Holidays

Feast day of St. Laserian, St. Galdinus, St. Idesbald, St. Apollonius, and Saints Eleutherius and Anthia.

Zimbabwe: Independence Day.

Events

1521 – Martin Luther, the chief catalyst of Protestantism, defied the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by refusing to recant his writings.

1775 – Paul Revere and William Dawes began the famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning American colonists that the British were coming.

1846 – The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House of New York City.

1906 – A devastating 8.3 earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires, killing an estimated 3,000 people.

1921 – Junior Achievement, created to encourage business skills in young people, was incorporated.

1923 – The first game was played at Yankee Stadium in New York City; the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-1.

1924 – Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first crossword puzzle book.

1934 – The first launderette (called a “washeteria”) was opened, in Fort Worth, Texas.

1937 – Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

1942 – For the first time during World War II, the mainland of Japan was bombed.

1949 – The Republic of Ireland was proclaimed and it withdrew from the British Commonwealth.

1956 – U.S. actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in a civil ceremony.

1978 – The U.S. Senate voted to turn the Panama Canal over to the Panama government on December 31, 1999.

1980 – Southern Rhodesia became the independent nation of Zimbabwe.

1982 – The Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 provided Canada with new laws and civil rights.

1983 – The U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was almost completely destroyed by a car-bomb explosion that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

2003 – Scott Peterson was arrested in La Jolla, California in connection with the death of his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner.

2005 – Adobe Systems announced an agreement to acquire Macromedia.

Births

1480 – Lucrezia Borgia (photo), duchess of Ferrara.

1857 – Clarence Darrow, American attorney.

1946 – Hayley Mills, London-born actress.

1949 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver.

1954 – Rick Moranis, Canadian comic actor.

1963 – Conan O’Brien, American comedian and TV personality.

Deaths

1945 – During World War II, journalist Ernie Pyle, America’s most popular war correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on a Pacific island.

1955 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist.

1995 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina from 1958 until 1962.

2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian adventurer.

2004 – Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji, and President of Fiji from 1993 to 2000.

Source: Reference.com