EVENTS
- 1789 – James Madison introduces the Bill of Rights to Congress.
- 1874 – Apache leader Cochise died on the Chiricahua Reservation in southeastern Arizona. After a peace treaty had been broken by the U.S. Army in 1861, he waged war against settlers and soldiers, forcing them to withdraw from southern Arizona. In 1862, he became principal chief of the Apaches. He and 200 followers avoided capture by hiding in the Dragoon Mountains. In June of 1871, Army General George Crook assumed command in Arizona and managed to win the allegiance of many Apaches. Cochise then surrendered. He disappeared briefly in the spring of 1872, but returned and settled on the reservation where he died.
- 1887 – Herman Hollerith gets a patent for the punch card calculator.
- 1937 – Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is premiered. The cantata, especially Orff’s breathless rendition of the medieval poem O Fortuna, has been featured in countless works of popular culture, including The Simpsons, Last of the Mohicans, and Jackass: The Movie.
- 1949 – Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is first published.
- 1972 – Nick Út takes his famous “napalm girl” photo. The Pulitzer Prize-winning image officially entitled “The Terror of War” depicts nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc and other Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. It has become one of the best-known symbols for the indescribable sufferings in armed conflicts.
- 1987 – New Zealand becomes a nuclear-free zone. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 barred any nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from entering the country. New Zealand was the first country to legislate towards a nuclear-free zone in the 1950s.
- 1990 – Czechoslovakia’s first free elections in 44 years.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1867 – American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin
- 1916 – Frances Crick (Molecular Biologist)
- 1921 – Suharto (Indonesian soldier, politician, 2nd President of Indonesia)
- 1957 – Scott Adams (Cartoonist of Dilbert)
- 1958 – Keenan Ivory Wayans (Actor)
- 1966 – Julianna Margullies (Actress)
- 1972 – Lindsay Davenport (Tennis Player)
- 1977 – Kanye West (Rapper)
- 1978 – Maria Menounos (TV Host)
- 1983 – Kim Clijsters (Tennis player)
DEATHS
- 632 – Muhammad (Saudi Arabian prophet)
- 1809 – Thomas Paine (English/American theorist, author)
- 1924 – George Mallory (British mountaineer)
- 1982 – Satchel Paige (American baseball player)
- 2009 – Omar Bongo (Gabonese politician, President of Gabon)