PHOTO CREDITS- WIKIPEDIA/INTERNET ARCHIVE

2000 The Sun, Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn align – Earth’s moon is also almost in this alignment – leading to Doomsday predictions of massive natural disasters, although such a ‘grand confluence’ occurs about once in every century.

1987 Congress opens Iran-Contra hearings.

1980  The British Special Air Service (SAS) terminate the Iranian Embassy siege in London

1969 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Norman Mailer for his ‘nonfiction novel’ Armies of the Night, an account of the 1967 anti-Vietnam War march on the Pentagon.

1968 U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen.

1965 173rd Airborne Brigade arrives in Bien Hoa-Vung, Vietnam, the first regular U.S. Army unit deployed to that country.

1961 Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.

1955  West Germany regains full sovereignty after World War II

1949  The Council of Europe is founded

1945 Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control.

1943 Michael Palin, actor and screenwriter (Monty Python’s Flying Circus).

1942 General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1935 American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1934  The first Three Stooges film is released

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1920 Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested for murder.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1917 Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1916 U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1912 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1909 Carlos Baker, biographer.

1903 Bing [Harry Lillis] Crosby, singer and actor. Various dates given for his birth date.

1904  Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern major league baseball