Today’s Important Historical Events
1689 Matsuo Basho, zen poet, leaves for 150 days journey on Honshu, Japan
1858 The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace‘s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society
1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Lee’s northward advance halted
1867 The Dominion of Canada is formed, comprising the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario & Quebec, with John A. Macdonald serving as the first Prime Minister
1916 First day of the Battle of the Somme: the British Army suffers its worst day, losing 19,240 men (WWI)
1921 The Communist Party of China is founded and Chen Duxiu elected its leader
1941 Bulova Watch Co pays $9 for 1st ever network TV commercial
1997 United Kingdom returns Hong Kong and the New Territories to the People’s Republic of China

Today’s Historical Events
69 Batavian nobleman Gaius Julius Civilis proclaimed emperor of Syria
69 Roman General Vespasian is first proclaimed Emperor by troops in Egypt, during year of the four emperors
70 Roman General Titus and his forces set up battering rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem
251 The Battle of Abrittus in the Balkans won by the Goths against the Romans. Roman Emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus are killed
649 Pope Martinus I elected to succeed Theodore I
1097 1st Crusaders defeat Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea
1200 In China, sunglasses are invented
1233 Earl Otto II van Gelre grants Arnhem state justice

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV
1941 WCBW (now WCBS) TV channel 2 in NY, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
1941 WNBT TV (W2XBS, Now WNBC) channel 4 in NYC (NBC) begins broadcasting
1949 WBRC TV channel 6 in Birmingham, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1949 WCCO TV channel 4 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 WHBF TV channel 4 in Rock Island, IL (CBS) begins broadcasting
1952 English architect Michael Ventris says he has solved one of the 20th century’s greatest linguistic riddles, by deciphering Linear B in BBC interview. Is an ancient form of Greek on clay tablets from Minoan palace of Knossos. [1]
1953 KLAS TV channel 8 in Las Vegas, NV (CBS) begins broadcasting

Today’s Historical Events in Music
1933 Strauss & von Hofmannsthal’s opera “Arabella,” premieres at the Semperoper Opera House in Dresden, Germany
1950 Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars”, based on Alan Paton‘s novel “Cry the Beloved Country”, closes at Music Box Theater, NYC, after 281 performances
1960 Benjamin Britten‘s cantate “Carmen Baseliense” premieres in Basel
1963 The Beatles record “She Loves You” and “I’ll Get You”
1967 “Funny Girl” closes at Winter Garden Theater, NYC, after 1348 performances
1967 The Beatles’ album “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” goes #1 in the United States, where it would stay for 15 weeks
1968 John Lennon‘s 1st full art exhibition (You Are Here) opens at Robert Fraser Gallery in London
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono are admitted to hospital after he crashes his car near Durness in the Scottish Highlands

Today’s Historical Events in Sports
1859 1st intercollegiate baseball game, Amherst beats Williams 66-32 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
1893 San Francisco Bay City Club opens 1st US bicycle race track, made of wood
1901 Wimbledon Men’s Tennis: Arthur Gore beats defending 4-time champion R.F. Doherty 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 for his 1st of 3 Wimbledon singles titles
1903 Tour de France: Inaugural race begins in Montgeron, a south-eastern suburb of Paris
1904 III Summer (Modern) Olympic Games open in St Louis, the first held in the United States
1904 Willie Anderson becomes the first 2-time Western Open golf champion, beating fellow Scot Alex Smith by 4 strokes at Michigan’s Kent CC
1910 Chicago’s White Sox Park (later Comiskey Park) opens – St Louis Browns beat White Sox, 2-0
1916 Pittsburgh shortstop Honus Wagner, at 42 and 4 months, connects at Cincinnati to become the oldest to hit an inside-the-park HR; Pirates beat Reds, 2-1
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