Haile Selassie is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia (1974), and Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded (1890). Born on this day: Irène Joliot-Curie, Jesse Owens and Francis I. Died: Johnny Cash, Eugenio Montale and Norman Ernest Borlaug.
31 events, 70 births and 70 deaths on this date.
After a military junta known as the Derg took control, Haile Selassie was removed from power and held under guard in Addis Ababa. The fall of the last emperor ended a monarchy that had ruled Ethiopia for centuries.
Public domainThe Pioneer Column, a small force of the British South Africa Company, founded the settlement on a high plateau. It was named Fort Salisbury after the British Prime Minister and only became Harare in 1982.
Anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko died in police detention in Port Elizabeth after being severely beaten, a death that drew international condemnation of the apartheid government. His case exposed how the state treated political prisoners in custody.
Valve's Steam client went public, first to deliver automatic updates for its own games. It later grew into the largest store for PC games.
Athenian citizen soldiers, aided by Plataeans, beat a larger Persian force sent by Darius I to punish Athens for backing the Ionian revolt. The win stopped the first Persian attempt to conquer mainland Greece and became a defining moment in the Greco-Persian Wars.
John Steeple Davis · Public domain
Hudson, sailing for the Dutch East India Company, was searching for a route to Asia when he steered up the river that now bears his name. His voyage opened the region to Dutch settlement and trade.
Neemster · CC BY-SA 3.0
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Shared the 1935 chemistry Nobel with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for discovering induced radioactivity. Among her other roles, she sat in the French government in 1936 as undersecretary for scientific research.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
Jesse Owens won four Olympic gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, in the 100 metres, long jump, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay. Competing as a Black American in Nazi Germany, he became the Games' most successful athlete.
Acme News Photos · Public domain
Francis I became King of France in 1515 and is remembered as a great patron of the arts, bringing Leonardo da Vinci to his court. He also sponsored French exploration of the Americas and promoted the French language, earning the nickname Father and Restorer of Letters.
Jean Clouet · Public domain
Johnny Cash died in 2003, aged 71. The deep-voiced American singer was known as the Man in Black, and his songs about sorrow and redemption, including Folsom Prison Blues and Ring of Fire, made him one of the best-selling artists of all time.
CBS Television · Public domain
Italian poet, prose writer and translator whose spare, sceptical verse won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975. He wrote much of his best work in the decades before the Second World War and after it.
Kaj Hagman. · Public domain
Norman Borlaug was an American agronomist who developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat and helped spread it across Mexico, Pakistan and India. His work is credited with sparking the Green Revolution, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
Public domain
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