Today:
30 BC – Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, died in Alexandria following the defeat of her forces and those of Mark Antony by Octavian. Her death marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt.
1099 – During the First Crusade, crusader forces defeated a Fatimid Egyptian army at the Battle of Ascalon, shortly after the capture of Jerusalem.
1851 – Isaac Singer received a U.S. patent for improvements to the sewing machine. His designs helped make sewing machines practical for widespread household and commercial use.
1865 – British surgeon Joseph Lister performed one of his early antiseptic operations, using carbolic acid to treat a compound fracture. His work revolutionized surgery by dramatically reducing infections.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, while observing from the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Six days later, he discovered Mars’s other moon, Phobos.
1898 – The United States and Spain signed a peace protocol ending major hostilities in the Spanish-American War. The formal Treaty of Paris followed later that year.
1908 – Henry Ford’s company built the first production Model T. The automobile would transform transportation and help make car ownership affordable to millions of Americans.
1960 – NASA launched Echo 1A, a giant metallic balloon that became the world’s first successful passive communications satellite by reflecting radio signals back to Earth.
1981 – IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer, or IBM PC. Its success helped establish standards that would dominate the personal-computer industry for decades.
1990 – Sue, one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons ever discovered, was found by fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson near Faith, South Dakota. The fossil is now displayed at Chicago’s Field Museum.