EVENTS
- 1936 – Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication. In this landmark paper, the British computer pioneer described the Turing Machine and defined the inherent limits of computation.
Alan Turing - 1937 – Volkswagen (VW) is founded. The automobile manufacturer whose name means “People’s Car” in German is one of the world’s biggest. It produced classics like the VW Golf and the VW Beetle.
- 1937 – Neville Chamberlain becomes British Prime Minister.
- 1940 – Belgium surrenders to Germany in WWII.
- 1961 – Amnesty International was founded by London lawyer Peter Berenson. He read about the arrest of a group of students in Portugal then launched a one-year campaign to free them called Appeal for Amnesty. Today Amnesty International has over a million members in 150 countries working to free prisoners of conscience, stop torture and the death penalty, and guarantee human rights for women.
- 1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed.
- 1987 – Mathias Rust lands on the Red Square in Moscow. The 19-year old West German amateur pilot illegally landed his Cessna in the heart of the Russian capital at the height of the Cold War.
- 1998 – Pakistan detonates five atom bombs. The nuclear tests came as a response to India’s tests just days earlier. Fearing a devastating conflict between the two nuclear powers, a number of countries, including the U.S. and Japan, imposed economic sanctions.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1660 – George I (King of Great Britain)
- 1759 – William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was born at Hayes, Kent, England
- 1883 – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Indian politician)
- 1888 – Jim Thorpe (Native American star athlete)
Jim Thorpe - 1908 – Ian Flemming (Author of James Bond novels)
- 1923 – György Ligeti (Romanian/Austrian composer)
- 1944 – Gladys Knight (Singer)
- 1944 – Rudolph Giuliani (Mayor of New York City)
- 1945 – John Fogerty (Singer)
- 1964 – Phil Vassar (Singer)
- 1968 – Kylie Minogue (Singer )
DEATHS
- 1843 – Noah Webster (American lexicographer, author)
- 1849 – Anne Brontë (English author, poet)
Anne Brontë - 1937 – Alfred Adler (Austrian psychologist)
- 1972 – Edward VIII (of the United Kingdom)
- 2014 – Maya Angelou (American author, poet, actress, director)
