- 1284 According to the Lüneburg manuscript, a piper leads 130 children of Hamelin away
- 1797 Charles Newbold patents the first cast-iron plow, though farmers fear the effects of iron on soil
The Valkyrie
1870 Richard Wagner's opera "Die Walküre" (The Valkyrie), the second in his Ring Cycle, premieres in Munich, featuring "Ride of the Valkyries"
- 1927 The Cyclone roller coaster opens at Coney Island
- 1936 First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter, piloted by Ewald Rohlfs
- 1963 Dutch Second Chamber condemns commercial TV
1963 US President John F. Kennedy delivers his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin; a later misconception claims he said, "I am a doughnut," because of the German jelly-pastry 'Berliner'
- 1974 The Universal Product Code (UPC) is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
- 1979 The Village People become the first disco act to play Madison Square Garden, NYC
Harry Potter Published
1997 "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the first book in J. K. Rowling's bestselling series, is published
Good Time
2012 "Good Time" by Owl City (Adam Young) and Carly Rae Jepsen releases, topping charts worldwide and selling 2.24 million copies in the US by the end of 2012
- 2018 Hello Kitty bullet train unveiled by the West Japan Railway
Spirited Away
2019 Japanese animation film "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki is released in China and tops the box office, 18 years after its initial release
- 2024 European Space Agency creates Lego 'space bricks' by 3D printing Lego out of meteorite dust, part of a project to learn how to build a base on the Moon [1]
- 2025 Meteorite fragment that predates Earth at 4.56 billion years old crashes through the roof of a house in Georgia, United States [1]
