On This Day…

1820 – French Physicist Francois Arago announces electromagnetism in his discovery that a copper wire between the poles of a voltaic cell could laterally attract iron filings to itself.

1906 – Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrates the Telekino at Bilbao before a great crowd, guiding a boat from the shore, considered the birth of the remote control.

1957 – 18th Venice Film Festival: Influential Indian film “Aparajito” directed by Satyajit Ray is the first film to win the Golden Lion and the Critics Award.

1970 – Ringo Starr releases his album “Beaucoups of Blues”.

1975 – Pink Floyd’s concept album “Wish You Were Here” reaches No. 1 in the US, goes on to sell 13 million copies.

2007 – Herbie Hancock releases “River: The Joni Letters” tribute to Joni Mitchell.

2011 – Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai—who was the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize, died in Nairobi.

2017 – 92% of Iraqi Kurds vote in favour of independence in a controversial referendum.

Via Britannica / On This Day