In 1483, mass was celebrated in Rome's Sistine Chapel for the first time. In 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened to sea traffic. In 1947, India and Pakistan became independent nations, under the terms of the UK Parliament's Indian Independence Act. In 1969, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair began on a dairy farm in White Lake, NY. In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a commercial Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay reparations.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French emperor; Walter Scott (1771-1832), poet/novelist; Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), actress; Julia Child (1912-2004), TV personality; Stephen Breyer (1938- ), U.S. Supreme Court justice; Stieg Larsson (1954-2004), author; Debra Messing (1968- ), actress; Ben Affleck (1972- ), actor; Joe Jonas (1989- ), singer; Jennifer Lawrence (1990- ), actress

In 1948, Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the third women's golf U.S. Open.

India and Pakistan went to war in 1947 over the area of Kashmir; the territory continues to be disputed today and is one of the oldest unresolved border conflicts in the world.

"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous." – Napoleon Bonaparte