EVENTS:
- 1648 – Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.
- 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
- 1848 – First performance of Finland’s national anthem.
- 1861 – Pakistan’s (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
- 1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
- 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
- 1967 – Dr. Zakir Hussain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
- 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
- 1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
- 2008 – The Jaipur bombings in Rajasthan, India results in dozens of deaths.
- 2014 – Major floods in Southeast Europe kill at least 47 people.
- 2015 – An industrial fire in Valenzuela, Philippines killing 72 people.
- 2018 – Nine people die after the suicide bombing of three Indonesian churches in Surabaya, Indonesia.
BIRTHS:
- 1857 – Ronald Ross, Indian-English physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
- 1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the pap smear (d. 1962)
- 1904 – Louis Duffus, South African cricketer (d. 1984)
- 1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th President of India (d. 1977)
- 1918 – Balasaraswati, Indian dancer (d. 1984)
- 1922 – Michael Ainsworth, English cricketer (d. 1978)
- 1956 – Ravi Shankar, Indian spiritual leader, founded the Art of Living Foundation
- 1970 – Doug Evans, American football player
- 1978 – Dilshan Vitharana, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1984 – Benny Dayal, Indian singer (S5)
- 1986 – Scott Sutter, English footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
