1238– Battle of the Sit River: Mongol forces of Batu Khan overcome Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal near Yaroslavl in Russia, ending Russian resistance. 1801– Thomas Jefferson is the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. 1861– Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th US President. 1902– American Automobile Association (AAA) founded in Chicago. 1918– First recorded case of Spanish flu at Funston Army Camp, Kanas; the start of a worldwide pandemic killing 50-100 million. 1933– Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd US President, pledges to pull the US out of the Depression, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. 1936– 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany. 1952 – Ernest Hemingway completes his short novel The Old Man and the Sea. He wrote his publisher the same day, saying he had finished the book and that it was the best writing he had ever done. 1966 – John Lennon comment that first appeared in the London Evening Standard erupted into the “Bigger than Jesus” scandal that brought a semi-official end to the giddy phenomenon known as Beatlemania. 2009– International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur becoming the first sitting head of state to be indicted
Births & Deaths: 2009 – American playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote—who evoked American life in beautifully observed minimal stories and was perhaps best known for his adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird—died in Connecticut.
Film: 1922– 1st vampire film Nosferatu premieres at the Berlin Zoological Garden, Germany, an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
