Walt Disney names suspected communists before a House committee (1947), and The United Nations is established (1945). Born on this day: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Domitian and Wayne Rooney. Died: Rosa Parks, Tycho Brahe and Christian Dior.
33 events, 58 births and 69 deaths on this date.
Disney told the House Un-American Activities Committee which studio staff he believed were communists, in a hearing that put his own reputation on the line. The testimony came amid the Cold War scrutiny of Hollywood.
Boy Scouts of America · Public domainThe organisation was set up to keep international peace, encourage friendly relations between countries and coordinate their efforts on shared problems. Today its 193 member states cover nearly every sovereign nation, and it is headquartered in New York City.
Eisenhower promised American backing to South Vietnam, a move that tied the United States more closely to the country's future. It fitted his wider aim of containing communism, a goal that would later draw America into the Vietnam War.
White House · Public domain
Forces loyal to Vespasian defeated Emperor Vitellius's army near Bedriacum in northern Italy, a result that strengthened Vespasian's claim to the throne. Vitellius lost this struggle, and Vespasian went on to rule Rome.
Arsenal's 49-match unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end at Old Trafford against Manchester United. It was the longest such run in the league's history, so the defeat ended a striking record.
Dutch draper turned self-taught scientist, later nicknamed the Father of Microbiology, who made his own single-lens microscopes. He was the first to observe microbes, which he called animalcules, and his letters to the Royal Society reached the wider scientific world.
Rijksmuseum · CC0
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A self-taught Delft draper who ground his own lenses, he built microscopes sharp enough to reveal bacteria, sperm and red blood cells. He is now called the Father of Microbiology, though he wrote his findings in letters to the Royal Society rather than books.
Rijksmuseum · CC0
Domitian was the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, ruling Rome for fifteen years. He clashed constantly with the Senate, curbing its powers while building heavily in the city and strengthening the frontiers.
Castro Pretorio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wayne Rooney is an English former footballer and manager, remembered as Manchester United's all-time record goalscorer with 253 goals. He is also the only player to have reached both 200 Premier League goals and 100 assists.
Дмитрий Голубович · CC BY-SA 3.0
The activist whose 1955 refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, set off a mass boycott against segregation. Earlier she had served as secretary of the local NAACP and organised campaigns over racial violence.
Gene Herrick for the Associated Press; restored by Adam Cuerden · Public domain
Brahe was a Danish astronomer whose unusually accurate observations, made with instruments he designed at his island observatory on Hven, helped turn astronomy into a modern science. He also devised a model with the Sun circling the Earth and the planets circling the Sun.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Christian Dior, the French couturier, died in 1957 at 52. He is remembered for the New Look of 1947, a full-skirted, nipped-waist style that reset women's fashion and helped bring Paris back to the centre of the industry after the war.
Post of Romania · Public domain
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