Roosevelt announces sixth War Loan Drive to sell war bonds (1944), and Khomeini orders release of 13 hostages held in Tehran (1979). Born on this day: Indira Gandhi, James A. Garfield and Jodie Foster. Died: Franz Schubert, Frederick Sanger and Charles Manson.
31 events, 71 births and 52 deaths on this date.
With the war still raging, the American president launched a campaign to raise fourteen billion dollars by selling war bonds to the public. The money was meant to fund the country's military effort without relying only on taxation.
Leon Perskie · CC BY 2.0Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's leader, ordered 13 American captives at the US Embassy in Tehran freed, singling out women and Black Americans. It was a rare concession in a standoff that kept the rest of the hostages confined.
Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden were admitted to the United Nations on this day, adding three more member states to the post-war body. Afghanistan, a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, had been shaped by centuries of foreign campaigns.
Slobodan Milošević, then a Serbian communist leader, told the public that Serbia faced threats from Albanian separatists in Kosovo, disloyalty within Yugoslavia, and a foreign plot to destroy both Serbia and Yugoslavia. The speech signalled the nationalist turn that would shape the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
Pelé reached the milestone of 1,000 career goals on this day, a tally that included exhibition games. Guinness World Records later recognised his overall career figures, which made him one of the most prolific scorers the game has known.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
The Vatican church that stands today replaced the fourth-century basilica built by Constantine over the site traditionally held to be Saint Peter's grave. It is the largest church in the world by interior measure, and among the most important shrines of Catholicism.
Alvesgaspar · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Indira Gandhi was the daughter of India's first prime minister and held the office herself on two separate spells, the first from 1966. She remains the only woman to have led the country, and she was assassinated in 1984.
Prime Minister's Office · GODL-India
James A. Garfield became America's 20th president in 1881, but an assassin shot him that July and he died in September. Earlier he was a Civil War general, preacher and lawyer, and remains the only sitting House member ever elected president.
Unknown; part of Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. · Public domain
Jodie Foster is an American actress and filmmaker who began as a child performer and later won two Academy Awards for Best Actress. She is also known for directing films such as Little Man Tate and The Beaver.
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
Schubert was an Austrian composer who wrote more than a thousand works in a short life, including over 600 songs and the unfinished B minor symphony. He died in Vienna at 31, leaving behind a body of lieder, sonatas and chamber music that still defines the early Romantic repertoire.
Wilhelm August Rieder · Public domain
Sanger won two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, the first for working out how the building blocks of insulin and other proteins are arranged. His second came from a method for reading the letters of DNA, which scientists still use daily.
Public domain
Leader of the Manson Family, a cult whose followers killed ten people in Los Angeles in 1969, including actress Sharon Tate. He was convicted over the murders, which he always denied ordering, and spent decades behind bars before colon cancer claimed him.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation · Public domain
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