Steve Jobs rejoins Apple as a consultant (1997), and Savonarola's followers burn luxury goods and books in Florence (1497). Born on this day: Charles Dickens, Thomas More and Sinclair Lewis. Died: Pius IX, Hussein and Josef Mengele.
26 events, 65 births and 59 deaths on this date.
Apple bought NeXT, the software company Jobs had founded after leaving in 1985, and he came back with it as a consultant. That deal set up his return as chief executive two years later, the start of Apple's long revival.
MetalGearLiquid , based on File:Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROP.jpg made by Matt Yohe · CC BY-SA 3.0Steve Jobs and the Birth of AppleHear the story in ChunksIn Florence, supporters of the preacher Girolamo Savonarola piled up mirrors, cosmetics, paintings and books and set them alight. The bonfire became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities, a campaign against worldly luxury.
Seattle's trustees passed a law ordering Native Americans out of the freshly incorporated town. It was an early and harsh step in how the Duwamish and other local peoples were pushed out of their own land.
The novelist was put on trial for libel after his open letter accused the army of covering up the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfus. The case drew wide attention as France argued bitterly over the affair.
Émile Zola · Public domain
Jordan had quit basketball four months earlier, worn down by the game and the fame that came with it. Now he had signed up to try his hand at baseball, joining the Chicago White Sox's minor league system.
The decree fixed the exchange rate between the old and new currency at 5,000 old manats to one new manat. Ilham Aliyev, who had become president two years earlier, signed it.
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Charles Dickens was an English novelist and journalist, born in Portsmouth, who is remembered for Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations. He also campaigned for children's rights and education, drawing on his own harsh boyhood in a boot-blacking factory.
Jeremiah Gurney · Public domain
Thomas More was the English lawyer and statesman who wrote Utopia, a book describing an imaginary island state. He rose to Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII, but refused to accept the king as head of the Church and was later executed for treason.
Hans Holbein the Younger · Public domain
American novelist whose satires of small-town and business life, including Main Street and Babbitt, earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature. He became the first American to receive the award.
Oscar White, Pach Brothers Studio · Public domain
Pius IX led the Catholic Church for almost 32 years, the longest verified papacy in history. He convened the First Vatican Council, which defined papal infallibility, and later declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican after Rome fell to Italy.
Public domain
Hussein ruled Jordan for 46 years, from 1952 until his death, and became known for steering the country through wars with Israel and for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
Helene C. Stikkel - First uploader was Wikifreund at de.wikipedia · Public domain
Mengele was an SS doctor who selected prisoners for the gas chambers at Auschwitz and carried out cruel experiments on them. He spent decades evading capture after the war, and died while swimming in Brazil under a false name.
i.e. either Bernhard Walther or Ernst Hofmann or Karl-Friedrich Höcker · Public domain
Download on iOS
Download on Android