Grant signs resolution setting up a US weather service (1870), and Haiti invades the newly independent Dominican Republic (1822). Born on this day: William Henry Harrison, J.M. Coetzee and Alice Walker. Died: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Yury Andropov and Miklós Horthy.
29 events, 73 births and 53 deaths on this date.
The resolution placed weather observations under the Army's Signal Service, which soon began issuing forecasts to the public. It was an early step toward the national forecasting the country relies on today.
Henry Ulke · Public domainHaitian forces attacked the Dominican Republic, which had declared independence only weeks earlier, on the eastern side of Hispaniola. The invasion was the first of several failed attempts by Haiti to take control of the whole island.
Rhode Island became the fourth state to approve the Articles of Confederation, the first attempt at a national framework for the newly independent states. Its vote came during the Revolutionary War, when the state had been heavily occupied and fought over.
The Department of Agriculture gained a seat at the Cabinet table, meaning its head would advise the president directly on farming matters. Cleveland signed it only weeks before his first term ended, and the change gave farmers a stronger voice in Washington.
Unknown author Unknown author or not provided · Public domain
The South African novelist John Maxwell Coetzee, who later won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born on this day. He went on to win the Booker Prize twice and later became an Australian citizen.
Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl · CC BY 2.5
Cardinals chose Alessandro Ludovisi by shouted acclaim rather than a formal ballot, the final papal election done that way. He went on to set up the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to oversee Catholic missions worldwide.
Didier Descouens · Public domain
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Harrison was the ninth US president, serving only 31 days before dying in office, the shortest tenure in American history. He had earlier won fame as a frontier commander, earning the nickname Old Tippecanoe after his 1811 victory.
James Lambdin · Public domain
South African-born novelist, essayist and translator who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003 and two Booker Prizes. He moved to Australia in 2002 and lives in Adelaide, still writing fiction.
Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl · CC BY 2.5
Best known for The Color Purple, the American novelist and poet became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She has also written poetry, essays and non-fiction, and remains an active campaigner for women of colour, animal welfare and pacifism.
Liberty Media for Women, LLC · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russian novelist whose works such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov probed guilt, faith and human suffering. Considered one of the great novelists of world literature, he died in St Petersburg in 1881.
Vasily Perov · Public domain
Andropov led the Soviet Union as general secretary for about fifteen months, after years running the KGB. He died in office, and his brief rule is remembered for bringing Mikhail Gorbachev and other young reformers to prominence.
TASS · Public domain
Miklós Horthy was an admiral who ran Hungary as regent for over two decades, from 1920 until 1944. His conservative government later allied itself with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Adolf Szenes · Public domain
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