1599 – Jacob van Neck’s fleet leaves Bantam, Java in modern day Indonesia with 1 million pounds of pepper and cloves and a further half a ship full of nutmeg, mace and cinnamon
1838 – First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War begins as British Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand in South Africa
1922 – Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, on Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14
1964 – First government report by US Surgeon General Luther Terry warning that smoking may be hazardous
1969 – Jethro Tull’s This Was Jethro Tull album debuts
1993 – British Airways ends one of the longest libel actions in its history
1996 – Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
2007 – Author J. K. Rowling finishes the 7th and last Harry Potter novel in room 552 of the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh
2013 – 46 people are killed and 12 are missing after a landslide buries a village in the Yunnan province, China
2015 – Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is elected as the first female President of Croatia
2018 – YouTube issues sanctions against vlogger Logan Paul after he posted footage of suicide victim’s body in Japan in December
2018 – In China’s first significant #MeToo moment Beihang University in Beijing fires a professor for sexual misconduct
2018 – US President Donald Trump causes worldwide controversy when it is reported he called African countries “shitholes” during immigration meeting
2020 – Taiwan re-elects Tsai Ing-wen for a second term as president in a landslide result
2020 – Diego the giant 100 year old tortoise retires to the Galapagos islands after his high libido is credited with saving his species
Film & TV:
1927 – Louis B. Mayer head of film studio MGM announces creation of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Music:
1980 – Debut of first The Pretenders album “Pretenders”
1999 – 26th American Music Awards: Celine Dion & Eric Clapton win
Sport:
1960 – LaMar Clark sets pro boxing record of 44 consecutive knockouts
