1866 – North Pole explorer Matthew Henson was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1876 – Thomas A. Edison patented the mimeograph machine, describing it as a method of preparing autographic stencils for printing.
1879 – Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous peoples during the Mexican Revolution, was born in Anenecuilco, México.
1919 – Film producer Dino De Laurentiis (The Bible, Barbarella, Nights of Cambria, La Strada) was born in Torre Annunciata, Italy.
1963 – A gang of 15 thieves stole £2.6 million ($7 million) in Buckinghamshire, England, in Britain’s “Great Train Robbery.” All but three of the gang were identified by fingerprints.
1974 – President Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation in the wake of the growing Watergate scandal, becoming the first U.S. president to resign from office.
Chief Writing Wolf 