Today’s History:
- 1609 – Henry Hudson sails into Delaware Bay while exploring for the Dutch, noting its potential for settlement.
- 1833 – Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act receives Royal Assent, paving the way to free more than 800,000 enslaved people the next year.
- 1845 – Scientific American publishes its first issue.
- 1907 – The American Messenger Company—precursor to UPS—opens in Seattle.
- 1917 – Suffragists picket President Woodrow Wilson at the White House, pressing for a federal voting-rights amendment.
- 1937 – Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. is established in Japan.
- 1955 – Emmett Till, 14, is abducted and murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement.
- 1957 – Sen. Strom Thurmond begins the longest one-person Senate filibuster, opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
- 1963 – The March on Washington culminates with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
- 1968 – Police clash with anti-war demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
- 1996 – Prince Charles and Princess Diana finalize their divorce.
- 2005 – New Orleans issues its first-ever mandatory evacuation ahead of Hurricane Katrina.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1938 – Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada (87).
- 1958 – Scott Hamilton, Olympic gold-medalist figure skater and broadcaster (67).
- 1961 – Jennifer Coolidge, Emmy-winning actress (The White Lotus, Legally Blonde) (64).
- 1962 – David Fincher, Oscar-nominated film director (Seven, The Social Network, Gone Girl) (63).
- 1965 – Shania Twain, Grammy-winning country-pop superstar (“Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”) (60).
- 1969 – Jack Black, actor-musician (Tenacious D; School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda) (56).
- 1986 – Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence + the Machine (39).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1645 – Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist often called the “father of international law” (62).
- 1784 – Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary, canonized as a Catholic saint (70).
- 1955 – Emmett Till, whose murder became a catalyst for the U.S. Civil Rights Movement (14).
- 1978 – Robert Shaw, English actor (Jaws, The Sting) (51).
- 1985 – Ruth Gordon, American actress and screenwriter (Oscar for Rosemary’s Baby) (88).
- 1987 – John Huston, acclaimed American film director (The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen) (81).
- 2020 – Chadwick Boseman, American actor (Black Panther, 42) (43).
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