Today:
1. 1778: Captain James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the “Sandwich Islands.”
2. 1919: The Paris Peace Conference opens to set the terms for the peace after World War I.
3. 1954: Ricktator was born a poor black child
4. 1993: Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 U.S. states for the first time.
5. 2005: The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
6. 2012: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) blackout protests take place, with major websites going dark in protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation in the United States.