Columbus sails from Palos de la Frontera on his first westward voyage (1492), and Senegalese opposition parties launch the Antiimperialist Action Front (1981). Born on this day: Habib Bourguiba, Stanley Baldwin and Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Died: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Conrad and Richard Willstätter.
30 events, 59 births and 70 deaths on this date.
Columbus leaves the Spanish port with three ships, betting that a western route would reach Asia and its valuable spices. The voyage instead led to the first sustained European contact with the Americas.
Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio · Public domainChristopher ColumbusHear the story in ChunksA group of Senegalese opposition parties, led by Mamadou Dia, set up a new front called Suxxali Reew Mi. Its anti-imperialist name signalled a challenge to the established order in a country that had gained independence in 1960.
The pedestal, which had been shut since the attacks of September 2001, welcomed visitors again, letting people climb inside the monument's base for views over New York Harbour. The reopening marked a return to normal for one of the city's most recognised landmarks.
Christian David · CC BY-SA 4.0
Harvard's rowers beat Yale on the Thames in New London, Connecticut, in what is often called the first intercollegiate athletic contest in America. The race became the start of a rivalry that still runs today.
The deal with the Soviet Union limited each country's systems for shooting down incoming nuclear missiles. It was one of the first major arms control agreements between the two superpowers.
Owens won the 100 metres final in Berlin, the first of four gold medals he would take at the Games. The result, before a crowd including Hitler, undercut Nazi claims of Aryan superiority.
Acme News Photos · Public domain
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Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian lawyer who led his country to independence from France and became its first president in 1957. He held that office until 1987, earning the title Supreme Combatant along the way.
Habib Osman · Public domain
Stanley Baldwin was a Conservative politician who served three separate terms as British prime minister between the world wars. He is remembered for steering the country through the 1926 General Strike and the abdication crisis of 1936.
Bain News Service · Public domain
Stanley Baldwin was a Conservative politician who served three separate terms as British prime minister between the wars. He was known for steering the country through the General Strike and the abdication crisis of 1936.
Bain News Service · Public domain
Soviet and Russian novelist who exposed the Gulag prison system to the world, most famously in The Gulag Archipelago. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 for his work.
Bert Verhoeff for Anefo · CC0
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born writer who learned English as an adult and became one of its great prose stylists. He is remembered for novels such as Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, many set at sea.
George Charles Beresford · Public domain
German chemist who worked out how plant pigments, including the green one in leaves, are built, earning the 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He was Jewish and forced out of his posts under the Nazis, and he died in Switzerland in exile.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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