Today in History

Summer Olympics come to a close in London.

In New York City, the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public.

An earthquake in Haiti kills an estimated 316,000 people.

Joseph Estrada, former president of the Philippines, is convicted of plunder.

An LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) sniper mortally wounds Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, at the minister’s home.

Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record (311 mph or 501 kph) for commercial railway systems.

Terrorist bombers kill over 200 and wound over 300 more at the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali.

The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v. Gore, effectively ending legal changes to the results of that year’s Presidential election.

Chief of Army Staff Perez Musharraf seizes power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup.

Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.

Ramzi Yousef convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides with a Kazakh Illyushin II-76 cargo plane near New Delhi, killing 349. It is the deadliest mid-air collision to date (2013) and third-deadliest aircraft accident.

Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.

NASA loses contact with the Magellan probe spacecraft in the thick atmosphere of Venus.

Space Shuttle Endeavor takes off on NASA’s 50th shuttle mission; its crew includes the first African-American woman in space, the first married couple, and the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft.

The Russian Federation becomes independent from the USSR.

Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, publishes a formal proposal for the creation of the World Wide Web.

Boris Yeltsin is fired as head of Moscow’s Communist Party for criticizing the slow pace of reform.

Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland; among the 256 dead are 236 members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates at bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; 5 others are killed and 31 wounded.

Harold Washington is elected the first black mayor of Chicago.

Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.

Jennifer Hudson, singer, actress; numerous awards include a Grammy (Jennifer Hudson, 2008), and Oscar, Golden Globe and British Academy awards (Dreamgirls, 2006).

Military coup in Turkey.

South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, acting without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa, alleging that the chief of staff was involved in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.

Tel al-Zaatar massacre at Palestinian refuge camp during Lebanese Civil War.

Steve Biko, a South African activist opposing apartheid, dies while in police custody.

The U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez is seized by Cambodian forces.

G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and two others are convicted of conspiracy and perjury in connection with the Watergate scandal.

Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

As U.S. troops leave Vietnam, B-52’s make their largest strike of the war.

President Richard Nixon announces the withdrawal of about 45,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam by February.

President Richard Nixon announces the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.

President Richard Nixon orders a resumption in bombing North Vietnam.

Sammy Sosa, pro baseball player from Dominican Republic; only MLB player to hit 60 or more home runs in a single season three times, he was denied entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 after as-yet unproven allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs.

The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.

Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American major league umpire.

Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.

Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

Naomi Wolf, activist, author of The Beauty Myth; a leader in what has been described as the third wave of the feminist movement.

Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gold medal-winning Romanian gymnast; named one of the athletes of the century by Laureus World Sports Academy (2000).

The satellite Discoverer XVII is launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB.

The U.S. House of Representatives joins the Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.

Tim Samaras, engineer and storm chaser who contributed to scientific knowledge of tornadoes; killed along with his son Paul and meteorologist Carl Young by a tornado with winds of nearly 300 mph near El Reno, Okla,, in 2013.

The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.

Ante Gotvina, Croatian lieutenant general; convicted in 2011 of war crimes during the Croatian civil war, his conviction was overturned in 2012.

Pat Metheny, multiple-award winning jazz guitarist, including unprecedented 7 Grammys for 7 consecutive recordings.

The Soviets break off diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.

Cathy Rigby, gymnast, actress.

The U.S. Eighth Army in Korea is ordered to cease offensive operations and begin an active defense.

Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramirez Sanches), one of the most infamous political terrorists of the 1970s; currently (2013) serving a life term in France.

Hikedi Tojo, Japanese prime minister, and seven others are sentenced to hang by an international tribunal.

Chris Wallace, former host/moderator of Meet the Press, currently (2013) host of Fox News Sunday; the three-time Emmy winner is the only person thus far to host more than one major Sunday political talk show.

Patricia Hampl, poet and memoirist (A Romantic Education, Virgin Time).

Neil Young, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; member of several well-known bands including Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

The German battleship Tirpitz is sunk in a Norwegian fjord.

Grover Washington Jr, singer, songwriter, musician, producer.

American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Romania for the first time.

Madame Lillian Evanti and Mary Cardwell Dawson establish the National Negro Opera Company.

Dionne Warwick, singer, actress.

In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.

Connie Francis, singer.

Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of books for young readers (Hoops, The Scorpion).

Vice-Admiral John Poindexter, Security Adviser to Pres. Ronald Reagan (Dec 1985–Nov 1986); convicted on 5 felonies arising from the Iran/Contra affair, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor.

Van Cliburn, American concert pianist.

Alcatraz Island is made a federal maximum security prison.

Dick Gregory, comedian and social activist.

Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.

The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.

John Osbourne, playwright and film producer (Look Back in Anger).

Helen Frankenthaler, abstract painter.

Robert Norton Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit.

Brazil quits the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.

Norris and Ross McWhirter, wrote and updated Guinness Book of World Records, 1955–1975; following Ross’ assassination by the IRA, Norris continued writing and updating the Guinness Book until 1985.

George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States (1989-1993).

Adolf Hitler is arrested for his attempted German coup.

