Today in History

Historical Events

2005

Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage. Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.

1958

Lolita is First Published in the US. The highly controversial novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabakov detailed an adult man’s obsession over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he secretly calls Lolita.

1920

The State of Tennessee Passes the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This action by the Tennessee legislature brought the number of states passing the 19th amendment to 36 and provided the necessary majority to ratify the amendment, which extended universal suffrage to women.

1877

Martian Moon Phobos is Discovered. One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3700 miles from the surface of Mars, making it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this, Phobos completes an orbit around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes.

1612

The Pendle witch trials begin. 11 people - 9 women and 2 men - are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK's most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.

Famous Births

Born on this day

Cameron White

Cameron White

1983

Australian cricketer

Felipe Calderón

Felipe Calderón

1962

Mexican politician, 56th President of Mexico

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

1933

French/Polish director, producer, writer, actor

Herman Berlinski

Herman Berlinski

1910

Polish/American composer

Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri

1750

Italian composer

Famous Deaths

Died on this day

Kim Dae-jung

Kim Dae-jung

2009

South Korean politician, 8th President of South Korea Nobel laureate

B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner

1990

American psychologist, author

Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose

1945

Indian politician, activist

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

1850

French author, playwright

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

1227

Emperor