Today in History...

1626 Dutch colonist Peter Minuit organizes the purchase of Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of goods.

1835 James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald (price 1 cent).

1837 US blacksmith John Deere creates the first steel plough in Grand Detour, Illinois

1840 World’s first adhesive postage stamp, the “Penny Black”, is first used in Great Britain

1889 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) in Paris opens with the recently completed Eiffel Tower serving as the entrance arch

1925 Ty Cobb hits his 5th HR in 2 games tying Cap Ansons record of 1884

1937 German airship Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 on board and 1 on the ground

1940 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck for “The Grapes of Wrath”

1941 Joseph Stalin becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, replacing his foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov

1941 At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show

1960 US President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960

1987 American televangelist Jim Bakker and Rich Dortch dismissed from Assemblies of God after revelations of an alleged rape of a church secretary

2013 Wal-Mart becomes the largest company by revenue on the Fortune 500 list

Sports

1915 Red Sox Babe Ruth pitching debut & 1st HR, loses to Yanks 4-3 in 15 innings.

1925 Ty Cobb hits his 5th HR in 2 games tying Cap Ansons record of 1884 1954 Roger Bannister of the UK becomes the 1st person to run a 4 minute mile, recording 3:59:4 at Iffley Road, Oxford

1984 Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr hits for cycle

1987 Mario Andretti sets one-lap speed record at Indy at 218.204 MPH

1998 Chicago Cub Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his 5th career start.

Movies & TV

1957 Last broadcast of “I Love Lucy” on CBS-TV

1994 Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait sets fire to the couch on Tonight Show

2007 “Shrek the Third” directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui with voices by Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy premieres in Westwood Ca.

2017 France bans too thin fashion models and makes labeling digitally enhanced photos mandatory

Music

1966 The Rolling Stones release “Paint it Black” in the US

1997 Michael Jackson & Bee Gees inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame