1527 – Spanish and German Imperial troops sack Rome; ending Renaissance
1626 – Dutch colonist Peter Minuit ‘buys’ Manhattan Island
1753 – French King Louis XV observes transit of Mercury at Mendon Castle
1833 – John Deere makes first steel plough
1835 – James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald (price 1 cent).
1840 – First postage stamps (Penny Black) issued in Great Britain
1861 – Arkansas and Tennessee secede from US
1914 – British House of Lords rejects women suffrage
1937 – German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey
1938 – Dutch writer Maurits Dekker sentenced to 50 days for “offending a friendly head of state” who happened to be Adolf Hitler
1940 – Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck for Grapes of Wrath
1941 – Joseph Stalin becomes premier of Russia
1957 – Pulitzer prize awarded to John F. Kennedy for Profiles in Courage
1987 – Gary Hart denies affair with model Donna Rice
1996 – The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed upon a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2013 – The Senate passes a bill enabling taxing of online sales
Birthdays
1829 – Phoebe Ann Coffin, First female ordained minister in New England
1856 – Robert Edwin Peary, US, arctic explorer (North Pole-Apr 6 1909)
1856 – Sigmund Freud, Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia, Austrian neurologist and father of psychology, (d. 1939)
1895 – Rudolph Valentino, Castellaneta Italy, sheik/actor (Eagle)
1903 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (d. 1977)
1915 – George Perle, Bayonne New Jersey, composer (12 Tone Tonality)
1915 – Orson Welles [George], Kenosha Wisc, actor (Citizen Kane, War of the Worlds), (d. 1985)
1915 – Theodore H White, historian/writer (Making of President)
1916 – Adriana Caselotti, animation voice (Show White)
1931 – Willie Mays, Westfield Alabama, baseball centerfielder (Giants, NY Mets), “Say Hey Kid” (660 HRs, MVP 1954)
anniversaries
1950 – Elizabeth Taylor (18) marries for the first time to hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton (23)
Deaths
1124 – Balak, Emir of Aleppo, murdered
1502 – James Tyrrell, alleged murderer of the Princes in the Tower (executed)
1642 – Frans Francken, the Younger, Flemish painter, dies on 61st birthday
1862 – Henry David Thoreau, writer/pacifist (Walden Pond), dies at 44
1864 – Micah Jenkins, Confederate brig-general (friendly fire), dies at 28
1987 – William J Casey, director of CIA (1981-87), dies at 73
1992 – Marlene Dietrich, [Maria Losch], actress (Angel), dies in Paris at 90
|
|
