John Quincy Adams returns to the House of Representatives (1831), and Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania (1941). Born on this day: Walt Disney, Martin Van Buren and Bhumibol Adulyadej. Died: Nelson Mandela, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Claude Monet.
33 events, 67 births and 73 deaths on this date.
Adams, who had been president from 1825 to 1829, rejoined Congress as a member of the lower chamber, a rare step for a former president. He stayed there until his death in 1848, and became a fierce opponent of slavery.
jklamo Cleaned and enhanced by Julielangford · Public domainOn this day Britain formally entered a state of war with three Axis-aligned countries, Finland among them, after they had sided with Germany against the Soviet Union. Finland had already fought Moscow in the Winter War and was now pulled further into the wider conflict.
Angered that Libyan-hosted talks in Tripoli had blocked President Sadat's pursuit of negotiations with Israel, Egypt cut relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move exposed deep splits within the Arab world over how to respond to Israel.
Peru joined Chile in a fight against Spain over the Chincha Islands, rich in guano, the seabird droppings prized as fertiliser. The alliance helped turn a dispute over the islands into a wider war across the Pacific coast of South America.
In the Senate, Cicero spoke for the last time against Catiline's plot to overthrow the Republic. His speeches exposed the conspiracy and helped justify the execution of its leading members.
José Luiz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Drake, fresh from sailing through the Strait of Magellan, turned on the Spanish port of Valparaíso in Chile. His raid was part of the privateering that helped open a long rivalry between England and Spain.
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger · Public domain
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Walt Disney was an American animator and film producer who created Mickey Mouse and went on to build a studio that changed animated film. He holds the record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, with 22.
Boy Scouts of America · Public domain
Born in Kinderhook, New York, to a Dutch-speaking family, Van Buren later became the eighth president of the United States. He co-founded the Democratic Party with Andrew Jackson and is the only president whose first language was not English.
Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy · Public domain
Bhumibol Adulyadej, later King Rama IX of Thailand, was born in the United States. He reigned for seventy years, the longest of any Thai monarch, and was also a jazz saxophonist and composer.
Harry Pot / Anefo · CC0
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and a leader against apartheid, died in 2013 after a lifetime spent fighting segregation. He was jailed for 27 years before going on to lead a fully representative election and a nation working toward reconciliation.
Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel · CC BY-SA 2.0
Mozart wrote more than 800 works across nearly every genre of his age, including The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni and the Jupiter Symphony. He died in Vienna at 35, still short of financial security, and is now counted among the greatest composers in Western music.
Barbara Krafft · Public domain
Claude Monet was the French painter who gave Impressionism its name, after his 1874 work Impression, Sunrise. He spent decades painting outdoor scenes in changing light, including his water-lily series at Giverny.
Nadar · Public domain
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