1534 – Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad
1563 – Council of Trent holds its last session, after 18 years. Last ecumenical council for more than 300 years.
1619 – 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many the first Thanksgiving in the Americas.
1791 – Britain’s Observer, oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, first published
1829 – Britain outlaws “suttee” in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre)
1918 – US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France
1961 – Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse’s Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
1961 – The female contraceptive ‘pill’ becomes available on the National Health Service in Britain
1970 – Unemployment in US increases to 5.8%
1977 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowns himself Emperor of the Central African Empire in a lavish ceremony costing US$20 million – one third of the nation’s budget
1982 – Police and racist demonstrators clash in Antwerp
1985 – French President Mitterrand receives Polish leader Jaruzelski
1990 – Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages
1996 – The unmanned space vehicle Mars Pathfinder was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in order to explore the surface of Mars.
2000 – Surinamese politician Henck Arron, who helped Suriname gain its independence (1975) from the Netherlands and served as prime minister (1973–80) until being overthrown by the military, died at age 64.
2005 – U.S. debut of the first part of two-part TV biopic miniseries “Pope John Paul II” on CBS
2006 – An adult giant squid is caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Toky
2014 – The United Nations warns that the world is on course for the warmest year since records began
2016 – Austria elects liberal independent Alexander Van der Bellen as President, after original vote in May annulled
2017 – US Supreme Court allows President Trump’s travel ban to come into effect for 6 mostly Muslim countries
2018 – Theresa May’s UK government suffers three parliamentary defeats in one day, also found in contempt of parliament for failing to publish report in full on Brexit
2018 – Native Americans had just one migration from Siberia to the New World, at most 23,000 years ago, in research published in “Nature” and “Science”
2019 – North American migratory birds getting smaller, their wings wider due to climate change according to study by University of Michigan published in journal “Ecology Letters”
2019 – 58 migrants drown after a boat sinks off the coast of Mauritania, with 83 saved
Births & Deaths:
1949 – Jeff Bridges—an American actor known for his laid-back personality and his versatility—was born.
1970 – American rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, one of the most influential figures in hip-hop in the 1990s and early 2000s, was born.
2001 – Marike de Klerk, ex-wife of former President F.W. de Klerk is murdered at her home in Cape Town
Film & TV:
1933 – Jack Kirkland’s play “Tobacco Road” premieres in NYC, became the longest-running play of its time
Music:
1927 – Duke Ellington opens at the Cotton Club in Harlem
1980 – Several months after the death of drummer John Bonham, the British rock band Led Zeppelin announced that it was officially disbanding; the group later re-formed for short one-off performances on several occasions.
Sport:
1943 – Commissioner Landis announces any baseball club may sign Negroes
Via Britannica / On This Day
