1577 Francis Drake sets sail from England on an epic three year circumnavigation of the world aboard the Golden Hind
1636 The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. Recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
1642 Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights the South Island of present day New Zealand; initially he calls it Staten Landt and changes it a year later to Nieuw Zeeland
1920 League of Nations establishes the International Court of Justice in The Hague
2002 The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004
2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit, during Operation Red Dawn by US forces
Historical Events Today
Today in Film & TV
1989 “Driving Miss Daisy” directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy is released (Best Picture 1990)
Today in Music
1961 The Beatles sign a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein
Today in Sport
2007 The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
1920 Francis G. Pease’s interferometer at Mount Wilson Observatory is the first to measure the diameter of a star – the Betelgeuse
1294 Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
Famous Weddings
862 Boudouin Iron Arm & Count of Flanders, elopes with Princess Judith, daughter King Charles of West Francia
1951 Future British PM Margaret Roberts (26) weds businessman Denis Thatcher (36) at Wesley’s Chapel in City Road, London
2003 Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti (68) weds Nicoletta Mantovani at Modena Italy’s Teatro Comunale
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