1538 The Pope Paul II excommunicated Henry VIII, leading him to champion the Protestant Reformation. Paulie thus obeyed the law of unintended consequences by stimulating Henry to break with the Papacy, rather coming to heel.
1903 Two bicycle repairmen from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright took to the air at Kitty Hawk beach in North Carolina in a heavier than air, self-propelled and powered, and controlled flight.
1908 Willard Libby developed radiocarbon dating in a physical chemistry laboratory. Some of the early work on this technique was done at the University of Nebraska. It uses the decay of radioactive carbon-14 (C14) to determine age in anything that was once living up to 60,000 years. It has become a tool in daily use in agriculture, archaeology, chemistry, geology, history, geophysics, and more. A dated fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an example.
1967 Serving Prime Minister Harold Holt of Australia disappeared while swimming in the sea off a Victorian beach, never to reappear. Fox News says Hillary did it. Conspiracy theorists have dined out on this misfortune ever since. In addition to the ubiquitous Hillary, Chinese, Russians, socialists, CIA, aliens, Moonies, leprechauns, and Queenslanders have all been blamed. Don’t mention the sharks.
1989 The Simpsons first episode appeared on television in the USA. Tune in on a channel near you.
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