Rodrigo de Borja elected pope as Alexander VI (1492), and Dadra and Nagar Haveli becomes a Union Territory (1961). Born on this day: Pervez Musharraf, Steve Wozniak and Chris Hemsworth. Died: Robin Williams, Jackson Pollock and V.S. Naipaul.
29 events, 63 births and 56 deaths on this date.
Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja, a Valencian who had risen through the Roman Curia, was chosen to lead the Church and rule the Papal States. His name became a byword for nepotism and scandal, largely because he openly acknowledged several children by his mistresses.
Attributed to Pedro Berruguete · Public domainDadra and Nagar Haveli, two former Portuguese territories, were merged into a single Union Territory of India. The move turned two small enclaves into one unit within India's federal system.
Juan del Corral proclaimed Antioquia independent in 1813, during the wave of local revolts that split New Granada into self-governing provinces. The move was a step toward the federal arrangement that later shaped modern Colombia.
Chad became a sovereign state on this day, ending French colonial rule over the territory. The country's long road from independence was shaped by a civil war that broke out in 1965 and lasted for decades.
After a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union, fighting broke out between it and Fretilin, and the Portuguese governor Mário Lemos Pires left the capital. The collapse of Portuguese authority left the territory open to the Indonesian invasion that followed months later.
Rome's throne changed hands quickly after the death of Trajan, the emperor who had expanded the empire furthest. Hadrian took the title and became the new ruler of Rome.
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Pakistani army general who seized power in a 1999 coup and then served as president from 2001 to 2008. He is remembered for leading the Kargil War against India and for backing the American-led war on terror.
World Economic Forum · CC BY-SA 2.0
Wozniak is an American engineer and programmer who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976. He designed the Apple II, one of the first mass-produced personal computers to sell well.
Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
Australian actor best known for playing Thor across eleven Marvel Cinematic Universe films. He rose to fame after starring in the soap opera Home and Away before breaking into Hollywood with Star Trek.
Kevin Paul · CC BY 4.0
Robin Williams, the American actor and comedian, was celebrated for his fast improvised comic characters and for dramatic roles such as Good Will Hunting. He died in 2014, aged 63, after years of struggling with severe depression.
Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Jackson Pollock was an American painter who poured and splashed household paint onto canvases laid flat on the floor, creating the drip technique that defined abstract expressionism. He died in a single-car crash after drinking, a death that ended a career spent wrestling with alcoholism.
Hans Namuth · Public domain
Trinidad-born writer whose novels ranged from comic tales of Trinidad to bleaker stories of alienation abroad. He won the Booker Prize in 1971 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.
Faizul Latif Chowdhury · CC BY-SA 4.0
Download on iOS
Download on Android