Birth of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907), and Nyasaland becomes independent as Malawi (1964). Born on this day: George W. Bush, Frida Kahlo and 14th Dalai Lama. Died: Louis Armstrong, William Faulkner and Guy de Maupassant.
31 events, 62 births and 66 deaths on this date.
Kahlo turned her own body and chronic pain into subject matter. Her self-portraits blend Mexican folk art with fantasy, and one later sold for a record sum for a work by a woman artist.
Guillermo Kahlo · Public domainFrida Kahlo: Paint, Pain, and PowerHear the story in ChunksOn this day Nyasaland gained independence from Britain and took the name Malawi, with Hastings Banda as its first prime minister. The change marked the end of colonial rule for a landlocked country in southeast Africa.
The Indian Ocean archipelago of three main islands proclaimed itself free of French rule on this day in 1975. The move was not unanimous, as Mayotte voted to stay with France in 1974 and remains French today, a dispute Comoros still presses.
Cartier's second voyage ended at St Malo with no gold. He had sailed up the St Lawrence River to the sites of today's Quebec City and Montreal.
Théophile Hamel / After François Nicholas Riss · CC BY-SA 4.0
Zheng He, the eunuch admiral who commanded the Ming fleet, reached Nanjing with a prisoner taken during the Ming–Kotte War. He gave the emperor the captured Sinhalese king, showing how far Ming power had reached across the Indian Ocean.
Facing rising persecution under German occupation, the Frank family hid in a secret annex behind a bookcase in Amsterdam. Anne's diary of life there became one of the best-known records of the Holocaust.
Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain
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George W. Bush, born in New Haven, Connecticut, led the United States from 2001 to 2009, a term shaped by the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he had been governor of Texas, and he is the eldest son of another American president.
Eric Draper · Public domain
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter famous for self-portraits that blend realism with fantasy and explore identity and chronic pain. Her 1940 self-portrait The Dream (The Bed) sold for $54.7 million, a record for a work by a female artist at auction.
Guillermo Kahlo · Public domain
Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Thondup in a farming family in Amdo, was chosen as the 14th Dalai Lama as a toddler. He is the head of Tibetan Buddhism and has led the Tibetan government in exile from Dharamshala since 1959.
Christopher Michel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Louis Armstrong, the New Orleans trumpeter and singer, shifted jazz from group improvisation towards the solo. He was also a beloved entertainer, known for songs such as What a Wonderful World and Hello, Dolly!
Harry Warnecke, Gus Schoenbaechler · CC0
Faulkner wrote novels and stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, including The Sound and the Fury and Light in August. He won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature and is often called the greatest Southern writer.
Carl Van Vechten · Public domain
French writer who built his reputation on short stories, around 300 of them, marked by spare prose and sharp endings. His story 'Boule de Suif' is often counted as his most famous work.
Nadar · Public domain
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