- 1521: Hernando Cortes, Spanish conqueror, captured and destroyed
                  Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) after a three month siege.
                - 1608: John Smith's story of the Jamestown Colony's first days was
                  submitted for publication.
                - 1624: Cardinal Richelieu was appointed Chief Minister of France by
                  Louis XIII.
                - 1642: Astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered the south polar cap
                  on Mars.
                - 1704: French and Bavarian forces were routed by a combined British,
                  German and Dutch army at Blenheim, Germany. The victors lost 6,000
                  soldiers compared with 21,000 French and Bavarian troops.
                - 1788: Prussia joined an Anglo-Dutch alliance to form the Triple
                  Alliance to prevent the spread of the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-90.
                - 1792: Revolutionaries imprisoned the French royal family, including
                  Marie Antoinette.
                - 1814: The Cape of Good Hope was formally ceded to the British by
                  the Dutch.
                - 1868: A series of earthquakes began in Peru and Ecuador which
                  killed about 25,000.
                - 1889: William Gray patented a coin-operated telephone.
                - 1898: U.S. forces under George Dewey captured Manila during the
                  Spanish-American war after a three month blockade of Manila Bay.
                - 1899: Film director Alfred Hitchcock was born in London.
                - 1907: The first taxi cab began picking up passengers in New York
                  City.
                - 1914: France declared war on Austria-Hungary, leading to World
                  War I. Carl Wickman began Greyhound, the first U.S. bus line, in
                  Minnesota.
                - 1923: The U.S. Steel Corp. initiated the eight-hour work day.
                - 1961: The border between East and West Berlin was closed at the
                  Brandenburg Gate, heralding the construction of the Berlin Wall.
                - 1995: Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at age 63.

                *Happy Birthday*
                ----------------
                - Kathleen Battle, 50, opera soprano
                - Danny Bonaduce, 39, actor/radio show host, "The Partridge Family"
                - Fidel Castro, 72, Cuban dictator since 1959
                - Dr. Jocelyn Elders, 65, ex-U.S. Surgeon General
                - Pat Harrington Jr., 69, actor/comedian
                - Don Ho, 68, Hawaiian singer "Tiny Bubbles"
                - Betsy King, 43, golfer, 1990 Dinah Shore, 1990 U.S. Women