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January
21st |
The first Monte Carlo rally took place. |
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February
3rd |
American actor, Robert Earl Jones, was born in Mississippi. He was the father of movie star James Earl Jones. |
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February
6th |
American politician, Ronald Reagan, was born in Illinois. At 69 years old he was the oldest person to be elected president of the United States. On March 30th 1980, he survived an assassination attempt, although he was struck by the assailant's bullets. |
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February
18th |
The first official transfer of mail via plane took place in British India. |
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March
8th |
Women's Day was celebrated for the first time. |
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March
16th |
Nazi war criminal, Josef Mengele, was born in New York, Australia. He was a Nazi German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. He is said to have been one of the most heinous Nazi officials who performed atrocious experiments on human beings. He is notorious for having escaped justice after the war and for having been one of the most wanted persons in the world. However he was never captured and spent the rest of his life in various South American countries. |
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April
8th |
American chemist and Nobel Prize winner, Melvin Calvin, was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. |
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May
27th |
American actor, Vincent Price, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a graduate of Yale University who later became a cult figure, having been one of the predominant actors of American horror cinema. |
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July
5th |
French politician, Georges Pompidou, was born in Montboudif. He is widely considered as one of the most influential French politicians of the 20th century who served as prime minister of France between 1962 and 1968 and as president of the French republic from 1969 until his death in 1974. |
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July
9th |
American physicist, John A. Wheeler, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Widely considered as one of the eminent American theoretical physicists of the 20th century and was a close collaborator of famed physicist Albert Einstein. |
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July
24th |
American explorer, Hiram Bingham III, (re)discovered Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas. |
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August
6th |
American actress, Lucille Ball, was born in Jamestown, New York. She was most known for her part in the highly successful television series, I Love Lucy. |
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August
12th |
Mexican actor, Cantinflas, was born in Cotija Michoacan. He is considered as one of the greatest comedians to have ever graced the silver screen. Charlie Chaplin was said to have referred to him as the greatest comedy actor of his time. He was made famous worldwide after his participation in the hit movie 'Around the world in 80 days'. The film rights for his numerous movies are owned by Columbia Pictures, which still reports sizable profits from their distribution. |
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August
21st |
The Mona Lisa painting was stolen from the Louvre by an employee. it was recovered two years later when the thief attempted to sell it to an art dealer in Florence, Italy. |
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September
7th |
French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire, was arrested and jailed on suspicion that he had stolen the Mona Lisa painting from the Louvre. Apollinaire was one of the architects of the surrealism movement. |
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October
29th |
Hungarian-born newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, was born in Mako, Hungary. He emigrated to the United States during the period of the American Civil War and eventually built a publishing empire. His legacy is still alive today through the prestigious Pulitzer Awards. |
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November
1st |
The first ever use of an aerial bomb took place during the war between Italy and Turkey. |
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November
2nd |
Greek writer and poet, Odysseus Elytis, was born in Heraklion, Crete. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1979 and is generally considered as one of the most important contemporary figure of Greek literature. |
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November
3rd |
Chevrolet officially entered the automobile market. |
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December
12th |
Delhi was declared as the capital of India, replacing Calcutta. |
