Inspiration for Robinson Crusoe
1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned alone on an island in the South Pacific for four years, inspiring Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"
- 1842 1st adhesive postage stamps in US isssued, by Alexander Greig's City Despatch Post company, in New York City
- 1884 First volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, is published
World's First Movie Studio
1893 Thomas Edison completes the world's first movie studio in West Orange, New Jersey
- 1964 The Beatles' first #1 hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand," tops the Hot 100, stays #1 for 7 weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You", also by The Beatles
1st Female African American Stamp
1978 Harriet Tubman is 1st African American woman to be honored on a US postage stamp
- 1980 Single "Call Me" released by Blondie (Billboard Song of the Year 1980)
The Firm
1991 American writer John Grisham publishes his second novel "The Firm" (bestselling novel of the year)
Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction
2004 Wardrobe malfunction: Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.
- 2010 Australian cooking competition "My Kitchen Rules," starring Manu Feildel and Pete Evans as hosts, premieres on Seven Network; one of the highest-rated Australian television programs
The Lego Movie
2014 "The Lego Movie" a computer-animated film based on the Lego toys, with voices including Chris Pratt and Will Ferrell. premieres in Los Angeles
- 2016 Alphabet, Google's parent company, surpasses Apple as the world's most valuable company ($568 billion vs. $535 billion) after releasing income results
- 2018 Archaeologists announce discovery of thousands of undetected structures in Mayan lowland civilisation, Guatemala, using Lidar, suggests population of 10 million
- 2021 Wisdom the albatross, the world's oldest known bird, hatches a chick at 70 at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge, North Pacific [1]
- 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, 'Nobel Prize for Engineering' awarded to Masato Sagawa for inventing the neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet [1]
- 2024 Auction of British musician Mark Knopfler's guitar collection realizes $11.27 million USD (8.8 million GBP) with 25% earmarked for his favorite charities at Christie's Auction House in London, England
