1867 – Aviator Wilbur Wright was born in Millville, IN.
1889 – Charlie Chaplin was born in London.
1900 – The first book of U.S. postage stamps was issued. The two-cent stamps were available in books of 12, 24 and 48 stamps.
1917 – Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd after a decade of exile to lead the Russian Revolution.
1943 – Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist, discovered the hallucinogenic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) when he accidentally consumed a synthetic version, LSD-25, he’d created in his laboratory.
1947 – In the port of Texas City, TX, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignited ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship’s hold, causing a massive blast that destroyed much of the city, killed nearly 600 people and injured more than 3,000. It remains the most devastating industrial accident in U.S. history.
1947 – NBC-TV in New York City demonstrated the first optically compensated zoom lens called a Zoomar lens, designed by Frank Back.
2007 – Seung Hui Cho, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, gunned down 32 students and staff in one of the deadliest shooting rampages in U.S. history.
Chief Writing Wolf 