EVENTS
- 1929 – The first demo of a color television.
- 1954 – The world’s first nuclear power plant is activated. The reactor at Obninsk in present-day Russia remained in operation for 48 years. Today, there are some 400 atomic power plants worldwide. The technology remains controversial, especially due to the unsolved long-term storage of the highly dangerous nuclear waste.
- 1956 – The film “Moby Dick” is premiered. John Huston’s adaptation of Herman Melville’s homonymous novel, while not having been a great box office success, is today considered an outstanding work, especially for its use of light and color.
- 1967 – The first ever ATM is installed in London, England.
- 1972 – Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari, Inc.. The pioneering video game and home computer company produced arcade classics like the two-dimensional tennis simulator Pong. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, its products had a large impact on the electronic entertainment industry.
- 1974 – US President Richard Nixon visits the USSR.
- 1985 – The famous road, Route 66, is no longer considered an official highway.
- 1986 – The 1980s U.S. intervention in Nicaragua is declared illegal. The International Court of Justice condemned the U.S. paramilitary campaign to overthrow the left-wing Nicaraguan government. The social democratic Sandinistas had begun to redistribute the country’s wealth and improve education.
- 1991 – Yugoslav troops invade Slovenia. The attack, which marked the beginning of the Ten-Day War, followed Slovenia’s declaration of independence. It was the first of the Yugoslav Wars, a number of ethnic conflicts leading to the break-up of Yugoslavia and resulting in at least 140,000 deaths.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1846 – Charles Stewart Parnell (Irish politician, founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party)
- 1859 – American musician Mildred J (Hill (1859-1916) was born in Louisville, Kentucky
- 1869 – Emma Goldman (Lithuanian/American activist, writer)
- 1880 – Helen Keller (Deaf and blind activist)
- 1886 – Charlie Macartney (Australian cricketer)
- 1927 – Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo)
- 1930 – Ross Perot (Millionaire who ran for US president)
- 1949 – Vera Wang (Designer)
- 1964 – Chuch Person (Basketball Player)
- 1969 – Viktor Petrenko (Ukrainian figure skater)
- 1975 – Tobey Maguire (Actor played Spider Man)
- 1985 – Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russian tennis player)
DEATHS
- 1831 – Sophie Germain (French mathematician, physicist, philosopher)
- 1839 – Ranjit Singh (Indian founder of the Sikh Empire)
- 1844 – Joseph Smith (American religious leader, founder, leader of the Latter Day Saint movement)
- 1999 – Georgios Papadopoulos (Greek colonel, politician, 169th Prime Minister of Greece)
- 2001 – Jack Lemmon (American actor, singer, director)