793 – Vikings in long ships from modern-day Norway plunder St Cuthbert’s monastery on Lindisfarne Island, off the northeast coast of England
1191 – King Richard I of England arrives at Acre in modern day Israel to join the Siege of Acre during the Third Crusade
1504 – Believed to have been installed this day in 1504 in the cathedral of Florence was Michelangelo’s statue of David, commissioned in 1501 and considered the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity.
1783 – Laki volcano in southern Iceland begins 8-month eruption, killing 10,000 and causing widespread famines throughout Asia and Europe
1789 – James Madison introduces a proposed Bill of Rights in the US House of Representatives
1916 – Biophysicist Francis Crick, who along with James Dewey Watson and Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their determination of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), was born in Northampton, England.
1918 – Nova Aquila, brightest nova since Kepler’s nova of 1604, discovered
1987 – New Zealand’s Labour government legislates against nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels in NZ. Only nation to legislate against nuclear power.
Births & Deaths: 1977 – American producer and rapper Kanye West—who parlayed his production success into a career as a popular critically acclaimed solo artist—was born.
Sport: 1969 – MLB ledgend Mickey Mantle gives his farewell retirement speech during “Mickey Mantle Day” at Yankee Stadium, 60,096 see #7 retired
TV & Film: 1984 – “Ghostbusters”, American supernatural comedy film, directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murrary and Dan Aykroyd is released
