1464 – French King Louis XI forms postal service
1862 – Slavery outlawed in US territories
1864 – CSS “Alabama” sunk by USS “Kearsarge” off Cherbourg, France
1917 – King George V ordered members of British royal family to dispense with German titles & surnames, they take the name Windsor. George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 1910 until his death in 1936
1931 – First photoelectric cell installed commercially West Haven Ct
1936 – German boxer Max Schmeling World Champion KOs Joe Louis
1940 – Hermann Goering orders seizure of Dutch horses, car, buses & ships
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1941 – Cheerios Cereal invents an O-shaped cereal
1947 – 1st plane (F-80) to exceed 600 mph (1004 kph)-Albert Boyd, Muroc Ca
1952 – “I’ve Got A Secret” debuts on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host
1961 – Kuwait declares independence from UK
1961 – US Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland’s constitution requiring state office holders to believe in God
1967 – Paul McCartney admits on TV that he took LSD
2006 – Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial “laying of the first stone” at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway.
2012 – A man is beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery in Saudi Arabia
Birthdays
1301 – Prince Morikuni, Japanese shogun (d. 1333)
1566 – James I Stuart, king of Scotland (James VI)/England (1567/1603-25)
1623 – Blaise Pascal, mathematician/physicist/religious writer (Pascal)
1896 – Wallis Simpson [Duchess of Windsor], Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, American divorcee and wife of Edward VIII (abdicated)
1897 – Moe Howard, [Moses Horowitz], Brooklyn New York, American actor and comedian (The 3 Stooges)
1903 – Lou Gehrig, “Iron Horse”, 1st baseman for NY Yankees (d. 1941)
1940 – Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, drag racer (1st woman Top Fuel champ)
1945 – Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician (Nobel)
1947 – Salman Rushdie, Pak, novelist (Midnight’s Children, Satanic Verses)
1978 – Garfield the Cat, animated character “Big fat hairy deal”
Deaths
1867 – Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro at 34
1953 – Ethel Rosenberg, executed at Sing Sing, in 5 tries
1953 – Julius Rosenberg, NYC, 1st US civilian executed for espionage at 37
2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor, dies from a heart attack at 51