Australian actress
Iraqi politician
American computer programmer, businessman, co-founder of Facebook
Croatian general, politician, 1st President of Croatia
American baseball player
Lithuanian/American activist, writer
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer
Jamaican/English nurse
American singer, actor
American actress, dancer
In 1796, the British physician, Edward Jenner, successfully administered the first smallpox vaccination. He inoculated an 8-year-old smallpox patient using material from a cowpox lesion. This revolutionary vaccine became the basis for modern vaccines and the word "vaccine" is derived from the Latin word for cow (vacca).
In 1787, delegates from twelve of the thirteen states in the United States gathered in Philadelphia to draft the US Constitution. The document was intended to replace the Articles of Confederation, which had proven ineffective in establishing a strong central government. The Constitution, which was signed on September 17, 1787, remains the oldest written national constitution still in use today.
In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to lead an expedition from St Louis to explore the western territories of the United States. The goal of the expedition was to find a water route to the Pacific coast and to study the flora, fauna, and indigenous peoples of the region. The expedition lasted over two years and covered over 8,000 miles.
In 1948, Israel declared its independence from British administration. The announcement by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion triggered a 10-month armed conflict known as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. The conflict began the day after the proclamation as troops from Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, and Iraq invaded the young nation.
The Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 when eight communist bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty. The treaty played an important role during the Cold War as an antagonist of NATO.
The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a left-wing activist group that began operating in 1970 in Germany. The group grew out of the peace and anti-imperialist movement of the 1960s, but in reaction to the violent oppression by the German state, they later began operating as a terrorist cell. The RAF is responsible for several murders.
In 1973, Skylab, the United States' first space station, was launched into orbit. The laboratory was used for many biomedical and technological experiments during its six years of service. However, it crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979, four years ahead of schedule.