Travels of William of Rubruck
1253 Flemish friar William of Rubruck sets off to convert the Mongols to Christianity, a mission ordered by French king Louis IX - one of the most famous travel accounts in the Medieval world
- 1660 Isaac B. Fubine of Savoy in The Hague patents macaroni
- 1697 Stockholm's medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world's largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window
A Golden Letter
1756 Burmese King Alaungphaya sends his Golden Letter on rolled gold to King George II of Great Britain detailing trade proposals [1]
1st Presidential Ball
1789 The first US presidential inaugural ball is held for George Washington in New York City
Poems by Brontë Sisters
1846 First printed copies of "Poems" by Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Brontë are received, published under the pseudonyms Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell (two copies sold)
- 1877 Cincinnati Enquirer first uses term "bullpen" to indicate baseball field foul territory where late-coming spectators were herded like cattle
- 1895 Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the world's first radio receiver in St. Petersburg. Celebrated as Radio Day in Russia.
- 1914 US Congress establishes Mother's Day
- 1925 The first projection planetarium opens at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany
- 1934 World's largest pearl (6.4 kg) found at Palawan, Philippines
- 1946 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees
- 1953 Record 537-kg swordfish is caught by L.E. Marron in Chile
- 1958 US Air Force Major Howard Johnson sets world aircraft altitude record in a Lockhead F-104 Starfighter at 27,810 m
Cordero Jr. Retires
1992 Champion Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. retires after winning 7,057 thoroughbred horse races
1994 Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" is recovered 3 months after it was stolen
- 2012 Paeleoclimatological research claims dinosaur flatulence may have warmed the earth
