Bill Clinton gives videotaped testimony in the Whitewater inquiry (1996), and Max Theiler develops yellow fever vaccine in New York (1937). Born on this day: James Monroe, Saddam Hussein and Penélope Cruz. Died: Gavrilo Princip, Michael Collins and Arthur L. Schawlow.
35 events, 59 births and 54 deaths on this date.
Clinton sat for a four and a half hour videotaped deposition, given in his own defence, in the long-running Whitewater investigation into a failed Arkansas real estate venture. The testimony was played to a court, as the scandal kept dogging his presidency.
Bob McNeely, The White House [ 1 ] · Public domainWorking in New York, South African researcher Max Theiler produced a vaccine against yellow fever, a serious disease spread by mosquitoes. It offered a practical way to shield people from an illness that had long threatened tropical regions.
Maryland's convention signed on to the new federal framework, becoming the seventh state to do so. Nine states had to approve before the Constitution could take effect, so each vote brought the country closer to a working national government.
Born on this day, James Monroe would later lead the United States from 1817 to 1825 and be the last Founding Father to hold the presidency. He is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine, a policy aimed at curbing European colonialism in the Americas.
Gilbert Stuart · Public domain
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali turned down the chance to join the army, citing his faith and his opposition to the fighting in Vietnam. A conviction for draft evasion followed, and he lost his boxing titles, though the Supreme Court later overturned the ruling.
Ira Rosenberg · Public domain
A combined force of 52 Spanish and Portuguese ships set out to win back Bahia, the Brazilian port the Dutch had seized the previous year. The operation was part of the wider war between the Dutch Republic and Portugal, which was then under Spanish rule.
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Monroe led the United States as its fifth president from 1817 to 1825, and is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European powers off the Americas. He was also the last of the Founding Fathers to hold the presidency.
Gilbert Stuart · Public domain
Saddam Hussein ran Iraq as its president and, for long stretches, as prime minister, and was known for an authoritarian grip on power. He was removed from office by the US-led invasion of 2003 and executed in 2006.
Iraqi News Agency · Public domain
Spanish actress who won an Academy Award for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and has worked often with Pedro Almodóvar. She is still acting, and has also produced films she appears in.
Pedro J Pacheco · CC BY-SA 4.0
The young Bosnian Serb whose shots in Sarajevo killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in June 1914. That killing triggered the July Crisis, and within a month the First World War had begun.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Michael Collins was the astronaut who orbited the Moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on its surface during Apollo 11 in 1969. He later directed the National Air and Space Museum and remained a quietly admired figure of the space programme.
NASA; restored by Coffeeandcrumbs · Public domain
Schawlow was an American physicist who, with Charles Townes, worked out the theory behind the laser by using two mirrors to push maser action into visible light. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for using lasers to measure atomic energy levels precisely.
Jose Mercado / Stanford News Service · CC BY 3.0
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