38 BC – Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.
395 – Upon the death of Emperor Theodosius I, the Roman Empire is permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire under Arcadius, and the Western Roman Empire under Honorius.
1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.
1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.
1950 – The Great Brink’s Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston.
1961 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the “military-industrial complex” as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.
Click here to link and listen to his warning about the “military-industrial complex”
1992 – During a visit to South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
Births
1504 – Pope Pius V (d. 1572)
1706 – Benjamin Franklin, American publisher, inventor, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (d. 1790)
1876 – Frank Hague, American lawyer and politician, 30th Mayor of Jersey City (d. 1956)
1897 – Marcel Petiot, French physician and serial killer (d. 1946)
1899 – Al Capone, American mob boss (d. 1947)
1922 – Betty White, American actress, game show panelist, television personality, and animal rights activist
1927 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (d. 2008)
1928 – Vidal Sassoon, English-American hairdresser and businessman (d. 2012)
1931 – James Earl Jones, American actor
1931 – Douglas Wilder, American sergeant and politician, 66th Governor of Virginia
1931 – Don Zimmer, baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
1933 – Shari Lewis, American actress, puppeteer/ventriloquist, and television host (d. 1998)
1942 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer and activist (d. 2016)
1949 – Andy Kaufman, American actor and comedian (d. 1984)
1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American lawyer, radio host, and environmentalist
Deaths
1705 – John Ray, English botanist and historian (b. 1627)
1888 – Big Bear, Canadian tribal chief (b. 1825)
2007 – Art Buchwald, American journalist and author (b. 1925)
2008 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (b. 1943)