In 1606 the Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by King James I of England, paving the way for the founding of English colonies in North America. In 1710 the Statute of Anne, the first copywriter law comes into force in Great Britain. And far away the Mt Tambora volcano began a 3-month eruption in 1815, that killed 71,000 people and affected the Earth’s climate for the next two years.

This date marked the founding of the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in 1866, the first Arbor Day in Nebraska in 1872, and the PGA (Professional Golfers Association) in New York City in 1916.

We welcomed into the world Lew Wallace (1827) a Civil War general who was also an author (Ben Hur), William Booth (1829) a minister who founded the charitable organization The Salvation Army, and the Hungarian-American journalist and publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847) who established the award for outstanding journalism – the Pulitzer Prize.

This date was also the starting point for Francis Perkins (1880) the first female US cabinet member – Secretary of Labor: Delores Huerta (1930) who co-founded the United Farm Workers union along with Cesar Chavez, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif (1932, Laurence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago), and American journalist and author David Halberstam (1934, The Best and the Brightest).

The world said goodbye to MASH’s Radar -Larry Linville -in 2000, and former Arizona governor Raul Castro (2015), who also served as US Ambassador to three different Latin American nations.

It is also International Siblings Day, which since 1998 has been officially recognized by the governors of 49 states.