Jimmy Carter elected 39th U.S. president (1976), and Johnson and advisers agree to give Americans more optimistic Vietnam War reports (1967). Born on this day: James K. Polk, Warren G. Harding and Shah Rukh Khan. Died: George Bernard Shaw, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Peter Debye.
35 events, 56 births and 60 deaths on this date.
Jimmy Carter, a former Georgia governor whom few voters beyond Georgia knew well, narrowly beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford to win the presidency. A peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, he had won the Democratic nomination as a longshot.
Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center · Public domainPresident Johnson and his group of senior advisers, known as the Wise Men, decided the public should hear more upbeat accounts of how the Vietnam War was going. The decision reflected growing doubt about the war's direction that the government did not want to share openly.
Arnold Newman · Public domain
Russia entered the First World War against the Ottoman Empire, bringing the conflict into the Black Sea and Middle East. The Ottomans responded by closing the Dardanelles, the strait linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, cutting off Russian shipping.
The first residents moved into the partly built station, starting an unbroken run of human presence in orbit that continues today. It is one of only two stations operating in orbit today, the other being China's Tiangong.
Born into the Habsburg family as the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, she would marry the future Louis XVI and become queen of France. She is remembered as a target of hostile pamphlets, which dogged her throughout her time as queen.
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun · Public domain
Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia, taking the name Haile Selassie, and went on to lead the country for four decades. He modernised the state with a 1931 constitution and the 1942 abolition of slavery, and later became a central figure in Rastafari belief.
unknown; according to [1] and [2] an official portrait of which b/w copies were distributed by the Ethiopian government · Public domain
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Eleventh president of the United States, who oversaw the annexation of Texas and the Mexican–American War, which pushed American territory to the Pacific. He was also the only person to serve as both Speaker of the House and president.
George Peter Alexander Healy · Public domain
Harding ran a small Ohio newspaper before becoming a senator and then the 29th president of the United States. He is remembered for a presidency that began well with a naval arms agreement, then collapsed under scandals exposed after his death.
Copyright by Moffett, Chicago. J241772 U.S. Copyright Office. · Public domain
Shah Rukh Khan is an Indian actor and producer, and one of the most successful film stars in the world. He became a leading romantic lead after early success playing villains in the 1990s.
Bollywood Hungama · CC BY 3.0
Irish playwright who wrote more than sixty plays, including Pygmalion and Saint Joan, and won the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature. He used the stage to argue for social reform, and his sharp wit made him one of the most famous writers of his age.
Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain
Italian poet and film director whose works, including The Gospel According to St. Matthew and Salò, provoked fierce debate. He was found murdered on a beach at Ostia, and the case remains contested in Italy.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936. His work on molecular structure, dipoles and how molecules scatter X-rays shaped much of modern chemistry.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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