Construction of the Suez Canal begins (1859), and Daniel Chong found in San Diego holding room (2012). Born on this day: Guglielmo Marconi, Al Pacino and Johan Cruyff. Died: Anders Celsius, Ginger Rogers and Benedict XII.
34 events, 67 births and 67 deaths on this date.
Work starts on a waterway that will link the Mediterranean and Red Seas without a sea voyage around Africa. It took a decade to finish and opened in 1869, cutting the sea journey from Asia to Europe considerably.
Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany · CC BY 2.0Daniel Chong was discovered in a San Diego holding room after being shut in for five days, deprived of meals and drink. The episode was an unsettling reminder of how easily someone can be overlooked in custody.
Born this day, Guglielmo Marconi went on to build a practical wireless telegraph system using radio waves, which led many to regard him as radio's inventor. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun for work on wireless telegraphy.
Pach Brothers · Public domain
NASA and ESA's Hubble telescope was carried into low Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery, placing it above the blurring effect of the atmosphere. It went on to become one of the most productive instruments in astronomy.
NASA · Public domain
Once restored, the Emesa Helmet went on show at the British Museum in London. It stayed there for a time before being sent back to Syria, the country it was returned to.
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle wrote the song in Strasbourg after France declared war on Austria. Volunteers from Marseille sang it on their march to Paris, giving it the nickname that stuck, and the National Convention made it the anthem in 1795.
Isidore Pils · Public domain
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Marconi was an Italian engineer whose practical radio wave telegraph system led many to credit him as the inventor of radio. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun for their work on wireless telegraphy.
Pach Brothers · Public domain
Al Pacino is an American actor known for intense stage and screen performances, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather films. He is one of the few performers to have won an Academy Award, a Tony and an Emmy.
Embajada de EEUU en la Argentina · CC BY 2.0
Dutch footballer and manager who is widely considered one of the finest players and most influential coaches in the history of the game. He won the Ballon d'Or three times and shaped the Total Football style with Ajax and Barcelona.
Rob Mieremet / Anefo · CC0
Swedish astronomer who proposed the centigrade temperature scale in 1742, later renamed Celsius in his honour. He also founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory and spent his career teaching astronomy there.
Olof Arenius · Public domain
Best known for nine RKO musicals opposite Fred Astaire in the 1930s, Ginger Rogers later turned to drama and won the Best Actress Oscar for Kitty Foyle. Her career began with a 1925 Charleston contest win and ran across stage, radio and television.
Studio publicity still · Public domain
Born Jacques Fournier, he was a former inquisitor who became pope in Avignon and started the great papal palace there. He is remembered for settling the beatific vision dispute with the bull Benedictus Deus and for trying, without success, to bring the Holy Roman Empire under papal control.
Henri Auguste César Serrur · Public domain
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