People in East Timor Vote in a Referendum:
East Timor, which had been a Portuguese colony since 1769, was taken over by Indonesia. The referendum, which came on the heels of mass violence in the region during the Indonesian occupation, passed in favor of independence which was finally gained on May 20, 2002.
Azerbaijan Declares its Independence:
Azerbaijan had been a part of the Soviet Union since 1920. In December 1991, a referendum was held to make the country’s independence from the USSR official.
Guion Stewart Bluford is launched into Space:
Bluford, a fighter pilot for the US Air Force and part of the crew of STS-8, the third flight of NASA’s space shuttle Challenger, was the first African-American to go into space.
First African-American justice is Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court:
The United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall to the country’s highest court of justice. Marshall was also the first African-American to have held the post of Solicitor General of the United States.
- 1982 Andy Roddick
American tennis player
- 1954 Alexander Lukashenko
Belarusian politician, 1st President of Belarus
- 1943 Tal Brody
American/Israeli basketball player
- 2015 Oliver Sacks
British/American neurologist, author
- 2013 Seamus Heaney
Irish poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
- 2004 Indian Larry
American motorcycle rider, builder
- 2003 Charles Bronson
American actor
