Napoleon proclaims the Continental System against Britain (1806), and Strong earthquake damages northern Dominica, especially Portsmouth (2004). Born on this day: Voltaire, Benedict XV and Björk. Died: C.V. Raman, Franz Joseph and Abdus Salam.
31 events, 60 births and 57 deaths on this date.
Issued from Berlin, the decree barred Europe's ports from trading with Britain, aiming to starve the British economy of markets. Enforcing it strained relations with Russia and Portugal and pushed Napoleon towards a costly war.
Jacques-Louis David · Public domainThe French RevolutionHear the story in ChunksDominica's worst earthquake on record shook the north of the island hardest, leaving the town of Portsmouth heavily damaged. Across the water in Guadeloupe, a single death was reported.
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia were asked to join the alliance. Most had lived under communist rule, and the invitations let former Soviet-bloc states share the alliance's promise that an attack on one is an attack on all.
Thomas Edison publicly announced the phonograph, a machine able to record sound and play it back. It made him an international celebrity, though the device took years to become a commercial success.
The state's convention voted to approve the federal constitution, making North Carolina the twelfth state in the Union. Today it is the ninth most populous state, with Raleigh as its capital and Charlotte its largest city.
Bishops gathered in Rome finished their third session of the Second Vatican Council, the Church's great meeting of the 1960s that reshaped worship and its relations with other faiths. The decrees approved that autumn included a document on the Church's sacred liturgy, which opened the way for Mass to be celebrated in local languages.
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Born François-Marie Arouet, he became the French Enlightenment writer Voltaire, a satirist who attacked religious intolerance and slavery. He is remembered for Candide, a sharp novella mocking the claim that this world is necessarily the finest possible one.
Nicolas de Largillière · CC0
Born Giacomo della Chiesa, he led the Catholic Church from 1914 to 1922, guiding it through the First World War. He sought a negotiated peace, and when diplomacy failed, focused on aiding prisoners of war and needy civilians.
Nicola Perscheid · Public domain
Icelandic singer, songwriter and producer born on this day in 1965. She is known for her unmistakable voice and for blending electronica, pop and avant-garde sounds across a career of five decades.
Bruce McAdam from Reykjavik, Iceland · CC BY-SA 2.0
Indian physicist who discovered that light scattered by a transparent material changes wavelength, a finding now called the Raman effect. He won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics, the first Asian to do so.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
Franz Joseph ruled the Habsburg monarchy for almost 68 years, from 1848, making him one of Europe's longest-reigning monarchs. He died in Vienna in 1916, midway through the First World War, which his empire had entered under his name.
Carl Pietzner · Public domain
Pakistani theoretical physicist who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for work unifying the weak and electromagnetic forces. He was the first Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize and founded the country's space research commission.
Molendijk, Bart / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
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