Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto (1930), and Ottoman authorities hang Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in Sofia (1873). Born on this day: Toni Morrison, Alessandro Volta and John Travolta. Died: Michelangelo, Martin Luther and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
29 events, 80 births and 87 deaths on this date.
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh spotted Pluto, a body beyond Neptune later classed as a dwarf planet. It was first hailed as the ninth planet, but its status was downgraded after it proved far smaller than expected.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI · Public domainLevski was a leader of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement against Ottoman rule, which had lasted for nearly five centuries. He was hanged in Sofia, and his name remains one of the most honoured in Bulgarian history.
Dedan Kimathi, the leader of the Mau Mau rebels fighting British rule in Kenya, was hanged on this day. His death marked the end of the armed uprising that had dominated the colony through the 1950s.
After roughly two centuries under British rule, the Gambia became a sovereign state, with Dawda Jawara leading it as its first prime minister. The small West African country, wrapped around the lower Gambia River, has been run by elected leaders ever since.
Riot police and protesters clashed in the Ukrainian capital, leaving at least 76 dead and hundreds injured. The violence marked one of the deadliest days of the Revolution of Dignity, which pushed the country toward a sharp political turn.
Members of the White Rose, a German group that resisted the regime through leaflets and writing rather than violence, were detained. Their arrest showed how little open opposition the Nazi state would allow.
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Toni Morrison was an American novelist whose books, including Beloved, looked hard at racism and the lives of Black Americans. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, and a Pulitzer Prize for Beloved.
John Mathew Smith ( celebrity-photos.com ) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Volta built the voltaic pile in 1799, an electric battery, and showed that electricity could be produced by chemical means rather than only by living creatures. The volt, the unit of electric potential, carries his name.
Garavaglia Giovita (1790-1835) - Gaetano Bonatti (inc.) · Public domain
American actor who moved from television sitcoms to film stardom, with breakout roles in Saturday Night Fever and Grease. He has also been Oscar-nominated for Pulp Fiction and recorded music, including the Grease soundtrack that topped the Billboard 200.
lauraleedooley · CC BY 2.0
Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance, best known for the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Pietà. He also reshaped the design of St Peter's Basilica in Rome in his seventies.
Attributed to Daniele da Volterra · Public domain
Martin Luther, the German priest and theologian whose challenge to the Catholic Church's teachings on indulgences and papal authority launched the Protestant Reformation, died in Eisleben. He was still excommunicated when he died, and Lutheranism grew out of his ideas.
Lucas Cranach the Elder · Public domain
The theoretical physicist who ran Los Alamos, the wartime lab tasked with building the first atomic bombs. He was present at the Trinity test in New Mexico in 1945, and was often called the father of the atomic bomb.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Download on iOS
Download on Android