1487 The first German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), is promulgated in Munich by Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria stating beer should be brewed from only three ingredients – water, malt and hops

1630 16,000 inhabitants of Venice died this month of plague

1731 Beijing hit by an earthquake; about 100,000 die

1753 Benjamin Franklin receives the Godfrey Copley medal "on account of his curious Experiments and Observations on Electricity"

1782 Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence

1803 Spain cedes her claims to Louisiana Territory to France

1861 Harper's Weekly publishes EE Beers' "All quiet along the Potomac"

1866 Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel in Chicago

1876 Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann finds the gold Mask of Agamemnon at Mycenae (modern Greece) "the Mona Lisa of prehistory"

1886 First commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo, NY

1900 A German engineer patents front-wheel drive for automobiles

1902 American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang Kid Curry Logan sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor

1908 The US Secretary of State and Japan's ambassador to the US exchange notes in what becomes known as the Root-Takahira Agreement: they affirm support for an independent China with an 'open door' policy and for the status quo in the Pacific

1924 1st photo facsimile transmitted across Atlantic by radio (London-NYC)

1928 Vladimir K. Zworykin receives patent on Iconoscope TV system

1941 101 year old Nyack-Tarrytown (NY) ferry makes its last run

1950 US President Harry Truman threatens China with atom bomb

1954 Ann Hodges is bruised by a meteor at Sylacauga, Alabama, in the first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human

1956 1st use of videotape on TV (Douglas Edwards & the News)

1974 The fossilized remains of a female human ancestor named Lucy (after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) were found in Ethiopia

1983 Radio Shack announces Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip)

1988 Cyclone lashes Bangladesh, Eastern India; 317 killed

1991 93 cars and 11 truck accident near San Francisco during a dust storm, 17 die

1994 Cruise ship Achille Lauro destroyed by fire at Somalia, 4 die

1995 Official end of Operation Desert Storm

2006 American folk artist "Grandma" Moses' 1943 painting "Sugaring Off" sells for a record $1.3 million for the artist, by Christie's in New York

2016 UNESCO adds Belgian beer to its Cultural Heritage List

2017 World's longest recorded rainbow lasts for 8 hours and 58 minutes in Taipei's Yangmingshan mountain range

2018 Marriot Hotels reveal massive data breach - 500 million guests affected in one of largest-ever company hacks

2020 Alphafold's DeepMind AI program announces it has achieved scientific breakthrough by being able to predict how proteins fold into 3D shapes

2020 Newly discovered rock art announced found in the Serranía La Lindosa, Colombian Amazon, dated 12,600 and 11,800 years ago with thousands of paintings of now extinct Ice Age animals

2022 Artificial intelligence Chatbot ChatGPT prototype released by A.I. lab OpenAI, able to answer complex questions, write poetry and mimic some human emotions

2022 US House Democrats elect Hakeem Jeffries as the first Black House Minority leader, replacing Nancy Pelosi