Bach premieres his cantata Mit Fried und Freud (1725), and Last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul (1989). Born on this day: Shakira, James Joyce and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Died: Dmitri Mendeleev, Bertrand Russell and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
29 events, 77 births and 53 deaths on this date.
Bach's chorale cantata drew on Martin Luther's German version of the Nunc dimittis, the song of the aged Simeon. It was one of the church cantatas he wrote while directing music for four Lutheran churches in Leipzig.
Elias Gottlob Haussmann · Public domainTanks and armoured vehicles were the last Soviet heavy equipment to pull out of the Afghan capital, closing a costly military campaign. It closed a costly war that had drained Moscow for nearly a decade.
Australia's state premiers, meeting in Melbourne, chose a spot between Sydney and Melbourne for the national capital, later named Canberra. It was a settlement between the two largest cities, neither of which would be the seat of government.
Federer, the Swiss player, reached top spot in the men's rankings on this day and went on to hold it for a total of 237 weeks, a longer stretch than anyone before him. It marked the start of one of the most dominant periods in the sport's history.
Victoria's body was taken across the Solent to Osborne House's neighbour and laid to rest at Frogmore, beside Prince Albert, ending a reign of 63 years. The ceremony drew crowds and European royalty to mourn the monarch who had given her name to an age.
Federer took the top ranking in men's singles, a spot he would hold for a record 237 weeks in a row. It marked the start of a long stretch in which he dominated the sport and won many of its biggest titles.
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Colombian singer-songwriter who became one of the best-selling Latin artists ever, helping Spanish-language music reach audiences worldwide. Her albums Laundry Service and Fijación Oral made her a global star, and she has won four Grammys and fifteen Latin Grammys.
Junta de Andalucía · CC BY-SA 2.0
Joyce was an Irish novelist whose 1922 book Ulysses retells Homer's Odyssey through a single day in Dublin, using stream of consciousness. He is remembered as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.
Public domain
Served as President of France from 1974 to 1981, a term of liberal social reforms and large projects such as the TGV. His popularity fell as the good times faded after the oil shock, and he lost to François Mitterrand in 1981.
Christian Lambiotte · CC BY 4.0
Russian chemist who arranged the known elements by atomic weight and predicted the existence and properties of several undiscovered ones. His periodic table became the basis for modern chemistry, and element 101, mendelevium, bears his name.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher and mathematician who helped found analytic philosophy and co-wrote Principia Mathematica with Alfred North Whitehead. He was also a outspoken critic of war and nuclear weapons, and he wrote widely for general readers.
Honourable Bertrand Russell.jpg : Photographer not identified derivative work: Conquistador · Public domain
The Italian composer died in Rome, still in post as maestro at St Peter's Basilica. He is remembered for church music, especially masses and motets, and for a style of counterpoint that later teachers held up as a model.
Public domain
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