1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
and damage the USS Saratoga.
1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1958 – The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
Births
1836 – Léo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)
1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet (d. 1973)
1910 – Eddie Waring, English rugby player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 1986)
1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)
1935 – Mark McManus, Scottish actor (d. 1994) – “Taggart”
1937 – Jilly Cooper, English journalist and author
1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress
1946 – Anthony Daniels, English actor – “CP30”
1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor
1964 – Jane Tomlinson, English activist (d. 2007)
1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress
Deaths
1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)
1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925)
1985 – Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (b. 1909)
1989 – Robert Dorning, English musician, ballet dancer and actor (b. 1913)
1991 – Margot Fonteyn, English ballerina (b. 1919)
2002 – John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942) – The Sweeny, Morse
2013 – Raymond Cusick, English set designer (b. 1928) – designer of the “Daleks”