1986 Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens became the first pitcher in history to strike out 20 batters in a nine-inning major league game, against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park.
1854 French mathematician, theoretical physicist, and philosopher of science Henri Poincaré was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, in the Lorraine region of France. As a mathematician and physicist, he made many original fundamental contributions to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and celestial mechanics. The Poincaré group used in physics and mathematics was named after him. He is also considered to be one of the founders of the field of topology.
1807 Spanish–Mexican scientist and naturalist Andrés Manuel del Río produced the first iron in Mexico, at his ironworks at Coalcomán.
1770 Captain James Cook, famous English explorer, navigator and cartographer, made his first landing on the continent of Australia aboard the HMS Endeavour. He landed at the site of modern Botany Bay, after his extensive navigation of New Zealand. This marked the beginning of Britain’s interest in Australia and in the eventual colonisation of the continent.
1483 Gran Canaria island, part of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, with the support of Queen Isabella I. This represented an important expansion of the nearly re-unified Spain, which was still finishing the process of removing the Moors from Europe.
