1692 – The last of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials are hanged; the remainder of those convicted are all eventually released.
1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published. Up until 1905, the magazine had no photographs at all– It was a text-based scientific journal about geography.
1857 – The Russian warship Lefort capsizes and sinks during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.
1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history. I’m 2015 Queen Elizabeth II stole the title as longest reigning monarch of Britain, having ruled for approximately 62 years thus far.
1960 – The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.
Births
1547 – Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin, German philologist, mathematician, astronomer, and poet (d. 1590)
1878 – Shigeru Yoshida, Japanese politician and diplomat, 51st Prime Minister of Japan
1880 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, the leading militant organization for Women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom, 1903-1917. (d. 1958)
1903 – Joseph Valachi, American gangster, member of the New York-based Genovese crime family. (d. 1971). Known by various aliases, including: “Anthony Sorge”, “Charles Charbano”, and “Joe Cargo”. Valachi was the first American Mafia member to publicly acknowledge the existence of the Mafia, initially through the Valachi hearings as a first-ever government witness to organized crime.
Deaths
1566 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and academic (b. 1494)
1692 – Martha Corey, American woman accused of witchcraft (b. 1620). One of numerous women hung to death in the Salem witch trials.
1776 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (b. 1755)
1852 – William Tierney Clark, English engineer, designed Hammersmith Bridge. Hammersmith Bridge is the suspension bridge crossing the River Thames in west London.