EVENTS:
- 1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
- 1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
- 1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
- 1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
- 2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.
- 2015 – Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, with as many as 2,000 people having been killed.
- 2016 – Following the fallout caused by the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
- 2018 – Computer analysts report two major security vulnerabilities, named “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” affecting the microprocessors of almost all computers in the world.
- 2019 – Chang’e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.
- 2020 – Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.
- 2023 – Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park permanently closes.[53]
- 2024 – At least 91 people are killed in bombings in Kerman, Iran, during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani 4 years ago.
BIRTHS:
- 1760 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian ruler (d. 1799)
- 1831 – Savitribai Phule, Indian poet, educator, and activist (d. 1897)
- 1861 – William Renshaw, English tennis player (d. 1904)
- 1921 – Chetan Anand, Indian director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Hank Stram, American football player and coach (d. 2005)
- 1931 – Yashawant Dinkar Phadke, Indian historian and activist (d. 2008)
- 1977 – Lee Bowyer, English footballer and coach
- 1980 – David Tyree, American football player
- 1981 – Naresh Iyer, Indian singer
- 1982 – Peter Clarke, English footballer
- 1986 – Jacob Timpano, Australian footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
