On this day in history —

• The Kingdom of Mysore defeats the British East India Company, leading to the Treaty of Mangalore (1784)
• The Bureau of Indian Affairs is founded (1824)
• The first democratically elected Canadian prime ministers take office (1848)
• The first performance of Rigoletto takes place in Venice (1851)
• The worst man-made disaster in English history, the Great Sheffield Flood, takes place (1864)
• The Great Blizzard of 1888 hits the East Coast, killing more than 400 (1888)
• FDR signs the Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• Douglas MacArthur leaves Corregidor (1942)
• The Hanafi Siege ends in Washington, DC (1977)
• Fatah militants led by Abu Jihad kill 38 in the Coastal Road Massacre (1978)
• “11 M,” the Madrid train bombings, kill 191 and wound 1,800 (2004)
• The Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan, killing or injuring 24,000 and damaging the Fukushima nuclear power plan complex and causing $235 billion in damage, making it the most expensive natural disaster in world history (2011)

It’s the birthday of —

• Eric the Midget, Howard Stern regular (1975)
• Kieran Scott (“Kate Brian”), young adult author (1974)
• Lisa Loeb, singer-songwriter (1968)
• Jesse Jackson, Jr., congressman (1965)
• Libba Bray, young adult author (1964)
• Nina Hartley, porn star and sex educator (1959)
• The Lady Chablis, drag queen (1957)
• Joey Buttafuoco, scandal figure (1956)
• D. J. MacHale, young adult author (1955)
• Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author (1952)
• Dominique Sanda, actress (1951)
• Jerry Zucker, director (1950)
• Bobby McFerrin, unworried and happy (1950)
• Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice (1936)
• Sam Donaldston, TV journalist (1934)
• Rupert Murdoch, media mogul (1931)
• Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader (1926)
• Louise Brough, tennis player (1923)
• Harold Wilson, British prime minister (1916)
• Ezra Jack Keats, children’s author and illustrator (1916)
• J. C. R. Licklider, Internet pioneer (1915)
• Sir Fitzroy MacLean, commando and possible inspiration for James Bond (1911)
• Lawrence Welk, champaign musician (1903)
• Dorothy Gish, actress (1898)
• Shemp Howard, stooge (1895)
• Vannevar Bush, scientist (1890)

Deaths —

• Merlin Olsen, football player and actor (2010)
• Betty Hutton, actress (2007)
• Slobodan Milošević (Слободан Милошевић), Serbian leader (2006)
• Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, hockey player (2006)
• Vince Edwards, actor (1996)
• Philo Farnsworth, TV inventor (1971)
• Whitney Young, civil rights leader (1971)
• Erle Stanley Gardner, mystery writer (1970)
• John Wyndham, science fiction writer (1969)
• Geraldine Farrar, opera star and actress (1967)
• Richard E. Byrd, polar explorer (1957)
• Oscar Mayer, bologna namer (1955)
• Sir Alexander Fleming, penicillin discoverer
• Hendrik Willem van Loon, children’s book writer (1944)
• F. W. Murnau, director (1931)
• William Rosencrans, Civil War general (1898)
• Elagabalus, emperor of Rome (222)
• Thutmose III, pharaoh (1425) — on the cover

Holidays —

• Johnny Appleseed Day (United States)
• Independence Day (Lithuania)
• Moshoeshoe Day (Lesotho)
• Feast of Aengus the Culdee (Catholicism)