1659
Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked
“September 30, 1659. I poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwreck’d, during a dreadful Storm, in the offing, came on Shore on this dismal unfortunate Island.” So begins this day in 1659, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, Written by Himself. What follows is the saga of a man who would spend 28 years stranded on a remote island, recording his transformation into a self-sufficient castaway. But when the book was published anonymously in 1719, it wasn’t marketed as a novel. The first edition alleged that Crusoe’s story was a memoir.
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© Sepia Times—Universal Images Group/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Camera Press/Globe Photos
Munich Agreement signed
The notorious Munich Agreement, in which Britain’s Neville Chamberlain encouraged Britain and France to appease Adolf Hitler’s demands in the hope of preventing World War II, was reached on this day in 1938.
Featured Biography
Darren McCollester—Getty Images/Thinkstock
The works of Romanian-born Jewish writer Elie Wiesel, who was born this day in 1928 and received the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace, provide a sober yet passionate testament of the destruction of Europe’s Jews in the Holocaust.
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Paramount Television
1982
The Boston bar-based sitcom Cheers —where everybody knows your name—premiered on NBC. A mixture of comedy and soap-opera romance, the show ran for 11 seasons.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1965
In Indonesia a group of army conspirators known as the September 30th Movement began an abortive coup, and by the following morning they had kidnapped and murdered six army generals; the movement claimed that it had seized power to forestall a coup against President Sukarno by a council of generals. [Take our quiz about plots and revolutions.]
© 1956 Giant Productions, courtesy of Warner Bros.; photograph, Culver Pictures
1955
American actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s, died in an automobile crash as he drove to a car rally in Salinas, California. [Test your knowledge of famous final resting places.]
U.S. Navy photograph
1954
The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about submarines, ships, and other watercraft.]
Air Force Historical Research Agency
1949
The Berlin airlift officially ended after the Western Allied powers delivered 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies to West Berlin, which had been cut off from the West during the Soviet blockade of Berlin. [Take our quiz about German history.]
UPI/Bettmann Archive
1927
American baseball player Babe Ruth became the first player to hit 60 home runs in a single season; his record stood until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961. [How much do you know about baseball?]
John Lent—AP/Shutterstock.com
1924
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Truman Capote, who was perhaps best known for the novel In Cold Blood (1965), was born. [Take our quiz about famous authors.]
© Clémence Béhier—EyeEm/Getty Images
1895
French troops occupied Antananarivo, Madagascar, after the refusal of Rainilaiarivony, the prime minister, to submit to French suzerainty. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa.]
H. Roger-Viollet
1870
French physicist Jean Perrin, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926 for his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles, was born. [Test your knowledge of physics.]
© Photos.com/Jupiterimages
1791
The opera The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered in Vienna. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about music composers.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1773
The Polish Sejm (legislature) ratified the treaty that led to the First Partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. [How much do you know about European history?]
