1545: One of the Royal Navy's earliest purpose-built warships, the Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth. Modern scholars think it may have been because of instability created when the number of guns was increased from 78 to 91.
1692: Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, MA.1814: Samuel Colt, firearms inventor, is born in Hartford, CT.
1834: Edward Degas is born.
1843: The SS Great Britain is launched, becoming not only the largest ship in the world (at the time) but also the first ocean-going liner with a metal hull and screw propellers.
1860: Lizzie Borden is born.1879: Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon.
1904: Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the last descendant of Abraham Lincoln is born.1912: A meteorite with an estimated mass of 418 pounds explodes over the town of Holbrook, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
1924: Pat Hingle is born.
1938: Richard Jordan is born. He played Duncan Idaho in Dune and Michael York's sidekick in Logan's Run.
1941: Winston Churchill launches his "V For Victory" campaign in Great Britain.
1942: During the Battle of the Atlantic, German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.1947: Brian May, guitarist for Queen is born. He made his guitar, the Red Special, out of old bicycle parts and wood from a disused fireplace with help from his Dad. He quit his Phd program in physics to go be a rock star and then went back many years later to finish it. Rolling Stone ranks him as the 39th greatest guitarist of all time. Here's one of his classic stadium anthems:
1962: Anthony Edwards is born. He was never better than as Gilbert in Revenge of the Nerds.
1969: Apollo 11 goes into orbit around the moon.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
