Today:
1. 1886: The first Coca-Cola was served in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Pemberton concocted the beverage as a patent medicine.
2. 1945: Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day). It marks the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces, effectively ending the war in Europe.
3. 1794: Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.
4. 1541: Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, which he called Rio de Espiritu Santo. He and his expedition became the first documented Europeans to have discovered the great river.
5. 1902: Mount Pelée in Martinique erupted, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people in one of the worst volcanic disasters of the 20th century.
6. 1978: Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, without supplemental oxygen.
7. 1980: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated. This was the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort.
8. 1972: President Richard Nixon ordered the mining of North Vietnamese ports during the Vietnam War, marking a significant escalation in the conflict.
9. 1984: The Soviet Union announced it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, citing security concerns and alleged chauvinism and anti-Soviet sentiment in the United States.
10. 2003: Poland’s new Constitution was approved in a national referendum, marking a significant step in the country’s post-Communist transition.