Today’s History:
- 1831 – Nat Turner’s slave rebellion begins in Virginia, leading to the deaths of dozens and harsher slave laws.
- 1858 – The first of Lincoln–Douglas debates takes place in Illinois between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
- 1888 – The first successful adding machine is patented by William S. Burroughs.
- 1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre by a museum worker; it’s recovered in 1913.
- 1959 – Hawaii becomes the 50th U.S. state.
- 1963 – Martial law is declared in South Vietnam amid Buddhist protests.
- 1968 – Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring reforms.
- 1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. is assassinated upon return to Manila, sparking unrest.
- 1991 – Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1993 – NASA loses contact with Mars Observer spacecraft three days before its scheduled Mars orbit insertion.
- 2000 – Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship, becoming the first golfer since 1953 to win three majors in a single year.
- 2017 – A total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. from coast to coast, the first in 99 years.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1944 – Peter Weir, Australian film director (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show) (81)
- 1967 – Carrie-Anne Moss, actress (The Matrix trilogy) (58)
- 1986 – Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and 8-time Olympic gold medalist (39)
- 1988 – Kacey Musgraves, American country music singer-songwriter (37)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1614 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian noblewoman known as the “Blood Countess” (54)
- 1940 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, dies after being attacked with an ice axe (60)
- 1959 – Lincoln Ellsworth, American polar explorer (69)
- 1983 – Benigno Aquino Jr., Filipino opposition leader assassinated in Manila (50)
- 2005 – Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer (71)
- 2015 – Kel Nagle, Australian professional golfer, British Open champion (94)
- 2018 – Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor best known as Robbie Rotten in LazyTown (43)
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