EVENTS
- 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his final voyage.
- 1793 – Construction begins on the US Capitol building. The first cornerstone is set by George Washington.
- 1810 – Chile declared its independence from Spain after 269 years as a colony.
- 1812 – A huge fire in Moscow destroys 90% of the houses and over 1,000 churches.
- 1830 – In a fun race, a horse beats the first U.S. made locomotive.
- 1872 – Oscar II becomes King of Norway and Sweden. He succeeded his brother Charles XV and IV.
- 1934 – USSR joins the League of Nations. It was expelled just a few years later for its aggressive actions towards Finland.
- 1947 – The U.S. Air Force was established as a separate military service.
- 1959 – Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth’s orbit. The geocentric satellite was launched into Earth’s orbit by a Vanguard rocket, built by Glenn L. Martin Company, which is now known as Lockheed-Martin.
- 1965 – Mickey Mantle plays in his 2000th baseball game.
- 1973 – West Germany adopts the Deutsche Mark. This action replaced the East German Mark and helped complete the economic reunification part of the union between East and West Germany.
- 1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is founded. Author Esther Dyson became the first chairperson of the now non-profit organization, which was initially under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2009, the Department of Commerce gave up its control over ICANN, which is responsible for maintaining the Domain Name System (DNS) on the Internet.
BIRTHDAYS
- 53 – Trajan (Roman Emperor)
- 1709 – Samuel Johnson (English author, lexicographer)
- 1905 – Greta Garbo (Actress)
- 1959 – Ryne Sandberg (Baseball Player)
- 1961 – James Gandolfini (American actor)
- 1971 – Jada Pinkett-Smith (Actress)
- 1971 – Lance Armstrong (Cyclist)
- 1973 – James Marsden (Actor – X-Men Movies)
- 1976 – Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)
DEATHS
- 96 – Domitian (Roman emperor)
- 1783 – Leonhard Euler (Swiss mathematician, physicist)
- 1830 – William Hazlitt (English critic, painter)
- 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld (Swedish diplomat, economist, author, 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations, Nobel Prize Laureate)
- 1970 – Jimi Hendrix (American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer)