Highlights
1981 Britney Spears, American popstar ("Baby One More Time," "Oops! ...I did it again" and "I'm A Slave 4 U"), born in McComb, Mississippi
1993 Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord, shot to death by Colombian Police at 44
2014 Stephen Hawking claims that Artificial Intelligence could be a "threat to mankind" and spell the end of the human race
2014 Elizabeth Lauten, an aide to a Republican congressman resigns after her online criticism of President Barack Obama's teenage daughters
2016 Donald Trump takes a call with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, in a break from America's long standing "One China" policy
1804 Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France in Paris
Birthday
1859 Georges Seurat, French post-impressionist painter (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte), born in Paris, France (d. 1891)
1946 Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (Versace), born in Reggio Calabria, Italy (d. 1997)
1973 Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-American tennis star (US Open 1992), born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
1983 Aaron Rodgers, American NFL player (Green Bay Packers), born in Chico, California
Deaths
1547 Hernán Cortés, Spanish conquistador (defeated the Aztec Empire and colonized large parts of Mexico), dies of pleurisy at 61 or 62
1814 Marquis de Sade, French philosopher and writer (Justine), dies at 74. The words sadism and sadist are derived from his name.
1859 John Brown, American abolitionist and revolutionary (Harpers Ferry), hanged at 59
1986 Desi Arnaz, actor (Ricky Ricardo-I Love Lucy), dies at 69 of lung cancer
1990 Aaron Copland, American composer (Billy the Kid, Fanfare for Common Man), dies at 90
2014 Jean Marc Beliveau, Canadian NHL player NHL, dies at 83
Weddings
1886 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt (28) weds second wife Edith Kermit Carow (25) in London
1926 Film director and producer Alfred Hitchcock (27) weds director Alma Reville (27) at Brompton Oratory in London
1965 Comedian Tony Hancock (40) weds publicist Freddie Ross (35)
Historical Events
1697 St Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren is consecrated for use (previous building destroyed in the Great Fire of London)
1812 James Madison re-elected President of the US, Elbridge Gerry Vice-President
1823 President James Monroe declares his "Monroe Doctrine", a US foreign policy regarding Latin America
1840 William Henry Harrison elected the 9th President of the United States of America
1845 Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West
1867 In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States
1868 1st British government of Benjamin Disraeli resigns
1896 Gerhart Hauptmann's "Die versunkene Glocke" premieres in Berlin
1901 King C. Gillette begins selling safety razor blades
1907 Tommy Burns KOs Gunner Moir in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
1927 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black announces to the Geological Society of China that the ancient human fossils from Zhoukoudian, China are a new species which he has named 'Sinanthropus pekinensis' (now known as 'Homo erectus')
1933 Fred Astaire's 1st film, "Dancing Lady", released
1941 American mobster Louis Buchalter is sentenced to death along with his lieutenants Emanuel Weiss and Louis Capone
1942 World’s 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs in Chicagi Pile-1 (world's 1st nuclear reactor) at the University of Chicago, overseen by Enrico Fermi
1948 Stan Musial is picked NL MVP
1950 "I Robot" collection of sci-fi short stories by Isaac Asimov published by Genome Press in the US
1951 Don Hutson's #14 jersey is retired by the Green Bay Packers, the first number retired in the history of the franchise
1956 Fidel Castro lands with "Granma" on coast of Cuba
1960 Paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey discovers 1.4 million year old Homo erectus (Olduvai Hominid 9) in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
1964 Ringo Starr's tonsils are removed
1968 US President Richard Nixon names Henry Kissinger security advisor
1971 Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is appointed President of the United Arab Emirates
1978 Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" hits #1
1985 NFL QB legends Dan Marino and John Elway face each other for the first time, a 30-26 victory for the Dolphins (Marino 390 yards and 3 touchdowns)
1985 Chicago Bears' head coach Mike Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan come to blows on the sideline in a loss to the Miami Dolphins, Chicago's only loss of the season
1994 "Cobb" a film about baseball player Ty Cobb, starring Tommy Lee Jones premieres
1994 Andrew Lloyd Webber admitted to hospital for ulcer treatment
1995 After being left in the game to allow nine goals, Patrick Roy declares "It's my last game in Montreal", and is traded four days later
2001 Tony Fernandes' company Tune Air Sdn Bhd buys the heavily indebted AirAsia for 1 MYR (about USD 0.26 at the time)
2013 "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug", 2nd film in the Hobbit series, directed by Peter Jackson, starring Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen, premieres in Los Angeles
2014 Comedian Bill Cosby resigns from the board of trustees of an American university following renewed sexual assault allegations
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