1618 Second Defenestration of Prague: Two Catholic Lords Regent and their secretary are thrown out of a window and amazingly are not seriously injured by the 70 foot (21m) fall. Triggers the Thirty Years’ War.
1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1813 South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”)
1934 American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow – Bonnie and Clyde, are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana
1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones
1958 Mao Zedong starts the “Great Leap Forward” movement in China
1998 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
Historical Events Today Events in 2023
Today in Film & TV
1980 Horror film “The Shining” released directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, based on book by Stephen King
Today in Music
2000 Eminem releases 3rd studio album “The Marshall Mathers LP”, is fastest ever selling studio album (Grammy – Best Rap Album, 2001)
Today in Sport
1873 1st Preakness Stakes: G. Barbee aboard Survivor wins in 2:43 at Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland
D
1873 Canada’s North West Mounted Police Force forms (it didn’t get the “Royal” until 1904)
2016 Chinese archaeologists announce findings of earliest use of barley in China to make beer, Shaanxi province 3400-2900 BC
Famous Weddings
1200 Louis of France (Later Louis VIII) (13) marries Blanche of Castile (12), daughter of Alfonso VIII King of Castile at Port-Mort
1942 Comic book artist Jack Kirby (24) weds Roz Goldstein
1953 John F. Kennedy’s sister Eunice Kennedy (31) weds activist and attorney Sargent Shriver at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City
