Today in History

A car bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state.

Tajikistan declares independence from USSR.

Sri Lankan Army massacres 184 civilians of the Tamil minority in the Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka.

Jo Woodcock, actress (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Torn TV miniseries).

Michelle Williams, Golden Globe–winning actress (My Week with Marilyn).

Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung dies in Beijing at age 82.

Michael Buble, multiple Grammy and Juno award–winning singer, songwriter, actor (Crazy Love, It’s Time).

Attica Prison Riot; the 4-day riot leaves 39 dead.

U.S. Marines launch Operation Dubois Square, a 10-day search for North Vietnamese troops near Da Nang.

Canada’s Official Languages Act takes effect, making French equal to English as a language within the nation’s government.

Adam Sandler, actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer (Saturday Night Live, Happy Gilmore).

Hurricane Betsy, the first hurricane to exceed $1 billion in damages (unadjusted), makes its second landfall, near New Orleans.

Hugh Grant, actor, film producer; awards include Golden Globe (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and London Critics Circle’s British Actor of the Year (About a Boy)

Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; cameras focus on his upper torso and legs to avoid showing his pelvis gyrations, which many Americans—including Ed Sullivan—thought unfit for a family show.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian general, 6th president of Indonesia.

Kim Il-sung declares the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Allied troops land at Salerno, Italy and encounter strong resistance from German troops.

A Japanese float plane, launched from a submarine, makes its first bombing run on a U.S. forest near Brookings, Oregon.

Otis Redding, singer, songwriter, record producer, known as the “King of Soul”; “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Respect.”

Sonia Sanchez, poet.

The Radio Corporation of America creates the National Broadcasting Co.

Hoyt Curtin, composer and music producer; primary musical director for Hanna-Barbera animation studio (The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Smurfs).

A German zeppelin bombs London for the first time, causing little damage.

An airmail route opens between London and Windsor.

Shigekazu Shimazaki, Japanese commander and pilot who led the second wave of the air attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941; posthumously promoted to admiral in 1945.

Joseph E. Levine, film producer, founder of Embassy Pictures Corporation, an independent studio and distributor of films such as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far, and The Lion in Winter.

James Hilton, British novelist who authored Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr. Chips and created the imaginary world of “Shangri-La.”

Colonel Harland Sanders, originator of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurants.

Alfred M. Landon, Republican governor of Kansas who carried only two states in his overwhelming defeat for the presidency by Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

The Berne International Copyright Convention takes place.

The Union Army of the Cumberland passes through Chattanooga as they chase after the retreating Confederates. The Union troops will soon be repulsed at the Battle of Chickamauga.

California, in the midst of a gold rush, enters the Union as the 31st state.

Parliament passes the Municipal Corporations Act, reforming city and town governments in England.

Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (War and Peace, Anna Karenina).

French Royalists take control of Arles and barricade themselves inside the town.

George Washington calls for the abolition of slavery.

The term “United States” is adopted by the Continental Congress to be used instead of the “United Colonies.”

Duc Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, French cardinal and statesman who helped build France into a world power under the leadership of King Louis XIII.

King James IV of Scotland is defeated and killed by English at Flodden.

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, dies in Rouen while conducting a war which began when the French king made fun of him for being fat.

Constantine’s three sons, already Caesars, each take the title of Augustus. Constantine II and Constans share the west while Constantius II takes control of the east.