1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
1471 – War of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.
1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland) aboard the See Meeuw.
1675 – King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
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Pope Alexander VI was Pope from August, 1492 until his death. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses |
1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of Francearrives on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60.
1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
1904 – Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England.
1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings:The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Vietnam War.
1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1989 – Iran-Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
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| Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski, aka ‘Unabomber’ |
1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7 mi wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
Births
1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian instrument maker, invented the piano (d. 1731)
1826 – Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
1925 – Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman and philanthropist
1928 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian trumpet player and bandleader
1928 – Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian air marshal, politician, fourth President of Egypt
1928 – Wolfgang von Trips, German race car driver (d. 1961)
1929 – Audrey Hepburn, British actress and humanitarian (d. 1993)
Deaths
1677 – Isaac Barrow, English mathematician and theologian (b. 1630)
1858 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (b. 1773)
1970 – Victims of the Kent State shootings
Allison Krause, American student (b. 1951)
Jeffrey Miller, American student (b. 1950)
Sandra Scheuer, American student (b. 1949)
William Knox Schroeder, American student (b. 1950)
1975 – Moe Howard, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1897) |
