1845 – The Battle of Firoz Shah began between British and Sikh forces during the First Sikh War. 1898 – French Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium. 1913 – The New York World published the first modern crossword puzzle. 1958 – Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the French Fifth Republic. 1968 – Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) and eventually completed 10 lunar orbits. 1988 – Lockerbie disaster: Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed mid air by a terrorist bomb killing all 258 on board over Scotland. 1991 – Soviet Union formally dissolves as 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States.
Births & Deaths:1804 – Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874–80), was born. 1911 – American professional baseball catcher Josh Gibson—one of the game’s most prodigious home-run hitters, known as “the black Babe Ruth”—was born. 1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner, an American track and field athlete who is considered the fastest woman of all time based on the fact that the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand, was born.
Music: 1920 – Jerome Kern/BG DeSylva’s musical “Sally” premieres in NYC. 2012 – The music video for South Korean singer Psy’s humorous pop song Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to garner one billion views.
TV & Film: 1937 – The first full-length animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre. 1968 – Glen Campbell’s album “Wichita Lineman” goes to No. 1 in the US.
