365 – A tsunami devastates Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake, which was estimated to be magnitude 8.5 or higher. Five thousand people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city.
1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty established the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO), created to unify Western European powers and solidify the West’s holdings against the Soviet Union and its various satellite states. Founding members include Belgium, Canada, the United States, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. NATO constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by an external party.
The Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump has recently raised questions about his commitment, if elected, to honor those agreements.
1972 – Bloody Friday: The Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130.
1983 – The world’s lowest temperature for an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
Births
1816 – Paul Reuter, a German-English journalist, founded Reuters (d. 1899)
1899 – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961).
Deaths
2004 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor (b. 1929)
2014 – Dan Borislow, an American businessman, invented the magicJack (b. 1961)
2015 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright (b. 1931)