Germany abandons nuclear energy
The government’s decision followed the nuclear meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima power plant and years of hands-on protests and activism by Germany powerful anti-nuclear movement.
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is premiered
The work was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed in World War II. It juxtaposes the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead with war poems by Wilfred Owen.
The Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, is assassinated
El Jefe had been the Dominican Republic’s President for 31 years. Despite the assassination, the intended removal of the dictatorship in the Caribbean country failed as the ruler’s son, Ramfis Trujillo, soon stepped into his father’s shoes.
The first Indianapolis 500 is held
Ray Harroun won the first running of the 500-mile automobile race, which is today one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events
- 1980 Steven Gerrard
English footballer - 1971 Idina Menzel
American singer-songwriter, actress - 1949 Bob Willis
English cricketer - 1846 Peter Carl Fabergé
Russian goldsmith, jeweler - 1814 Mikhail Bakunin
Russian philosopher, theorist
- 1993 Sun Ra
American pianist, composer, bandleader, poet - 1960 Boris Pasternak
Russian author, poet, Nobel Prize laureate - 1778 Voltaire
French philosopher - 1640 Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish painter - 1431 Joan of Arc
