[Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the foremost opponents of tyranny in the world today, seemingly having resisted the junta (which in June 1989 changed the name of Burma to Myanmar) ever since her father - Aung San, the 'father of modern Burma' - was assassinated in July 1947, when she was just 2. Since handily winning parliamentary elections in 1990, despite being under house arrest at the time, Dr. Suu Kyi is the rightful Prime Minister of Burma;
she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.]
1540 - The
Society of Jesus - an organization better known as the
Jesuits, founded by
Ignatius of Loyola in
August 1534 - received its charter from Pope
Paul III in the form of the papal bull
Regimini militantis ecclesiae, which initially limited the society's membership to 60.
1590 - Pope
Urban VII died just 13 days after his elevation to the papacy, making his
the shortest papal reign in history.
1787 - The
US Constitution was delivered to the states for
ratification.
1821 - With the establishment of the
First Mexican Empire - under its newly elected Emperor
Agustín de Iturbide -
Mexico's
independence from Spain was recognized, having first been declared in
September 1810 by
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.
1822 -
Jean-François Champollion announced that he'd deciphered the
Rosetta Stone, which had been 'discovered' by
Pierre-Francois Bouchard in
July 1799; Champollion's findings were published the following year.
1825 - The
Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, beginning operations as the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
1854 - The side-wheeler
steamship SS Arctic sank off Newfoundland's
Cape Race after colliding with the French vessel SS
Vesta, marking the first great civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean; lost in the sinking were 92 of her 153 officers and men and all her women and children passengers - including the wife, the only daughter, and the youngest son of
Collins Line manager
Edward Knight Collins.
1903 - The
Wreck of the Old 97 - a train crash made famous by the
railroad ballad of the same name - occurred near
Danville, Virginia while the train was
en route from
Monroe, Virginia to
Spencer, North Carolina.
1908 - The first
Ford Model T automobile rolled off the assembly line at the
Piquette Plant in Detroit.
1916 -
Iyasu was proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup; he was succeeded by his aunt
Zauditu.
1922 - King
Constantine I of Greece abdicated in favour of his eldest son, who became King
George II.
1937 - The last
Balinese tiger - an adult female - was
killed at Sumbar Kima.
1938 - The ocean liner
RMS Queen Elizabeth - named for the then Queen Consort of England,
Queen Elizabeth - was launched in Glasgow.
1940 - Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the
Tripartite Pact in Berlin, thus solidifying the unity of the Axis powers.
1954 -
The Tonight Show made its debut as
Tonight! starring
Steve Allen; the show was originally 105 minutes in length, and broadcast live from New York City.
1964 - The
Warren Commission released its report on the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy; some of us are still waiting for the non-fiction version... The commission's name came from its chairman, US Supreme Court Chief Justice
Earl Warren.
1968 - The stage musical
Hair opened at London's
Shaftesbury Theatre, where it played 1,998 performances until literally bringing the roof down in July 1973.
1988 - Burma's National League for Democracy was founded by Aung San Suu Kyi.
2001 -
Friedrich Leibacher went on a
shooting rampage, killing 14 and injuring 18 others in the parliament house of the Swiss canton of
Zug before turning the gun on himself.
*
