This Day in History

• The forty-seven Rōnin (四十七士) commit seppuku (1703)
• George Washington is elected as the first President of the United States (1789)
• The French First Republic abolishes slavery (although Napoleon rëestablishes it eight years later) (1794)
• Mormon pioneers head west toward the Salt Lake Valley (1846)
• The Confederate States of America is formed (1861)
• The USO is founded (1941)
• The Yalta Conference begins (1945)
• The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst (1974)
• Facebook is founded (2004)

Birthdays

• Eddie Cochems, “father of the forward pass” (1877)
• Charles Lindbergh, aviator (1902)
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian (1906)
• Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer who discovered Pluto (1906)
• Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (1913)
• Ida Lupino, actress (1918)
• Betty Friedan, feminist (1921)
• Isabel Perón, first female president of any country in the world (1931)
• Ted White, science fiction writer and editor (1938)
• Alice Cooper, “godfather of shock rock” (1948)
• Clint Black, country musician (1962)
• Oscar De La Hoya, boxer (1973)

Deaths

• Hendrik Lorentz, physicist (1928)
• Satyendra Nath Bose (সত্যেন্দ্রনাথ বসু), physicist (1974)
• Karen Carpenter, singer and drummer (1983)
• Liberace, “Mr. Showmanship” (1987)
• Ossie Davis, actor and civil rights activist (2005)
• Edgar Mitchell, astronaut on Apollo 14 (2016)

Holidays

• Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
• National Homemade Soup Day (US food holidays)
• Rosa Parks Day (California, Missouri)
• World Cancer Day (international)