EVENTS:
- 1674 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire, is crowned.
- 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world’s first university museum.
- 1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
- 1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
- 1946 – The National Basketball Association is created, with eleven teams.
- 1981 – Bihar train disaster: a passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati river. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the actual death toll is closer to 1,000.
- 2004 – Tamil is established as a “classical language” by the President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
- 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
- 2023 – Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam during the Russo-Ukrainian war.
- 2024 – The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)
BIRTHS:
- 1850 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
- 1875 – Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
- 1891 – Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Indian author (d. 1986)
- 1918 – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1929 – Sunil Dutt, Indian actor, director, producer, and politician (d. 2005)
- 1930 – Frank Tyson, English cricketer
- 1933 – Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
- 1936 – A. Venkatesh Naik, Indian politician
- 1936 – D. Ramanaidu, Indian producer
- 1943 – Asif Iqbal, Pakistani cricketer
- 1943 – Richard Smalley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1944 – Phillip Allen Sharp, American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1986 – Bhavana, Indian actress
- 1990 – Gavin Hoyte, English footballer
- 1998 – Kenny Pickett, American football player
- 2001 – Rayan Aït-Nouri, French-Algerian footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
