Facts

1800…. The 2nd President of the USA, John Adams, stays for the first time in Washington, in an inn (the White House is not yet completed).

1833…. The Gendarmerie is established to consolidate order and security within the country.

1908…. The Holy Church of Agios Andreas Patras is founded.

1923…. In Italy, Benito Mussolini passes a law granting women the right to vote in municipal elections.

1937…. The abdicated King of England, Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor, marries the common mortal and American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

1940… World War II: 200 Luftwaffe planes bomb Paris.

1941…. World War II: The Nazis destroy the village of Kandanos in Crete and kill its inhabitants, in retaliation for the murder of 25 German soldiers.

1946…. The first bikini makes its appearance on the catwalks of Paris.

1960…. The US Supreme Court rules for the first time and enshrines the defendant’s right to counsel.

1961…. Works by the popular painter Theofilos are exhibited in the Louvre. Enthusiastic welcome from fans.

1962…. An Air France Boeing 707 crashes and bursts into flames as it attempts to take off from Orly Airport in Paris, killing 130 people.

1979…. 600,000 tons of oil end up in the sea, after an explosion at an oil facility in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

1981…. Simultaneous arson of the “Klaudatos” and “Athene” department stores in Athens.

1989…. The Chinese Government orders soldiers and armored vehicles to violently break up the student demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

1991…. In Romania, the supreme court sentences Nicolae Ceausescu’s son, Nikos, to 16 years in prison for genocide.

1998…. An Intercity Express super-high-speed train, ICE 884, derails in the German city of Essen, killing 101 people. It is the worst high-speed train accident to date.

1999…. The president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, after an agreement with NATO leaders, withdraws Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.

Births

1808: Jefferson Davis, first and last president of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, was born

1911: Paulette Goddard was born, stage name of Pauline Marion Levy, American actress, one of the great stars of the silent film and one of the wives of Charlie Chaplin

1922: Alain René, French film director, one of the iconic figures of the nouvelle-vague, was born

1925: American actor Tony Curtis was born.

Deaths:

1875: French composer Georges Bizet, creator of the opera “Carmen”, died

1899: The Austrian composer, Johann Strauss the Younger, (“Blue Danube”) passed away

1924: Franz Kafka, German-speaking Czech writer (“The Trial”) died

2001: The American-Mexican actor, Anthony Quinn, who played Alexis Zorba in the movie Zorba the Greek, died.