1521 – The Edict of Worms banned the writings of Martin Luther—a German cleric whose efforts to change the church led to the Reformation—and declared him an outlaw and a heretic who was to be captured.
1896 – Dow Jones begins an index of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)
1908 – At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom
1927 – Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie
1940 – During World War II the British began to evacuate their troops from Dunkirk, France.
1948 – South Africa elects a nationalist government under D. F. Malan with an apartheid policy
2004 – The United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
Births & Deaths: 1886 – Al Jolson, a popular American singer and blackface comedian of the musical stage and motion pictures, was born Asa Yoelson in Srednike, Russia (now Seredžius, Lithuania).
1926 – Jazz musician Miles Davis, a trumpeter who was one of the major influences on jazz from the late 1940s, was born in Alton, Illinois. 1971 – American screenwriter, actor, and producer Matt Stone—who was best known as the cocreator, with Trey Parker, of the subversive animated television series South Park—was born.
2008 – American director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack—who helmed a number of popular films, including The Way We Were (1973), Tootsie (1982), and Out of Africa (1985)—died in Pacific Palisades, California
Film & TV: 1913 – US Actors’ Equity Association forms (NYC)
Music: 1967 – EMI releases “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” a few days early in the UK; it would go to number one for 15 weeks in the US and 22 weeks in the UK
Sport: 1923 – 1st Le Mans Grand Prix d’Endurance is run
