Today in History
- 1520 Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during "La Noche Triste" (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and Aztec emperor Moctezuma II dies in the struggle.
- 1860 Famous debate on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is held at Oxford University Museum, dominated by arguments between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
- 1905 The mutinous battleship Potemkin arrives in Odessa in the Russian Empire, where sailors take the bodies of dead crewmen ashore and join civilians in revolutionary actions during the 1905 Revolution
- 1908 A giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet, flattens 80 million trees near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, in the largest impact event in recorded history
- 1934 Adolf Hitler stages a bloody purge of the Nazi party in the "Night of the Long Knives"
- 1997 British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong expires, established by the Second Convention of Peking
Today in Film & TV
- 1955 Variety TV show "The Johnny Carson Show" debuts on CBS TV
Today in Music
- 1992 "End of the Road" single released by Boyz II Men (Grammy Award Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song 1993, Billboard Song of the Year 1992)
Today in Sport
Did You Know?
The world's first emergency call telephone service is launched in London using the number 999
Famous Birthdays
Charles VIII
1470 - 1498
Willie Park Sr.
1833 - 1903
Walter Ulbricht
1893 - 1973
Willie Sutton
1901 - 1980
Lena Horne
1917 - 2010
Susan Hayward
1917 - 1975
Celebrity Birthdays
Mike Tyson
60th Birthday
Sanath Jayasuriya
57th Birthday
Ralf Schumacher
51st Birthday
Michael Phelps
41st Birthday
Fun Fact About Today
Winton Motor Carriage Company publishes the first known automobile ad in Scientific American using the headline “dispense with a horse.”
Famous Weddings
- 1831 Soldier and future Confederate General Robert E. Lee (24) marries Mary Custis (22) at Arlington House, Arlington Virginia
- 1949 Austrian-American filmmaker Billy Wilder (43) weds American actress and singer Audrey Young (27), until his death in 2002
- 1973 Prime Minister of Canada Joe Clark (34) weds lawyer Maureen McTeer (21)
Famous Divorces
- 1923 American concert pianist Olga Samaroff (42) divorces second husband, British conductor Leopold Stokowski (41), after 12 years of marriage
- 1992 English actress Natasha Richardson (29) divorces English stage and screen producer Robert Fox (39) after a year of marriage
- 2006 American singer-songwriter and TV personality Jessica Simpson (25) divorces 98 Degrees boy band singer Nick Lachey (32) due to irreconcilable differences after 3 years of marriage
Arthur Wellesley
Douglas MacArthur
Dwight D. Eisenhower
George S. Patton
Leslie Groves
Napoleon Bonaparte