Facts

780 BC: The first historical recording of a solar eclipse takes place in China.

1070: In a cave in the French village of Roquefort, the cheese of the same name is prepared for the first time.

1876: An express train, the Transcontinental Express, arrives in San Francisco from New York, having traversed the route in a then-record time of 83 hours and 39 minutes.

1878: Turkey cedes Cyprus to England.

1896: Henry Ford tests the first gasoline-powered car, the “Quad,” on the streets of Detroit. It is nothing more than a two-cylinder engine mounted on four bicycle wheels, reaching a maximum speed of 32 km/h.

1917: The American University of Columbia and the Pulitzer Prize Committee award the honors of the same name for the first time.

1919: The US Congress approves the addition of Article 19 to the Constitution, which gives women the right to vote.

1944: World War II: Rome is the first Axis capital to fall to the Allies.

1951: The US Supreme Court upholds the right of States to require proof of non-communist ideology from applicants for various jobs.

1961: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev calls for a peace conference aimed at creating a free Berlin.

1970: Toga gains independence from Britain.

1989: The Chinese regime writes one of the blackest pages in its history, with the bloody suppression of the protests in Tiananmen Square. About 1,000,000 citizens, mostly young students, flood the central square of Beijing, with demands for Democracy and human rights. Armored vehicles and trucks rush into the crowd, crushing everything in their path. 10,000 people are arrested, over 60,000 are injured, while unofficial estimates speak of 3,600 dead civilians. The events cause an international outcry.

1991: After 20 days of general strike, the communist government of Albania, under Fatos Nano, resigns.

Births

470 BC.: The great Greek philosopher, Socrates, was born

1929 : Karolos Papoulias, former President of the Hellenic Republic, was born

1975: American actress Angelina Jolie is born.

Deaths

1798: Giacomo Casanova, Italian heartthrob and writer, died

2001: The actor, Dinos Iliopoulos, has passed away

2007: The actor, Sotiris Moustakas, died.