 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1431 – England begins trial against Joan of Arc
1804 – First locomotive, Richard Trevithick’s, runs for first time, in Wales
1862 – Confederate Constitution and presidency are declared permanent
1878 – First telephone book issued, 50 subscribers in Connecticut
1885 – Washington Monument dedicated
1916 – Battle of Verdun in WW I begins and eventually ends with one million casualties
1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1925 – First issue of “New Yorker” magazine published
1931 – Alka Seltzer introduced
1947 – First instant developing camera demonstrated in New York City, by E H Land who founded Polaroid
1972 – Richard Nixon becomes first president to visit China
1975 – John Mitchell, HR Haldeman and John D Ehrlichmansentenced to 2½-8 yrs
1987 – Syrian army marches into Beirut
Birthday
1821 – Charles Scribner, US, music publisher (Scribner Catalog)
1903 – Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
1914 – Arnold S Denker, NY, US chess champion (1944-46)
1924 – Robert Mugabe, president (Zimbabwe, 1988- )
Deaths
1554 –Hieronymus Bock, German doctor (founder of modern botany), dies. He married Eva Victor in 1523, and was a schoolteacher for nine years. He became the prince’s physician and caretaker of the kitchen garden and in 1533 received a life-time position as a Lutheran minister.
The first edition of his Kreutterbuch (literally “plant book”) appeared in 1539 unillustrated; his stated objectives were to describe German plants, including their names, characteristics, and medical uses. Instead of following Dioscorides as was traditional, he developed his own system to classify 700 plants. Bock apparently traveled widely through the German region observing the plants for himself, since he includes ecological and distributional observations. His 1546 Kreutterbuch or “herbal” was illustrated by the artist David Kandel. In the wine world, Bock is noted for having the first documented use of the modern word Riesling in 1552 when it was mentioned in his Latin herbal.
1965 – Malcolm X, black Moslem leader, assassinated in NYC at 39
This list is compiled from many internet and other sources of information including wikipedia, the New York Times, a multitude of websites and old books.
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