Pope Gregory XV founds missionary congregation (1622), and Queensland becomes a separate colony from New South Wales (1859). Born on this day: Aleksandr Pushkin, Diego Velázquez and Thomas Mann. Died: Gerhart Hauptmann, Camillo Benso, count di Cavour and Anne Bancroft.
34 events, 71 births and 67 deaths on this date.
Pope Gregory XV set up a Vatican body to direct Catholic missions abroad, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. It gave the Church a central office for sending out missionaries and coordinating their work across the world.
Didier Descouens · Public domainQueensland split off from New South Wales on this day in 1859, gaining its own government and becoming a colony in its own right. The date is still marked each year as Queensland Day.
Civil rights campaigner James Meredith was wounded during the March Against Fear when white sniper James Aubrey Norvell opened fire. Jack R. Thornell's photograph of the pair won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, the final year that category was awarded.
Voters across the United Kingdom backed staying in the European Economic Community, with 67 per cent of ballots in favour. It was a direct public vote on a single question, letting the electorate decide rather than Parliament alone.
Four Japanese fleet carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū, were sunk off Midway Island, along with a heavy cruiser. The loss of its carriers left Japan unable to regain the initiative in the Pacific.
Swedish player Björn Borg was born on this day; he went on to win five consecutive Wimbledon titles and six French Opens. He retired from tennis at 25, after eleven major singles titles, and remains one of the game's all-time greats.
Michaël Bemelmans · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Pushkin is often called the founder of modern Russian literature, and many consider him the country's greatest poet. His verse novel Eugene Onegin and his play Boris Godunov remain central to Russian culture, though a duel cut his life short in his late thirties.
Orest Kiprensky · Public domain
Velázquez was the leading painter at the Spanish court under Philip IV, remembered for portraits and for Las Meninas, a work that shaped later realist and impressionist painters. His bold later brushwork still draws visitors to the Prado in Madrid.
Diego Velázquez · Public domain
Thomas Mann was a German novelist remembered for Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain and Death in Venice. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929, then fled the Nazis, writing from exile in Switzerland and the United States.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
German dramatist and novelist who championed literary naturalism on the stage and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912. His plays, such as The Weavers, gave voice to working people and their hardships.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Cavour was the chief architect of Italian unification, steering Piedmont through wars and diplomacy to create a united Italy. He became its first prime minister in March 1861 but died only three months later, before Rome was added to the new state.
Léopold-Ernest Mayer, Pierre-Louis Pierson · Public domain
Anne Bancroft was an American actress known for playing Anne Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, which won her an Oscar, and Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. She also earned Tony Awards on Broadway and stayed busy on screen well into later life.
NBC Television · Public domain
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