Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1429

Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.

1789

The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.

1847

Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1862

Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson seizes Manassas Junction, Virginia, and moves to encircle Union forces under General John Pope.

1920

The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

1939

The first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS, a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Below, Red Barber interviews Dodgers manager Leo Durocher before the games.

1957

The Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

1957

Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.

1961

The International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.

1964

President Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J.

1966

South African Defense Force troops attack a People's Liberation Army of Nambia at Omugulugwombashe, the first battle of the 22-year Namibian War of Independence.

1970

A nationwide Women's Strike for Equality, led by Betty Friedan on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment calls attention to unequal pay and other gender inequalities in America.

1977

The National Assembly of Quebec adopts Bill 101, Charter of the French Language, making French the official language of the Canadian province.

1978

Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name John Paul I.

1997

Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end apartheid, resigned as leader of the party that created the practice.

1998

Attorney General Janet Reno reopened the investigation of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., focusing on two allegations of a conspiracy beyond James Earl Ray.

1999

Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

2009

Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard is discovered alive in California after being missing for over 18 years. Her captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are apprehended.

2015

Two U.S. journalists are shot and killed by a disgruntled former coworker while conducting a live report in Moneta, Virginia.

2018

Three people are killed and eleven wounded during a mass shooting at a Madden NFL '19 video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.

2021

During the 2021 Kabul airlift, a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport kills 13 US military personnel and at least 169 Afghan civilians.

1743

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen. (d. 1794)

1874

Lee de Forest, physicist, inventor, invented the Audion tube, considered the father of radio. (d. 1961)

1906

Albert Sabin, Polish-American physician and virologist, developed the polio vaccine (d. 1993)

1910

Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) Albanian-Indian nun, missionary, Catholic saint, Nobel Prize laureate for her work in the slums of Calcutta. (d. 1997)

1940

Donald Leroy 'Don' LaFontaine, voice-over actor; recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers.

1945

Tom Ridge, American sergeant and politician, 1st Secretary of Homeland Security

1952

Will Shortz, American puzzle creator and editor.

1960

Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.

1970

Melissa Ann McCarthy, comedian, writer, producer, Emmy-winning actress (Mike & Molly TV series).

1930

Lon Chaney, American actor, screenwriter, and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters. (b. 1883)

1974

Charles Lindbergh - the first man to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic - died at his home in Hawaii at the age of 72. (b. 1902)

1986

Ted Knight, American actor known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack. (b. 1923)

2009

Dominick Dunne was an American writer, investigative journalist, and producer. He began his career in film and television as a producer of the gay film The Boys in the Band and as the producer of the film The Panic in Needle Park. (b. 1925)

2018

Neil Simon, American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. (b. 1927)

2023

Bob Barker, American television game show host. He hosted CBS's The Price Is Right, the longest-running game show in North American television history, from 1972 to 2007. He also hosted Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975. (b. 1923)