Benedict XVI opens John Paul II's beatification process (2005), and Andrew Johnson proclaims an end to Confederate belligerent rights (1865). Born on this day: Howard Carter, Glenda Jackson and J.M. Barrie. Died: Friedrich Schiller, A.A. Michelson and Tenzing Norgay.
28 events, 72 births and 47 deaths on this date.
Benedict XVI set aside the usual five-year waiting period after a death, so the process for his predecessor could start straight away. It showed how keen he was to move John Paul II's cause forward quickly.
WDKrause · CC BY-SA 3.0President Johnson declared that Confederate ships should no longer be treated as legitimate warships abroad, and asked foreign governments to seize or expel them. The move cut off the South's hopes of gaining recognition and support from European ports.
Mathew Brady, Retouched by Mmxx · Public domain
An underground explosion of methane gas ripped through the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, killing all 26 miners working below ground. The disaster shocked Canada and showed how dangerous gas build-up can be in coal mines.
A deacon who had fought the Arian teaching at the Council of Nicaea was chosen to lead the Church in Alexandria. He held the post for decades, and his opposition to Arianism, which denied Christ's full divinity, brought him exile several times.
Public domain
Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller opened in San Francisco, where much of it was shot, with James Stewart as a retired detective drawn into a strange case. It is remembered for the dolly zoom, a camera trick that warps perspective, and rose to acclaim as one of cinema's finest works.
Alfred Hitchcock · Public domain
Rainier III began a reign of 56 years, ranking among the longest of any 20th-century monarch. He went on to move Monaco's economy away from casino gambling towards its modern role as a tax haven and cultural destination.
Robert LeRoy Knudsen · Public domain
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Howard Carter was a British Egyptologist remembered for uncovering the almost untouched tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. The find gave the world its most complete picture of a pharaoh's burial.
Chicago Daily News, Inc., photographer · Public domain
Glenda Jackson was a British actress who won two Academy Awards, then spent 23 years as a Labour MP. She was best known for her stage and screen work, and for playing Queen Elizabeth I on television.
Studio Publicity · Public domain
Scottish novelist and playwright best known for Peter Pan, the 1904 stage fairy play about a boy who refuses to grow up. He also wrote the adult novel The Little White Bird, which first introduced the character.
Herbert Rose Barraud · Public domain
Friedrich Schiller was a German playwright and poet whose debut play, The Robbers, won huge acclaim. He is now counted among Germany's foremost stage writers, and with his friend Goethe he helped shape Weimar Classicism.
Ludovike Simanowiz · Public domain
Albert Michelson was an American experimental physicist famous for measuring the speed of light with great precision. His work with Edward Morley, which failed to detect the ether, helped pave the way for Einstein's theory of relativity, and in 1907 he became the first American to win a Nobel Prize in a science.
The original uploader was Bunzil at English Wikipedia . · Public domain
Tenzing Norgay was a Sherpa mountaineer who, with Edmund Hillary, became the first person confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. He later worked as a mountain guide and expedition adviser in India.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines · Public domain
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