Future Hollywood star Joan Crawford is born (1908), and Tsar Paul I of Russia is murdered (1801). Born on this day: Kurosawa Akira, Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace and Wernher von Braun. Died: Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Kuan Yew and Stendhal.
32 events, 61 births and 62 deaths on this date.
Born Lucille Fay LeSueur, she rose from touring dancer to one of Hollywood's biggest stars, winning an Oscar for Mildred Pierce. Her roles often cast her as hardworking young women who find romance and money.
George Hurrell · Public domainPaul met a violent end in a bedchamber at St Michael's Castle, where he was cut with a blade, throttled, and stamped to death. The word tsar, from the Latin Caesar, was also the title of rulers in Bulgaria and Serbia.
Charles Albert of Sardinia made the green, white and red tricolour his kingdom's banner amid the First Italian War of Independence. The same colours later became the flag of a unified Italy, which still flies it today.
Born in Erlangen to a Jewish family, Emmy Noether later showed how symmetry in nature links to conservation laws. Her theorems remain central to mathematical physics, though she worked unpaid for years because women were largely barred from academic posts.
Unknown author Unknown author Publisher: Mathematical Association of America [3] , Brooklyn Museum [4] , Agnes Scott College [5] , [6] · Public domain
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad began the movement by taking pledges of loyalty from his followers in Qadian, British India. Members, known as Ahmadis, see him as the promised Messiah and Mahdi.
Ceddyfresse · Public domain
Governor Henry Haight signed the Organic Act, creating the state's public university system that now spans ten campuses. It took over the assets of the College of California and later moved its main campus to Berkeley.
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Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who directed thirty features and is remembered for films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai. He was involved in nearly every stage of production, from writing and directing to editing.
映画の友 (Eiga no tomo) · Public domain
A French polymath whose work spanned astronomy, physics and probability. His five-volume Celestial Mechanics recast Newton's ideas in calculus, and the Laplace transform still appears across mathematical physics.
Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin · Public domain
Von Braun was a German-born rocket engineer who helped build the V-2 in Nazi Germany, then moved to the United States. There he designed the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon.
NASA/MSFC · Public domain
Born in London to American parents, she became one of Hollywood's biggest stars, starting as a child actress. She was also a philanthropist and author, and remained a public figure until the end.
Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
Lee was Singapore's first prime minister, serving from 1959 to 1990, and he steered the young nation from colonial rule into a wealthy, highly developed economy. He is remembered as the country's founding figure, though his tight control over the press and public life remains debated.
Robert D. Ward · Public domain
The French writer Stendhal, born Marie-Henri Beyle, died in Paris. He is remembered for The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma, novels praised for their sharp insight into how characters think and feel.
Olof Johan Södermark · Public domain
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