National day of Iceland
1579: Sir Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind just north of what would one day be San Francisco Bay and named the area New Albion.
1703: The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was born, the fifteenth of 19 children of a virile clergyman.
1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill, second major major clash of the American War of Independence, was fought just north of Boston, Mass.
1823: Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he was to use in making raincoats.
1867: Joseph Lister performed a mastectomy on his sister Isabella using carbolic acid as an antiseptic. It was the first operation under antiseptic conditions.
1929: Hitchcock's Blackmail was premiered in London. The first reel was shot before the studio was equipped for sound and has only sound effects and music; the dialogue begins in reel two.
1970: Edwin Land patented his Polaroid camera.
1972: Five burglars were caught in the Watergate office complex in Washington, election headquarters of the Democratic Party, sparking a major political scandal.
1982: Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1991: In South Africa, the repeal of the Population Registration Act of 1950 officially ended apartheid.
LAST YEAR: Former Cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short said they were both told by MI6 in the run-up to the war with Iraq that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction did not pose any immediate threat - contrary to Government statements at the time.
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