1430 – Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne and sold to the English
1493 – King Charles VIII and Maximilian I of Austria sign Peace of Senlis
1536 – Pope Paul III installs Portugese inquisition
1568 – The Netherlands declare independence from Spain.
1701 – Captain William Kidd is hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore.
1785 – Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
During his stay in Passy, outside of Paris, Franklin (serving as the American envoy to the Court of Louis XVI) described in a letter dated August 21, 1784 to his close friend and philanthropist George Whatley, “I cannot
distinguish a letter even of large print; but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were: If all the other defects and infirmities were as easily and cheaply remedied, it would be worth while for friends to live a good deal longer…..”
1861 – Virginia citizens vote 3 to 1 in favor of secession from the Union
1867 – Jesse James robs bank in Richmond, Missouri (2 die, $4,000 taken)
1887 – First transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, BC
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This photograph shows H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall Crocker in the ‘Vermont’ at an early stage in the cross-country journey.
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1903 – First automobile trip across US from San Francisco to NY, ended
The trip began after a discussion in a San Francisco men’s club as to the feasibility of a transcontinental auto crossing. H. Nelson Jackson decided to give it a try. He purchased a 1903 Winton touring car, named it “Vermont,” and headed east.
Nelson Jackson hired mechanic Sewall Crocker to accompany him, stocked up on supplies, and took off for New York City. Jackson and Crocker followed trails, rivers, mountain passes, alkali flats, and the Union Pacific Railroad across the West. In Idaho, Jackson acquired Bud, and the bulldog accompanied the pioneering motorists to the East Coast.
When the expedition reached New York, Jackson had spent $8,000 on the trip, including hotel rooms, gasoline, tires, parts, supplies, food, and the cost of the Winton.
The trip took 64 days, including breakdowns, delays while waiting for parts to arrive, and hoisting the Winton up and over rocky terrain and mudholes. Jackson and Crocker’s much-publicized journey caused people to think about the possibilities of long-distance auto travel.
1911 – NY Public Library at 5th Avenue dedicated by President Taft
1939 – Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland
1958 – Mao Tse Tung start “Great leap forward” movement in China
1960 – Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
1962 – Scott Carpenter orbits Earth 3 times in US Aurora 7
1977 – Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals of Watergate wrong doersH R Halderman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell
Birthdays
1707 – Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist and the Father of Taxonomy (d. 1778)
1875 – Alfred P. Sloan, president and chairman of General Motors (d. 1966)
1908 – John Bardeen, US, physicist (transistor, Nobel 1956, 1972)
1910 – Artie Shaw, [Arthur Arshawsky], NYC, bandleader
1910 – Franz Jozef Kline, US expressionist painter
1951 – Anatoli Karpov, USSR, world chess champion (1975-85)
Deaths
1498 – Girolamo Savonarola, dictator of Florence (1494-98), hanged at 45
1752 – William Bradford, English-born printer (b. 1663)
1868 – Kit Carson, American trapper, scout, and Indian agent (b. 1809)
1934 – Bonnie Parker, American outlaw, killed in police ambush at 23
1934 – Clyde Barrow, outlaw, killed in police ambush
1937 – John D Rockefeller, industrialist and philanthropist, dies at 97
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com and many other Google searches