In 1581 Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for circumnavigating the globe. In 1841 William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, becoming the first President to die in office. In 1887 Argonia, Kansas elected Susanna M Salter as the first female mayor in the US. In 1975 Microsoft was founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque. And in 1968 Martin Luther King JR was assassinated in Memphis TN.
In 1895 American dancer and educator Arthur Murray waltzed onto the world stage. In 1913 blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Muddy Waters started tuning up. Poet and Memorialist Maya Angelou started finding her beautiful way with words in 1928. And Heath Ledger began stage one of his all-to0-brief life in 1979.
Along with Martin Luther King JR, others who died on this date include mathematician John Venn, who brought us the Venn diagram (1923) , German automaker Karl Benz – who co-founded Mercedes- Benz (1929), actress Gloria Swanson (1983) and film critic Roger Ebert (2013).
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