- 1697: St. Paul's Cathedral opened in London.
- 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France in Paris by
Pope Pius VII.
- 1816: The first savings bank in the United States, the Philadelphia
Savings Fund Society, opened.
- 1823: U.S. President James Monroe introduced his "Monroe Doctrine"
under which it was held that the American continents were not to
open to future colonization by any European power.
- 1859: John Brown, an American anti-slavery campaigner, was hanged
after an abortive raid on the federal arsenal in Virginia.
- 1859: Georges Seurat, the French artist and founder of the school
of neo-impressionism, was born.
- 1887: Charles Dickens' first public reading took place in U.S. in
New York City.
- 1901: King Camp Gillette patented the first safety razor, which had
a double-edged disposable blade.
- 1908: Pu Yi (Hsuan-T'ung) became China's last emperor at age 3.
- 1927: Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile, the
successor to its Model T; it sold for $385.
- 1932: "The Adventures of Charlie Chan" was first heard on the
NBC-Blue radio network.
- 1933: The first transatlantic telephone wedding took place as
Bertil Clason of Detroit wed Sigrid Carlson of Stockholm, Sweden.
- 1933: Fred Astaire's first film, "Dancing Lady," was released. His
dancing partner for the movie was Joan Crawford.
- 1939: New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an
airliner from Chicago landed at 12:01 a.m.
- 1942: The world's first nuclear chain reaction took place at the
University of Chicago.
- 1952: Denver's KOA-TV transmitted the first human birth to be seen
on TV. It was a part of the program "The March of Medicine."
- 1954: Sen. Joseph McCarthy was condemned by the U.S. Sperenate for
misconduct after his ruthless investigations of thousands of
suspected communists.
- 1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast
speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and would lead Cuba to
communism.
- 1968: President Nixon named Henry Kissinger security advisor.
- 1969: The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191
people, most of them reporters and photographers, flew from Seattle
to New York City.
- 1970: The Environmental Protection Agency began operating under its
first director, William Ruckelshaus.
- 1971: The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Mars 3 landed on Mars.
- 1982: The first permanent artificial heart was implanted in Dr.
Barney Clark, a Seattle dentist, by Dr. William De Vries at the
University of Utah.
- 1990: After German reunification, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
coalition won Germany's first free all-German elections since 1932.
- 1991: Joseph Cicippio, U.S. hostage in Lebanon, was freed after
being held for 1,906 days by the Revolutionary Justice
Organization. He was kidnapped on Sept. 12, 1986.
- 1994: "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was convicted in Los Angeles
of three counts of pandering.
*Happy Birthday*
----------------
- Tracy Austin, 36, youngest tennis player (aged 16) to win $1 million
and U.S. Open
- Dan Butler, 44, actor, "Frasier"
- Gerry Cheevers, 58, former NHL goalie, owns longest undefeated
streak (32 games)
- Dennis Christopher, 43, actor, "Breaking Away," "Chariots of Fire"
- Cathy Lee Crosby, 50, actress, former TV host, "That's Incredible"
- Alexander Haig, 74, former presidential aide and Cabinet member
- Julie Harris, 73, actress, "Knots Landing," "Gorillas in the Mist"
- Michael McDonald, 46, singer/musician, The Doobie Brothers
- Stone Phillips, 44, "Dateline" anchor
- Monica Seles, 25, tennis player