Charlotte MacLeod, mystery writer (Rest You Merry, Maid of Honor).

President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp.

Republicans nominate Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.

Adolf Hitler joins German Worker’s Party.

British troops retake Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.

Andrew Wyeth, American painter.

American cavalrymen and Mexican bandit troops clash at Parral, Mexico.

Frank Sinatra, American pop singer and actor.

Jesse Owens, track and field athlete who won four medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Henry Jackson Jr, boxer using the name Henry Armstrong, the only fighter to hold 3 professional boxing titles simultaneously.

Buck Clayton, jazz trumpeter.

Alexander D. Langmuir, epidemiologist, created and led the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service.

British Parliament increases naval appropriations for Great Britain.

Henry Ford‘s first Model T rolls off the assembly line.

Katherine Hepburn, actress (The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen).

Tex Ritter, singer, actor (“Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?”).

Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and political activist (Residence on Earth).

The Lebaudy brothers of France set an air-travel distance record of 34 miles in a dirigible.

Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.

The Anglo-Boer War begins.

The Spanish American War officially ends after three months and 22 days of hostilities.

Lillian Smith, Southern writer and civil rights activist.

Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.

R. Buckminster Fuller, architect and engineer.

Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

Edward G. Robinson, actor famous for gangster roles.

Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher.

Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer.

DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader’s Digest.

Maurice Chevalier, singer, dancer and actor.

In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebel against the Canadian government.

Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor.

Cecil B. DeMille, American film director, producer and screenwriter, famous for epic productions.

Henry L. Mencken, journalist and iconoclast known as the “Sage of Baltimore.”

The British Zulu War begins.

The first catcher’s mask is used in a baseball game.

Jack London, American writer (The Call of the Wild).

Auguste Perret, French architect, pioneer in designs of reinforced concrete buildings.

Apache leader Cochise signs a peace treaty with General Howard in Arizona Territory.

Charles Sumner Greene, architect.

Mount Vesuvius erupts.

Sun Yat-Sen, Chinese revolutionary who founded the Nationalist Party.

The last land battle of the Civil war occurs at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory.

After a week of heavy raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claims six Union ships captured.

Edvard Munch, Norwegian artist (The Scream).

The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.

Fort Sumter is shelled by the Confederacy, starting America’s Civil War.

The first flying-trapeze circus act is performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon.

Adolph Simon Ochs, publisher of The New York Times.

Eugene Atget, French photographer, took over 10,000 photographs documenting Paris.

George Eastman, photography pioneer.

The Tule River War ends.

The gas mask is patented by Lewis P. Haslett.

Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

John Shaw Billings, American librarian, army physician.

Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out on August 25.

Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote The Guilded Age.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter.

Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary, A Simple Heart).

Florence Nightingale, English nurse and hospital reformer.

Chile gains independence from Spain.

Mirza Hoseyn ‘Ali Nuri (Baha’ Ullah), founder of the Baha’i faith.

Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, lawyer and architect.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, political reformer and founder of the Women’s Rights Convention.

Richard March Hoe, who built the first successful rotary printing press.

The first colonists arrive at Cape Disappointment, Washington.

Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies under mysterious circumstances in Tennessee.

The Confederation of the Rhine is established in Germany.

William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist who published The Liberator.

British Admiral Lord Nelson loses his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.

The first fugitive slave law, requiring the return of escaped slaves, is passed.

Black slaves on the island of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.

The United States Post Office is established.

Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.

The British navy wins a major naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.

Robert Mills, architect and engineer whose designs include the Washington Monument, the National Portrait Gallery and the U.S. Treasury Building.

Charleston, South Carolina falls to British forces.

Henry Clay, the “Great Compromiser”, American politician and statesman who ran unsuccessfully for president three times.

Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams

Robert Southey, English poet laureate (1813-1843).

The British soldiers responsible for the "Boston Massacre" are acquitted on murder charges.

Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor

George IV, named Prince Regent in 1810 when his father, George III, is declared insane.

George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley.

John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who negotiated treaties for the United States.

John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Shah Sultan Husayn surrenders the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afgan rebels after a seven month siege.

Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish seaman whose adventures inspired the creation of Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe, is taken off Juan Fernandez Island after more than four years of living there alone.

Admiral Sir George Rooke defeats the French fleet off Vigo.

William III defeats the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.

At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks.

A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.

New Jersey becomes a British colony.

Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.

The chief advisor to Charles I, Thomas Wentworth, is beheaded in the Tower of London

The song “Three Blind Mice” is published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.

England adopts the Union Jack as its flag.

King Henry III flees Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly enters the city.

Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeds his father, Maximillian II, as Holy Roman Emperor.

Richard Hooker, English theologian (Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity).

Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.

Cesare Borgia dies while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre, in Spain.

The Jews are expelled from Syria.

Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas.

Alfonso V of Aragon is crowned King of Naples.

Kublai Khan, the conqueror of Asia, dies at the age of 80.

Suspicious of the intentions of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales, English King Edward I resolves to invade Wales.

Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.

The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.

At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders.

Crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Hungary.

King Canute of Norway dies.

Athenian and Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.

St. Stephen I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman.

Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.