303 – First official Roman edict for persecution of Christians issued
1510 – Pope Julius II excommunicates the Republic of Venice
1839 – Steam shovel patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
1909 – The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
Beginning in 1909, the Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit. Founded by eight Detroit businessmen, among them was department store owner Joseph L. Hudson who mainly funded the venture. Within one year of its founding, Hudson became the eleventh-largest auto company in the U.S. A key to Hudson’s early success was the fairly cheap four-cylinder Essex introduced in 1919.
By 1925, the company was third place in the auto industry behind Ford and Chevrolet. Hudson had the first balanced crankshaft, used in their straight-six cylinder engine, to smooth the idle and allow the engine to rev higher. Other firsts included dual brakes (mechanical brakes kicked in when the pedal traveled lower than the hydraulic brakes’ normal maximum point), and placing oil pressure and generator warning lights in the dashboard.
1924 – Mahatma Gandhi released from jail
1938 – Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles
1949 – V-2/WAC-Corporal first rocket to outer space, White Sands, New Mexico
1977 – President Carter announces US foreign aid will consider human rights
1981 – Britain’s Prince Charles announces engagement to Lady Diana Spencer
1981 – Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet doctor Tarnower
1988 – Supreme Court votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for Hustler parody
1989 – 150-million-year-old fossil egg (oldest dinosaur embryo) found
1989 – Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers $1M-$3M bounty on Salman Rushdie’s death due to his novel, “Satanic Verses”
2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.
Birthdays
1836 – Winslow Homer, US, painter
1917 – William Fairbank, Minneapolis, physicist (superconductivity)
1955 – Alain Prost, Formula One racing driver (Championships: 85, 86, 89, 93)
1955 – Steve Jobs, of Apple (d. 2011)
Wedding
1886 – Inventor Thomas Edison (38) marries 2nd wife Mina Miller (20) in Akron Ohio.
Deaths
1815 – Robert Fulton, steamboat pioneer, dies at 49
1990 – Malcolm Forbes, CEO (Forbes Publishing), dies of a heart attack at 70
2006 – Don Knotts, American actor (b. 1924)
