1184 BC – The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date).
1066 – Halley’s Comet sparks English monk to predict country will be destroyed
1800 – Library of Congress establishes with $5,000 allocation
1833 – Jacob Evert and George Dulty patent first soda fountain
1872 – Volcano Vesuvius erupts
1888 – Eastman Kodak forms
1907 – Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
1908 – Mr and Mrs Jacob Murdock become first to travel across US by car, they leave LA in a Packard and arrive in NYC in 32d-5h-25m
1913 – The Woolworth Building is opened.
1923 – General harbor strike begins in New York City
1950 – Harry Truman denies there are communists in US government
1953 – Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1961 – JFK accepts “sole responsibility” following Bay of Pigs
1962 – MIT sends TV signal by satellite for first time: CA to MA
1967 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland says that the enemy had “gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.”
1968 – Students take over Columbia University
1969 – Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumors he is dead
1980 – US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die
1981 – IBM-PC computer introduced
1990 – Security law violator Michael Milken pleads guilty to 6 felonies
Birthdays
1874 – John Russell Pope, US, architect (Jefferson Memorial)
1904 – Willem De Kooning, Rotterdam Netherland, artist
Anniversaries
1558 – Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland marries French crown prince Francois
1575 – William (the Silent) of Orange marries thirrd wife Charlotte de Bourbon and former French nun
Deaths
1731 – Daniel Defoe, English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), dies at about 70
1942 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)
1947 – Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1873)
1967 – Vladimir M Komarov, cosmonaut (Voshkod I), dies in Soyuz 1 at 40
1974 – Bud Abbott, comedian (Abbott & Costello), dies at 78
1986 – Wallis Simpson [Duchess of Windsor], British King Edward VIII abdicated for her, dies at 89
2004 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com Wikipedia and other internet searches