FEATURED EVENT
1818
Battle of Maipú
Chile‘s independence movement, led by José de San Martín and Bernardo O’Higgins, won a decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Maipú, which left 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead on this day in 1818.
MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY
2008 American actor Charlton Heston, who possessed a commanding screen presence and was best known for such films as The Ten Commandments (1956) and Planet of the Apes (1968), died in California.
2000 Mori Yoshiro of the Liberal-Democratic Party became prime minister of Japan, replacing Obuchi Keizo, who had suffered a stroke earlier in the month and subsequently died.
1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Wilt Chamberlain as the all-time leading scorer in the National Basketball Association.
1951 Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for espionage; two years later they became the first American civilians executed for that crime.
1908 American actress Bette Davis—whose raw unbridled intensity kept her at the top of her profession for 50 years—was born.
1856 American educator and reformer Booker T. Washington was born in Virginia.
1614 Powhatan Indian Pocahontas married Virginia planter and colonial official John Rolfe.
1588 English philosopher and political theorist Thomas Hobbes, best known for his publications on individual security and the social contract, was born.
