EVENTS
- 325 – A.D. – The Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of Catholic Church was called by Constantine I, first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire. With nearly 300 bishops in attendance at Nicaea in Asia Minor, the council condemned Arianism which denied Christ’s divinity, formulated the Nicene Creed and fixed the date of Easter.
Council of Nicaea - 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
- 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act opening millions of acres of government owned land in the West to “homesteaders” who could acquire up to 160 acres by living on the land and cultivating it for five years, paying just $1.25 per acre.
- 1873 – A patent for blue jeans with copper rivets is issued to Levi Strauss.
- 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
- 1927 – Charles Lindbergh, a 25-year-old aviator, took off at 7:52 a.m. from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in the Spirit of St. Louis attempting to win a $25,000 prize for the first solo nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. Thirty-three hours later, after a 3,600 mile journey, he landed at Le Bourget, Paris, earning the nickname “Lucky Lindy” and becoming an instant worldwide hero.
- 1932 – Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She departed Newfoundland, Canada, at 7 p.m. and landed near Londonderry, Ireland, completing a 2,026-mile flight in about 13 hours. Five years later, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, she disappeared while trying to fly her twin-engine plane around the equator.
- 1940 – The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp. Auschwitz was the biggest extermination camp during World War II. From 1940 to 1945, the Nazi regime murdered at least 1.1 million people here.
- 1983 – In South Africa, a car bomb planted by anti-Apartheid activists kills 19. The Church Street Bombing was carried out by the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). It was one of the bloodiest chapters in the ANC’s long and difficult struggle against racial segregation and oppression in South Africa.
- 1993 – The last episode of “Cheers” airs on TV.
- 2006 – The Three Gorges Dam is officially opened. The hydroelectric dam is the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity. Despite its benefits, the project remains controversial because it flooded archeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1768 – Dolley Madison (First Lady of the US)
- 1799 – Honoré de Balzac (French author, playwright)
Honoré de Balzac - 1908 – Jimmy Stewart (Actor from It’s a Wonderful Life)
- 1915 – Moshe Dayan (Israeli general, politician, 5th Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel)
- 1944 – Joe Cocker (English singer-songwriter)
- 1946 – Cher (American singer-songwriter, actress, producer, director)
- 1971 – Tony Stewart (Nascar Driver)
- 1972 – Busta Rhymes (Rapper)
- 1993 – Caroline Zhang (Olympic ice skater)
DEATHS
- 1506 – Christopher Columbus (Italian explorer, discovered the Americas)
- 1834 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (French general)
- 1896 – Clara Schumann (German pianist, composer)
Clara Schumann - 2002 – Stephen Jay Gould (American paleontologist)
- 2012 – Robin Gibb (English singer-songwriter, producer)
