EVENTS
- 1527 – The Renaissance ended with the Sack of Rome by German troops as part of an ongoing conflict between the Hapsburg Empire and the French Monarchy. German troops killed over 4,000 Romans, imprisoned the Pope, and looted works of art and libraries. An entire year passed before order could be restored in Rome.
Sack of Rome - 1816 – The American Bible Society is founded.
- 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public.
- 1937 – The Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute.
- 1940 – John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel The Grapes of Wrath.
- 1954 – Roger Bannister is the first to run the mile in under four minutes.
- 1976 – A massive earthquake hits northeast Italy. 939 people died and 157,000 were left homeless in Italy’s worst earthquake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale.
- 1994 – The Channel Tunnel linking the United Kingdom with France is opened. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurated the “Chunnel”. It measures just over 50 km (31 mi) and is the tunnel with the world’s longest undersea portion.
- 2004 – The last episode of the TV show “Friends” airs.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1758 – Maximilien Robespierre (French Revolutionary)
- 1856 – Robert Peary (North Pole explorer)
- 1856 – Sigmund Freud (Psychiatrist)
Sigmund Freud - 1895 – Rudolph Valentino (Actor)
- 1915 – Orson Welles (Actor)
- 1931 – Willie Mays (Baseball Player)
- 1945 – Bob Segar (Musician)
- 1953 – Tony Blair (Prime Minister of Brittain)
- 1955 – Tom Bergeron (TV Host)
- 1961 – George Clooney (Actor)
- 1985 – Chris Paul (Basketball Player)
DEATHS
- 1859 – Alexander von Humboldt (German geographer, explorer)
- 1862 – Henry David Thoreau (American writer, philosopher)
- 1919 – L. Frank Baum (American author)
- 1952 – Maria Montessori (Italian physician, educator)
Maria Montessori - 1992 – Marlene Dietrich (German/American actress, singer)
