Events

• 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.

Events

• 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.

Events

• 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.

Events

• 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.

Events

• 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England after the first request was not granted, he was allowed to on this request as he explained to Henry VIII he was of ill health.
• 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England. She crossed the Solway Firth and landed in Workington in Cumberland.
• 1929 – The first Academy Awards are handed out in Hollywood, California. The first best actor was Emil Jennings for his performance in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh.

Birthdays

• 1905 – Henry Fonda was born in Nebraska, US. He became an actor and made his Hollywood debut in 1935 and won an Academy Award for his role in The Grapes of Wrath.
• 1919 – Liberace was born as Wladziu (or Vładziu) Valentino Liberace in Wisconsin, US. He became a pianist and is well known for his flamboyance and became at the time was the highest paid entertainer.
• 1953 – Pierce Brosnan was born in County Louth, Ireland. He became an actor and has played James Bond and has received

Events

• 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion. He had first discovered it on 8 March that year but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made.
• 1940 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California by two brothers called Richard and Maurice McDonald.
• 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. She had departed Sydney, Australia on 18th October 2009 and returned three days before her 17th Birthday.

Birthdays

• 1953 – Mike Oldfield was born in Reading, UK. He became a musician and composer and is best known for the album Tubular Bells.
• 1981 – Zara Phillips was born in Paddington ,London. She is the second child of Princess Anne and she is also an accomplished equestrian and has won Eventing World Championship in 2009.
• 1987 – Andy Murray was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He became a tennis player and is the only person to have reached the semi-finals in one year for all four grand slam titles.

Events

• 1796 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination. It was an eight year old boy called James Phipps who had the vaccine administered and it was proven successful.
• 1939 - Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. There is still no explanation to this day on how she was able to conceive at that age and she gave birth to a boy.
• 1973 - Skylab, the United States’ first space station, is launched. It lasted until 1979 on which it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere with debris striking Western Australia.

Birthdays

• 1727 - Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, UK. He became a painter, he preferred to paint landscapes as opposed to portraits. Although, he did paint portraits of Kings and Queens.
• 1944 - George Lucas was born in California, US. He became a film director, screenwriter and producer. He is famed for Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
• 1969 – Cate Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Australia. She became an actress and has won two Golden Globes, one Academy Awards and two BAFTA’s.

Events

• 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts, this was known as the “First Fleet”. It was to establish a penal colony in Australia, they landed at Port Jackson which is now Sydney Harbour.
• 1950 - The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone. The championship for the constructors arrived in 1958.
• 1995 - 33-year-old British mother Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of Sherpa’s. She had intended to climb the three highest mountains in the world, however after Everest she died on K2 that year, when a violent storm struck after her group were returning from the summit.

Birthdays

• 1907 – Daphne Du Maurier was born in London, UK. She became playwright and author, many of her works have been turned into films, including Rebecca and Jamaica Inn.
• 1939 – Harvey Keitel was born in New York. He became an actor and has starred in many films including Reservoir Dogs and The Piano.
• 1950 – Stevie Wonder was born as Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Michigan, US. He became a singer and songwriter, his has sold many albums and his singles include Superstition and I Just Called to Say I Love You.

Events

• 1937 – George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He was the last Emperor of England and the first Head of the Commonwealth.
• 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon. The rocket system failed and it crashed into the Sea of Clouds area, luckily it was unmanned.
• 2008 – An earthquake measuring around 8.0 magnitudes occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people. Millions of people were also left homeless.

Birthdays

• 1812 – Edward Lear was born in London, UK. He became a poet and author, he was famous for his literary nonsense and his limericks.
• 1820 – Florence Nightingale was born in Tuscany. She became a nurse and her pioneering work came to the forefront during the Crimean War, she became known as the lady with the lamp as she often made rounds at night checking on the wounded.
• 1924 – Tony Hancock was born in Birmingham. He became a comedian and is famed for the series Hancock’s Half Hour. It was first on radio then on TV.

Events

• 1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. Previous to 1939 it had always been known as Siam, it then reverted back to this name in 1945.
• 1983 – Aberdeen F.C. defeat Real Madrid 2-1 to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup after extra time in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred. On a single day eight people died during summit attempts on Mount Everest. During this year a total of fifteen people died while attempting Everest, making it the deadliest year ever to try to reach the summit.

Birthdays

• 1888 – Irving Berlin was born in the Russian Empire. He became a composer and is considered one of the greatest in American history. Some of his songs include, ‘There’s no business like showbusiness’ and ‘White Christmas’.
• 1904 – Salvador Dali is born in Spain. He became an artist and is well known for his surrealist paintings.
• 1911 – Phil Silvers was born in New York. He became an actor and comedian and is famed for the Phil Silvers Show which was based around the US Army.