Because of health problems, longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed over provisional power to his brother Raúl; the latter served as the country’s acting president until officially assuming the post in 2008.
British author J.K. Rowling, creator of the immensely popular Harry Potter series, was born. 1965
The Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and transferred New Netherland (now New York and New Jersey) to England. 1667.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church, died in Rome. 1556.
