Today:
1. 1738: John Wesley experienced his evangelical conversion at a meeting in Aldersgate, London, leading to the foundation of the Methodist movement.
2. 1819: Queen Victoria was born in Kensington Palace, London. She went on to become one of the most famous and longest-reigning monarchs in British history.
3. 1844: Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message, “What hath God wrought?” from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, marking a significant advancement in communication technology.
4. 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge, a marvel of 19th-century engineering, was opened in New York City, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.
5. 1941: The German battleship Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood during World War II, resulting in the loss of 1,418 British sailors.
6. 1956: The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland, with Lys Assia of Switzerland winning the competition.
7. 1962: Astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times aboard the Aurora 7 space capsule, as part of NASA’s Project Mercury.
8. 1976: The Concorde began its regular transatlantic flights from London to Washington, D.C., revolutionizing air travel with its supersonic speed.
9. 1994: Four men were sentenced to 240 years in prison for their roles in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, which killed six people and injured over 1,000.
10. 2000: Israel withdrew the last of its troops from southern Lebanon, ending an 18-year occupation and handing control back to Lebanon.