2008 – Michael Phelps Earns his 8th Gold Medal in the 2008 Olympics
The American champion swimmer won the medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay race in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. With this medal, he broke the record for the most gold medals won by a person in a single Olympic games, a record previously held by American swimmer Mark Spitz.
1978 – by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman become the first people to complete the world's First Transatlantic Balloon Flight
The feat was accomplished in a balloon called the Double Eagle II. It took Abruzzo, Anderson, and Newman 6 days to fly from Preque Isle, Maine to a barley field near Paris.
1970 – Venera 7 launched by the Soviet Union
Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, Venus, and send data back to Earth. It entered Venus’ atmosphere in December 1970.
1960 – Gabon gains independence from the French
France had occupied Gabon since the latter part of the 1800's. In 1910, the Equatorial country was added to French Equatorial Africa, a federation of France's Central African colonies. From 1934 to 1958, French Equatorial Africa was considered by France as an unified colony.
1960 – Sean Penn
American actor, director
1949 – Norm Coleman
American politician
1943 – Robert De Niro
American actor
1911 – Mikhail Botvinnik
Russian chess player
1786 – Davy Crockett
American soldier, politician
1988 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Pakistani politician, 6th President of Pakistan
1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
American sociologist, novelist
1880 – Ole Bull
Norwegian violinist, composer
1850 – José de San Martín
Argentinian general, politician, 1st President of Peru
1786 – Frederick the Great
Prussian king
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