1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal
1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the 1st person to be executed by electric chair
1945 Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress
1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act prohibiting voting discrimination against minorities
1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
Historical Events Today
Today in Film & TV
1926 “Don Juan” starring John Barrymore is released by Warner Bros, the 1st feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects
Today in Music
1996 Punk rock band the Ramones perform for the last time at the Palace in Hollywood
Today in Sport
1948 Dutch super athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen wins London Olympics 200m in 24.4s to become the first women to claim 3 individual track & field gold at a Games, having already won the 100m and 80m hurdles
MORE FACTS…
1996 NASA announces that life may have existed on Mars after examining meteorite ALH84001, thought to be from Mars
1964 Prometheus, the world’s oldest tree aged at least 4,862 years old, is accidentally cut down in Nevada, USA
Famous Weddings
1953 NHL goaltender Terry Sawchuk (23) weds Patricia Ann Morey
1968 Children’s author Theodor Geisel [Dr. Seuss] (64) weds second wife Audrey Stone Dimond
1983 Film director Philippe de Broca (50) weds actress Margot Kidder (34) in France
