EVENTS
- 54 A .D. – Roman Emperor Claudius died after eating mushrooms poisoned by his wife, the Empress Agrippina.
- 1773 – First Spiral Galaxy Discovered. French astronomer, Charles Messier, discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy. Also known as Messier 51a, the galaxy is about 30 million light-years from Earth. A spiral galaxy is a type of galaxy where stars, gasses, and other cosmic dust particles rotate or revolve in a spiral around a central bulge. Astronomers think that the bulge consists of a black hole.
- 1775 – The United States Navy is established.
- 1792 – Construction begins on the White House.
- 1845 – Texans vote to become a US State.
- 1884 – Greenwich was established as the universal time from which standard times throughout the world are calculated.
- 1923 – Ankara replaces Constantinople as the capital of Turkey.
- 1943 – Italy declared war on its former Axis partner Germany after the downfall of Mussolini and collapse of his Fascist government.
- 1958 – Paddington Bear Makes His Debut. The popular children’s literature character first appeared in English author Michael Bond’s illustrated book, A Bear Called Paddington. Paddington is a polite Peruvian spectacle bear with a special fondness for marmalade. The success of the first book was followed by 20 more books featuring the lovable bear and a successful toy franchise.
- 1983 – The first cell phone network is launched in Chicago.
- 1990 – The first Russian Orthodox service in over 70 years was held in St. Basil’s Cathedral, next to the Kremlin, in Red Square, Moscow.
- 2010 – Chilean Miners Rescued. The last of the miners trapped in the San José copper–gold mine in Copiapó, Chile, were rescued after 69 days. The ordeal began on August 5, 2010, when the walls of the 121-year old mine collapsed and trapped 33 miners. All of the miners were rescued safely by the Chilean government with the help of the international community.
- 2012 – Mauritanian President injured. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was shot at and injured. Oficial reports suggest that he was mistakenly shot by the military.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1754 – Molly Pitcher (1754-1832) was born near Trenton, New Jersey (as Mary Ludwig) (She was a water carrier at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 during the American Revolution (After her husband, artilleryman John Hays, collapsed, she took his place at his cannon.
- 1925 – Margaret Thatcher (British Prime Minister)
- 1941 – Paul Simon (Singer)
- 1947 – Sammy Hagar (Rock Singer)
- 1962 – Jerry Rice (NFL Star Wide Reciever)
- 1969 – Nancy Kerrigan (Olympic Figure Skater)
- 1971 – Sacha Baron Cohen (English comedian, actor, screenwriter)
- 1971 – Billy Bush (TV Host)
- 1973 – Matt Hughes (American mixed martial artist)
- 1980 – Ashanti (Singer)
- 1982 – Ian Thorpe (Australian swimmer)
DEATHS
- 54 C – laudius (Roman emperor)
- 1282 – Nichiren (Japanese monk)
- 1812 – Isaac Brock (English army officer)
- 1911 – Sister Nivedita (Irish social worker, author, teacher)
- 1987 – Kishore Kumar (Indian singer, actor)