1492 – Christopher Columbus sights Cuba and claims it for Spain under the name “Juana”
1538 – The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established on Hispaniola
1746 – Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao demolished by earthquake, 18,000 die
1886 – U.S. President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty—a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States—on Bedloe’s (later Liberty) Island in Upper New York Bay.
1904 – St Louis police try a new investigation method – fingerprints
1919 – Volstead Act passed by US Congress, establishing prohibition, despite President Woodrow Wilson’s veto
1924 – Miner M.de Bruin discovers the infant fossil skull, “Taung child” in a lime quarry in Taung, South Africa. Paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart identifies the fossil as a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus.
1965 – Pope Paul VI proclaims Jews not collectively guilty for crucifixion
1971 – Great Britain launched Prospero, its first Earth satellite.
1988 – Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives $10 million to University of Washington library
2007 – Argentine lawyer and politician Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the first woman elected president of Argentina.
2015 -World Heath Organization ranks Tuberculosis alongside HIV as world’s deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.2 million (2014)
2017 – Spain’s central government imposes direct rule on Catalonia, dismisses its government and calls for new elections in December
2019Â – EU agrees to another Brexit extension to January 31 2020
2020Â – Global COVID-19 cases record one-day increase of more than 500,000 for the first time, rising 25% in under two weeks according to Reuters
2020Â – Typhoon Molave strikes Vietnam triggering heavy rain and landslides, leaving more than 60 people dead
Film & TV:
1941 – “How Green Was My Valley” based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, directed by John Ford and starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara premieres in New York (Best Picture 1942)
2001 – The indie cult hit “Donnie Darko”, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is released
Music:
1961 – “Fiorello!” closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC starring Tom Bosley after 796 performances and a Pulitzer Prize
2016 – Disney and Alessia Cara release the sing “How Far I’ll Go” for the film “Moana”
Sport:
1900 – II Summer (Modern) Olympic Games, Paris, France: competition ends after 5 months; no opening or closing ceremonies conducted
2018 – British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finishes 4th in the Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃguez to clinch his 5th Formula 1 World Drivers Championship
Via Britannica / On This Day
