EVENTS:
- 1783 – Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.
- 1928 – Second Northern Expedition: The National Revolutionary Army captures Peking, whose name is changed to Beijing (“Northern Capital”).
- 1949 – George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
- 1953 – An F5 tornado hits Beecher, Michigan, killing 116, injuring 844, and destroying 340 homes.
- 1987 – New Zealand’s Labour government establishes a national nuclear-free zone under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.
- 1992 – The first World Ocean Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- 2014 – At least 28 people are killed in an attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan.
- 2023 – Former US President Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges of misusing classified information.
BIRTHS:
- 1916 – Francis Crick, English biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1932 – Ray Illingworth, English cricketer
- 1936 – Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Bernie Casey, American football player and actor
- 1945 – Derek Underwood, English cricketer
- 1947 – Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1955 – Tim Berners-Lee, English-American computer scientist and engineer, invented the World Wide Web
- 1957 – Dimple Kapadia, Indian actress
- 1972 – Christian Mayrleb, Austrian footballer
- 1975 – Shilpa Shetty, Indian actress
- 1983 – Gaines Adams, American football player (d. 2010)
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
