AD 54 – Roman emperor Claudius dies from poisoning under mysterious circumstances.
409 – Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania.
1332 – Rinchinbal Khan becomes the Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan dynasty, reigning for only 53 days.
1710 – Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege by British forces.
1775 – The Continental Congress establishes the Continental Navy.
1792 – In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion, known as the White House since 1818, is laid.
1843 – In New York City, B’nai B’rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded.
1881 – First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.
1884 – The International Meridian Conference establishes the meridian of the Greenwich Observatory as the prime meridian.
1892 – Edward Emerson Barnard discovers first comet discovered by photographic means.
1943 – The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
1976 – The first electron micrograph of an Ebola virus, by Dr. F. A. Murphy, is taken at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1983 – Ameritech Mobile Communications launches the first US cellular network in Chicago.
2010 – The mining accident in CopiapĆ³, Chile ends as all 33 trapped miners arrive at the surface after a record 69 days underground.
2016 – The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations.
![]() |
An early B’nai B’rith membership certificate
|
Births
1713 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish-English painter (d. 1784)
1909 – Art Tatum, American jazz pianist (d. 1956)
Deaths
1938 – E. C. Segar, American cartoonist, created Popeye (b. 1894)
1945 – Milton S. Hershey, American businessman, founded The Hershey Company (b. 1857)