1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France in Paris
1823 – President James Monroe declares his “Monroe Doctrine”, a US foreign policy regarding Latin America
1845 – Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West
1929 – First skull of Peking man found, 50 km out of Peking at Tsjoe Koe Tien
1960 – Paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey discovers 1.4 million year old Homo erectus (Olduvai Hominid 9) in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
1970 – Environmental Protection Agency begins in the US under Director William Ruckelshaus
1971 – Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is appointed President of the United Arab Emirates
1971 – The United Arab Emirates was formed by the union of six small emirates on the Arabian Peninsula; a seventh emirate joined in February 1972
1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
1981 – Spanish government requests membership of NATO
1990 – First parliamentary election in newly reunified Germany
1994 – Jury finds Heidi Fleiss guilty of running a call girl ring
2001 – Following revelations of massive accounting fraud, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection; the energy-trading company was once the seventh largest corporation in the United States.
2014 – Stephen Hawking claims that Artificial Intelligence could be a “threat to mankind” and spell the end of the human race
2016 – Donald Trump takes a call with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, in a break from America’s long standing “One China” policy
2018 – Israeli police recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife be charged with fraud and bribery
Births & Deaths:
1993 – Colombian criminal Pablo Escobar—who, as head of the Medellín cartel, was arguably the world’s most powerful drug trafficker in the 1980s and early ’90s—was killed during a shoot-out with authorities.
1981 – American singer Britney Spears—who helped spark the teen-pop phenomenon in the late 1990s and later endured intense public scrutiny for her personal life—was born.
2014 – Canadian ice hockey player Jean Béliveau, considered one of the game’s greatest centres, noted for his prolific scoring, died at age 83.
Film & TV:
1933 – Fred Astaire’s 1st film, “Dancing Lady”, released
Music:
1883 – Johannes Brahms’ “3rd Symphony in F” premieres with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
1983 – The groundbreaking music video for Michael Jackson’s song Thriller aired on MTV.
Sport:
1907 – Association of Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union (English Professional Football Players’ Association) is formed by Charlie Roberts and Billy Meredith in Manchester, England
1997 – For only the second time in English Football League history, 5 players are sent from the field; 4 Bristol Rovers players and 1 from Wigan are dismissed in the Division 2 match at JJB Stadium; four of the red cards come in 45th minute
2019 – FIFA Ballon d’Or: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi wins his record 6th award from Liverpool’s Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk; American midfielder Megan Rapinoe is Women’s World Player of the Year
