EVENTS:
- 1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- 1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.
- 1959 – Explorer program: Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- 1960 – Côte d’Ivoire becomes independent from France.
- 1976 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.
- 1985 – Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan’s first astronauts.
- 2013 – A bombing in a market in Karachi, Pakistan, kills eleven people.
- 2020 – Air India Express Flight 1344 overshoots the runway at Calicut International Airport in the Malappuram district of Kerala, India, and crashes, killing 21 of the 190 people on board.
BIRTHS:
- 1879 – Johannes Kotze, South African cricketer (d. 1931)
- 1904 – Ralph Bunche, American political scientist, academic, and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- 1924 – Kenneth Kendall, Indian-English journalist (d. 2012)
- 1925 – M. S. Swaminathan, Indian geneticist
- 1933 – Eddie Firmani, South African footballer and manager
- 1937 – Don Wilson, English cricketer and coach (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Suthivelu, Indian actor (d. 2012)
- 1948 – Greg Chappell, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1959 – Ali Shah, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1971 – Dominic Cork, England cricketer and sportscaster
- 1980 – Carsten Busch, German footballer
- 1988 – Beanie Wells, American football player
- 1993 – Zaur Sizo, Russian footballer
- 2000 – Lauren Hemp, English footballer
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES:
