John Tyler is sworn in as president of the United States (1841), and Jalal Talabani elected Iraq's first non-Arab president (2005). Born on this day: Raphael, Rafael Correa and James Watson. Died: Raphael, Albrecht Dürer and Igor Stravinsky.
31 events, 63 births and 72 deaths on this date.
Tyler took the oath two days after Harrison's death, becoming the first vice president to succeed to the office on a president's death. His arrival in the job set a precedent that the Constitution had left unsettled.
George Peter Alexander Healy · Public domainThe Kurdish leader was chosen by Iraq's National Assembly, making him the country's first president who was not an Arab. His election marked a significant shift in a state long dominated by Arab leadership after the fall of the monarchy.
Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck set up a small station here to supply passing ships with fresh food and water. It grew into the city now known as Cape Town.
Athens hosted the first modern Olympics, reviving a contest last held in antiquity. On the opening day, American James Connolly won a medal in the triple jump, the first Olympic medal awarded in roughly fifteen centuries.
Docpix · Public domain
Mehmed II's army began a 53-day siege of Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, which fell that May and was renamed Istanbul. Its fall ended the Byzantine Empire and showed that cannon could breach walls that had stood for centuries.
Public domain
In 945 the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII raised his son Romanos to share the throne. Romanos went on to rule alone for a few years after his father's death, and the arrangement shows how dynasties secured their succession in Constantinople.
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Raphael is remembered as one of the three great masters of the High Renaissance, alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo. He painted the frescoed Raphael Rooms in the Vatican and also worked as an architect.
Raphael · Public domain
Ecuadorian economist and politician who served as president from 2007 to 2017, leading a left-wing government that expanded state spending and drew on a new constitution. He has lived in Belgium since leaving office.
Wilfredor · CC0
James Watson co-discovered the double helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick in 1953, building on work by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for it, and later led Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Newspaper Enterprise Association · Public domain
Working in Rome for Pope Julius II from 1508, Raphael painted the frescoes of the Vatican's Raphael Rooms and took on architectural commissions. Alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo, he was counted one of the three great masters of the High Renaissance, admired for clarity of form.
Raphael · Public domain
Dürer transformed the woodcut, a printing method, and his prints made his reputation across Europe. He also wrote treatises on linear perspective and body proportions, and introduced classical motifs and the nude to Northern art.
Albrecht Dürer · Public domain
Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer whose ballets, including The Rite of Spring, reshaped how 20th-century composers thought about rhythm. He moved through Russian, neoclassical and serial styles over a long career, and died in New York.
George Grantham Bain Collection · Public domain
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