495 BCE – On the Aventine Hill in Rome, the temple of the Roman god Mercury was dedicated.
1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition
1618 – German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his “harmonics law”
1869 – National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1918 – The first regular airmail route in the United States opened between New York City and Washington, D.C.
1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California
1951 – AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078
1969 – American lawyer and judge Abe Fortas became the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to resign under threat of impeachment.
1988 – USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
1991 – Edith Cresson of the Socialist Party became the first female premier of France, but she lost the office less than a year later because of rising unemployment and declining support from within her party.
Births & Deaths: 2003 – American singer and songwriter June Carter Cash—a leading figure in country music, especially noted for her work with the Carter Family and Johnny Cash—died in Nashville.
Sport: 2010 – Jessica Watson at age 16 becomes the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world
Music: 1914 – Henri Rabaud’s opera “Marouf, savetier de Caire” premieres in Paris
TV & Film: 2002 – “Bowling for Columbine”, a documentary directed by Michael Moore has its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
