1. On this day in 1818: Illinois was admitted as the 21st state
of the union.
2. On this day in 1818: In Rhode Island, the
Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued the first fire insurance
policy.
3. On this day in 1847: Frederick Douglass published 1st issue
of his newspaper "North Star".
4. On this day in 1904: The Jovian moon Himalia was
discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
5. On this day in 1910: The neon lamp was displayed for the
first time at the Paris Motor Show. The lamp was developed by French physicist
Georges Claude.
6. On this day in 1959: The current flag of Singapore
was adopted, six months after Singapore became self-governing within the
British Empire.
7. On this day in 1973: Pioneer 10 sent back the first
close-up images of Jupiter. The first outer-planetary probe had been launched
from Cape Canaveral.
8. On this day in 1984: Bhopal disaster: A methyl
isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed
more than 3,800 people and injured 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom
would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters
in history.
9. On this day in 1997: In Ottawa, Canada,
representatives from 121 countries signed the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting
manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States,
People's Republic of China, and Russia did not sign the treaty, however.
10. On this day in 2009: A suicide bombing in Mogadishu,
Somalia, claimed the lives of 25 people, including three ministers of the
Transitional Federal Government.
