On This Day…

1451 –Sultan Mehmed II, the Conqueror inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
1509 –The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portugese trading control.
1870 – US state of Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution allowing suffrage for all races & colour.
1928 – Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis‘ (now known as ‘Homo erectus’).
1953 – French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau publishes his most famous and lasting work, The Silent World.
1966 – 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9).
2005 – American lawyer and judge Alberto R. Gonzales was sworn in as the attorney general of the United States, becoming the first Hispanic to occupy the post. 

Film: 1960 – “La Dolce Vita” directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy.

Music: 1959 - “The Day the Music Died” plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa.

Via Britannica / On This Day