EVENTS
- 1409 – The council of Pisa opens.
- 1634 – First settlers arrive in Maryland.
- 1655 – Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is discovered.
Titan - 1807 – Slavery is abolished in Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1911 – A raging fire erupted inside a garment factory in New York City killing 123 young women employed as low-paid seamstresses, along with 23 men. The fast-spreading flames engulfed the 8th and 9th floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in lower Manhattan in just a few minutes. About 50 of the victims had jumped to their deaths rather than perish from the flames. The sensational tragedy spurred national interest concerning the rights of mostly-immigrant women workers of the New York garment industry who labored long hours six or seven days a week in cramped, dangerous conditions for about $5 weekly pay.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union begins deporting some 90,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians to some of Russia’s most inhospitable areas. Operation Priboi, also known as March deportation, was designed to weaken the Baltic nationalist movement. Most of the deportees, labeled “enemies of the people” by the Soviet authorities, were women and children.
- 1957 – 6 countries found the European Economic Community. The EEC’s establishment was an important step towards European integration and the creation of the European Union (EU).
- 1975 – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by his nephew. Despite the king’s dying wish that the life of the assassin be spared, Faisal bin Musaid was publicly executed on June 18, 1975.
- 1988 – Thousands of people join the first peaceful demonstrations against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The Candle Demonstration was brutally dispersed by the Police but was the first step towards the Velvet Revolution that resulted in the establishment of democracy in the country.
- 1995 – WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, is launched. Ward Cunningham introduced the wiki, or user-editable website. Today, Wikipedia is the world’s most well known and widely used wiki.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1867 – Arturo Toscanini (Italian conductor)
- 1914 – Norman Borlaug (American agronomist, humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1920 – Howard Cosell (Sportscaster)
- 1940 – Anita Bryant (Singer)
- 1942 – Aretha Franklin (Singer)
- 1943 – Paul Michael Glaser (Actor)
- 1947 – Elton John (Singer)
Elton John - 1965 – Sarah Jessica Parker (Actress)
- 1971 – Sheryl Swoops (WNBA basketball player)
- 1976 – Wladimir Klitschko (Ukrainian boxer)
- 1982 – Danica Patrick (Race car driver)
DEATHS
- 1860 – James Braid (Scottish surgeon)
- 1918 – Claude Debussy (French composer)
Claude Debussy - 1931 – Ida B. Wells (American civil rights activist)
- 1980 – Milton H. Erickson (American psychiatrist)
- 2006 – Buck Owens (American singer-songwriter, guitarist)
