Person report

★20 Nov 1902
While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto, sports journalist Géo Lefèvre came up with the idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de France.

★09 Feb 1913
A group of meteors was visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude that the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

★16 Dec 1914
First World War: The Imperial German Navy attacked British ports in North Yorkshire, resulting in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died.

★06 Feb 1919
More than 65,000 workers in Seattle began a five-day general strike to gain higher wages after two years of U.S. World War I wage controls.

★24 Oct 1929
On "Black Thursday", the New York Stock Exchange lost 11 percent of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.

★29 Feb 1940
At the 12th Academy Awards, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be awarded an Oscar, winning Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.

★17 Dec 1945
The modern flag of Kurdistan was raised for the first time in Mahabad, Iran.

★05 Dec 1952
The "Great Smog of London" began and lasted for five days, causing 12,000 deaths and leading to the Clean Air Act 1956.

★07 Jul 1954
After the culmination of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, Carlos Castillo Armas was sworn in as President of Guatemala.

★15 Feb 1976
The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, was adopted by a national referendum.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.