Historical Events
1938 – Bronze memorial statue of explorer Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx, New York
1980 – The beginning of the first GPS epoch
2009 – Israel begins an assault on the Gaza Strip
2013 – The NHL reaches an agreement to end a 113 day lockout
2021 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says country’s five-year economic plan has failed at opening of a rare meeting of the Workers’ Party
Famous Birthdays
1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Savoyard grammarian and man of letters, born in Meximieux, Duchy of Savoy (d. 1650)
1853 – Clement Reid, English geologist and paleobotanist, first to suggest a drowned land bridge between Britain and Europe (now called Doggerland), born in London (d. 1916)
1899 – Sophie-Carmen “Sonia” Eckhardt-Gramatté, Russian-Canadian pianist and composer, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1974)
1970 – John Gerak, NFL tight end/guide (Minnesota Vikings, St Louis Rams), born in Youngstown, Ohio
1982 – Gilbert Arenas, American basketball player, born in Tampa, Florida
Famous Deaths
1541 – Bernard van Orley, Flemish royal painter of Hungary, dies at about 52
1852 – Louis Braille, French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, dies of tuberculosis at 43
1958 – Josephine CMA, princess of Belgium/nun, dies at 85
1995 – Joe Slovo, Latvian-South African attorney and politician (Secretary General of SACR), dies at 68
2008 – Yunus Mahomed, South African lawyer and activist (UDF), dies at 57