1990 – Jesse Owens posthumously receives the Congressional Gold Medal
The African American athlete dominated the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlinwhich were held during the reign of Adolf Hitler's racist nazi regime.
1979 – Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experiences a partial meltdown and radioactive leak
The coolant leak was the worst commercial nuclear accident in the United States. A continuous string of nuclear disasterssuch as Three Mile Island (1979)Chernobyl (1986)and Fukushima (2011) continue to raise doubts about the security and environmental benefit of nuclear power.
1969 – Greek poet Giorgos Seferis speaks out against the military junta
The Nobel Prize laureate issued his now famous statement against Greece's repressive right-wing Regime of the Colonels on the BBC World Service.
1963 – Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds is released
The film about a swarm of birds wreaking havoc in Bodega BayCalifornia has become a classic of the horror movie genre.
1910 – The first seaplane in history takes off
French inventor Henri Fabre's Canard (Fabre Hydravion) was the first floatplane to take off from water under its own power. The first flight measured 457 meters.
1986 – Lady Gaga
American singer-songwriterproduceractress
1955 – Reba McEntire
American singer-songwriterproduceractress
1946 – Alejandro Toledo
Peruvian politician48th President of Peru
1936 – Mario Vargas Llosa
Peruvian/Spanish journalistauthorNobel Prize laureate
1483 – Raphael
Italian painterarchitect
2004 – Peter Ustinov
English actordirectorproducerscreenwriter
1969 – Dwight D. Eisenhower
American generalpolitician34th President of the United States
1943 – Sergei Rachmaninoff
Russian pianistcomposerconductor
1941 – Virginia Woolf
English authorcritic
1584 – Ivan the Terrible
Russian Tsar