EVENTS
- 1676 – Jamestown, Virginia, was attacked and burned during a rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against the Royal Governor, Sir William Berkeley.
- 1893 – New Zealand became the first country to grant women the right to vote.
- 1944 – The Moscow Armistice ends the Continuation War. The peace treaty was signed between the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and Finland. It put an end to the conflict between the USSR and Finland between 1941 and 1944.
- 1959 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is banned from visiting Disneyland.
- 1973 – Carl XVI Gustaf succeeds his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf as the King of Sweden. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, where the monarch is the ceremonial head of state. In 1980, Swedish law was changed to allow the firstborn of a monarch to become the crown’s heir apparent, irrespective of their gender.
- 1982 – The first record of someone using the emoticon 🙂 on an online bulletin board.
- 1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gain their Independence from the British Crown. The first Europeans set foot on the Island country in the West Indies in the late 15th century during an expedition led by Columbus. In 1713, the control over the islands was passed from the French to the British.
- 1985 – Earthquakes in Mexico City killed an estimated 5,000 to 20,000 persons and left more than 100,000 homeless, causing $4 billion in damage. The quakes registered 8.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale.
- 1994 – The TV show ‘ER’ airs its first episode.
- 1994 – U.S. troops invaded Haiti, with the stated goal of restoring democracy.
- 1998 – Cal Ripken, Jr’s record of playing in 2,632 consecutive baseball games comes to an end.
- 2006 – A military coup overthrows the elected government in Thailand. Forces loyal to General Sonthi Boonyaratglin overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and dissolved the parliament and the constitution.
- 2010 – Oil rig Deepwater Horizon is declared sealed after a 5-month long spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Thought to be one of the biggest accidents in the oil and gas industry, the Deepwater Horizon spill or the BP oil spill began on April 20, 2010, when an explosion destroyed the rig and killed 11 people.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1551 – Henry III (King of France)
- 1802 – Lajos Kossuth (Hungarian journalist, lawyer, politician)
- 1911 – British author William Golding (1911-1993) was born in Cornwall, England. Best known for Lord of the Flies, he received a Nobel Prize in 1983.
- 1928 – Adam West (Actor played Batman)
- 1934 – Brian Epstein (English talent manager)
- 1950 – Joan Lunden (TV Host)
- 1964 – Trisha Yearwood (Singer)
- 1962 – Cheri Oteri (Comedienne)
- 1972 – Ashot Nadanian (Armenian chess player, coach)
- 1974 – Jimmy Fallon (Actor)
DEATHS
- 1881 – James A. Garfield (American politician, 20th President of the United States)
- 1944 – Guy Gibson (English aviator, Victoria Cross recipient)
- 1968 – Chester Carlson ( American physicist, invented Xerography)
- 1985 – Italo Calvino (Italian journalist, author)
- 1995 – Orville Redenbacher (American farmer, businessman)