Today:
1. 1876: The first successful telephone conversation occurred when Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
2. 1910: The French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot’s license.
3. 1945: The United States Army Air Force firebombed Tokyo, Japan during World War II in what became known as the Great Tokyo Air Raid.
4. 1969: James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
5. 1985: Konstantin Chernenko, the leader of the Soviet Union, died after only 13 months in power. He was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev.
6. 2006: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) successfully reached Mars and began its mission to explore the planet’s atmosphere and terrain.
7. 2015: A Germanwings plane, Flight 9525, crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Investigations later revealed that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane.
8. 2016: Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, wife of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, passed away at the age of 94.
9. 2020: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic.
10. 2021: The cargo ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes for several days before being successfully refloated.