On this day in history —

• Queen Catarina sells Cyprus to Venice (1489)
• The British execute Admiral John Byng for failing to win the Battle of Minorca (1756)
• Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin (1794)
• The Mikado opens in London (1885)
• President McKinley signs the Gold Standard Act (1900)
• The first Bollywood film, Alam Ara, premiers in Bombay (1931)
• The Kraków Ghetto is liquidated (1943)
• The British produce “Ten Ton Tess,” a 22,000 lb. earthquake bomb (1945)
• Jack Ruby is found guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald (1964)
• The first American travels into space on a Russian vehicle on the Mir 18 mission (1995)

It’s the birthday of —

• Larry Johnson, basketball player (1969)
• Kiana Tom, fitness expert (1965)
• Billy Crystal, Oscar host (1948)
• Wes Unseld, basketball player (1946)
• Eugene Cernan, astronaut (1934)
• Michael Caine, actor (1933)
• Quincy Jones, musician (1933)
• Frank Borman, astronaut (1928)
• Diane Arbus, photographer (1923)
• Hank Ketchum, Dennis the Menace creator (1920)
• Max Shulman, writer (1919)
• Lee Petty, NASCAR racer (1914)
• Les Brown, bandleader (1912)
• Akira Yoshizawa (吉澤 章), origami grandmaster (1911 — died on the same day in 2005)
• Doris Eaton Travis, last surviving Ziegfeld girl (1904)
• Philip Vincent, motorcycle designer (1908)
• Albert Einstein, genius (1879)
• Algernon Blackwood, writer (1869)
• Casey Jones, railroad engineer (1863)
• Paul Erlich, medical researcher (1854)
• Giovanni Schiaparelli, astronomer (1835)
• Georg Philipp Telemann, composer (1681)

Deaths —

• Peter Graves, actor (2010)
• Kirk Alyn, Superman player (1999)
• Busby Berkeley, choreographer (1976)
• Susan Hayward, actress (1975)
• Chic Young, Blondie creator (1973)
• Balto, sled dog (1933)
• George Eastman, Kodak founder (1932)
• Karl Marx, communist (1883)
• Sir Thomas Malory, Arthurian chronicler (1471)

Holidays —

• Pi Day (3.14) — cover
• Constitution Day (Andorra)
• Heroes Day (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
• Mother Tongue Day (Estonia)
• Nanakshahi New Year (Sikhism)
• Second Equirra (ancient Rome)
• Summer Festival (Albania)
• White Day (ホワイトデ) (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China)
• Feast of Matilda of Ringelheim (Catholicism)