Napoleon sets sail from France to invade Egypt (1798), and King's Letter from Birmingham Jail published in magazine (1963). Born on this day: Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot and Malcolm X. Died: Anne Boleyn, Ebrahim Raisi and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
29 events, 53 births and 67 deaths on this date.
Napoleon left France with a large fleet and army, aiming to strike British trade routes to India and to win glory far from home. The Egyptian campaign that followed would make his name across Europe and help lift him toward power in Paris.
Jacques-Louis David · Public domainThe French RevolutionHear the story in ChunksKing's open letter from a Birmingham jail cell reached a national readership through this magazine. It argued that injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere, and it became a defining text of the civil rights movement.
Associated Press · Public domain
The Byzantine army, led by general John Kourkouas, recaptured the frontier city of Melitene from Arab control. It was part of a campaign that pushed the eastern border of the empire back into northern Mesopotamia.
Britain brings the Pacific kingdom of Tonga under its control, adding another island group to an empire already spread across the globe. The step extended British reach in Oceania at the turn of the century.
Cartier set off with three ships and 110 men, and with him went the two sons of Chief Donnacona, whom he had kidnapped on his first voyage. The expedition was heading back to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which he had first mapped.
Théophile Hamel / After François Nicholas Riss · CC BY-SA 4.0
President John Quincy Adams made the tariff law, which raised duties on imported goods and infuriated Southern planters who relied on cheap foreign manufactures. Their anger fed the Nullification Crisis, a fight over whether a state could ignore federal law.
jklamo Cleaned and enhanced by Julielangford · Public domain
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Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary who led the state that declared independence in 1945 and later became North Vietnam. He served as its first president until his death in 1969, and was widely known as Uncle Ho.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge, which ran Cambodia as Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 until Vietnam ousted it in 1979. His regime's policies killed roughly a quarter of the population, which historians put at 1.5 to 2 million people.
Unknown author Unknown author · Attribution
Malcolm X was a Black American activist and Muslim minister who became a leading voice of the civil rights era. He is remembered for his uncompromising demands for racial justice and for his autobiography, written with Alex Haley.
Marion S. Trikosko · Public domain
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII and queen of England from 1533. She was executed for treason in 1536, and her fall helped drive the break with Rome that began the English Reformation.
Unknown Unknown , English · Public domain
Ebrahim Raisi was an Iranian cleric and judge who served as president from 2021 until he died in a helicopter crash. Known as the Butcher of Tehran, he was accused by UN experts of crimes against humanity over the 1988 execution of political prisoners.
Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan · CC BY 4.0
Former First Lady who restored the White House and set fashion trends with her distinctive style. Later she built a career in publishing, working as a book editor in New York until her death.
Mark Shaw · Public domain
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