Alan Turing publishes an abstract model of computing (1936), and Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires copyright convention (1916). Born on this day: Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and Woody Allen. Died: George H.W. Bush, Oscar Wilde and Jiang Zemin.
29 events, 87 births and 71 deaths on this date.
Turing set out a mathematical device that could carry out any step-by-step procedure a computer could follow, simply by reading and rewriting symbols. It is now seen as a foundation of computer science, though its significance was only fully appreciated later.
Elliott & Fry · Public domainCosta Rica became one of the countries to sign the Buenos Aires Convention, a treaty setting common rules for copyright between nations in the Americas. It meant works by authors in one signatory state were protected in the others.
Barbados ended more than three centuries of British rule and became a sovereign state within the Commonwealth, with Elizabeth II as its monarch. The island had been settled by the English in 1627 and built its economy on sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans.
Barbados cut its last formal ties to the British monarchy and became a republic, with Sandra Mason sworn in as its first president. The move ended more than 350 years of British and royal rule, a change the island had long debated.
The Soviet Union attacked Finland with far greater tanks and aircraft, expecting a quick win. Finnish forces held out for more than three months in brutal winter cold before a peace treaty ceded territory to Moscow.
Unknown author. · Public domain
His sixth album, produced by Quincy Jones, moved his sound toward post-disco and synth-pop. It went on to win eight Grammy Awards, a record, and remains one of the best-selling records ever made.
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Led Britain as prime minister for most of the Second World War, then returned to the job from 1951 to 1955. He was also a soldier, war correspondent and author who wrote books about his military campaigns.
Public domain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain, was an American humorist whose novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are still widely read. Often called the father of American literature, he drew on his childhood in Missouri and years on the Mississippi.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Woody Allen, born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, is an American filmmaker and comedian who started as a writer for Sid Caesar and later directed Annie Hall. He has won three Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, more than any other writer.
Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bush was the 41st US president, guiding America through the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War. Before politics he flew dozens of combat missions as a naval pilot in the Second World War.
David Valdez · Public domain
Irish writer whose wit and plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, made him one of the best-known figures in Victorian London. He died in Paris in 1900, after his imprisonment for gross indecency had ruined his health and reputation.
Napoleon Sarony / Adam Cuerden · Public domain
Jiang Zemin led China from 1989 to 2002 after stepping in as a compromise choice following the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Trained as an electrical engineer, he later oversaw China's push to open its economy and joined the Communist Party's core leadership alongside Mao, Deng and Xi.
Kremlin.ru / Roman Kubanskiy · CC BY 4.0
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