1813 ~ Birthday of Richard Wagner, Composer.
1840 ~ Transporting British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.
1856 ~ In one of the more ornate expressions of American democracy, Congressman
Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator
Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the
U.S. Senate because of a speech Sumner had made which attacked Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.
1859 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Physician & Writer.
1885 ~ Death of Victor Hugo, French author.
1907 ~ Birthday of Sir Laurence Olivier, Actor & Director.
1907 ~ Birthday of
Hergé, comic book creator.
1947 ~ The
Truman Doctrine was enacted.
1969 ~ The lunar module of
Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing..
1972 ~ Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and joined the British Commonwealth.