Henry VIII suffers a serious head injury in a jousting accident (1536), and Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 falls over northern Canada (1978). Born on this day: Hadrian, Frederick II and Moon Jae-In. Died: Winston Churchill, Caligula and Amedeo Modigliani.
29 events, 69 births and 51 deaths on this date.
Henry VIII was badly hurt in a jousting accident that left him with a serious head injury. Historians suggest the injury may have contributed to the erratic behaviour of his later years.
Hans Holbein the Younger · Public domainHenry VIIIHear the story in ChunksThe Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 fell out of orbit and disintegrated over northern Canada, spreading radioactive fragments across the Northwest Territories. Only about one per cent of the material was recovered.
The Soviet government ordered Russia to abandon the older Julian calendar for the Gregorian one, which most of the world already used. It brought the country into line with most of the world's dating system.
Pied-noir militants and European volunteers in Algiers erected barricades, took over public buildings and fought police in the streets. The uprising was a bid to stop any move toward Algerian independence, and it exposed deep divisions within France's own forces.
A Soviet satellite powered by a nuclear reactor burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere, leaving radioactive debris across the Northwest Territories of Canada. It raised hard questions about flying nuclear reactors over inhabited land.
Enslaved people in Salvador, the first capital of colonial Brazil, staged a revolt. It was one of the events that helped bring slavery in Bahia to an end half a century later.
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Hadrian ruled Rome from 117 to 138 and is remembered for the wall he ordered across northern Britain. He also rebuilt the Pantheon in Rome and travelled widely through the empire, often meddling personally in building projects.
Marie-Lan Nguyen · Public domain
Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great, ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and turned it into a major European military power. He was also a patron of music, philosophy and the Enlightenment, and a supporter of religious tolerance.
Anton Graff · Public domain
Moon Jae-in is a South Korean lawyer and politician who served as the country's 12th president from 2017 to 2022. He became known for meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at inter-Korean summits in 2018.
Government of the Republic of Korea · KOGL Type 1
Churchill led Britain through most of the Second World War and later served a second term as prime minister. He was also a prolific writer, whose histories and memoirs earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
Public domain
Rome's third emperor, known by a nickname his father's soldiers gave him as a boy, ruled for four years before being assassinated. Ancient sources, mostly hostile, paint his later rule as cruel, though modern historians question that picture.
J. Paul Getty Museum · CC0
An Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in Paris, known for elongated portraits and nudes. He had little success in his lifetime, but his work became widely prized after he died, aged 35.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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