Marie-Antoinette guillotined
After the French Revolution began, Marie-Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI, was targeted by agitators who, enraged by her extravagance and attempts to save the monarchy, ultimately guillotined her on this day in 1793. 1793.
Hungarian boxer László Papp—who was the first three-time Olympic boxing champion, winning gold medals in 1948, 1952, and 1956—died at age 77. 2003.
During the awards ceremony for the 200-metre race at the Mexico City Olympics, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a Black-power salute, for which they were later ordered to leave the Games. 1968.
China, eager to join the nuclear race, successfully detonated its first atomic bomb. 1964.
Margaret Sanger, an activist for women’s reproductive rights, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, in Brooklyn, New York. 1916.
English novelist Charlotte Brontë (under the pseudonym Currer Bell) published Jane Eyre, which became a classic noted for giving new truthfulness to the Victorian novel. 1847.
William Thomas Green Morton first demonstrated the use of ether as a general anesthetic before a gathering of physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 1846.
Napoleon led his troops against an allied force of Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops during the Battle of Leipzig. 1813.
John Mayer (born October 16, 1977, Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose melodic, often soft rock earned him a wide audience and a number of Grammy Awards in the early 21st century.
