1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
1790 – In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
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1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1865 – The Bill to abolish slavery in the US was signed
1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.
1958 – Egypt and Syria combine to become the United Arab Republic. It is a complete political merger with Egypt President Gamal Nasser running the government as President.
1957 – Felix Wankel’s first working prototype (DKM 54) of the Wankel engine runs at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany.
1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968 – Canada’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
1972 – Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 14 years of exile in France.
2003 – On this day in 2003, while returning to Earth from an orbital mission, the U.S. space shuttle Columbia broke up catastrophically at an altitude of about 40 miles (60 km) over Texas, killing all seven crew members.
2012 – a massive riot occurred at Port Said Stadium in Port Said, Egypt, following an Egyptian Premier League football match between Al Masry and Al Ahly. Seventy-four people were killed and more than 500 were injured after thousands of Al Masry fans stormed the stadium stands and the pitch following a 3–1 victory by their club and violently attacked Ahly fans using clubs, stones, machetes, knives, bottles, and fireworks.
Famous Birthdays:
Princess Stéphanie, 59
Princess Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth of Monaco is the youngest child of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and American actress Grace Kelly. She is the younger sister of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Caroline.
Yinka Ayefele, 55
Olayinka Joel Ayefele MON is a Nigerian music producer, gospel singer, radio presenter, and founder of Fresh and Blast FM network of radio stations across south-western Nigeria.
Harry Styles, 30
Harry Edward Styles is an English singer. His musical career began in 2010 as part of One Direction, a boy band formed on the British music competition series The X Factor after each member of the band had been eliminated from the solo contest.
1911 – Alhadji Abubakar Imam, a Nigerian writer and teacher, was a pioneer in the establishment of modern Hausa literature. The Hausa peoples of northwestern Nigeria and adjacent southern Niger constitute the largest ethnic group in the region. Islamic traditions profoundly influence the Hausa culture. He died in 1981 at the age of 70 in Zaria.
1931- Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born this day in Butka, Russia. He was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism. He died on 23 April 2007 at the age of 76.
