Einstein presents his gravity equations to the Prussian Academy (1915), and Tsunami devastates Naples and the Amalfi coast after Tyrrhenian Sea earthquake (1343). Born on this day: St. John XXIII, Karl Benz and Augusto Pinochet. Died: Fidel Castro, Diego Maradona and Mishima Yukio.
29 events, 68 births and 67 deaths on this date.
In Berlin, Einstein shared the mathematics describing gravity as the bending of space and time, a theory that still underpins modern astronomy. It was the culmination of roughly a decade's work and reshaped how physicists understood the universe.
Ferdinand Schmutzer / Adam Cuerden · Public domainA wave generated by an earthquake under the Tyrrhenian Sea struck the coasts, wrecking Naples and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi. Such waves are a series of surges set off by a sudden shift of a large body of water.
Ratzinger, a German theologian, was given charge of the Vatican office that safeguards Catholic teaching. He later became Pope Benedict XVI.
Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY 3.0 pl
Ferdinand VI, the Bourbon king who kept Spain out of European wars, took a women's religious house linked to the Jesuits under his protection. That community survives today as a congregation dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Land around hot springs in Alberta's Rocky Mountains was set aside as a reserve, and the area later became Canada's first national park. Today the park covers about 6,600 square kilometres of glaciers, forest and alpine terrain.
Gorgo · Public domain
Nazi Germany and imperial Japan agreed to oppose the Communist International, though both hoped the pact would work as a military alliance against the Soviet Union. A secret protocol spelled out joint plans aimed at Moscow, and the pact later grew into the wartime Axis partnership.
Unknown photographer · Public domain
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Born into a family of sharecroppers in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli became pope in 1958, and many assumed he would be a placeholder. Instead he called the Second Vatican Council, which opened the Catholic Church to sweeping reform.
De Agostini Editore · Public domain
Benz built the Patent-Motorwagen in 1885, a vehicle many historians count as the earliest genuinely usable car, and patented it a year later. His firm, Benz & Cie. in Mannheim, became an early maker of cars on a commercial scale.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Chilean army officer who seized power in a 1973 coup and then ruled Chile as military dictator until 1990. His regime tortured and executed thousands of political opponents, and he remains Chile's longest-serving head of state.
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile · CC BY 2.0 cl
Fidel Castro led Cuba for almost half a century after the 1959 revolution, turning it into a one-party communist state. He is remembered as the man who defied the United States just off its coast, and who stood at the centre of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domain
Argentine footballer who captained his country to victory at the 1986 World Cup, scoring twice in the quarter-final against England. He is remembered as one of football's greatest, and FIFA named his second goal in that match the Goal of the Century.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Japanese novelist and playwright known for The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and Confessions of a Mask. On this day in 1970 he ended an failed coup attempt at a Tokyo army base by taking his own life in seppuku.
Ken Domon · Public domain
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