1790 – Supposedly impenetrable Turkish fortress of Izmail stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92)
1877 – Thomas Edison’s Phonograph is announced by Scientific American
1882 – 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
1989 – After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
1894 – On the basis of specious evidence and anti-Semitism, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison for treason, sparking a controversy that divided France for 12 years.
1963 – Official 30-day mourning period for President John F. Kennedy ends
1967 – “The Graduate” American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, is released (Best Director 1968)
1989 – After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
1990 – Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
1990 – Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland’s 1st popularly elected president
1990 – The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities.
1994 – Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi resigns
2001 – British Islamist militant Richard Reid attempted—by trying to ignite explosives hidden in the soles of his high-top basketball shoes—to blow up an airplane on which he and some 200 other passengers were traveling; he was restrained by other passengers, and a U.S. court later sentenced him to life without parole.
2003 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.
2010 – Repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy”, a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama
2012 – 6 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus
2018 – Partial shutdown of US federal government begins
2018 – Tsunami hits Indonesia’s Sunda Strait killing over 400 after part of the Anak Krakatoa volcano slips into the sea
Film & TV:
1932 – “The Mummy” directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff is released in the US – 1st Mummy horror film
1965 – The American movie Doctor Zhivago, David Lean’s adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel, had its world premiere; the hugely popular drama, which starred Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, became one of cinema’s highest-grossing films.
Music:
1894 – Claude Debussy’s first orchestral masterpiece “Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune” premieres in Paris
Sport:
1894 – United States Golf Association forms in New York
