1119 – Charles the Good becomes earl of Flanders
1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreatfrom Wallachia.
1579 – Sir Francis Drake lands on coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it “New Albion”
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
1824 – Bureau of Indian Affairs established
1882 – Tornado kills 130 in Iowa
1885 – Statue of Liberty arrived in NYC aboard French ship `Isere’
1895 – US Ship Canal (W 225th St) in the Bronx completed; cutting Marble Hill off from Manhattan
1898 – US Senate agrees to annex Hawaii
1916 – US troops under Gen Pershing march into Mexico
1928 – Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland to become first woman as a passenger to cross Atlantic in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz
1939 – Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1950 – The first kidney transplant (Chicago)
1970 – Edwin Land patents Polaroid camera
1972 – 5 arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party HQ at Watergate
1981 – Battle between Moslems & Christians in Cairo, 14 killed
1987 – With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1994 – OJ Simpson doesn’t turn himself in on murder charges, LA cops chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours, eventually gives up as seen live on TV
Birthdays
1704 – John Kay, English inventor (d. 1780)
1882 – Igor Stravinsky, Russia, composer (Rite of Spring)
1898 – Maurits C Escher, Dutch graphic artist
1943 – Newt L Gingrich, (Rep-R-G, 1979- /Speaker of House 1995-97)
1945 – Tommy Franks, American General
Deaths
1876 – Harriet Scott, American ex-slave, who with husband Dred Scott unsuccessfully sued for their freedom
