1679 – Habeaus Corpus Act (no false arrest & imprisonment) passes in England
1692 – Court of Oyer and Terminer established by Governor of Massachusetts to hear accussations of witchcraft
1703 – St Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Peter the Great
1896 – Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255 & leaving thousands homeless
1905 – Japanese fleet destroys Russian East Sea fleet in Straits of Tushima
1919 – 1st transatlantic flight ends; US Navy flying boat takes 11 days
1921 – After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty
1930 – Richard Drew invents masking tape
1930 – The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1931 – 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplanes, Langley Field Va
1931 – Piccard & Knipfer make 1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon
1936 – RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for NY on maiden voyage
1941 – German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval force
1961 – President Kennedy announces US goal to reach Moon
1977 – New York City fines George Willig 1 cent for each of 110 stories he climbed
1997 – Russian Pres Boris Yeltsin signs a historic treaty with NATO
1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
Birthdays
1774 – Francis Beaufort, admiral/hydrographer (Beaufort wind force scale)
1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, millionaire (B & O railroad)
1836 – Jay Gould, US railroad executive, financier
Folk Hero of the American Old West Wild Bill Hickok (1837)
1837 – “Wild Bill” Hickok, [James Butler], cowboy/scout
1907 – Rachel Louise Carson, biologist/ecologist/writer (Silent Spring)
1915 – Herman Wouk, NYC, novelist (Caine Mutiny, Winds of War)
1923 – Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State (1973-77)/Nobel Peace Prize (1973)
1923 – Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
1923 – Ingeborg “Inge” Morath, Graz Austria, Magnum photographer and wife of Arthur Miller
Anniversaries
1929 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh (27) weds author Anne Morrow (22)
Deaths
1790 – Jeremiah Carlton, laziest man in history, heir to a large fortune at 19 went to bed & stayed there for next 70 yrs, dies at 89
1910 – Robert Koch, German bacteriologist (TB, Cholera, Nobel), dies at 66
1949 – Ropert L Ripley, cartoonist (Believe It or Not), dies at 55 in NY
1991 – Ed Dodd, cartoonist (Mark Trail), dies at 88
2006 – Alex Toth, American cartoonist (b. 1928)
