2333 BC – State of Gojoseon (Modern-day Korea) founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Yao
52 BC – Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia
1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd, Wales, becomes the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered
1922 – 1st facsimile photo sent over city telephone lines, Washington, D.C.
1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia, starting the Second Italo-Ethiopian War
1941 – The Maltese Falcon, John Huston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s famed 1930 novel, had its world premiere; it is considered by some to be the greatest detective movie ever made.
1990 – Reunification of East and West Germany. West German flag is raised above the Brandenburg Gate on the stroke of midnight.
1993 – Boris Yeltsin declares state of emergency in Moscow
1995 – One of the most sensational trials in U.S. history ended as a jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
2017 – King Felipe of Spain speaks out against the Catalan referendum saying organizers have “broken the rule of law”
2017 – US President Donald Trump visits Puerto Rico after it was devastated by hurricane Maria
2018 – Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Frances Arnold, Gregory Winter and George Smith for their use of evolution to produce new enzymes and antibodies
Births & Deaths: 1969 – American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani, who came to fame in the 1990s as the lead singer for the rock-ska band No Doubt before starting a solo career, was born.
2004 – American actress Janet Leigh—who was best remembered for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), in which her character suffered one of cinema’s most memorable and shocking deaths—died at the age of 77.
Music:
1992 – Madonna premieres her “Erotica” video on MTV
Film & TV:
1941 – “The Maltese Falcon” directed by John Huston and based off Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, premieres in New York City
1960 – The Andy Griffith Show debuted on American television and was an immediate success.
1961 – The Dick Van Dyke Show, a pioneer of the sitcom genre, began airing on CBS.
1992 – Sinead O’Connor rips up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live”
Sport:
1888 – New Zealand Natives, a privately organised and mainly Māori rugby team, plays first game in UK; beats Surry 4-1; first national rugby team to wear all-black & perform the ‘haka’
1971 – American tennis star Billie Jean King becomes first female athlete to win $100,000 in prize money in a single year; wins the $4,000 Virginia Slams Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona
