1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1662 ~ Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer. If you’ve never heard Richard Burton read Under Milk Wood, or “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, you have a treat in store for you!

1959 ~ The Mouse That Roared premiered.

1971 ~ The Congo changed its name to Zaire.

1990 ~ Death of Xavier Cugat, Musician.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected as President of Brazil.

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Eudaimonia

1485 ~ Le Morte D'Arthur published.

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1726 ~ Gulliver's Travels published

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1918 ~ Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1940 ~ World War II: Italy invaded Greece.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1965 ~ The 630-foot-tall steel Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was completed.

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1675 ~ Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

1785 ~ Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

1863 ~ Formation of the International Red Cross.

1879 ~ Birthday of Leon Trotsky - Russian revolutionary.

1897 ~ Birthday of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1964 ~ Tanganyika and Zanzibar became Tanzania.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

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1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1918 ~ World War I: The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending the war in the Middle East.

1938 ~ Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds caused a panic.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba.

1968 ~ The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, released.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1995 ~ Quebec separatists lost a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%).

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1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1940 ~ World War II: Battle of Britain ended.

1950 ~ Birthday of John Candy, Comedian & Actor.

1954 ~ Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front began a revolt against French rule.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The U.K. and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

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1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1892 ~ Birthday of Alexander Alekhine, World Chess Champion.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1972 ~ Death of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

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1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1755 ~ Birthday of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1960 ~ Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1983 ~ Martin Luther King Day established in the U.S.

1988 ~ The Morris worm, the first internet distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

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1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1918 ~ Poland declared its independence from Russia.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1964 ~ U.S. presidential election: Incumbent US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeats incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

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Eudaimonia

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1900 ~ Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1946 ~ Birthday of Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien took office as PM of Canada.

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

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Eudaimonia

1605 ~ Gunpowder Plot: A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1913 ~ Birthday of Vivien Leigh, American actress.

1914 ~ The UK annexed Cyprus.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1977 ~ Death of Guy Lombardo, Conductor.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

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Eudaimonia

1528 ~ Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to see Texas.

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game. Rumor is that Princeton is set to have a similar season this year.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British Queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

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Eudaimonia

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, recipient, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, recipient The Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

1980 ~ Death of Steve McQueen, Actor.

1996 ~ NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor.

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Eudaimonia

1519 ~ Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán as a returning god.

1674 ~ Death of John Milton, English poet.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ Korean War: The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

1994 ~ The U.S. Republican Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

2002 ~ [I] Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

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Eudaimonia

1731 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Banneker, American scientist.

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1918 ~ As a result of the German Revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and went into exile in the Netherlands.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player.

1938 ~ The Nazis' first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1989 ~ East Germany allowed its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time since 1961.

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Eudaimonia

1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1668 ~ Birthday of François Couperin, French composer.

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps.

1871 ~ Henry Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

2084 ~ A transit of Earth from Mars will be visible to hypothetical future Mars colonists.

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Eudaimonia