Marconi hears a wireless signal from across the Atlantic (1901), and Kenya declares independence from Great Britain (1963). Born on this day: Frank Sinatra, Gustave Flaubert and Edvard Munch. Died: Heydar Aliyev, John le Carré and Theodor Heuss.
29 events, 80 births and 72 deaths on this date.
Working on a hilltop in Newfoundland, Marconi picked up the Morse letter S, sent across the Atlantic by wireless. It proved radio could span an ocean, not just short distances.
Pach Brothers · Public domainKenya became a sovereign nation on this day, ending decades of British colonial rule. Jomo Kenyatta, who had led the independence movement, became the country's first prime minister.
Pennsylvania voted to adopt the new national constitution, making it the second state to do so after Delaware. Its approval helped move the young republic closer to the nine state ratifications needed for the framework to take effect.
Gustave Flaubert is the French novelist remembered for Madame Bovary, a debut that made him a leading figure of literary realism. His obsessive care over each sentence made him a mentor to Guy de Maupassant.
Nadar · Public domain
Fifty-four Japanese Zero fighters attacked Batangas Field, but Jesús Villamor and four Filipino pilots drove them off. César Basa was killed in the fighting.
The Paris Agreement set a goal of keeping global warming well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5 °C. Negotiated by 196 parties near Paris, it also called for net zero emissions by mid-century, though emissions kept rising afterwards.
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Frank Sinatra was an American singer, conductor and actor who grew up among Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey. He became one of the best-selling music artists of all time and also won an Oscar for his supporting role in From Here to Eternity.
Columbia Pictures Corporation · Public domain
Flaubert was a French novelist who became the leading figure of literary realism, best known for Madame Bovary, the story of a provincial doctor's restless wife. He was famously fussy about his sentences, often spending days on a single page.
Nadar · Public domain
Norwegian painter whose 1893 work The Scream became one of the most recognised images in Western art. He grew up under the shadow of illness and bereavement, and his emotional honesty shaped a distinctive style.
Anders Beer Wilse · Public domain
Heydar Aliyev was a former KGB officer who rose to lead Soviet Azerbaijan and later ruled independent Azerbaijan as president. His rule was widely criticised as authoritarian, and he handed power to his son shortly before his death.
Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan · CC BY 4.0
The novelist who turned Cold War espionage into literary fiction, drawing on his own years working for MI5 and MI6. His books, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, were adapted again and again for film and television.
Krimidoedel · CC BY 3.0
Theodor Heuss was a German journalist and politician who became the first president of West Germany in 1949. He served two full terms, and his calm, cordial manner helped steady democracy during the Wirtschaftswunder years.
Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
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