Vasco da Gama sets out for India (1497), and The Declaration of Independence receives its first public reading in Philadelphia (1776). Born on this day: Jean de La Fontaine, John D. Rockefeller and Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Died: Kim Il-Sung, Shinzo Abe and Christiaan Huygens.
33 events, 70 births and 66 deaths on this date.
Da Gama's expedition set out to find a sea path to the Indies by rounding the southern tip of Africa. It took ten months to reach Kozhikode, and the route it opened let Portugal bypass Arab overland trade and build a far-flung empire.
Sailko · CC BY 3.0Four days after Congress adopted it, the Declaration was read aloud to the public in Philadelphia for the first time. Its plain claim that the colonies were no longer subject to British rule spread quickly from there.
original: w:Second Continental Congress ; reproduction: William Stone · Public domain
The charter gave Rhode Island a government that guaranteed liberty of conscience, so residents could worship as they chose. Its Baptist recipient, John Clarke, is remembered as one of the colony's founders.
Following North Korea's invasion of the South, the United Nations named Douglas MacArthur to lead its forces in Korea. He had already run the occupation of Japan, and he would go on to command the fight until 1951.
Photographer not credited. · Public domain
Clarke, a physician and Baptist who had lobbied for the colony in London, secured a charter letting its settlers govern themselves. It also protected freedom of religious belief, which was rare among English colonies at the time.
Peter Lely · Public domain
Charles Henry Dow and his partners put out the first edition of a small business newspaper focused on Wall Street. It grew into the largest US newspaper by print circulation, and it remains a leading source of financial news.
Dow Jones & Company · Public domain
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Jean de La Fontaine was a French lawyer turned poet, best remembered for his Fables, animal tales with human lessons that inspired fabulists across Europe. He was later admitted to the Académie Française despite years of royal suspicion.
Henri Millot · Public domain
John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil into a near-monopoly over American oil refining, becoming the country's richest man. In later life he gave much of his fortune to philanthropy, especially education and medicine.
Public domain
Pyotr Kapitsa was a Russian and Soviet physicist whose work on low-temperature physics earned him the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. He also worked as an inventor and professor, and is sometimes spelled Peter Kapitza.
Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domain
Kim Il-Sung was the founding leader of North Korea, ruling from its creation in 1948 until his death. He ordered the 1950 invasion of South Korea that started the Korean War, and his family's rule over the country continued after him.
Jesse Charlie · CC0
Shinzo Abe was Japan's longest-serving prime minister, leading the country for nearly nine years across two spells in office. He was shot dead while giving a campaign speech in Nara, an attack that stunned Japan and beyond.
内閣官房内閣広報室 · CC BY 4.0
Dutch scientist whose wave theory of light and pendulum clock shaped physics and timekeeping. He also discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and his light theory was later vindicated by Fresnel.
Bernard Vaillant · Public domain
Download on iOS
Download on Android