Margaret Sanger, birth control campaigner, is born (1879), and Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations (1999). Born on this day: Leo XIV, Dmitry Medvedev and Amy Winehouse. Died: William McKinley, Grace Kelly and Rudolf Christoph Eucken.
31 events, 75 births and 66 deaths on this date.
Born Margaret Higgins, she worked as a nurse in New York's poor districts, where she saw women desperate to avoid more pregnancies. She later opened America's earliest contraception clinic, founded Planned Parenthood, and fought for contraception to be legalised across the country.
Los Angeles Times, restored by Adam Cuerden · CC BY 4.0Three small Pacific nations became full UN members on this day, giving them a formal voice in world affairs. Kiribati, a scattering of atolls straddling the equator, had been independent since 1979 but had stayed outside the organisation until now.
In Avignon, the earliest recorded case of round-the-clock prayer before the consecrated host begins. Catholics still practise this devotion, with the Eucharist exposed in churches so someone can pray before it at all hours.
Begun in 1721 under Peter the Great, the empire at its height covered about a sixth of the world's land. Its replacement by a republic closed the final chapter of Tsarist rule.
Five oil-producing nations, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, met in Baghdad to coordinate their oil policies. The group later gave producing states far more control over prices and output than the Anglo-American oil companies had held.
The Senate formally recognised Domitian as the next emperor, the last of the Flavian dynasty to rule Rome. He was succeeding his brother Titus, and his reign would be the last under the Flavian family.
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The first pope from the United States, he spent much of his career as a missionary and bishop in Peru, and is also a Peruvian citizen. Before his election as head of the Catholic Church, he led the Vatican office overseeing bishops worldwide.
Ricardo Stuckert · CC BY-SA 4.0
Medvedev served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012 and then as prime minister until 2020. He is remembered for a modernisation drive and for signing the New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States.
Russian Government · CC BY 4.0
British singer-songwriter whose husky jazz-and-soul voice and frank, autobiographical lyrics made her a global star. Her second album, Back to Black, became one of the best-selling records of all time, and in 2008 she won five Grammys in a single night.
Rama · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr
McKinley was the 25th US president, remembered for leading the country through the Spanish-American War and for the expansion that followed, including Hawaii and the Philippines. He was shot by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and died eight days later.
photographer · Public domain
Grace Kelly was an American actress who won an Academy Award for The Country Girl before retiring to become Princess of Monaco. She died on 14 September 1982 after a car accident in the hills above Monaco.
Hans Peters for Anefo · CC0
German philosopher and university teacher who won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was honoured for his idealistic philosophy of life, set out in a long run of books.
Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain
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