1473 – Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Poland.
1847 – Rescuers reached surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
1856 – The tintype photographic process was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith of Gambier, OH.
1878 – Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (later known as the phonograph) at his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ.
1985 – William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital (where the historic operation was performed). He spent 15 minutes outside the Humana Hospital in Louisville, KY.
1985 – The Coca-Cola Company introduced Cherry Coke in New York City.
1987 – A controversial anti-smoking ad, featuring actor Yul Brynner, aired for the first time on television. It was a public service announcement recorded shortly before his death from lung cancer in October 1985.
1997 – Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries who had ruled China from 1978 until he retired in 1990, died at age 93.
