1603 – Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
1837 – Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote
1882 – German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
1955 – 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
1958 – Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
1976 – Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup
1980 – ABC’s nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed “Nightline”
1986 – US & Libya clash in Gulf of Sidra
1991 – Banks reopen in liberated Kuwait
2012 – African Union deploys 5,000 strong force with the aim of catching or killing warlord Joseph Kony
2015 – The Opportunity rover becomes the first to complete a Martian marathon
2017 – US President Donald Trump and Republican party forced to pull their attempt to repeal Obamacare after internal opposition
2020 – Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until summer of 2021 because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic
2020 – Indian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21 day lockdown for world’s second most populous country of 1.3 billion people to deal with COVID-19
2020 – China’s Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown
Film & TV:
1939 – “Wuthering Heights” based on the novel by Emily Brontë, directed by William Wyler and starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premieres in Los Angeles
1999 – “The Matrix” film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeve, Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss premieres
2005 – US version of “The Office” created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, developed by Greg Daniels, starring Steve Carell and John Krasinski premieres on NBC
Music:
1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicates his Brandenburg Concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
Sport:
2018 – Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft is caught on camera rubbing match ball with an object during 3rd Cricket Test in Cape Town, resulting in an infamous ball tampering scandal
2020 – Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until summer of 2021 because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic
