2013: India launches its Mars Orbiter Mission. The uncrewed probe, nicknamed Mangalyaan, was India's first interplanetary spacecraft and was sent up by the Indian Space Research Organisation. It reached orbit around Mars in September 2014, making India the first Asian nation to get there and the first country to do it on its first try.
1998: DNA evidence links a Jefferson to Sally Hemings's children. A study in the journal Nature found that a male of the Jefferson family line fathered at least one child of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at Monticello. The tests could not prove that Thomas Jefferson himself was the father, and some historians still dispute the conclusion.
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt defeated Republican Wendell Willkie to become the only president ever elected to a third term. He won a fourth in 1944, and the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, later limited presidents to two terms.
1930: Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The novelist and social critic grew up in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, not far from Litchfield. He was best known for satirical novels of American life such as Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith.
1914: France and Britain declare war on the Ottoman Empire. The move came after Ottoman warships shelled Russian ports on the Black Sea, bringing Turkey into World War I on Germany's side. It widened the war into the Middle East.
1872: Susan B. Anthony casts a ballot in the presidential election. The women's suffrage leader voted in Rochester, New York, and was arrested weeks later for voting illegally. At her trial the next year she was convicted and fined $100, a verdict she denounced as an outrage and a fine she refused to pay.
1838: Honduras declares its independence from the Central American federation. It broke away from the United Provinces of Central America, the union formed after the region won independence from Spain, as that federation was coming apart.
1605: The Gunpowder Plot to blow up England's Parliament is foiled. A group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby planned to kill King James I and his family by blowing up the House of Lords. Guy Fawkes was caught guarding barrels of gunpowder beneath the building, and Britain still marks the day as Guy Fawkes Night with bonfires and fireworks.
1556: Mughal forces win the Second Battle of Panipat in India. Led by Bayram Khan, regent for the teenage emperor Akbar, the Mughal army defeated Hemu north of Delhi. The victory restored Mughal power in northern India and opened the way for Akbar's long reign.
Born on This Day
1992: Odell Beckham Jr., American football player Turns 34. Wide receiver famous for his one-handed catch with the New York Giants who later won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams.
1987: Kevin Jonas, American musician Turns 39. Guitarist and eldest member of the Jonas Brothers.
1987: Jason Kelce, American football player Turns 39. Longtime Philadelphia Eagles center and Super Bowl champion who co-hosts the New Heights podcast with his brother Travis.
1973: Johnny Damon, American baseball player Outfielder who won World Series titles with the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2009 New York Yankees.
1971: Jonny Greenwood, English musician Turns 55. Lead guitarist of Radiohead and an Oscar-nominated film composer.
1968: Sam Rockwell, American actor Turns 58. Won an Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
1967: Judy Reyes, American actress Turns 59. Played nurse Carla Espinosa on Scrubs.
1963: Tatum O'Neal, American actress Youngest person ever to win a competitive Oscar, for Paper Moon at age 10.
1960: Tilda Swinton, British actress Turns 66. Won an Oscar for Michael Clayton.
1959: Bryan Adams, Canadian rock singer Turns 67. Known for “Summer of '69” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You.”
1958: Robert Patrick, American actor Turns 68. Played the liquid-metal T-1000 in Terminator 2.
1955: Kris Jenner, American TV personality and businesswoman Turns 71. Manager and matriarch of the Kardashian family on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
1952: Bill Walton, American basketball player and broadcaster UCLA great and Hall of Famer who won NBA titles with Portland and Boston, then became a colorful TV analyst.
1947: Peter Noone, English singer Lead singer of Herman's Hermits, known for “I'm Into Something Good” and “Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter.”
1946: Gram Parsons, American country-rock musician Country-rock pioneer with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers.
1943: Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor Won a Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child and an Oscar nomination for The Right Stuff.
1941: Art Garfunkel, American singer Half of Simon & Garfunkel, known for “The Sound of Silence” and “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
1931: Ike Turner, American musician and producer Rock and roll pioneer behind “Rocket 88” and leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
1913: Vivien Leigh, British actress Won Oscars as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
1911: Roy Rogers, American cowboy actor and singer The “King of the Cowboys,” who starred in Westerns and on TV with his wife Dale Evans and his horse Trigger.
