Louis XIV begins personal rule of France (1661), and Astronomers discover faint ring system around Uranus (1977). Born on this day: Alexander III, Sharon Stone and Sepp Blatter. Died: Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, Mikhail Bulgakov and Harriet Tubman.
32 events, 71 births and 76 deaths on this date.
Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, took full control of government after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, his chief minister since childhood. He chose not to appoint a successor, ruling directly for the next 54 years.
Hyacinthe Rigaud · Public domainFlying aboard NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a telescope mounted in an aircraft above much of Earth's atmosphere, astronomers picked up rings around Uranus. It showed that the seventh planet from the Sun was not alone in having rings, Saturn's being long known.
Columbus, having just founded the settlement, sailed for Spain and handed rule to his brother. Santo Domingo, now the Dominican capital, was the first Spanish seat of power in the New World.
Roman fleet ships crushed a Carthaginian fleet off western Sicily, ending the First Punic War. Carthage, having lost the sea, agreed to peace terms that gave Rome control of Sicily and a large payment.
Bishop Tomás de Berlanga, sailing towards Peru, came across the volcanic Galápagos by accident. The islands later became famous for the wildlife that helped inspire Darwin's theory of evolution.
The paper reported that New York's governor, Eliot Spitzer, had been a customer of a high-end prostitution ring. The story hit a politician who had built his name prosecuting corruption as state attorney general, making the fall especially sharp.
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Alexander III ruled Russia from 1881 to 1894 and reversed many of his father's liberal reforms. He is also remembered as the Peacemaker, since Russia fought no major wars during his reign.
Sergey Lvovich Levitsky · Public domain
American actress famous for playing mysterious, dangerous women, most memorably Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct. She earned a Golden Globe for Casino and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America · CC BY-SA 2.0
Swiss football administrator who led FIFA from 1998 to 2015, overseeing a large growth in World Cup revenue. He was suspended from FIFA activities in 2015 amid a corruption investigation, a decision still in force.
Пресс-служба Президента России · CC BY 4.0
Ukrainian poet and painter whose collection Kobzar is often called the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature. Born a serf, he was exiled to Central Asia for his political links, and died in Saint Petersburg after being freed.
Taras Shevchenko · Public domain
Mikhail Bulgakov was a Russian novelist and playwright, and a former physician. He is remembered for The Master and Margarita, which was published only after his death and banned for much of the Soviet era.
Moisej Nappelbaum · Public domain
Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery herself, made about thirteen rescue trips back into Maryland to lead roughly seventy enslaved people to freedom. She is remembered as one of the Underground Railroad's most determined guides.
Horatio Seymour Squyer · Public domain
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