Michael Jackson's Thriller is released (1982), and Partisans liberate Albania from German occupation (1944). Born on this day: Jacques Chirac, C.S. Lewis and Cixi. Died: Giacomo Puccini, George Harrison and Henry Kissinger.
29 events, 68 births and 73 deaths on this date.
Thriller arrived on this day in 1982 and went on to become the biggest-selling album ever made. Its title track and music video, which reshaped what pop videos could be, helped turn Jackson into a global star.
Matthew Rolston; Distributed by Epic Records · Public domainCommunist-led Partisan forces drove the last German troops out of Albania, ending nearly four years of occupation during the Second World War. The liberation paved the way for a Communist government that would rule the country for decades.
Eisenhower kept a promise from his campaign by visiting Korea, where he wanted to learn how the fighting could be brought to a close. He made the trip before taking office, while the war was still grinding on.
White House · Public domain
Joan Gamper, a Swiss football enthusiast, helped bring together Swiss, Catalan, German and English players to form the club in Barcelona. It went on to become one of Spain's most decorated clubs, owned by its supporters.
José Joaquín Moraga established the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian settlement of its kind in Alta California. Its founding makes it the oldest city in the Californias and the origin of today's sprawling Bay Area metropolis.
Abbasid forces seized the Qarmatian leadership near Hama in Syria. The capture opened the route for the Abbasids to retake Tulunid-ruled Egypt.
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Jacques Chirac led France as head of state from 1995 until 2007, after earlier serving as prime minister and as mayor of Paris. He is remembered for opposing the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq and for acknowledging the Vichy government's part in deporting Jews.
Christian Lambiotte · CC BY 4.0
Lewis was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian, best remembered for The Chronicles of Narnia. He also wrote The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity, and was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Unknown author · Public domain
Cixi was a Manchu noblewoman who dominated the late Qing court for nearly five decades. She backed military and technical modernisation but rejected Western political institutions, and her support for the Boxers drew foreign powers into war.
John Yu Shuinling · Public domain
Puccini wrote operas that moved from Romantic tradition into the realism of verismo. La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly remain among the most performed works in the operatic repertoire.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Lead guitarist of the Beatles, Harrison also wrote songs such as Something and Here Comes the Sun. He brought Indian music into pop and organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.
David Hume Kennerly · Public domain
Kissinger, a German-born Jewish refugee, became one of the most influential American diplomats of the Cold War, serving as national security adviser and secretary of state under Nixon and Ford. He helped negotiate the Paris Peace Accords that ended US involvement in Vietnam, and shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for it.
U.S. Department of State from United States · Public domain
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