1492 – Christopher Columbus notes 1st recorded reference to tobacco
1884 – European Colonization and trade in Africa is officially regulated at the international Berlin Conference, formalizing European powers “Scramble for Africa”
1904 – King C. Gillette patents the Gillette razor blade
1948 – Mackenzie King retires after 22 years as Prime Minister of Canada
1969 – An estimated 2 million people take part in the Vietnam War Moratorium Demonstration across the United States
1988 – Meeting at Algiers, the Palestine National Council, at the urging of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, issued a declaration of independence for a state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on this day in 1988.
2001 – Microsoft released Xbox, a video game console system.
2012 – The Eurozone economy returns to recession with a fall of 0.1% in GDP in the third quarter of 2012 following a fall of 0.2% in the previous quarter
2014 – Vladimir Putin’s press secretary says media reports that the Russian president plans to leave the G20 Summit in Brisbane early are nonsense
2015 – France launches air strikes on Isis stronghold Raqqa in Syria in wake of terror attack on Paris
2017 – The Zimbabwean Army detains Robert Mugabe and the first family and appoints sacked Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as interim president
2017 – Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi” sells for $450.3 million at auction in New York, world record price for any artwork
2019 – Iran shuts down its internet for five days to suppress news of national protests against higher gas prices – beginning of the worst unrest for 40 years in the country
2019 – Pakistan becomes the 1st country to introduce a vaccine against typhoid, targeting 10 million children
Births & Deaths:
1891 – W. Averell Harriman, a statesman and leading U.S. diplomat in relations with the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War, was born.
1959 – The Clutter family was discovered murdered on their Kansas farm, and their deaths—as well as the capture, conviction, and execution of two drifters—inspired Truman Capote’s classic nonfiction novel In Cold Blood.
1988 – American anthropologist Margaret Mead, whose great fame owed as much to the force of her personality and her outspokenness as it did to the quality of her scientific work, died at age 76.
Film & TV:
1926 – 1st formal radio network, RCA takes over AT&T 25 station Network (NBC)
Music:
1986 – Beastie Boys release their debut album “Licensed to Ill” – 1st No. 1 rap album on Billboard charts
Sport:
1964 – Mickey Wright shoots a 62, lowest golf score for a woman pro at the Tall City Open, Midland, Texas
2011 – Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski recorded his 903rd career win, surpassing Bob Knight to become the winningest coach in NCAA Division I men’s history.
