Today in History

Princess Kritika of Nepal.

Inaugural opening of Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt., a modern library and cultural center commemorating the famed Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity

General Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile, arrested in London for extradition on murder charges

Skye Bridge opens over Loch Alsh, Scotland

A baboon heart is transplanted into 15-day-old Baby Fae–the first transplant of the kind–at Loma Linda University Medical Center, California. Baby Fae lives until November 15.

The college of cardinals elects 58-year-old Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, a Pole, the first non-Italian Pope since 1523.

John Mayer, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; won Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (“Your Body is a Wonderland,” 2003).

Israeli General Ariel Sharon crosses the Suez Canal and begins to encircle two Egyptian armies.

Roy Hargrove, jazz trumpeter; won Grammy Awards for albums in 1998 (Habana) and 2002 (Directions in Music).

Tim Robbins, actor, screenwriter, director, producer; won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Mystic River 2003.

Suzanne Somers, actress (Three’s Company TV series).

Ten Nazi war criminals are hanged in Nuremberg, Germany.

Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General.

Billy the Kid, a ballet by Aaron Copland, opens in Chicago.

Mao Tse-tung decides to abandon his base in Kiangsi due to attacks from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. With his pregnant wife and about 30,000 Red Army troops, he sets out on the “Long March.”

Charles “Chuck” Colson, special counsel to Pres. Richard Nixon (1969-73); one of the “Watergate Seven,” he was sentenced to prison for obstruction of justice.

Dan Pagis, Romanian-born Israeli poet.

Gunther Grass, novelist, playwright, painter and sculptor best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum.

Angela Lansbury, stage, screen, and TV actress

Kathleen Winsor, writer Forever Amber.

The first airplane flight in England is made at Farnsborough, by Samuel Cody, a U.S. citizen.

Cleanth Brooks, Kentucky-born writer and educator.

President Theodore Roosevelt incites controversy by inviting black leader Booker T. Washington to the White House.

William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Eugene O’Neill, Nobel Prize-winning playwright (A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh).

David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman.

Abolitionist John Brown, with 21 men, seizes the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, Va. U.S. Marines capture the raiders, killing several. John Brown is later hanged in Virginia for treason.

Oscar Wilde, dramatist, poet, novelist and critic.

George Washington Wiliams, historian, clergyman and politician.

Ether was first administered in public at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by Dr. William Thomas Green Morton during an operation performed by Dr. John Collins Warren.

Lord Cardigan, leader of the famed Light Brigade.

Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded by guillotine during the French Revolution.

Noah Webster, U.S. teacher, lexicographer and publisher who wrote the American Dictionary of the English Language.

Yale University is founded as The Collegiate School of Kilingworth, Connecticut by Congregationalists who consider Harvard too liberal.

The Protestant martyrs Bishop Hugh Latimer and Bishop Nicholas Ridley are burned at the stake for heresy in England.