• 911 Conrad I elecect German King.
• 1544 Flemish painter Jan Matsys banished from Antwerp for religious beliefs.
• 1619 René Descartes has the dream that inspire his “Meditations on First Philosophy”.
• 1801 Kentucky outlaws duelling.
• 1847 The passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster results in the construction the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
• 1871 Henry Morton Stanley encounters David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa, with the immortal words ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’
• 1917 New bolshevik government under Lenin suspends freedom of press (temporary) during October Revolution
• 1919 First observance of National Book Week.
• 1920 George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” premieres in NYC
• 1924 Dion O’Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio’s gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
• 1928 Hirohito’s official coronation as Emperor of Japan.
• 1938 An 8.3 earthquake shakes East of Shumagin Islands, Alaska.
• 1938 Nobel for literature awarded to Pearl Buck (Good Earth).
• 1940 Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
• 1950 Nobel for literature awarded to William Faulkner.
• 1951 First long distance telephone call without operator assistance.
• 1954 Iwo Jima Memorial (servicemen raising US flag) dedicated in Arlington.
• 1968 Portuguese socialist Mário Soares freed.
• 1976 Utah Supreme Court approves execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore.
• 1979 Train detrailment in Mississauga, Ontario; a 106 car train derails causing the evacuation of 200 000 people.
• 1989 Germans begin demolishing the Berlin Wall.
• 1990 John Hughes’ film “Home Alone” directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin premieres in Chicago.
• 1991 South Africa’s first cricket international since 1970 – one-day versus India.
• 1995 In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces.
• 1997 Artist Peter Max pleads guilty to tax fraud.
• 1997 Nanny Louise Woodward murder conviction downgraded to manslaughter.
• 1998 “Star Trek: Insurrection” film directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes premieres.
• 2010 Alan Menken, famous Disney composer, receives the 2 442nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 2012 27 people are killed and dozens injured in a prison conflict in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
• 2012 Israeli counter strike on Palestinian militants in Gaza kills kills and injures 30.
• 2012 17 people are killed in a helicopter crash as a result of bad weather in Turkey.
• 2014 “The Hunger Games” Mockingjay – Part 1″ directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson premieres in London.
• 2014 “Uptown Funk” single released by Bruno Mars (Billboard Song of the Year 2015, Grammy Record Of The Year, Grammy Song of the Year 2016)
Source: www.onthisday.com
