284 – Roman soldier Diocletian proclaimed Emperor by the army. 762 – Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire. 1695 – Zumbi last leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil and ex-slave, is executed. 1815 – Second Treaty of Paris: France and her allies agree France will pay indemnities after Battle of Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars. 1820 – The American whaling ship Essex was rammed by a sperm whale and later sank, inspiring the climactic scene in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851). 1910 – Francisco Madero launched a failed revolt that nonetheless sparked the Mexican Revolution by inspiring hope in such leaders as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who then mobilized their ragged armies. 1917 – For the first time, tanks were used effectively in warfare, by the British at the Battle of Cambrai. 1947 – The future Queen Elizabeth II married Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey. 1969 – Native American activists began an occupation of Alcatraz Island, protesting what they saw as the U.S. government’s ongoing economic, social, and political neglect of Native Americans; they were forced off the island in June 1971. 1986 – World Health Organization announces first global effort to combat AIDS. 1998 – American tobacco companies signed an agreement with the governments of 46 U.S. states to settle the states’ claims for reimbursement of Medicaid funds they had expended to treat smoking-related illnesses, the settlement costing the tobacco manufacturers $206 billion beyond the $40 billion they had agreed to pay four other states in 1997.
Sport: 1902 – Geo Lefevre and Henri Desgrange create Tour de France bicycle race.
Music: 1805 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Fidelio”, his only opera, premieres in Vienna.
TV & Film: 1983 – 100 million watch ABC TV movie “The Day After” about nuclear war.
