Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time
The 19th association football world cup was opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. The winner of this historic edition was Spain.
Christopher Cockerell first presents the hovercraft
The amphibious air-cushion vehicle first crossed the English Channel just weeks after Cockerell first demonstrated his prototype, the SR.N1. The scheduled “flights” between Dover (U.K.) and Calais (France) were discontinued in 2000.
China launches the 1938 Yellow River flood
In what Steven Dutch, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, called “the world’s largest act of environmental warfare in history”, the Chinese government created the flood to halt invading Japanese forces.
The first predecessor of the bicycle is demonstrated
Using his revolutionary Laufmaschine, also known as Draisine, a two-wheeler without pedals, German inventor Karl Drais completed a 14 km test run in less than an hour, presenting a viable alternative to transportation by horse.
- 1956 Joe Montana
American football player - 1933 Gene Wilder
American actor - 1910 Jacques Cousteau
French biologist, author, inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung - 1864 Richard Strauss
German composer, conductor - 1572 Ben Jonson
English writer
- 1979 John Wayne
American actor, director, producer - 1974 Julius Evola
Italian philosopher - 1936 Robert E. Howard
American author - 1934 Lev Vygotsky
Russian psychologist - 1859 Klemens von Metternich
German/Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire
