1452 ― First book published, Johann Guttenberg's Bible
1659 ― Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according to Defoe)
1791 ― Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" premiers in Vienna
1846 ― Anesthetic ether used for the first time (Dr. Wm Morton extracts a tooth)
1867 ― Midway Islands formally declared a U.S. possession
1878 ― First Portuguese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
1885 ― Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate
1887 ― Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "The Five Orange Pips" (BG)
1895 ― France proclaims a protectorate over Madagascar
1929 ― First manned rocket plane flight (by auto maker Fritz von Opel)
1934 ― FDR dedicates Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
1938 ― The Munich Agreement forces Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany
1939 ― Germany and Russia agree to partition Poland
1941 ― 3,721 Jews are buried alive at Babi Yar ravine near Kiev, Ukraine
1946 ― 22 Nazi leaders found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg; Von Ribbentrop and Goering sentenced to death
1949 ― Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights
1954 ― First atomic-powered vessel, submarine Nautilus, launched
1966 ― Botswana (Bechuanaland) gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1967 ― BBC starts their own popular music radio station
1968 ― First Boeing 747 rolls out
1980 ― Iran rejects a truce call from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
1981 ― Seoul, South Korea, is selected to host 1988 Summer Olympics
1986 ― US releases soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov
1989 ― NASA closes down tracking stations in Hawaii and Ascension
1991 ― ToHaitian President Jean-Bertand Aristide is ousted
