1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.
1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
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Margaret Mitchell
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1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
1957 – Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, to Los Angeles.
1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.
1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
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“How the Other Half Lives” Photo by Jacob Riis
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Births
612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (d. 641)
1849 – Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (d. 1914)
1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (d. 1980)
1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (The Weavers and Almanac Singers) (d. 2014)
1940 – David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist
Deaths
1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1933)
2006 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (b. 1921)
2007 – Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923)
2010 – Roy Carrier, American accordion player (b. 1947)