Two events happened in China on this date in history. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzchang ascended the throne of China, beginning the Ming dynasty which would rule China for the next 300 years. And the deadliest earthquake in world history, the Shaanxi earthquake struck Shanni province in China, resulting in an estimated 830,000 deaths.
In 1789 Georgetown College – later Georgetown University – is founded in Maryland as the first Catholic university in the US. And in 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell was awarded her MD from the Geneva (NY) Medical College, becoming the first female doctor in the US.
In other events the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in elections. And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley
Three notable people were born on this date: John Hancock (1737), American general, president of the Second Continental Congress, and first (and largest) signer of the Declaration of Independence; Edvard Manet (1832), French painter; and Potter Stewart 1915), associate Supreme Court justice from 1958981.
There were three political figures who passed on this date in history – King Ferdinand of Aragon (1516), who with his wife Queen Isabella, funded Christopher Columbus 4 voages to the New World; William Pitt the Younger (1806) who was at the time the youngest British prime minister; and E Howard Hunt (2007) notorious Watergate conspirator and longtime CIA operative, who was also involved in the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
From the arts and music field we lost Paul Robeson (1976) actor, singer, and activist -who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era; Edvard Munch(1944) whose most famous painting was “The Scream”; and Salvador Dali (1989), surrealist painter whose melted clocks and such entertained us.
From TV land we lost Bob Keeshan (2004) – Captain Kangaroo; Johnny Carson (2005) he of Funk and Wagnalls, and answers in that Mason jar; Hal Holbrook(2021) – endless portrayals of Mark Twain ; and Larry King (2021) with many wives and many more interviews of everyone.
And far off in the Pitcairn Islands this day is celebrated as Bounty Day, of course.
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