Golda Meir takes office as Israel's fourth prime minister (1969), and Nat King Cole is born (1919). Born on this day: Mujibur Rahman, Gottlieb Daimler and Nat King Cole. Died: Ibn Khaldūn, Marcus Aurelius and Irène Joliot-Curie.
32 events, 71 births and 71 deaths on this date.
Meir, who had taught in Milwaukee before moving to Mandatory Palestine, stepped into the top job after Levi Eshkol died. She remains the only woman ever to lead the Israeli government, a post she held until 1974.
Talmoryair ( talk ) after Marion S. Trikosko · Public domainNathaniel Adams Coles, who would become the singer Nat King Cole, was born. He went on to lead a jazz trio that shaped small ensembles, then scored pop hits such as Unforgettable and Smile.
William P. Gottlieb · Public domain
Petronius Maximus arranged the killing of Western emperor Valentinian III and then took the throne for himself. His hold on power lasted barely eleven weeks, ending when he was killed as Rome was plundered.
Edward, eldest son of Edward III, received the Cornish dukedom, the first dukedom ever created in England. He went on to become a celebrated commander in the Hundred Years' War, winning at Crécy and Poitiers.
Public domain
Petronius Maximus took the Western throne with the Senate's backing, then forced Valentinian III's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, to marry him. The move was meant to strengthen his grip, but it angered the Vandal king Genseric, who sent a fleet against Rome.
CC BY-SA 3.0
The eruption of Mount Agung, the highest peak on Bali, killed no fewer than 1,100 people in the surrounding area. The stratovolcano, with its large crater, dominates the island's rainfall and climate.
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Mujibur Rahman was a Bengali politician who led the independence movement that created Bangladesh, serving as its first president before his assassination in 1975. He was also a diarist whose writings from prison remain a record of the struggle.
Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh · Public domain
Gottlieb Daimler was a German engineer who, with Wilhelm Maybach, built fast petrol engines and helped create the first internal combustion motorcycle. He is often called the father of the motorcycle, and his firm later became part of Mercedes-Benz.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Nat King Cole was an American jazz pianist who became a huge pop singer, known for hits such as Unforgettable and Mona Lisa. He also hosted the first nationally broadcast American television show fronted by a Black performer.
William P. Gottlieb · Public domain
Ibn Khaldūn was a Tunisian scholar whose Muqaddimah, an introduction to world history, set out ideas about how societies rise and fall. Later Ottoman historians drew on it to study their own empire's growth and decline.
Reda Kerbush · CC BY-SA 4.0
A Stoic philosopher who ruled the Roman Empire from 161 until his death, and is remembered as one of the last of the Five Good Emperors. His reign closed the Pax Romana, a long stretch of relative peace that had begun in 27 BC.
CC BY 2.5
Shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric, for making radioactive elements artificially. She was also among the first women to serve in a French government, and she and her mother form the only mother-daughter Nobel pair.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
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