EVENTS:
- 1876 – The first game in the history of the National League was played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. This game is often pointed to as the beginning of the MLB.
- 1906 – The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, open in Athens.
- 1944 – The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater.
- 1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair opens for its first season.
- 1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.
- 1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.
- 1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.
- 1993 – Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser is released.
- 1998 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.
- 2000 – The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom.
- 2014 – More than 60 people are killed and 80 are seriously injured in a train crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo‘s Katanga Province.
- 2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming.
- 2019 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes the main Philippines island of Luzon, killing at least 8 people.
- 2020 – Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.
BIRTHS:
- 1832 – Julius Sterling Morton, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Agriculture (d. 1902)
- 1854 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian lawyer and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
- 1876 – Róbert Bárány, Austrian-Swedish otologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
- 1909 – Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
- 1914 – Baldev Raj Chopra, Indian director and producer (d. 2008)
- 1916 – Kanan Devi, Indian actress and singer (d. 1992)
- 1919 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
- 1981 – Jonathan Trott, South African-English cricketer
- 1982 – Kaká, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – David Luiz, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – David Mateos, Spanish footballer
- 1995 – Victoria Rodríguez, Mexican tennis player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Discovery Day (Brazil)
- Earth Day and its related observances:
- International Mother Earth Day (International)
