1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France. The remains of the meteorite were later put on display in the main hall of Ensisheim’s 16th-century Regency Palace.
1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
1837 – In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
1874 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.
1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.
1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Morehouse. A unique new market opportunity arrived in the mail in 1910.
The Wright Brothers received an unsolicited letter from Max Morehouse, a Columbus, Ohio department store owner inquiring “how much will you charge to bring a roll of silk ribbon from your city to our establishment?”
This inquiry led to a contract between Morehouse and the Wright Exhibition Company to fly 200 pounds of silk worth $800 from Dayton to Columbus.
There were few navigational aids to guide flight in those days, so Orville gave the pilot a map of a railroad track to follow to Columbus, which he fastened to a wing strut for ease of viewing.
Click here to watch some early footage of the Wright Brothers in action
1914 – The first issue of The New Republic is published.
1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
1933 – Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
1940 – In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge’s completion.
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as president
1967 – Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
1989 – David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected Mayor of New York City.
Births
1728 – James Cook, English captain, navigator, and cartographer (d. 1779)
1832 – Andrew Dickson White, American historian, academic, and diplomat, co-founded Cornell University (d. 1918)
1879 – Leon Trotsky, Politician, founded the Red Army (d. 1940)
1903 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1926 – Joan Sutherland, Australian-Swiss soprano (d. 2010)
Deaths
1962 – Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian and politician, 39th First Lady of the United States (b. 1884)
2011 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (b. 1944)