1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway.
1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground.
1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey
1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled “Who’s to Blame?” in which he lays out his complaints against King George. He is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.
1880 – France annexes Tahiti.
1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
1927 – First test of Wallace Turnbull’s controllable-pitch propeller.
1928 – The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York are both opened.
1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.
1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
Births
1793 – Josef Ressel, Czech-Austrian inventor, invented the propeller (d. 1857)
Paul Klee
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1858 – George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designed the Panama Canal (d. 1928)
1861 – William James Mayo,American physician and surgeon, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939)
1908 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish javelin thrower (d. 1963)
1936 – Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player (d. 2011)
Deaths
1575 – Baba Nobuharu, Japanese samurai (b. 1515)
1852 – Henry Clay, lawyer, politician, 9th US Secretary of State (b. 1777)
1940 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1879)
1990 – Irving Wallace, American author and screenwriter (b. 1916)
2003 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress and singer (b. 1907)