EVENTS:
- 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.
- 1811 – Paraguay declares independence from Spain.
- 1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1836 – Francis Baily observes “Baily’s beads” during an annular eclipse.
- 1850 – The Bloody Island Massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians in Lake County are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon.
- 1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.
- 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.
- 1940 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
- 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
- 1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.
- 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
- 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.
- 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.
- 2023 – The UN commemorates the Palestinian Nakba Day for the first time.
BIRTHS:
- 1859 – Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
- 1915 – Paul Samuelson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Jaxon, American illustrator and publisher, co-founded the Rip Off Press (d. 2006)
- 1951 – Frank Wilczek, American mathematician and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1967 – Madhuri Dixit, Indian actress
- 1970 – Rod Smith, American football player
- 1974 – Shiney Ahuja, Indian actor
- 1986 – Thomas Brown, American football player
- 1999 – Anastasia Gasanova, Russian tennis player
- 2000 – Dayana Yastremska, Ukrainian tennis player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
