EVENTS
- 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
- 1781 – Formal ratification of the Articles of Confederation was announced by Congress. Under the Articles, Congress was the sole governing body of the new American national government, consisting of the 13 original states. The Articles remained in effect through the Revolutionary War until 1789, when the current U.S. Constitution was adopted.
- 1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established.
Yellowstone National Park - 1873 – Production of the first typewriter begins.
- 1873 – Henry Comstock discovers the Comstock Lode.
- 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity. The French physicist made his groundbreaking discovery while trying to prove his erroneous theory that phosphorescent uranium salts absorb sunlight and reemit it as X-rays.
- 1912 – The first parachute jump is made from a moving airplane.
- 1932 – The son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, is kidnapped.
- 1936 – Hoover Dam is completed.
- 1947 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed. The IMF’s primary goal of improving the economies of its member countries has frequently been overshadowed in the past by criticisms about the fund’s alleged support of dictatorships and negative impact on the environment.
- 1995 – Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated. The company was founded in January 1994 as Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web by Jerry Yang and David Filo.
- 1961 – President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, an organization sending young American volunteers to developing countries to assist with health care, education and other basic human needs.
- 1961 – The Peace Corps is established.
- 1974 – Seven former high-ranking officials of the Nixon White House were indicted for conspiring to obstruct the investigation into the Watergate break-in. Among those indicted; former chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, former top aide John Ehrlichman, and former attorney general John Mitchell.
- 1998 – Titanic, based on the ship of the same name, becomes the first film to gross $1 billion. James Cameron’s epic account of the sinking of the Titanic had a budget of $200 million and grossed over $2 billion in the end.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1445 – Sandro Botticeli (Italian artist)
- 1810 – Frédéric Chopin (Polish pianist, composer)
- 1904 – Glen Miller (Bandleader)
- 1922 – Yitzhak Rabin (Israeli PM)
- 1935 – Robert Conrad (Actor)
Robert Conrad - 1944 – Roger Daltrey (Singer from The Who)
- 1954 – Ron Howard (Actor and Director)
- 1994 – Justin Bieber (Singer)
DEATHS
- 1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi (Ferrarese pianist, composer)
- 1912 – George Grossmith (English actor, singer)
George Grossmith - 1980 – Dixie Dean (English footballer)
- 1983 – Arthur Koestler (Hungarian/English author, journalist)
- 2014 – Alain Resnais (French director, cinematographer, screenwriter)
