EVENTS
- 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence.
- 1846 – The United States declares war on Mexico.
- 1909 – The Giro d’Italia cycle race is held for the first time. The Giro is considered one of the world’s most important cycle races. Luigi Ganna won the first edition, which went from Milan to Naples and back.
Giro d’Italia 1909 - 1940 – Igor Sikorsky pilots his VS-300 helicopter’s maiden flight. The helicopter was the first successful model to use the single vertical tail rotor that most helicopters feature today.
- 1943 – During World War II in North Africa, over 250,000 Germans and Italians surrendered in the last few days of the Tunis campaign. British General Harold Alexander then telegraphed news of the victory to Winston Churchill, who was in Washington attending a war conference. The victory re-opened Allied shipping lanes in the Mediterranean.
- 1950 – First Formula One Grand Prix race is held.
- 1976 – The ABA plays it’s final basketball game.
- 1981 – Pope John Paul II was shot twice at close range while riding in an open automobile in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Two other persons were also wounded. An escaped terrorist, already under sentence of death for the murder of a Turkish journalist, was immediately arrested and was later convicted of attempted murder. The Pope recovered and later held a private meeting with the would-be assassin and then publicly forgave him.
- 1989 – Thousands of students begin a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The non-violent occupation of the square was part of anti-corruption and pro-democracy demonstrations. Some 3000 unarmed civilians were killed when the army cracked down on the protesters on June 3-4, 1989.
- 2005 – The final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise airs on TV.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1717 – Maria Theresa (Austrian wife of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor)
Maria Theresa - 1842 – Arthur Sullivan (English composer)
- 1914 – Joe Louis (Boxer)
- 1939 – Harvey Keitel (Actor)
- 1941 – Ritchie Valens (Singer)
- 1950 – Stevie Wonder (Singer)
- 1961 – Dennis Rodman (Basketball Player)
- 1964 – Steven Colbert (Comedian)
- 1986 – Robert Pattinson (Actor from Twilight)
DEATHS
- 1832 – Georges Cuvier (French biologist)
Georges Cuvier - 1930 – Fridtjof Nansen (Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1975 – Bob Wills (American singer-songwriter)
- 1977 – Mickey Spillane (American mobster)
- 2001 – R.K. Narayan (Indian author)
