1913 – Richard M. Nixon (37th US President)
- 1922 – Ahmed Sékou Touré (Guinean politician, 1st President of Guinea)
- 1935 – Bob Denver (Actor from Gilligan’s Island)
- 1941 – Joan Baez (Singer)
- 1945 – Jimmy Page (Musician with Led Zeppelin)
- 1951 – Crystal Gale (Country Singer)
- 1978 – A. J. McLean (Singer Backstreet Boys)
- 1982 – Kate Middleton (Married to the Prince of Wales)
DEATHS
- 1324 – Marco Polo (Italian explorer)
- 1873 – Napoleon III (French politician, 1st President of France)
- 1908 – Abraham Goldfaden (Russian actor, playwright, author)
- 1908 – Wilhelm Busch (German poet, painter, illustrator)
- 2014 – Amiri Baraka (American poet, actor, activist)