EVENTS:
- 1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
- 1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
- 1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
- 1960 – Echo 1A, NASA’s first successful communications satellite, is launched.
- 1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.
- 1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
- 1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People’s Republic of China is signed.
- 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
- 1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
- 2015 – At least two massive explosions kill 145 people and injure nearly 800 in Tianjin, China.
- 2018 – 39 civilians, including a dozen children, are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria.
- 2021 – Six people, five victims and the perpetrator are killed in Keyham, Plymouth in the worst mass shooting in the UK since 2010.
BIRTHS:
- 1866 – Jacinto Benavente, Spanish playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
- 1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1918 – Guy Gibson, Indian-English pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1944)
- 1919 – Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (d. 1971)
- 1924 – Derek Shackleton, English cricketer, coach, and umpire (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (d. 1988)
- 1940 – Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer and coach (d. 2005)
- 1948 – Siddaramaiah, Indian politician, 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka
- 1956 – Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1961 – Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
- 1972 – Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
- 1989 – Tom Cleverley, English footballer
- 2001 – Dixie D’Amelio, American social media personality and singer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- HM the Queen’s Birthday and National Mother’s Day (Thailand)
- International Youth Day (United Nations)
- The first day of Awa Dance Festival (Tokushima)
- Glorious Twelfth (United Kingdom)
- Russian Air Force Day (Russia)
- World Elephant Day
