Napoleon sails from Egypt for France (1799), and Western North Carolina breaks away as Franklin (1784). Born on this day: Louis XVI, Kobe Bryant and Gene Kelly. Died: Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, William Wallace and Sir John Cowdery Kendrew.
29 events, 65 births and 51 deaths on this date.
Napoleon slipped away from his army in Egypt, sailing for France with a few trusted officers while British warships patrolled the Mediterranean. The voyage led to the coup that made him First Consul and set him on the road to power.
Jacques-Louis David · Public domainThe French RevolutionHear the story in ChunksResidents of western North Carolina, in what is now eastern Tennessee, set up their own state called Franklin. The United States never recognised it, and the venture collapsed after roughly four years.
After years of German occupation, the port city of Marseille was freed by Allied forces near the close of the Second World War. Founded by Greek settlers around 600 BC, it is France's oldest city.
On his third crossing to the region, Cartier came ashore close to Stadacona, the Iroquoian settlement where Quebec City now stands. He had already mapped the Saint Lawrence and helped give the land the name Canada.
Théophile Hamel / After François Nicholas Riss · CC BY-SA 4.0
On this day in 1991, the World Wide Web was made available beyond CERN, the physics lab where Tim Berners-Lee had devised it. Anyone with a browser could now follow hyperlinks between documents stored on servers across the Internet.
Rebel forces of the National Transitional Council seized Bab al-Azizia, Gaddafi's fortified Tripoli compound, ending his four decades of rule over Libya. The capture marked the collapse of his government during the civil war that had begun earlier that year.
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Louis XVI was the final king of France before the monarchy collapsed in the Revolution. He is remembered for failed reforms, costly support for the American colonists, and a debt crisis that helped drive the upheaval that cost him his throne and his life.
Antoine-François Callet · Public domain
Kobe Bryant played all twenty of his NBA seasons for one team, the Lakers, winning five championships and two Olympic golds. Known as the Black Mamba, he is often ranked among the greatest players the sport has produced.
Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
Gene Kelly was an American dancer, actor and director who sought to make a new American dance for ordinary audiences. He is best remembered for starring in and co-directing Singin' in the Rain, with Stanley Donen, and for An American in Paris.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer · Public domain
French physicist and engineer whose torsion balance experiments led to Coulomb's law, which describes the force between electric charges. The coulomb, the SI unit of electric charge, was later named after him.
Louis Hierle · Public domain
Scottish knight who led the resistance against English rule during the First War of Scottish Independence. Captured in August 1305, he was executed in London by Edward I and became a legendary national hero.
Public domain
Kendrew won the 1962 chemistry Nobel with Max Perutz, recognised for working out the structure of haem-containing proteins. He also worked as a science administrator, after his research at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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