1453 – Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire falls to the Turks under Muhammad II; ends the Byzantine Empire
1592 – Battle of Sacheon: Korean navy led by Admiral Yi Sun Shin repels a Japanese fleet – first use of Korean Turtle ship
1660 – On his 30th birthday Charles II returns to London from exile in the Netherlands to claim the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth comes to an end
1851 – Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio
1905 – The Russian navy was defeated in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War.
1953 – Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition
1999 – Discovery became the first space shuttle to dock with the International Space Station.
2017 – Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega—who ruled Panama (1983–89) until ousted by U.S. forces and who later served prison sentences in the United States and Panama—died at age 83 in Panama City.
2019 – Transgender no longer classified as a mental health illness by the World Health Organization
Births & Deaths: 1917 – John F. Kennedy, 35th US President (1961-1963) and Senator (D-Mass), born in Brookline, Massachusetts (d. 1963)
Film & TV: 1942 – Bing Crosby records “White Christmas”, world’s best-selling single (estimated 100 million copies sold)
