1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas. It was called The Theatre of the World, he was also the first person to believe all the land masses on the planet were at one point joined together.
1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day. She wrote in local newspaper columns promoting flying.
1983 – First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and medicine in 2008 for the discovery.
Birthdays
1726 – Francis Cotes was born was born in London. He became a painter and became one of the most fashionable painters of his day.
1908 – James Stewart was born in Indiana, US. He became an actor and has starred in many films, he also received a lifetime achievement award.
1946 – Cher was born as Cherilyn Sarkisian in California. She became a singer and an actress and has won many awards. She has also broken many records including having a song at number 1 in the billboard chart for the previous six decades.
1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour. It is the highest decoration France.
1897 – Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol Prison. He had been convicted of gross indecency and the prison sentence took its toll on him.
Birthdays
1945 – Peter Townshend was born in London. He became a member of the band The Who and was the guitarist and song writer of the group. He is also an author of newspaper and magazine articles.
1948 – Grace Jones was born in St Catherine, Jamaica. She became a singer and actress; she started her career as a model and was much photographed by Andy Warhol.
1953 - Victoria Wood was born in Lancashire, UK. She became a comedian with a talent for writing and song writing; she started on her career in the talent show New Faces.
1756 – The Seven Years’ War begins when Great Britain declares war on France. It turned into a global war with all the major players at the time being involved.
1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley. It is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years.
2005 A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons: Nix and Hydra. It has four moons with the largest being Charon.
Birthdays
1909 – Fred Perry was born in Stockport, UK. He became a tennis player and won 10 major tournaments and was the world number 1 for four years.
1920 – Pope John Paul II was born as Karol Józef Wojtyła in the Republic of Poland. He became Pope in 1978 and remained so until his death in 2005.
1958 – Toyah Wilcox was born in Birmingham, UK. She became a singer and actress, she has had 313 Top 40 singles and has appeared in over forty plays.
1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland. She was the wife of James VI.
1849 – A large fire nearly burns St. Louis, Missouri to the ground. It destroyed many of the steamboats who used the Mississippi, it also took the life of a fire-fighter called Captain Thomas B. Targee, who is the first fire-fighter to have died in the line of duty.
1902 - Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analogue computer. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. Its construction dates back to the 1st century BC.
Birthdays
1936 - Dennis Hopper was born in Kansas, US. He became an actor and director; he won an award at the Cannes Film Festival for the film Easy Rider.
1956 - Sugar Ray Leonard was born in North Carolina, US. He became a boxer and won world titles in five divisions, he was the first boxer to earn over $100 million in purses.
1974 - Andrea Corr was born in County Louth, Ireland. She became a singer with her family known as The Corrs and also plays the tin whistle and the piano.
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